Begich also served on the governing board for the Alaska Commission on Post Secondary Education, which runs the student loan program. Johnson was a founding board member of the Sealaska Native corporation and led the board from 1982 to 1992. Johnson was honored as citizen of the year in 1995 by the Alaska Federation of Natives. Begich and Johnson replace R. Danforth Ogg of Kodiak and Mary Jane Fate of Fairbanks on the board after their terms expired. Hardenbrook succeeds Joshua Horst of Juneau as the student representative.
Regents have eight-year terms, while the student member serves for two years.
The board has 11 members. The largest ship in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's oceangoing research fleet stopped in Kodiak recently to change research crews for the third and final leg of its voyage to the Bering Sea. The ship is named for the late Department of Commerce secretary who served in the Clinton administration The first crew of researchers sailed from Dutch Harbor to Seward, measuring ocean climate changes in the Gulf of Alaska. The research is part of a series of investigations into whether such factors could be linked to the decline of Stellar sea lions, said Ned Cokelet, the Ronald H. Brown's chief scientist. After changing research crews in Seward, the vessel crossed the Gulf of Alaska and headed toward Kodiak.