News and Media

Exhibits on Vietnam War and G.I. peace movement opens at UAS

Juneau, Alaska (KINY) - The University of Alaska Southeast is hosting two exhibits related to the Vietnam war: “Waging Peace in Vietnam: US Soldiers and Veterans Who Opposed the War” and “My Lai: A Massacre Took 504 Souls and Shook the World.”

Waging Peace in Vietnam, the primary exhibit in the Egan Library, seeks to inform scholars, students and the general public that as America escalated the number of troops engaged in the Vietnam War, thousands of our soldiers, sailors and pilots refused to fight, sail and fly more bombing missions.

...More

Former UAS professor Sol Neely honored with a fire dish memorial in Juneau

Sol Neely used to give lectures around a fire at an outdoor pavilion on the campus of the University of Alaska Southeast –— even on cold and wet November days. On Saturday, dozens of people gathered at that same spot to remember Neely at a fire dish memorial, a Lingít cultural ceremony.

Neely was a professor at UAS for more than a decade. He taught English literature and was a community advocate for criminal justice reform through programs like the Flying University, a higher education program inside Lemon Creek Correctional Center.

...More

Study looks at the return of tourism’s impact on whale stress levels

The pandemic offered a unique chance for scientists to sample stress levels in whales while there was minimal tourism activity in Juneau’s waters. Federal biologists took advantage and took samples in 2020 and 2021.

In 2022, tourism was almost back to pre-pandemic levels, so samples taken this year will show the difference in the whale’s stress levels when there are and aren’t boats in the water all summer. 

Suzie Teerlink studies whales and coordinates whale watching practices with NOAA’s Whale SENSE program in Juneau.

A 2019 study used instruments posted on land that observed the whales without influencing their behavior. The instruments record respiratory rates, dive patterns and speeds of whales. This tracked the more immediate behavior differences, minute by minute.

“And what they found is that, especially as the number of boats increased, they did see faster swimming speeds, faster rates of respiration, longer downtimes, and changes in direction,” she said.

That study was led by Heidi Pearson with the University of Alaska Southeast. Pearson is also the lead investigator for this year’s stress study.

...More