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UAF photo by Eric Engman.
UAF alumni stop by the Usibelli Building atrium to visit after lunch and meet Yogi, the UAF Police Department’s new K9 officer, during the annual Nanook Rendezvous alumni reunion ���ϳԹ��� Day on the Troth Yeddha’ ���ϳԹ��� July 14, 2023.

Former Sun Star editor Tricia Brown ’83 had the tables turned on her this summer shortly before attending the Nanook Rendezvous annual reunion for UAF alumni.

The summer edition of UAF’s student newspaper featured a profile of Brown on the front page — more than 40 years after her name last appeared in it as editor in April 1982.

The summer Sun Star, produced in a print edition thanks to sponsorship from the UAF Alumni Association, was just one highlight of the 2023 Rendezvous.

More than 120 people attended a variety of activities on campus — and beyond — during this year’s event. Brown said she greatly enjoyed the reunion, which the association has held in mid-July since 2017.

“A high note of the summer,” she said.

The Rendezvous kicked off on July 13 with a welcome reception and awards ceremony. Alumni celebrated Brianna Gray '11, '12, who received the Distinguished Alumnus Award, and Adam Wool '88, who received the William R. Cashen Service Award.

The Troth Yeddha’ Dance Group opened the reception and ceremony with a moving performance in the Regents’ Great Hall.

The dancers, including young children, college students and parents, wore moose hide slippers and dance tops. They also carried traditional drums — one of which had been purchased with funds from the UAFAA Benefactor Fund. The group also used the funding for material to make dance tops — called bets’egh hoolaanee in Koyukon Athabascan, atikłuk in Inupiaq and kuspuk in Yup’ik.

The reunion continued with multiple options — marching in the Golden Days parade, attending an Alaska Goldpanners baseball game and touring campus after breakfast in Constitution Hall’s Alumni Lounge.

Brown attended several events.

“I loved hearing the stories at the awards ceremony, and went to the ’Panners game, and got to know some other alumni at the breakfast gathering,” she said.

She also took the time to just wander and reminisce.

“There are buildings where there used to be blank spaces, and the old totem pole is gone that once looked over the curve behind the Bunnell Building. Otherwise, it was nice to be back in the old familiar places,” she said. “I trailed through good ol' Nerland Hall, walked the halls of the journalism program, and gazed at the old Chapman Building, where I worked in 1978-79.”

But at least one other reunion attendee had no such memories to explore.

Ariel Johnson ’20 completed an associate degree in early childhood education completely online while living in Anchorage. Her trip to UAF for the reunion was her first in-person visit to campus.

She said she had a great experience and even got some expert advice about her son’s new 3D resin printer while attending a presentation by the UAF Alaska Center for Innovation, Commercialization and Entrepreneurship.

“I had no idea about the ventilation factor and the fume factor and needing to wear masks and gloves and having the space necessary,” Johnson said. “He set up this resin printer in front of a window, so it’s got the ventilation, and so I was glad to talk to him.”

Next year’s Nanook Rendezvous will take place again in July during Golden Days. The annual event is building a tradition that redefines what it means to be a member of Nanook Nation.