The loss of a federal grant has forced the University of Alaska’s ANSEP program to cancel its long-running summer academy, less than two weeks before rural students were scheduled to arrive.
ANSEP, the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program, operates the yearly Summer Acceleration Academy, allowing high school students in rural communities to come to Anchorage for a five-week program in various STEM courses.
Michele Yatchmeneff, chief operating officer for ANSEP, said many of these students don’t get a chance to take similar courses in their local schools.
“So what we do is offer the course here at the university, so that they can get dual credit,” Yatchmeneff said. “So they can get credit for graduation from high school and then also graduation towards a degree.”
Yatchmeneff said ANSEP officials were informed last week that the federal government had terminated their $2.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation, forcing the last-minute cancellation of the Summer Acceleration Academy. The program was set to begin May 24 and serve 47 students.
“The National Science Foundation right now has been told that they're getting a 50% cut,” Yatchmeneff said. “They're mainly supporting a lot of research; I also have had research projects with them. So nationally, this has become an issue, and ANSEP is part of that.”
Yatchmeneff said she’s hopeful the program will return next year, and she doesn’t anticipate any further cuts.
“Right now, we still have federal funding coming in from example, like the National Park Service and a few others, and we don't foresee any more cuts,” Yatchmeneff said.
Other summer ANSEP programs, including the Summer Bridge internship program and middle school academies, were not impacted by the funding cut.
This is not the only recent impact to the ANSEP program from changes at the federal level. The program recently removed the term “Alaska Native” from many parts of its website, citing compliance with federal guidelines on DEI-related language related to race. The change sparked widespread pushback. In the United States, Native American and Alaska Native tribal members are legally considered a political class, as opposed to just a racial group.
Correction: This story has been corrected to reflect that ANSEP is still referred to as the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program, despite the removal of "Alaska Native" from different parts of its website.
