Bethel

The Kuskokwim Campus, Bethel
The Kuskokwim Campus, Bethel

The Kuskokwim Campus is located in a regional transportation and service center for an extended community of more than 46 Alaska Native villages. They are primarily Yup'ik/Cup'ik Eskimo villages with 56 tribes in a 57,000 square mile roadless area comparable to the state of Illinois. The area has a regional population of nearly 25,000 people. Bethel is a community of about 6,000 people 80 miles inland on the Kuskokwim River. The Kuskokwim Campus offers academic, vocational and community interest courses, as well as courses leading to associate, baccalaureate and master's degrees.

Kuskokwim Campus is the largest rural campus in the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) system and is a branch campus of the College of Rural and Community Development (CRCD). The campus is physically located in Bethel, a regional hub community situated in Alaska's Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, about 400 miles west of Anchorage. The service area includes census districts with the highest rates of poverty, youthfulness, and lowest rates of full-time permanent employment in the state and nation (U.S. Census Bureau data). The region also holds one of the last indigenous cultures and societies resident in their homeland and still speaking a vital Native language - Central Yup'ik/Cup'ik Eskimo.