The annual UM Employee Welcome Back Picnic is set for 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 23, at the Kirkwood Memorial Grove, Riverbowl East, located along Campus Drive near the Fitness and Recreation Center.

The picnic will feature tailgate-style food, remarks by President Engstrom and self-guided tours of Washington-Grizzly Stadium. In case of inclement weather, the event will take place in the Adams Center.

The event is open to all UM employees and retirees.

For more information call Ann Guiditta in Human Resource Services at 243-2665 or email ann.guiditta@umontana.edu.

Employers and student workers will have an opportunity to connect at the fall Student Job Fair, slated for 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 1, in the University Center Ballroom at UM.

The fair, hosted by UM's Office of Career Services, is free and open to any business, organization or department that needs college students for part-time jobs, internships or volunteer opportunities. Last year 40 employers and more than 900 students participated in the Student Job Fair.

For more information call Janay Whisman, student employment coordinator, at 243-5627 or email studentjobs@umontana.edu.

UM has joined a group of 29 higher education institutions across the country to launch "Gig.U: The University Community Next Generation Innovation Project."

The project aims to accelerate the deployment of ultra-high-speed networks in communities near leading U.S. universities. Planners hope that growing high-speed networks will drive economic growth in those communities and stimulate a new generation of innovators to address critical needs in areas such as health care and education.

"This venture will be a major step forward for the University community," said Ray Ford, the UM chief technology officer who encouraged participation in Gig.U. "This is important because it will give UM faculty, staff and students the same level of network access off campus as they have on campus."

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The Institute of International Education has selected UM as one of 11 colleges and universities to foster higher education ties with India.

UM will participate in the institute's 2012 India initiative, part of its International Academic Partnership Program. During the next year, UM will engage in a series of training activities arranged by the institute to help implement and sustain partnerships with Indian institutions, culminating with a study tour to India in early 2012 to meet with potential partner campuses and leaders in the Indian higher education system.

The institute selected UM for the program because of the quality of its academic programming and its commitment to international education, said Peter Baker, the international development program officer for UM International Programs.

Mehrdad Kia, UM associate provost for International Programs, said the University already is establishing direct partnerships with several Indian universities, and a delegation from those institutions plans to visit Missoula in September and October.

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University Dining Services was recently recognized for meeting or exceeding the sustainable business standards for restaurants set by the Western Sustainability Exchange.

University Dining Services Director Mark LoParco accepted the Certificate of Sustainability at a ceremony held July 28 at the Buttercup Cafe in Missoula. UDS was one of eight Montana dining establishments to receive the certificate.

Researchers at UM and the U.S. Geological Survey recently developed a new tool for modeling fish populations in rivers. An article detailing the Cost Distance FISHeries simulator appears in the August issue of the science journal Conservation Genetics Resources.

CDFISH was developed by UM research Assistant Professor Erin Landguth, Associate Professor Gordon Luikart of the Flathead Lake Biological Station and USGS scientist Clint Muhlfeld. The project was funded by the USGS through a grant from the Great Northern Landscape Conservation Cooperative.

CDFISH is a population dynamics model for aquatic systems to track individual fish as they move through a river system. It is different than existing models because it incorporates biological rules for fish movement and migration as functions of complex stream features such as water temperature and flow, habitat complexity, physical barriers, elevation and slope. CDFISH also tracks the genetic makeup and demographic vulnerability of fisheries through time. 

UM invites all students, faculty and staff to "Get Your Griz On" at WelcomeFeast from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 2, on the Oval. Participants can enjoy free food, live music, games and access information about campus life.

WelcomeFeast also will include a closed-captioned outdoor screening of "Kung Fu Panda 2" at 9:30 p.m. on the Oval. Both events are free and open to the campus community.

On-campus groups interested in reserving a display table can call 243-5082.

Registration is open for the second annual Roundtable on the Crown of the Continent, which will take place Thursday and Friday, Sept. 22-23, at the KwaTaqNuk Resort in Polson.

This year's event, "Crown of the Continent: Integrating Culture, Community and Conservation," is hosted by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Council. The conference program features a variety of plenary, breakout and working-group sessions focused on the importance of integrating culture, community (including local economies) and conservation to effectively sustain communities and landscapes.

Registration and lodging information and a complete conference agenda are available online. Registration costs $100 until Sept. 9 and $125 after. For more information call conference organizer Kim Davitt at 406-546-7979 or email kim@cnrep.org.

