The UMOnline team and the Learning Management System Advisory Committee are available to help faculty and instructors become familiar with Moodle as they build their spring 2012 courses.

Workshops, online tutorials for faculty and students, IT short courses, tip sheets and step-by-step video guides will continue to be offered this fall. Technical support is now offered on the mountain campus by dedicated UM personnel and is available from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding University holidays. Resources and a schedule of training dates can be found online. 

The Learning Management System Advisory Committee is composed of the following individuals who serve as the point person for their respective departments:

• Jesse Munro, College of Arts and Sciences
• Libby Covelli, College of Forestry and Conservation
• Stacey Gordon, School of Law
• David Firth, School of Business Administration
• Danielle Wozniak, College of Health Professions and Biomedical Sciences
• Linda Eagleheart, College of Technology
• Lisa Blank, College of Education and Human Sciences
• Ray Fanning, School of Journalism
• Rick Hughes, College of Visual and Performing Arts, committee chair
• Laure Pengelly Drake, Davidson Honors College

For information on workshops or for access to online support, visit the Moodle workshops page. For specific questions call Robert Squires, UM's interim director of instructional design, at 406-243-6056 or email robert.squires@mso.umt.edu.

Counseling and Psychological Services at UM will hold a training seminar Wednesday, Sept. 14, on how to assist someone who is having suicidal thoughts.

Dr. Brian Krylowicz, CAPS director, will lead the free seminar, "Help Someone -- Help Yourself: First Responder Training," from noon to 1:30 p.m. in Curry Health Center Room 073. The seminar is open to all UM students, faculty and staff, and snacks and drinks will be provided. To reserve a spot, call 243-2809.

The seminar is designed to help raise awareness about suicide issues on campus and present several basic strategies and techniques that can be helpful when dealing with suicide.

Participants will learn how to best assist students, colleagues and friends who are experiencing depression or suicidal thoughts; become familiar with available services such as CAPS and the national suicide hot line; and learn how to refer those in need of professional help.

UM dance Professor Karen Kaufman will present "Movement as a Metaphor: Building School Dance Programs" at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 14, in the University Center North Ballroom. Kaufmann's presentation is the first installment of the Provost's Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series at UM.

Kaufmann spearheads dance integration programs in K-12 schools, and her lecture/slideshow will address the successes, challenges and life lessons experienced while advocating for dance in education.

 More information is available on the Office of the Provost website.

ASUM will offer several opportunities for students and community members to get informed and involved in politics during "Join the Revolution: An Invitation to Get Involved" Monday through Saturday, Sept. 12-17. 

Events will kick off with a panel titled "Politics, Money, Education: What Students Should Know" at 3 p.m. Monday, Sept. 12, in the University Center Theater. The panel will feature state Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau, Montana Commissioner of Higher Education Sheila Stearns, UM President Royce Engstrom and state Senate Minority Leader Carol Williams. 

Former ASUM President Ashleen Williams will moderate the panel, which will cover topics such as the most recent legislative session, funding for the Montana University System and academic standards for Montana students.

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UM employees are invited to participate in the sixth annual Road Runners Club of America Run @ Work Day at noon, Friday, Sept. 16, on campus.

Runners and walkers of all abilities are invited to join the event. The course begins on the Oval and travels to the Kim Williams Trail on the north edge of campus, where participants can go as far as they like before turning around and returning to campus.

Run @ Work Day aims to raise awareness about the importance of daily physical activity for adults. The event provides an opportunity for individuals to incorporate at least 30 minutes of exercise into their daily routine.

Water and information about the local running club, Run Wild Missoula, will be available at the Grizzly Bear statue after the run. For more information, call Jennifer Sauer at 243-4878 or email jennifer.sauer@umontana.edu.

The first autumn semester meeting of the Institute for Gerontology Education will take place Friday, Sept. 16, in Skaggs Building Room 111. Annie Kennedy, assistant professor in the Communicative Sciences and Disorders department, will discuss working with older adults with communication disorders.

The Institute for Gerontology Education was created in 2002 to encourage the development of aging coursework, research, student involvement and community service. This interdisciplinary body is composed of faculty, students and community professionals concerned with aging. The institute meets monthly during the academic year and is open to anyone interested in furthering the development of gerontological education.

A full meeting schedule is available online. For more information call Terry Egan at 243-2480 or email terry.egan@umontana.edu.

The 10th Annual University Community Ice Cream Social to welcome new and returning students to UM and Missoula neighborhoods will be held from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 18.

The street party will take place on the 400 block of University Avenue. The event features live music from the Andrea Harsell & Aaron Anderson Experience and much mingling. President Engstrom and Missoula Mayor John Engen will attend. UM mascot Monte also will make an appearance.

Participants can visit with their neighbors, browse informational tables and win door prizes. There will be free ice cream for all.

