UAF commissions bobbleheads to spread school spirit
Published Monday, February 18, 2008
The University of Alaska’s newest lobbyists in Juneau are real smooth characters. Their confident smiles are permanently etched onto their faces. They don’t say much but are eager to give an encouraging head nod to the university’s supporters.
They’re bobbleheads, and they’re popping up on desks in Juneau and around the rest of the state.
“The whole idea is this is a fun campaign. This is supposed to be eye-catching. This is supposed to be a conversation starter,” university spokeswoman Kate Ripley said.
The university commissioned 1,200 custom-made bobblehead dolls and distributed them to legislators, business leaders and other powerful figures in Alaska. The dolls come in five varieties, each representing a degree offered at the statewide university: a nurse, a teacher, an engineer, a scientist and a construction manager.
“It’s just an eye-catching way to get the message out that we’re not all about higher degrees and research, but that we’re about meeting the needs of the state through workforce training,” Ripley said.
With the Alaska Legislature currently deciding at what level to fund the university’s budget request, the hope is that the bobbleheads will remind lawmakers that the university is training Alaskans to fill the jobs in some of Alaska’s highest-demand professions, Ripley said.
“We’re doing what we can but we need more resources,” she said.
Rep. Jay Ramras, R-Fairbanks, a member of the House finance subcommittee overseeing the university, said he thought the dolls were “fun” albeit a bit “stupid,” but that they wouldn’t do much good in terms of winning extra support for the university.
“They look interesting on your desk, but I don’t think it carries any greater or lesser sway than any other unique item,” he said, noting that he certainly didn’t blame university officials for trying to grab lawmakers’ attention any way possible. “The bobblehead is just a fun, stupid idea. It’s good to get fun, stupid ideas every now and then.”
The university spent $12,000 on the bobbleheads, according to Ripley. The money for the toys came from private funds BP and ConocoPhillips are required to give to the university as part of a deal between the oil companies and the state.
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What a complete waste of money and resources! Stupid is an understatement for these expensive pieces of plastic. How about some free parking on your university, or perhaps we do away with all these rich capatlist politricks wasting resources.
I say if $12000 dollars makes the difference for millions more in state university funding then UA made a good investment. Plus, the big picture here is that big corporations are paying millions to get a Legislator's ear. So, the comparatively small cost of a tenacious bobble head that sits on a desk of our State Legislators as a sort of subliminal reminder for more state university funding is pretty smart.
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