Welcome to ForUM, the e-newsletter for University of Montana staff, faculty and administrators. ForUM is published weekly during the academic year except during scheduled academic breaks.
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UM President Announces Retirement
George M. Dennison, president of The University of Montana since 1990, plans to retire.
UM's longest-serving president announced his intention during a Campus Convocation held Jan. 25 in the University Theatre. Dennison will retire Aug. 15 -- or as soon thereafter as the Board of Regents identify a successor -- 20 years to the day since he arrived on campus to assume the presidency. He is UM's 16th president.
"I consider it a high honor and rare privilege to have served as president of a wonderful institution -- made so by the people who constitute it," Dennison said. "I have enjoyed the past 20 years more than words can convey, in large measure because of the quality of people who constitute The University of Montana.
"Make no mistake, presidents come and go, but students, faculty, staff and alumni remain," Dennison said. "You deserve the credit for making (UM) a remarkable success. I can take my leave knowing that my alma mater remains in good hands and will continue to develop, whatever the challenges before it."
The search process to identify UM's next president will begin in the next several weeks.
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Roving Griz Award Goes To Enrollment Services
 After an extended hibernation, the carved wooden bear statue that serves as UM's Roving Griz Award has a new home. The Residence Life Office, led by Director Ron Brunell, passed the award on to the staff of Enrollment Services during a Jan. 19 presentation in the Lommasson Center.
The Roving Griz Award was created to recognize departments that demonstrate principles of UM's Quality of Worklife Initiative, which strives to create and maintain a work environment that allows faculty and staff to achieve the highest level of satisfaction. The receiving department decides where to bestow the Roving Griz next, but gets to keep a smaller grizzly statue.
In a letter accompanying the award, Brunell wrote: "It is apparent this staff has excelled in creating a collaborative, respectful and supportive environment for your fellow staff members and your clientele, the prospective students and their families. It is no small task to present The University of Montana to thousands of prospective students and their families in Montana, across our country and internationally. You have succeeded in letting young people know of the value the University has to offer."
Brunell credited Jed Liston, UM's assistant vice president of enrollment, and his staff for the University's record enrollment of nearly 15,000 students for fall semester 2009. He also praised the UM Advocates, which Enrollment Services oversees. "What a group of committed fine young people who do yeomen's work," he said. "Your careful selection and training of these students again reinforces all the attributes that the Roving Griz symbolizes."
Upon accepting the award, Liston thanked his co-workers, calling them the most amazing staff on the planet. "We do our best to help students. We say 'how can we help them get here, and how can we help them pay?'" he said of his staff's efforts.
UM President George M. Dennison also attended the afternoon ceremony to praise the Enrollment Services staff for their work. "It bears reinforcing that this award is more meaningful than most because it's your peers saying what a good job you've done," he said.
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Lecture Delves Into Civil Rights Politics
Josef Sorett, an interdisciplinary historian of religion in America, will present "Empire State of Mind: Civil Rights Politics in the Age of Black Presidents and Hip Hop Aesthetics" on Thursday, Feb. 4, at UM.
The event, in commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, will take place from 7:30 to 9 p.m. in the North Underground Lecture Hall. It is free and open to the public.
A Boston native, Sorett received a doctorate from Harvard University, where he began in 2001 as a member of the first cohort of doctoral students in Harvard's Department of African and African American Studies. He currently teaches at the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University.
As part of his doctoral research, Sorett studied the significance of religion and spirituality in popular music and culture. He serves as an adviser to the African Hip Hop Research Project at Harvard University and is an ordained elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. His writing has been published in The African American Pulpit, the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, and Pneuma, The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies.
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Faculty Exhibition At Gallery Of Visual Arts
The annual UM Art Faculty Exhibition is at the Gallery of Visual Arts through Feb. 24. An opening reception for the show is scheduled from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 4, in the gallery, which is located on the first floor of the Social Science Building.
Each year School of Art faculty exhibit their work to introduce themselves to students, the campus community and area residents. This year's show highlights permanent tenure-track faculty and adjunct faculty, which include Brad Allen, James Bailey, Kevin Bell, MaryAnn Bonjorni, Elizabeth Dove, Julia Galloway, Karina Hean, Valerie Hedquist, Trey Hill, Lisa Jarrett, Steven Krutek, Beth Lo, Cathryn Mallory, Michael Parker, Jody Paulson, Edgar Smith and Bobby Tilton.
Hedquist, associate professor of art history and criticism, will present a lecture on her research, "Gainsborough's Blue Boy: From Bath to Bathhouse," at 5:45 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 24, in Social Science Building Room 356.
For more information, call Cathryn Mallory, gallery director, at 243-2813 or e-mail gallery.visarts@umontana.edu.
School of Art
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Sculpture Workshop Features Marilyn Lysohir
A figurative sculpture workshop presented by Marilyn Lysohir will take place from 2 to 4 p.m. Monday, Feb. 8, at UM. The event, sponsored by the University's School of Art and UM Emerging Ceramic Artists, is free and open to the public. The workshop will be held in the Ceramics Studio of UM's Art Annex, located south of the Adams Center.
