Once again, UM has set a record for spring semester enrollment. A total of 13,285 students are taking classes this semester, an increase of 246 over last spring.

In addition, full-time equivalents (FTE) increased slightly for a total of 11,095.80, compared to last spring’s 11,035.80. An FTE represents 15 undergraduate or 12 graduate semester credits.

While the overall numbers are encouraging, President George Dennison said the FTE was lower than had been projected. He noted a disturbing trend in students registering for fewer credits.

“We will deal with this trend by refining and refocusing our efforts,” Dennison said.

One of those efforts is a recent campaign to encourage students to save money by taking more than 12 credits a semester, since there is no additional cost to take 15.

This spring’s increase in headcount came at the undergraduate level and mostly is made up of part-time students. It comes almost entirely at the College of Technology, which enrolled a total of 1,303 students -- 234 more than spring semester 2005.

A two-day conference will be held Friday and Saturday, March 3 and 4, at UM to discuss indigenous knowledge and its role in modern times.

“Traditional Knowledge and Western Science: Finding Common Ground” will bring experts from across the state, the nation and Canada to speak and present workshops in the University Center.

Conference sessions will address traditional ecological knowledge, the ethical implications of integrating it into modern Western science, how Western science can benefit from the knowledge and the limitations of each approach in forming a complete view of nature.

The conference begins Friday morning with an opening circle and prayer offered by Johnny Arlee, elder of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, followed by a keynote address by Robin Kimmerer of State University of New York’s College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

The conference is presented by UM’s chapter of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society. More information, a schedule of events and registration forms are available online.

There is safety in numbers, say UM’s new alcohol awareness posters.

The posters offer information such as how much a person can safely drink in a night and in what situations it is not safe or legal to drink.

More than 400 copies of the poster are being posted around campus and in the Missoula community.

The posters grew out of a collaboration between the Curry Health Center’s health enhancement department at UM, which designed and distributed the posters, and the Montana Department of Revenue, which paid for them.

The Montana Museum of Art and Culture at UM presents two special exhibitions of prints that are rarely on display for public viewing.

“The Pop Prints of Blake, Kitaj and Salle” and “Prints of the 1970s from the Permanent Collection” will be in the museum’s Meloy and Paxson galleries March 3 through May 6.

These complementary exhibitions feature prints from the museum’s Permanent Collection by internationally known abstract expressionists and pop artists Peter Blake, R.B. Kitaj, David Salle, Ed Ruscha, Robert Motherwell, Theodoros Stamos, Patrick Caulfield and Peter Phillips. The two art styles convey the transitions between post-World War II art and art of the 1950s and 1960s.

Gallery talks will be held in the Meloy Gallery at noon on March 9 and 16 and April 13, 20 and 27, and at 7 p.m. March 23. Both the talks and exhibits are free and open to the public. For gallery hours and more information, visit the MMAC Web site.

Students conducting medical humanities research now can apply for grants from the Institute of Medicine and Humanities, a joint program of St. Patrick Hospital and UM.

The grants are available for undergraduate and graduate research projects.

IMH will hold a reception from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 1, for interested students to learn more about the new grant program. The reception takes place at the St. Patrick Hospital Center for Health Information.

For more information, contact Renee Noffke, (406) 327-3162 or rnoffke@saintpatrick.org.

UM’s Health Careers Opportunity Program will offer six-week sessions of the REACH program this summer for high school and college students. REACH stands for Residential Enrichment Activities for Careers in Health Care.

Two sessions will take place June 18-July 28: one for 25 high school juniors and seniors and one for 25 college freshmen and sophomores who want to pursue careers in health-related fields.

Students spend six weeks on campus taking classes, attending workshops, going on field trips, experimenting in science labs and having fun while gaining the skills they need to achieve their goals.

The programs are free and open to students from across the nation. Travel expenses to Missoula to attend REACH programs are paid, and students who are accepted earn a $55 stipend per day while attending the sessions.

Applications are due by Friday, March 3. For more information or to apply, visit the HCOP Web site.

Montana singer, songwriter, lecturer and storyteller Jack Gladstone will perform during “A Casual Affair for a Critical Cause” Friday, March 3, at UM.

The event benefits the Inuit Circumpolar Conference’s Global Climate Change Program and is part of the two-day conference, “Traditional Knowledge and Western Science: Finding Common Ground,” March 3-4 at UM.

The benefit begins with a 6:30 p.m. reception with “mocktails” and hors d’oeuvres in the UC Ballroom foyer. Dinner follows at 7 p.m. in the ballroom. A silent auction will be held throughout the evening.

Gladstone’s performance begins at 9 p.m. A Blackfeet Indian, Gladstone grew up immersed in the rich oral tradition of the American West. His performances combine songs with epic ballads of historical events and biographical profiles.

The Friday evening event is free to registered conference attendees. Tickets for the reception, dinner and concert are $30 for the public. For tickets or more information about the benefit, call (406) 243-5561.

Award-winning author Stewart Justman will be at The Bookstore at UM on Saturday, March 4, to sign copies of his latest book, “Fool’s Paradise: The Strange World of Pop Psychology.”

The book signing, an event of the Faculty Author Series at UM, will be held from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

“Fool’s Paradise” is a witty and astringent appraisal of the world of pop psychology. The book examines the origin of pop psychology and explores reasons why people in the self-help field such as Phil McGraw, Theodore Rubin, Wayne Dyer, M. Scott Peck, Thomas Harris, John Gray and many others have such elevated status in American culture.

Justman is a professor in the UM Liberal Studies Program. His book “Seeds of Mortality: The Public and Private Worlds of Cancer” won the prestigious 2004 PEN Award for the Art of the Essay.

The Lady Griz defeated another Big Sky Conference team by a wide margin Feb. 16, winning 79-45 at Sacramento State. Senior Katie Edwards finished with 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting to lead four UM players in double figures.

Montana pulled within half a game of first place in the Big Sky Conference Feb. 18 with a 57-55 win at league-leading Northern Arizona. In winning their fourth straight game, the Lady Griz improved to 18-5 overall and 7-3 in Big Sky play.

The Lady Griz play their final regular-season home games this week against Eastern Washington and Portland State. Montana hosted the Eagles Thursday night and face the Vikings Saturday at 7 p.m. in Dahlberg Arena.

Junior forward Matt Dlouhy scored a career-high 21 points and four of his teammates scored in double figures as the Montana Grizzlies defeated the visiting Oral Roberts University Golden Eagles 88-74 Feb. 18 in a BracketBusters by eBay game in UM’s Dahlberg Arena.

Montana now is on a three-game run in five days, starting Thursday night against Eastern Washington in Cheney. They are at Portland State Saturday and conclude the regular Big Sky Conference season with a home game Monday, Feb. 27, against league-leading Northern Arizona.