Griz greetings!
Welcome to TGIF News. This e-mail newsletter is
provided weekly, except during the summer and
scheduled academic breaks, to subscribers
including
students, alumni, employees and friends of The
University of Montana.
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Researchers Tackle Mystery Bee Disorder
Albert Einstein is supposed to have said, “If
the bee disappeared off the surface of the
globe, then man would only have four years
left to live.”
Well, there’s no need to get your affairs in
order just yet, but a mysterious ailment
called Colony Collapse Disorder is causing
agricultural honeybees nationwide to abandon
their hives and disappear.
It’s a regular bee Bermuda Triangle, and a
team of UM honeybee researchers has been
enlisted to find out what’s bugging the bees
-- the leading pollinator of humanity’s crops.
“Individual beekeepers are really taking a
beating,” UM entomologist Jerry Bromenshenk
said. “A guy down in Oklahoma lost 80 percent
of his 13,000 colonies in the last month. In
Florida, there are a whole lot of people
facing 40, 60 and 80 percent losses. That’s
huge.”
With CCD, most adult honeybees abandon a hive
and disappear, leaving the queen and a
remnant of younger bees. The malady also is
characterized by uncapped brood -- when the
cells of young bees in the pupa stage are not
covered and protected by their older sisters
-- probably because most of the adult bees
have left. Dead adult bees aren’t found near
the hive; they are just gone.
“We don’t want to panic the beekeeper
industry because we are not sure it’s time to
push the panic button yet,” Bromenshenk said.
“But we do know this is real, it’s severe and
it’s widespread.”
CCD and Bromenshenk’s research are
receiving nationwide media attention. He made
an appearance on “The CBS Evening News with
Katie Couric” earlier this week.
Complete story
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Town Hall Meeting Looks At 2008 Election
A Town Hall Meeting titled “Election 2008: A
Major Victory for a Minority?” will take
place Monday, Feb. 26, at UM.
The event will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. in
University Center Rooms 326-327. It is free
and open to the public.
The Town Hall Meeting series, which started
at UM in 2005, aims to foster community
dialogue about issues of social justice. The
meeting format combines expert panelists and
community member dialogue.
Panelists are Christopher Muste, assistant
professor, UM Department of Political
Science; Judy Smith, interim director of
homeWORD; Gregory Koger, assistant professor,
UM Department of Political Science; and
Sergio Romero, assistant professor, UM
Department of Sociology.
The event is sponsored by UM’s MultiCultural
Alliance and the University’s Center for
Leadership Development.
Town Hall Meeting schedule
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President Dennison Visits Tribal Colleges
UM President George Dennison, along with
other University administrators and faculty,
is visiting all tribal colleges in
Montana this year to establish working
relationships with administrators, determine
needs of the colleges and learn where joint
projects are
possible.
To date, the UM ambassadors have visited
Blackfeet Community College, Chief Dull Knife
College, Little Big Horn College,
Fort Peck Community College, and Salish
Kootenai College. Dennison plans to visit
Stone Child College and Fort Belknap College
before the end of the academic year.
Dennison described the discussions as “very
fruitful.” He noted that he and other
University personnel have discovered problems
with dual admissions programs and have sought
to identify transfer obstacles.
“An issue discussed by the tribal college
leaders has to do with the problems students
face because of ‘culture shock,’” Dennison
said. He said UM initiated a special Native
American Orientation Session during the
summer to deal with this challenge.
“Each tribal college shares the uniqueness of
its reservation and its people,” Dennison
said. “In my view, these colleges have
developed remarkably during the last two
decades and ... collaboration will benefit us
very much, as we hope it will them.”
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Student Leadership Conference Set For March
The ninth annual UM Student Leadership
Conference – “Tailor Made Leadership” – will
take place Saturday, March 3, in the
University Center.
The conference, sponsored by UM’s Center for
Leadership Development, includes a series of
panels and workshops that offer a variety of
perspectives about student leadership and the
importance of building future leaders.
Associated Students of UM President Andrea
Helling will open the conference at 9:20
a.m., followed by a student panel discussion
from 9:30 to 10 a.m. Conference sessions then
run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Presentations will be made by representatives
from the National Coalition Building
Institute, the MultiCultural Alliance, the
Center for Ethics, Montana Women’s Vote, the
Missoula Downtown Association and the
Missoula Campus Compact, as well as by UM
students.
Registration, which includes lunch, is $5
before Feb. 23, and $10 after that date.
Tickets are available at The Source, located
in the University Center. Check-in is at 9
a.m. the day of the conference.
Student Leadership Conference
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Grizzly Thrower Breaks School Record
Sophomore Brittany Williams broke UM’s school
record in the weight throw last Friday at the
Mountain State Games in Pocatello, Idaho.
Williams placed fourth in the event, throwing
the weight 51 feet, 9.25 inches, to break the
previous
record of 50 feet, 11.5 inches, set by Dannai
Clayborn in
2001.
The Grizzly track squads will compete
Saturday, Feb. 17, at the Montana State Last
Chance Meet in Bozeman. It is the final meet
for the Grizzlies before the 2007 Big Sky
Conference Indoor Championships, which will
be held Feb. 23-24, also in Bozeman.
Montana currently has 17 men qualified in 22
events
and 12 women qualified in 17 events for the
league championships.
Montana Grizzlies
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UM
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