page_title: William Ransom Wood
section_title: Wood Center
hierarchical_section_title: William Ransom Wood / University of Alaska / Wood Center
caption_attribution_description: English: The William Ranson Wood Campus Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
context_page_description: William Ransom Wood was an influential figure in the history of the University of Alaska and of Fairbanks, Alaska.
  Wood was born near Jacksonville, Morgan County, Illinois. He was an Episcopalian. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He became vice president of the University of Nevada.
context_section_description: The William Ransom Wood Center was dedicated on Sept. 29, 1972. Originally, it was decided that the new center would be totally paid for by university students. The Associated Students of the University of Alaska successfully lobbied the state legislature to provide a special, $4 million low-interest construction loan, which would be paid back from student fees over 25 years. However, in 1980, state Rep. Brian Rogers succeeded in passing a legislative appropriation to take over the remainder of the debt payments for the center. The name of the building was changed before construction was complete to honor Dr. Wood, which caused some controversy among the student body of the time.
  The building was designed by a former UA student as a solution to cabin fever. The center features a ballroom and adjoining conference rooms, an eight-lane bowling alley, six pool tables, a darkroom, a multilevel lounge, a pub, coffee and espresso café, a pizza place, a large grill and food court, and an inspirational “staircase to nowhere." Wood Center is also home to Student Activities and Outdoor Adventures, Associated Students of UAF, the student senate, and UAF’s student newspaper, the Sun Star.
  The “stairs to nowhere” in the center of the building (also called the Bird’s Nest) are there because the Wood Center was originally designed to have three floors, and when construction plans changed due to unforeseen permafrost problems, the stairs had already been built.
caption: William Ransom Wood Campus Center (south elevation) in April 2011.  Construction began on an expansion of the building in 2013.
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