UAF uses email to communicate with students about many important matters. Email is often the only way some information is distributed, so it is important to check email frequently and read messages sent from the university. For example, if a student is waitlisted for a class, an email will be sent when a seat becomes available. If action is not taken on the email within a specified time frame, the student risks losing that seat to the next student on the waitlist.

The university automatically assigns each student an official University of Alaska email account. Although each student can indicate a preferred email address in UAOnline, many faculty and departments at UAF will communicate only through the alaska.edu address. Each student is responsible for knowing — and, when appropriate, acting on — the contents of all university communications sent to the university-generated email address.

If a student prefers to use another email account, rather than the university-generated one, there are three steps to take to ensure receipt of all official communications:

1. Log in to UAOnline and enter or update the preferred email address under the “Personal Information” menu

2. Log in to the University of Alaska email account and set up a forward to the preferred account

3. When switching active email accounts, repeat steps 1 and 2 to ensure the preferred email is always current