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The annual UAA Alumni Assembly will be postponed from its traditional summer date to fall 2020. The decision was voted on unanimously by the UAA Alumni Association at an emergency board meeting in response to ongoing event restrictions in place due to COVID-19. The rescheduled fall 2020 date will better align with homecoming week at UAA.

Bill Jacob will join the UAA leadership team as interim vice chancellor for Administrative Services for one year beginning June 1, 2020. Bill joins UAA from Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (ASRC), where he served as corporate chief information officer since 2013.

Last week, the UA Board of Regents Audit Committee met. The committee charged President Johnsen and the chancellors with the development of transformative structural options for the University of Alaska system; however, the president has said this will not include the one university model.

As noted in my email last week, I’m writing to announce that Ms. Jacelyn Keys will join UAA as the director of Kodiak College. Jacelyn has more than 20 years of experience in higher education and has focused on creating a dynamic, vibrant, inclusive, students-first learning environment. She currently serves as the Hermiston Center director at Blue Mountain Community College in Oregon.

The Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School recently published a key policy paper that proposes a framework for curbing global marine plastic pollution, "Policy and Action on Plastics in the Arctic Ocean." Among several research and policy recommendations, the report advances UAA's Rhizoform LLC as a positive example of how innovators and industry can work together to solve the plastic pollution problem