If you have questions about how the Daily News makes editorial decisions, this blog has the answers. Editorial page editor Matt Zencey and writers Frank Gerjevic and Rosemary Shinohara will discuss what they're working on, answer questions and ask your perspective on issues facing Alaska.
Matt Zencey
Matt Zencey joined the Daily News as an editorial writer in 1985 and was named editorial page editor in May 2007. He has won several. "Best editorial writing" awards from the Alaska Press Club and was a Nieman Fellow in Journalism at Harvard University. He lives on the west side of Anchorage, where he enjoys the best weather in town and easy access to the Coastal Trail. E-mail Matt at mzencey@adn.com
Frank Gerjevic
Frank Gerjevic has worked at the Daily News since 1978, where he's been sports editor, copy editor, reporter and columnist. He's been an editorial writer since 1998. He began his newspaper career with the Anchorage Times in 1975. E-mail Frank at fgerjevic@adn.com
Rosemary Shinohara
Rosemary Shinohara is an editorial writer who has lived most of her life in Alaska. She has spent most of her career as a reporter or editor at the Daily News. She covered construction of the Alaska oil pipeline, the Legislature, schools and urban affairs. She has also been an editor for NPR's All Things Considered, and has written for the Associated Press. E-mail Rosemary at rshinohara.com
Joe Contraire's latest, coming soon - 5/9/2008 2:41 pm
Sarcasm? Hah! A non-fan writes in.... - 5/9/2008 11:48 am
Who's accountable for ADN editorials? - 5/7/2008 11:14 am
Talk radio: Dittoheads vs liberals - 5/7/2008 11:01 am
More info and commentary on John McCain's health care 'plan' - 5/1/2008 6:29 pm
Join the dialogue on race and diversity - 4/30/2008 4:44 pm
How can our community as a whole combat prejudice and discrimination? - 4/30/2008 4:42 pm
What can an individual do about prejudice? - 4/30/2008 4:39 pm
Prejudice here - getting better or worse? - 4/30/2008 4:37 pm
Prejudice and discrimination: How are we doing in Anchorage? - 4/30/2008 4:36 pm
Not-so elevated discourse - 4/28/2008 4:20 pm
Elevated discourse - 4/28/2008 10:44 am
Yin and Yang - 4/25/2008 6:00 pm
UAA vs UAF - 4/24/2008 3:59 pm
Arctic Power demands retraction re Liddy - 4/23/2008 6:04 pm
Airport expansion vs. Kincaid trails - 4/23/2008 10:20 am
About the First Amendment - 4/23/2008 9:52 am
Irwin rips Exxon, partners on Point Thomson - 4/22/2008 5:25 pm
Tesche heads into the sunset - 4/22/2008 4:52 pm
Good words from Leonard Pitts - 4/22/2008 3:25 pm
Outside opinion invasion - 4/21/2008 5:26 pm
Denali: Not just a mountain anymore - 4/11/2008 1:39 pm
Important warning about e-mails purporting to be from the adn.com staff.
© Copyright 2008, The Anchorage Daily News, a subsidiary of The McClatchy Company 
Contact Us | Newsroom Contacts | Communication Forms | Subscriptions | Advertising | Terms of Use
Daily News Jobs | RSS Feeds | ADN Store | Newspapers in Education | Privacy Agreement
1 April 26, 2008 - 10:04pm | TheSdog
Need more information
Universities are notorious for never having their priorties straight.
It is not necessarily relevant that the system might put some things above others. Begich and his ploy to cut fire fighters comes to mind when it comes to playing with priorties to squeezeout more money.
The whole idea that we have money so that makes all kinds of spending okay is nonsense. That is especially true if you spend the money on things that will eventually cost you money to maintain.
The UAF/UAA arguments here are not completely comparable.
$66 is more than 4time $15M so regardless of what the money is being spent on the bigger project should get more scrutiny.
It sounds nice to say biology is better than athletics but that is not always true either. State of the art athletic facilities can be important for an institution trying to drag itself up in prominence.
UAA just had a great year in basketball and a facility which could seat more people could help the school consider possible movement to DI basketball(Alaska is the only state without DI basketball). It may also help them become more competitive in hockey.
Like it or not, athletic success can bring academic attention.
One other thing to consider is athletic facilities can bring in money. Colleges tend to make money off basketball and football. A few schools make money off of hockey and UAA is likely one of them. An arena might actually pay for itself especially if it gets some general use for other activities such as concerts and other events.
someone might say a biosciences building might bring in grant money. That just gives some ous headaches who are sick and tired of wasted government money being spent on all kinds of useless research just because a few good things are funded.
This state is never going to have more than 1 great university. Right now, you could make an argument we do not even have a better than average university in the state.
It is time to consider putting the effort into one great university. Academic people tend to be urban animals. It can take a thriving urban area to attract them. Many graduate programs benefit from large urban areas as well including things such as medical and law schools.
The Mat-Su-Anchorage metrpoplex in development could eventually be big enough to support a true university. The continued regional thinking of trying to spread the benefit needs to go away. It likely pollutes the university leaders as well as the state government.
The devil is in the details but long term vision for our higher education system as a whole should be the goal here not spreading the wealth evenly.
login or register to post comments | flag this »