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ForUM
Feb. 7, 2011 | Vol. 39, No. 18 
 
In this issue:
Campus Links
Recent UM Publications

 

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.

"The President's Update," a video series for UM President Royce Engstrom to communicate with the campus community, is available on the President's Office website and on the official UM YouTube channel.


 U.S. Attorney General to Speak at UM Feb. 9
 

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will present a lecture titled "Justice Through Service: Extending America's Greatest Tradition" at UM on Wednesday, Feb. 9. The event will be held at 2 p.m. in the University Theatre and is free and open to the public.

The lecture is part of the UM School of Law's Judge William B. Jones and Judge Edward A. Tamm Judicial Lecture Series. Holder will speak for about 15 minutes and then will answer questions asked by prominent Washington, D.C., attorney Robert Bennett, who helped found the Jones-Tamm series at UM. The questions were submitted by UM law students and faculty members.

President Barack Obama nominated Holder in December 2008, and he was sworn in as the 82nd attorney general of the United States by Vice President Joe Biden in February 2009.

Read the Full News Release 

 UM Law School Accreditation Renewed
 

The American Bar Association and the Association of American Law Schools recently announced it will renew accreditation for the UM School of Law. A report sent to law school Dean Irma Russell cited the highly innovative and stimulating courses and the clinical experience requirement as particular strengths of the school.

The law school must be reaccredited by both organizations every seven years. The accreditation process was a multiple-year investment by all law school faculty and staff that culminated with a visit by an ABA and AALS team last April.

UM School of Law 

 Biomass Boiler Project Answer Session Feb. 9
 

An informational session to answer questions raised during a Dec. 8 meeting about UM's proposed biomass boiler project is slated for 4 to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 9, in University Center Room 333.

A panel of experts from UM and the consulting firm the University has partnered with will address questions on the proposed project to convert UM's natural gas-fired boiler system to one using forest biomass as its primary fuel. The panel will answer dozens of questions regarding air emissions, fuel supply, financing, design and environmental impact.

UM administrators are in the process of securing an air quality permit from the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, which likely will take several months. The University will request approval to launch the project from the state Board of Regents at the board's May meeting in Kalispell.

UM Biomass 

 Law School Announces New Faculty Members
 

The UM School of Law has hired two new faculty members in constitutional law and contracts and has promoted a current faculty member to direct the school's law library.

Anthony Johnstone, solicitor for the State of Montana in the Office of the Attorney General, has been selected as the law school's new faculty member to teach constitutional law. He replaces Rob Natelson, who retired last year to accept a position as senior fellow in constitutional jurisprudence at the Independence Institute in Colorado.

The law school also has hired Sam Panarella, a practitioner with notable experience in wind energy, as its new assistant professor of contract law. Panarella is CEO of Crux Consulting, a legal process and management consulting firm. He replaces Scott Burnham, who accepted an offer to be the Frederick N. and Barbara T. Curley Professor in Commercial Law at the Gonzaga University School of Law.

Stacey Gordon will begin her new duties as the director of the school's law library July 1. Fritz Snyder, who now holds the position, will retire June 30. Gordon has served as the associate law librarian for public services and adjunct professor of law librarianship at UM's William J. Jameson Law Library since 2000.

 

 UM Excels in Peace Corps Service
 

UM ranks No. 14 on Peace Corps' 2011 rankings of colleges and universities in the medium category, which includes universities with between 5,001 and 15,000 undergraduates.

Currently, 33 UM undergraduate alumni serve as Peace Corps volunteers, up from last year when 29 undergraduate alumni served. Since the Peace Corps was established by President Kennedy in 1961, 765 UM alumni have served as volunteers.

This year the Peace Corps will commemorate 50 years of promoting peace and friendship around the world. More than 200,000 Americans have served with the Peace Corps to promote a better understanding between Americans and the people of 139 host countries.

Peace Corps at UM 

 Artists Demonstrate Ceramics Skills
 

Three resident artists from the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Aaron Benson, Sean Erwin and Courtney Murphy, will demonstrate their skills in ceramic art during Archie Bray Day on Tuesday, Feb. 15, at UM.

Events will run from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and are free and open to the public. Artist demonstrations will take place from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 2 to 5:30 p.m. in the Ceramics Studio of UM's Art Annex, located south of the Adams Center. Slide lectures of the artists' work will be shown from 6 to 7 p.m.

More about the artists and their work is on the Archie Bray Foundation website. For more information, call UM art Professor Beth Lo at 243-6476.

Archie Bray Foundation 

 Brown Bag Lecture Series Begins Feb. 8
 

The Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center at UM will offer six events during spring semester that are free and open to the public as part of the 2011 Brown Bag Lecture Series. Speakers will talk about a wide range of topics and share experiences in locations such as Vietnam, Nepal, China and Kamchatka, Russia.

All lectures will take place from noon to 1 p.m. in the Mansfield Center Conference Room, located on the fourth floor of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library.

The series kicks off Tuesday, Feb. 8, with "Sustainable Development in Kamchatka: International Collaboration to Protect Wilderness Resources in the Far East" by Alan Watson, research social scientist, Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute.

For a complete lecture series schedule, visit the Mansfield Center website.

Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center 

 Art Educator Speaks About Portraiture
 

"A Good Likeness: Portraiture in the 18th-20th Centuries" by Valerie Hedquist, UM associate professor of art history and criticism, will take place at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 10, in the Montana Theatre, located in the Performing Arts and Radio-Television Center.

The talk, which is free and open to the public, is held in conjunction with the current exhibition "Renoir, Magritte, Gauguin and Other European Masterpieces from a Private Collection" on view through March 12 at the Montana Museum of Art & Culture at UM.