The event, held since 2002, was created by an informal group called the Thoughtful Neighbors to celebrate the diversity that UM students bring to the Missoula community. Thoughtful Neighbors is an evolving mix of University neighborhood homeowners and residents, UM students and administrators, the UM Foundation and UM Alumni Association, and members of several charitable and service organizations.

UM's Central and Southwest Asian Studies Center invites the campus community to explore issues important to the region during its 2011 Brown Bag Lecture Series. The presentations will be held from noon to 1 p.m.

The series starts Friday, Sept. 16, in Stone Hall Room 303 with "The State of Contemporary Art in Iran Today" by Reza Ismailnia, director of the University of Tehran Art Gallery.

The complete lecture schedule is available online. For more information call Brian Lofink at 243-2299. 

TIAA-CREF will offer individual counseling sessions to assist faculty and staff with retirement planning from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, Sept. 27-28, and from 8 to 11 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 29, at UM.

Appointments are required for the sessions, which will be held in the University Center. To make an appointment, call the TIAA-CREF Phone Center at 800-842-2009.   

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, 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. 16: College of Forestry and Conservation
• Sept. 23: College of Arts and Sciences
• Oct. 7: Academic Affairs
• Oct. 21: Mansfield Center
• Oct. 28: President Engstrom
• Nov. 4: International Programs
• Nov. 18: College of Visual and Performing Arts and School of Journalism
• Dec. 2: President Engstrom
• Dec. 9: College of Health Professions and Biomedical Sciences

Victoria Clark has been appointed the director of the Bitterroot College Program of UM in Hamilton. Clark had served as the program's interim director since 2009.

Political science Professor Peter Koehn presented "Institutionalized Chaos, Access and Governance: Turbulence and Bifurcation in North-South Higher-Education Partnerships for Research and Development" at the 2011 annual meeting of the American Political Science Association held Sept. 1 in Seattle.

Composition and music technology Associate Professor Charles Nichols' piece "Playground" was selected to be played in the Sound Walk immersive sound installation, held Sept. 9-14 at the Música Viva Festival in Lisbon, Portugal. His was one of 25 selected from 149 international submissions. 

Anthropology Associate Professor Noriko Seguchi presented a paper, "Differences in the Prevalence of Tuberculosis Mortality Among the Ainu and the Ethnic Japanese during the Early Twentieth Century: Socio-Economic and Political Structural Influences" on July 5 at the combined conference for the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, Australian Anthropological Society and the Association of Social Anthropologists of Aotearoa/New Zealand at the University of Western Australia in Perth.  

Greymorning, Neyooxet. 2011. "Eighteen Years of Running a Language Gauntlet." In The Canadian Journal of Native Studies. 31(1).

Hayden, Sara. 2011. "Constituting Savvy Aunties: From Childless Women to Child-Focused Consumers." In Women's Studies in Communication. 34:1-19.

Holben, W.E. 2011. "GC fractionation allows comparative total microbial community analysis, enhances diversity assessment, and facilitates detection of minority populations of bacteria." Chapter 23 in Handbook of Molecular Microbial Ecology I: Metagenomics and Complementary Approaches. (Ed.) F.J. de Bruijn. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.

Jabour, Anya. 2011. Review of Melba Porter Hay, Madeline McDowell Breckinridge and the Battle for a New South. In Kentucky Historical Register. 109(1): 75-78.

Kavanaugh, M.P.; G.P. Leary; D.C. Holley; E.F. Stone; B.R. Lyda; L.V. Kalachev. 2011. "The central cavity in trimeric glutamate transporters restricts ligand diffusion." In Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 108(36):14980-14985.

Premuroso, Ronald F., W. Hopwood, S. Bhattacharya. 2011. "Tasteless Tea Company: A Comprehensive Revenue Transaction Cycle Case Study." In Issues in Accounting Education. 26(1):163-179.

Pollock, J.L, L.A. Kogan, A.S. Thorpe and W.E. Holben. 2011. "(±)-Catechin, a root exudate of the invasive Centaurea stoebe Lam. (spotted knapweed) exhibits bacteriostatic activity against multiple soil bacterial populations." In Journal of Chemical Ecology.  

Schmidt, Ryan, Noriko Seguchi, J. Thompson. 2011. "Chinese immigrant population history in North America based on craniometric diversity." In Anthropological Science. 119(1):9-19.

Sriraman, Bharath (co-author) 2011. "A quantitative study of the effects of informal mathematics activities on the beliefs of preservice elementary school teachers." In ZDM-The International Journal on Mathematics Education. 43(4):601-615.

Sriraman, Bharath. 2011. "Syntheses of Circumpolar Indigenous Issues, Knowledge, Relations to Education, Science and Mathematics." In Interchange: A Quarterly Review of Education. 42(2):215-219.

Sriraman, Bharath (co-author) 2011. "Perspectives on Sámi Mathematics Education." In Interchange: A Quarterly Review of Education. 42(2):185-203.