The Master Planning Committee is a committee of master plans

Well, it looks as if yours truly has been appointed as the student representative to the Master Planning Committee (MPC), pending both the senate and chancellor give to "okay."

For those unfamiliar with UAF's bureaucracy, the MPC acts as an an advisory committee to the universities chancellor, Mr. Brian Rogers. "Its charge is to assist in the implementation and continual update of the current UAF Campus Master Plan," according to the MPC's webpage.

However, I am sure many of you read the above quote and went, "Say, what, now?"

The Campus Master Plan, to put it in plain English, is the master plan for UAF. What this means in plainer, if less tautological English, is that the master plan is UAF's very long "honey do" list.

Just a few of these "to-do's" include:

• integrating "teaching and research through building location and use"
• ensuring the "campus environment enhances both the academic and student life experience"
• improve access to and circulation within the campus (I'm assuming, of course, this refers to blood - LOLJK)
• preserving and highlighting the "unique natural and cultural aspects of UAF's northern location"
• enhancing "space quality and maximize effective utilization"
• employing the "best practices in sustainability for northern environment"

Yes, I am sure some of you (again) went "Say, what, now?"

That section above only includes UAF's "short-term" goals, items they hope to accomplish in the near-future. Sadly, none of these goals had a timeline attached to them, which means "short-term" is, or so I am assuming, between 5-50 years. I say that because if UAF was the Corleone family and the master plan was a hit-list, it would take years (and many more movies) to make sure all of UAF's Guido's and Gino's were sleeping with the fishes. There is probably no timeline because the shear number of "things we need to fix" is so daunting. I know as a voting member of the MPC, I'd like to find out how UAF is doing on their  hit list to-do list. This is not to cause trouble, but to simply figure out how UAF is doing it's self-created itemized list of action items. [That last sentence should have filled my buzzword quota for November.]

I promise that if all goes swimmingly and I am indeed appointed, I'll be sure to give my readers updates into the mind and workings of the MPC. I know I'm pretty jazzed to get started.