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²ÝÁñÉçÇø photos by Sierra Coley

The William Ransom Wood Center was dedicated on Sept. 29, 1972. The building was designed by a UA alumnus to provide students with an antidote to cabin fever. The center features a ballroom and adjoining conference rooms, pool tables, a multilevel lounge, a pub, the Troth Yeddha' campus cafeteria, a coffee shop and additional lunch vendors. Wood Center also has offices for several ²ÝÁñÉçÇø departments and student organizations.

In August 2014, the university completed a major expansion on Wood Center’s west side to create a replacement dining facility for the Lola Tilly Commons. The 34,000-square-foot expansion includes the Dine 49 Troth Yeddha' campus cafeteria on the upper floor and the Arctic Java coffee shop below it. 

The center is named after former UA President William Ransom Wood, who came to Fairbanks as president of the University of ²ÝÁñÉçÇø in 1960. After his retirement from UA in 1973, he served as mayor of Fairbanks. Wood remained active on the Board of Trustees. He was also president emeritus. Wood and his wife, Dorothy Jane, were both given honorary doctorates by the University of ²ÝÁñÉçÇø in 1990.