Registration also is open for "Discovery in the Crown of the Continent: A Glacier National Park Experience" Sept. 23-26. Participants will be guided to remote locations within the park to study wildlife habitat, Native American history, climate change, forest fires and physical geography.

Complete program and registration information is available online. A stepped pricing structure is offered, so program fees vary depending on the number of participants. The price includes all meals, lodging and transportation during the program. Participants will be responsible for their own transportation to the Glacier Park Field Camp. Academic credit is available at an additional cost.

UM Staff Senate will sell raffle tickets from 11:30 to 1 p.m. Friday, Sept. 2, during WelcomeFeast on the Oval to raise money to fund its annual scholarships. The scholarships are awarded to children of UM staff enrolled at the University, and the Staff Senate Scholarship Committee relies heavily on donations from the campus community to fund them.

Tickets cost $1 each or $5 for six. Prizes include two Monte Dolack posters, tickets to the Oct. 1 Homecoming football game and gift certificates to various local businesses, including Finn & Porter, Freemo's Pizza, The Bridge, Subway, Office City, Press Box, Ace Hardware, Great Harvest Bread Co., the Good Food Store and others.

Senators also will sell tickets during the Homecoming Art Fair in the University Center and in the main foyer of the Lommasson Center Sept. 26-28.

For more information call Catherine Hogan at 243-2169 or email catherine.hogan@mso.umt.edu.

Teams are forming now for the annual Heart Walk and 5K Run at UM on Saturday, Sept. 24. The event, a fundraiser for the American Heart Association, begins at 10 a.m. on the Oval with a ceremony to introduce heart disease survivors and remember those who have passed away because of the disease.

This will be the first year for the 5K Heart Run, which will start at 11:10 a.m. The course will begin and finish on the UM Oval, offering views of campus and the Clark Fork River in between. The top finishers in each of seven age divisions, as well as the overall men's and women's winners, will receive prizes in the timed event. The race fee is $20, and participants can register on the Missoula Heart Walk/Run website.

The Heart Walk will start shortly after the 5K. Registration for the walk is free and also available online. Participants can choose to form a new team, register with an existing team or sign up to fundraise individually. Several UM departments already have formed teams and have started raising money.

Team members will solicit donations to support education and research efforts of the American Heart Association, a nonprofit that raises awareness of cardiovascular disease and promotes heart-healthy lifestyles. No fundraising minimum is required to participate.

Those interested in forming or joining a team also can call Beckie Christiaens, UM Heart Walk campaign chair, at 243-4611 or email beckie.christiaens@umontana.edu.

Community members 50 and older can explore topics ranging from literature, history and politics to mathematics and the natural sciences through courses offered by the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UM this fall.

Courses are taught by dynamic UM and community educators and take place during September, October and November. Registration is now open for all fall courses.

A $20 annual MOLLI membership fee is required to enroll. Most courses cost $60 each, and MOLLI is offering a fall special that includes two courses for $100, a 33 percent savings on the second class.

A complete course schedule, descriptions, locations, times, instructor information and registration can be found on the MOLLI website.

Scientists from UM, Brigham Young University and the USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station have received a $450,000 grant from the Joint Fire Sciences Program to study linkages between fuels and fire behavior in shrub lands.

Principal investigator Carl Seielstad, a professor in UM's Department of Forest Management, will use laser scanners to build 3-D models of sagebrush and chamise shrub fuels.

Seielstad will work with Thomas Fletcher, a chemical engineer at BYU who is developing and testing fire models for shrub fuels in a state-of-the-art burn chamber. The team also will include David Weiss, a research forester from the Forest Service Fire Sciences Lab in Riverside, Calif., who has extensive experience in fire modeling of shrub fuels.

Fire managers use information from fire models to make decisions about how to keep firefighters safe and to develop successful management strategies and fuels treatments. Fire dynamics are changing quickly in shrub lands because of invasions by exotic plants. By fundamentally understanding how fire moves through shrubs and grasses, it may be possible to anticipate these changes using fire models such as the ones developed in this study.

Five faculty members received competitive awards from UM's Office of the Vice President for Research and Development to develop and submit new research proposals to the National Science Foundation or the National Institutes of Health. Awardees will participate in a proposal-writing group led by Jenny McNulty, associate dean of UM's College of Arts and Sciences.

