Tag Archives: The University Centre in Svalbard
Holiday plans cancelled: Po Lin Lee loses planned hotel site in addition to giant Santa’s mailbox due to faulty paperwork
To use an analogy apt for Po Lin Lee: If you mail a wish list to Santa you might not get everything on it, but if you don’t mail it you definitely won’t get anything.
A failure to send proverbial wish lists is now costing the Hong Kong native more than her gigantic Santa’s mailbox that’s facing imminent removal, as she is now being denied previous approval to build a hotel at Elvesletta. Her company Svalbard International received a permit to build the hotel in 2014 that was valid until mid-December of 2015, but property owner Store Norske now plans to offer the site to another entity.
Digging deep: UNIS working aggressively to boost enrollment, curb deficits, according to annual report
More students than ever are learning about the many aspects of the Arctic at The University Centre in Svalbard, but officials responsible for the school’s finances are getting some chilly lessons of their own.
Deadliest force: Reseachers hope to improve avalanche-risk awareness with network of snowfall measuring devices
You might think polar bears – and the potential for attack – are the biggest danger the Norwegian island archipelago of Svalbard. But avalanches kill far more people on Svalbard than polar bears ever have.
Chilling conclusion: UNIS says faulty boat, last-second travel plans and safety training factors in manfunction at sea malfunction
A boat with a weak design, last-minute travel plan changes and a lack of proper safety training resulted in a dozen people being stranded and soaked on the icy sea between Barentsburg and Longyearbyen last month, according to an internal investigation by The University Centre in Svalbard.
Briefs from Svalbardposten for the week of Feb. 14, 2017
UNIS boat trip that stranded occupants may have violated law
The malfunction of a boat that left 12 students and staff from The University Centre in Svalbard stranded for hours on the icy sea between Barentsburg and Longyearbyen last month will be investigated by The Norwegian Maritime Authority.
Coast Guard rescues 12 UNIS students, staff from damaged and waterlogged boat after hours in -20C cold
A dozen students and staff at The University Centre in Svalbard spent seven bitterly cold and wet hours in a small boat at sea Friday – most of them pumping out water from a leak that caused the engines to fail – before being rescued by the Norwegian Coast Guard, according to officials.
Stay or move? Gjestehuset 102 manager not afraid being in avalanche zone; UNIS says it will abandon Nybyen dorms
Karl-Eric Melander isn’t worried about living in an avalanche “red zone,” but is concerned about the possibility he and the guests at his hostel will be forced to evacuate it every time there’s a severe storm.
Moving lessons: UNIS students say it feels ‘just like a school trip’ as 86 bussed to Nybyen for evacuation of dorms
Within a couple of hours, the weather forecast changed the general opinion at The University Centre in Svalbard from “all fieldwork is cancelled” to “we need to evacuate Nybyen.”
Muck amok: Worst landslides in more than 40 years close roads, prompt warnings for all travel in mountains
A month-long stretch of record rainfall and unusually warm temperatures have triggered the worst landslides in Longyearbyen since 1972, forcing the closure of roads near hillsides and prompting safety officials to warn people not to travel near mountainsides in wet weather until after freezing temperatures have set in.
Cooler runnings: UNIS students revive race of outrageous sleds as ‘unofficial’ event; could real thing return?
At first glance it looks like a collection of some slob’s shabby furniture held together with rope and scotch tape. But that’s impossible since it was built in 1974 and used in the bobsledding competition at the Olympics in Lillehammer.