Lysohir, whose work will be displayed at the Missoula Art Museum from March 5 through May 30, will demonstrate techniques that she used to create the 160 ceramic portrait busts that are featured in the exhibition. She lives and works in Moscow, Idaho, and has been an adjunct assistant professor of art at Washington State University and artist in residence and visiting artist at the Kohler Foundation, the Kansas City Art Institute and Kent State University.
For more information about the workshop, call UM art Professor Beth Lo at 243-6476.
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Spring IT Short Courses Available
The spring 2010 Information Technology Short Course training program is now available. The courses are offered free to UM employees, but registration is required.
This semester's topics include: Banner, Business Services, MS Office (Access, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Word), Computer Safety, Managing Your E-mail Mailbox, Web Tools and more.
Online registration, the spring schedule and complete course descriptions are available on the Information Technology Web site. For more information, call Kathy Garramone, IT training coordinator, at 243-5362.
Information Technology
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President Dennison's Office Hours
Each semester, President Dennison welcomes members of the campus community to meet with him to discuss issues and topics of their choice. Please call 243-2311 or e-mail prestalk@umontana.edu to make an appointment to meet with President Dennison during these times.
The president's office hours for spring semester are:
- Thursday, Feb. 4: 9-11 a.m.
- Friday, Feb. 12: 10 a.m.-noon
- Tuesday, Feb. 16: 2-4 p.m.
- Wednesday, Feb. 24: 9-11 a.m.
- Tuesday, March 2: 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
- Friday, March 19: 1-3 p.m.
- Tuesday, March 23: 9-11 a.m.
- Thursday, April 8: 9-11 a.m.
- Monday, April 12: 3-5 p.m.
- Friday, April 23: 10 a.m.-noon
- Tuesday, April 27: 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
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News About U
 ASUM Legal Services Director Annie Hamilton received the Long Term Commitment Award from the Community Dispute Resolution Center of Missoula County, an all-volunteer organization that provides mediation services for Missoula justice and district courts. ASUM Legal Services provides low-cost legal services to UM and COT students.
Department of Accounting and Finance Associate Professor Bruce Costa presented a research paper titled "Enhanced Performance Measurement of Mutual Funds: Running the Benchmark Index Through the Hurdles" at the 2010 Winter Global Conference on Business and Finance, held Jan. 6-9 in Kona, Hawaii. The paper, which was co-written by Costa and Associate Professor Keith Jakob, received the Best in Session award.
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Professor Mike DeGrandpre was recently awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to work in Chile. DeGrandpre will collaborate with ocean scientists at the Universidad de Concepcion, studying the extent of ocean acidification off the Chilean coast. He also will teach a graduate course titled "The Ocean Carbon Cycle" during his stay in Chile.
School of Journalism Professor Clem Work helped lead a Davidson Honors College study tour of Ireland over winter break, traveling with 20 students and Laure Pengelly Drake, DHC director of advising. The group met with two editors at the Belfast Telegraph, who explained the challenges of reporting in Ireland, and with a leading journalist in Cork who writes for the Irish Times.
School of Journalism Associate Professor Henriette Lowisch, director of the school's new graduate program in environmental science and natural resource journalism, participated in the 10th National Conference on Science, Policy and the Environment last month in Washington, D.C. The conference brought together scientists, educators, government officials and others to discuss the odds of transitioning to a new green economy.
School of Theatre & Dance Professor Karen Kaufmann presented "Four Models/Dance in Education" at the National Dance Association conference "The Learning Circle" Jan. 17 in Las Cruces, N.M.
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Publications
 Drake, Richard. 2010. Review of Salvatore Lupo, History of the Mafia (Columbia University Press, 2009). H-Italy, H-Net Reviews.
Herron, Terri L (co-author). 2009. "PCAOB Enforcements: A Review of the First Three Years." Current Issues in Auditing, 3(2):A15-A34.
Jakob, Keith (co-author). 2010. "The Ex-dividend Day: Action On and Off the Danish Exchange." The Financial Review, 45:83-103.
Koehn, Peter H. (co-author). 2010. Transnational Competence: Empowering Professional Curricula for Horizon-Rising Challenges. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers.
Sriraman, Bharath (co-author). 2010. "Problem Solving for the 21st Century." In Theories of Mathematics Education: Seeking New Frontiers. Monograph 1 in the series Advances in Mathematics Education. Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer Science. pp. 263-290.
Sriraman, Bharath (co-author). 2010. "Symbols and Mediation in Mathematics Education." In Theories of Mathematics Education: Seeking New Frontiers. Monograph 1 in the series Advances in Mathematics Education. Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer Science. pp. 213-232.
Sriraman, Bharath (co-author). 2010. "Reconceptualizing Mathematics Education as a Design Science." In Theories of Mathematics Education: Seeking New Frontiers. Monograph 1 in the series Advances in Mathematics Education. Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer Science. pp. 123-146.
Yokelson, R.J. (with others). 2010. "Trace Gas and Particle Emissions from Domestic and Industrial Biofuel Use and Garbage Burning in Central Mexico." Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 10:565-584.
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Submissions must reach University Relations, 317 Brantly Hall, by noon Tuesday for inclusion in the following week's newsletter. Be sure to note that the submissions are for ForUM. E-mail submissions may be sent to campnews@mso.umt.edu. Items will be included as space permits. For more information, e-mail Brenda Day, ForUM editor.
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