Faculty members awarded proposal opportunities are: 

Annie Belcourt-Dittloff, assistant professor, pharmacy/public and community health sciences, "Suicide Risk and Protective Factors Among Native American Communities: Trauma, Poverty, Rural, and Cultural Considerations."

Luke Conway, associate professor, Department of Pyschology, "Integrative Complexity and Smoking Cessation."

Kathy Kuipers, associate professor, Department of Sociology, "Race and Status Beliefs."

Mizuki Miyashita, associate professor of linguistics, Department of Anthropology, "Blackfoot Phonetics-Phonology."

Naomi Shin, assistant professor of Spanish linguistics, Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures, "A Sociolinguistic Study of Spanish Spoken in Mexico and by Migrant Workers and Their Children in Western Montana."

The proposal development program is one of several activities initiated by an ad hoc consortium of UM faculty to enhance social and behavioral science research programs at the University. The Office of Research and Development selected Blakely Brown, associate professor of health and human performance, Kari Harris, professor of public and community health sciences, and Craig Ravesloot, research associate professor in UM's Rural Institute and psychology department, to provide leadership for the social and behavioral science consortium.

More information is available on the Office of the Vice President for Research and Development website.

Montana Public Radio and the Jeannette Rankin Peace Center have teamed up to present a public reading of "peace" literature and poetry at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 24, in the Fireside Room of University Congregational Church in Missoula, located at 405 University Ave.

Readers include Kevin Canty, Sheryl Noethe, John Engen, Kim Anderson, David Moore, Lisa Simon, Shaun Gant, Chérie Newman and Betsy Mulligan-Dague.

MTPR recently received grant funding to increase awareness for the upcoming five-part PBS series "Women, War & Peace" by creating community partnerships through its popular weekly literary radio program, "The Write Question." The Aug. 24 reading will be recorded and used to create two episodes that will air on MTPR during late September and early October.

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 email prestalk@umontana.edu to make an appointment to meet with President Engstrom during these times.

President Engstrom's scheduled office hours for autumn semester are:

• Wednesday, Aug. 24: 2-4:30 p.m.
• Wednesday, Sept. 28: 2-3:30 p.m.
• Thursday, Oct. 27: 1-3 p.m.
• Thursday, Dec. 8: 9-10:30 a.m.

Socials will be held from 4:30 to 6 p.m. most Fridays during autumn semester in the Davidson Honors College Lounge. Autumn semester dates and event sponsors are:

• Sept. 1: Davidson Honors College
• Sept. 9: School of Extended & Lifelong Learning
• Sept. 16: College of Forestry and Conservation
• Sept. 23: Sponsor TBA
• Oct. 7: Academic Affairs
• Oct. 21: Sponsor TBA
• Oct. 28: President Engstrom
• Nov. 4: International Programs
• Nov. 18: Sponsor TBA
• Dec. 2: President Engstrom
• Dec. 9: Sponsor TBA

Capt. Gary Taylor has been appointed the new director of UM's Office of Public Safety. Taylor replaces Jim Lemcke, who worked 11 years at the University before announcing his retirement this summer.

Christiane von Reichert and Joseph Husar of UM's Department of Geography gave research presentations at the 2011 joint meeting of the Rural Sociological Society and the Community Development Society in Boise, Idaho, July 28-31. Von Reichert's talk focused on "Return Migrants and Their Impact on Rural Communities," while Husar gave a presentation titled "Rural Community Vitality: The Cases of Fort Benton, Montana, and Watford City, North Dakota." Robin Saha, associate professor of environmental studies, also attended the conference.

Koehn, Peter (co-author). 2011. "Transforming the Boundaries of Health Care: Insights from Somali Migrants." Medical Anthropology, 30(5):1-27.

Mildenstein, Tammy (co-author). 2011. "Natural history, ecological and socio-economic value of bats" and "Bat population abundance assessment and monitoring." Investigating the Role of Bats in Emerging Zoonoses. FAO Animal Production and Health Manual, No. 11. Rome.

Ngai, Phyllis and Peter Koehn. 2011. "Indigenous Education for Critical Democracy: Teacher Approaches and Learning Outcomes in a K-5 Indian-Education-for-All Program," Equity and Excellence in Education, 44(2):249-269.

Queen, LLoyd, Eric Rowell, and Carl Seielstad (co-authors). 2011. "Deriving Fuel Mass by Size Class in Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziessi) Using Terrestrial Laser Scanning." Remote Sensing, (3)3:1-19.