The museum's Meloy and Paxson galleries, located in the PAR/TV Center, will be open from noon to 7 p.m. before Hedquist's presentation. For more information about gallery hours, visit the MMAC website or call 243-2019.

Montana Museum of Art & Culture 

 Call for Nominations: Faculty, Staff Awards
 

Nominations for the following Faculty and Staff Awards are currently being accepted:
  • ADA Award for Faculty and Staff
  • Outstanding Faculty Advising Award
  • Departmental Assessment Award
  • Distinguished Service to International Education Award
  • Nancy Borgmann Diversity Award
  • Distinguished Scholar Award
  • Distinguished Teaching Award
  • John Ruffatto Memorial Award
  • Graduate Assistant Teaching Award
  • Outstanding Service to the External Community Award
  • Outstanding Mentoring Award
  • Outstanding Service to the Campus Community Award
  • Outstanding Service to the Students Award
  • Outstanding Teamwork Award
  • Outstanding Volunteer Award
  • Tom Boone Town and Gown Award
  • Academic Administrator Award
  • J.B. Speer Award for Distinguished Administrative Service
  • Outstanding Staff Award for Job Performance
  • Outstanding Staff Award for Campus Interaction
More information about the awards, nomination forms and deadlines are available on the President's Office website, by calling Rebecca Power at 243-2311 or by e-mailing rebecca.power@umontana.edu. The awards reception will take place in April.

President's Office 

 Volunteer to Read Scholarship Applications
 

The Financial Aid Office General Scholarship Program needs readers for the 2011-12 General Scholarship Competition and invites faculty and staff to volunteer.

The reading period will take place from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, Feb. 23-24, in the Brantly Hall Presidents Room. Volunteers will be asked to read and rate a scholarship packet of 10 applications, which should take about one hour.

To RSVP or for more information, call Kathy Gaskill at 243-5379 or e-mail kgaskill@mso.umt.edu.

 

 Faculty Development Opportunities Available
 

The UM Faculty Development Office provides resources to foster teaching, research/creative activity and service.

Events scheduled this semester offer information about responding to student writing, meeting the needs of displaced workers, engaging students using media, and submitting grant proposals to organizations such as the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Science Foundation.

More information with presentation dates, times and locations is on the Faculty Development Office website.

Faculty Development Office 

 IT to Perform Upgrades Feb. 21
 

From 7 a.m. until about 4 p.m. Monday, Feb. 21, Information Technology will perform major hardware upgrades that will impact access to many UM enterprise applications and services. The upgrades are essential to achieve key University objectives.

The Presidents Day holiday was selected to minimize the impact of the maintenance on the University community.

Upgrades will affect access to Banner, Blackboard and many UM Web services, such as the A to Z Index, the Academic Planner and the online Directory.

For more information about services that will be impacted, see the Information Technology website, call Kathy Garramone at 243-5362 or e-mail kathy.garramone@umontana.edu.

Information Technology 

 Employment Fair at UM Feb. 23
 

UM students and alumni can meet with company recruiters from local, regional, national and international employers at the 22nd Annual Big Sky Employment Fair on Wednesday, Feb. 23, in the University Center Ballroom.

The fair, hosted by UM's Office of Career Services, will take place from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. It offers recruiting opportunities for students in all academic disciplines and includes professional full-time positions, internships, part-time employment and summer jobs.

For more information, visit the Office of Career Services website or call 243-6150.

Office of Career Services 

 President Engstrom's Office Hours
 

Each semester President Engstrom 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 Engstrom during these times.

President Engstrom's scheduled office hours for spring semester are:
  • Tuesday, March 15: 1:30-3 p.m.
  • Thursday, March 31: 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
  • Friday, April 15: 10 a.m.-noon
  • Friday, April 29: 10 a.m.-noon
President Engstrom also will host three open forums during spring semester. The forums will be held at 4 p.m. Fridays, Feb. 11, March 18 and April 22, in Davidson Honors College Room 119 before the 4:30 p.m. Faculty/Staff Socials in the DHC Lounge.

 

 Faculty/Staff Socials
 

Socials will be held from 4:30 to 6 p.m. most Fridays during spring semester in the Davidson Honors College Lounge. Spring semester dates and event sponsors are:
  • Feb. 11: Alumni Association
  • Feb. 25: College of Technology
  • March 4: School of Extended and Lifelong Learning
  • March 11: UM Foundation
  • March 18: President Engstrom
  • March 25: International Programs
  • April 1: College of Health Professions and Biomedical Sciences
  • April 22: President Engstrom
  • April 29: School of Business Administration
  • May 6: Law School and the Diversity Advisory Council


 

 News About U
 

News About U Law Professor and Central and Southwest Asia Studies Center Fellow Jeff Renz and Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center Faculty Associate Jim Taylor recently returned from Kabul, Afghanistan, where they provided training to the legal and policy staff of the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock. The work was funded by The Asia Foundation. Attorney Jim Wingard, who also is affiliated with the Mansfield Center, led the program.

Media Arts Associate Professor Andrew Smith's feature film project "Winter in the Blood" received national publicity in a Jan. 24 Los Angeles Times article. The film, which is based on the landmark novel about Native American life by James Welch, also was featured in the November/December issue of Montana Magazine.

 

 Publications 
 

Books and Publications Gideon, Rudy A. 2010. "Using Correlation Coefficients to Estimate Slopes in Multiple Linear Regression." Sankhya: The Indian Journal of Statistics, 72-B, Part 1: 96-106.

 

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.
phone: 406-243-2522
fax: 406-243-4520