Friday Focus: Troth Yeddha’ and beyond
February 7, 2019
— by Evon Peter, vice chancellor for rural, community and Native education
Shalak naįį, vành gwinzii. My relations, good morning.
It is an honor to serve as a leader at UAF, my alma mater. I am Gwich’in and Koyukon from the community of Vashrąįį K'ǫǫ (Arctic Village). When I was in middle school my family and I moved from our northern village to Fairbanks. I often jest that we are one of the few families that moved to Fairbanks for the warmer weather. While the warmer weather here is nice, we moved so that my brother and I could access a higher-quality western education. Five years later, in 1993, I made my way up to UAF and into the office of Sue McHenry at Rural Student Services. The welcoming and supportive atmosphere and comprehensive student advising I received at RSS over the following years made it possible for me to complete my first degree. Student support programs such as RSS are fundamental to our model of success in retention and degree completion, and I am honored to be in a position now to support their continued success.
As a university, we are globally unique. We are a world-class academic and research institution. We are also a premiere location for workforce training and have degree programs held by no other university in the world. Students come to learn how to become cooks, paramedics, artists, engineers, speakers of Alaska Native languages and space physicists. Researchers come to join a research center team, generating new knowledge pertinent to navigating the challenges being faced in Alaska, the circumpolar North and beyond.
We respond to the educational, research and workforce needs of a geographic area larger than any other university in the United States. One of our seven campus service areas alone, the Interior Alaska Campus, is the size of France. And through our rural campuses, we are designated as an Alaska Native Serving Institution due to our high numbers of Alaska Native student enrollment.
Over the past five academic years, I have served as the vice chancellor for rural, community and Native education, which provides me the privilege of working across the institution. While my primary focus is on advancing the community college mission through our College of Rural and Community Development and Community and Technical College, I also assist in growing our focus on Indigenous studies and research, and I serve on the UAF core leadership team. At all levels, I am continually inspired by the passion, dedication, and expertise of our faculty and staff, and often reflect on the incredible quality and capacity of this institution. I would like to thank each of you for your part in helping us achieve workforce, academic and research excellence.
As I reflected on my first Friday Focus piece, the ancestors of this great land came to the forefront of my mind. As such, I will conclude with another reason I feel honored to serve as a leader at our university. The UAF Troth Yeddha’ Campus resides upon a hill whose name came from the Dena people of the lower Tanana River. Troth Yeddha’ means “potato ridge.” In 2013, it became the official, USGS-recognized name for the hill. The Dena people are one of 11 Dene (Athabascan) nations of Interior Alaska, which include the Gwich’in and Koyukon peoples of my family.
It is my hope that as a leader I bring honor to the legacies of the Indigenous peoples of this land and to all of you who build upon the traditions of excellence at UAF.
Friday Focus is a column written by a different member of UAF’s leadership team every Friday.