UM business faculty member Cameron Lawrence won a national essay contest and he's sharing his prize with the entire campus - a visit from the C-SPAN School Bus and the accompanying national exposure.

The 45-foot-long yellow bus will be parked on the Oval in front of Main Hall from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday, Sept. 20, while its crew of educators visit Lawrence's and several journalism and radio-television classes to talk about topics ranging from the cable industry to covering politics. UM students and faculty will board the bus to view educational videos, including one documenting political advertisements dating back to the 1950s.

The public is invited to attend a 12:30 p.m. ceremony, during which the cable network's officials will honor Lawrence as one of 25 national winners in C-SPAN's 25th anniversary essay contest. The brief event will take place on the Oval in front of the bus. The ceremony will be taped for broadcast later in the week on C-SPAN's "Washington Journal."

Earlier this year the network asked its viewers to describe how something they saw on C-SPAN motivated them to act, create or become involved. Lawrence's essay describes how C-SPAN propelled him on his personal journey from smoke jumper to University faculty member.

CosmoGIRL! has named UM-Missoula one of the 50 best places for young women to go to college, according to its October issue.

The magazine surveyed colleges and universities in the United States to come up with its list of colleges that provide an environment that "gives girls the best chance of success in school and after graduation."

To get its top 50 coed colleges list, CosmoGIRL! started with The Princeton Review's highest-scoring schools from its data on more than 600 U.S. colleges and universities. CosmoGIRL! then surveyed those schools, after consulting with college experts and coming up with a criteria list: small class size, prominent female faculty members, strong women's sports programs, a career center that facilitates internship opportunities, lots of chances to hold leadership positions in clubs and activities, and an active alumni network.

Besides UM, Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Ore., was the only other school in the Pacific Northwest to make the list.

Nonresident travelers spent about $1.87 billion in Montana last year, according to a new report from the Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research at UM.

The report, titled "The Economic Review of the Travel Industry in Montana," addresses the economic impact of nonresident travel in Montana, why visitors come to Montana and the performance of the state's travel industry.

A few highlights:

• About 4.2 million nonresident traveler groups visited Montana in 2003, up 4.2 percent from 2002.
• Visitor spending generated nearly 37,000 jobs and $739 million in total personal income for Montana residents.
• The state's nonresident travel industry comprises 7 percent of the state's total employment structure, on par with construction, agriculture and the finance/real estate industries.

With Milltown Dam near Missoula slated for removal, UM will host an in-depth workshop on dam removal and stream restoration Sept. 23-24.

The workshop is titled "Assessing and Re-Naturalizing Streams Impacted by Dams and Dam Removal." The event is organized by the UM Center for Riverine Science and Stream Re-Naturalization, a two-year-old organization that focuses teaching and research on natural and disturbed stream systems.

Thursday, Sept. 23, will include a field trip to Milltown Dam near Missoula and Kerr Dam near Polson from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. A reception and poster session will be held from 7 to 10 p.m. on campus in the University Center.

Five keynote speakers will give presentations from 8 a.m. to 2:50 p.m. in UM's University Center Theater on Friday, Sept. 24. Topics will range from the impact of dams to the technical challenges of dam removal.

UM-Missoula's Wilderness Institute is co-sponsoring RiverFest 2004 in honor of the 40th anniversary of the Wilderness Act.

RiverFest begins at 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 18, with a Walk for Wilderness along the Clark Fork River. The rest of the day's festivities will include speakers, performances, food vendors and display booths in Caras Park.

The event is free and open to the public.

Representatives from UM-Missoula, local transportation agencies and state government will gather at 2 p.m. today to dedicate the new Marlice McMahon Transportation Center, located at 2820 S. Higgins Ave.

The transportation center is the result of a joint effort between UM and the Missoula Ravalli Transportation Management Authority. It was built with funds from a Federal Transit Authority grant.

The center, which will be serviced by Mountain Line and ASUM buses, includes 300 parking spaces, a waiting room, public restrooms, and office and storage space. It will be operational by the end of September.

The U.S. government has named UM-Missoula scientist Steve Running a lead author for the "Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2007 Report."

Running, a professor in the College for Forestry and Conservation, directs UM's Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group, which creates software for NASA environmental satellites. He will write the IPCC report's "North American Impacts" chapter.

The Practical Ethics Center at UM will begin another season of "PEC Presents" with a lecture on "The Ethics and Politics of Stem Cell Research" by PEC interim director Mark Hanson.

The lecture will take place Monday, Sept. 20, in the Dean's Office conference room in UM's College of Technology Administration Building.

Future lectures will be held in Gallagher Building Room 108 at UM. All lectures run from 12:10 to 1 p.m. and are free and open to the public. See the schedule (link below) for lecture topics and presenters.

The award-winning radio program of short fiction, "Selected Shorts -- A Celebration of Short Story," comes to UM-Missoula for a live performance Thursday, Sept. 30. The show, which serves as the kickoff event for the 2004 Montana Festival of the Book, begins at 7 p.m. in the University Theatre.

Host Isaiah Sheffer will be joined by noted actors Ted Marcoux and Roxanne Hart. Marcoux will read "Fires" by author Rick Bass, Hart will read "Ranch Girl" by Maile Meloy and Sheffer will read "The Trickle Down Effect" by Annie Proulx.

Reserved seating tickets cost $17. Preferred seating, along with admittance to an on-stage dessert and wine reception with the cast and MPR radio hosts after the show, is available for $60 per person. Tickets are available by calling (888) MONTANA, online or at any GrizTix location. UM students with Griz Cards can buy tickets for $10 at the Adams Center Box Office.

The Montana Grizzlies football team is back in a familiar position. Montana's 41-23 win against Hofstra last Saturday, coupled with formerly No. 1-ranked Southern Illinois' 23-22 loss at Northern Illinois, has lifted the Grizzlies to the No. 1 ranking in the Sports Network Top 25 poll.

Quarterback Craig Ochs completed 30 of 42 passes for a career-high 364 yards and a touchdown in Montana's win. Ochs's efforts earned him the Big Sky Conference offensive player of the week title.

The Griz face their first road game of the season Saturday in Huntsville, Texas, playing the Sam Houston State Bearkats. Kickoff is scheduled for 6:05 p.m. MTN in Bower's Stadium.

Senior co-captain Nikki Bolstad scored a goal and assisted on another to lead the women's soccer team to a 2-1 victory over the Minnesota Golden Gophers last Saturday at the Soccer Etc. Nike Classic in Boise, Idaho. The Grizzlies fell 2-1 to Boise State in the final day of the Classic despite out-shooting Boise State 12-7 and finishing with all eight of the game's corner kicks.

The UM volleyball team got its first win of the season last Friday at the University of Califonia, Davis, Aggie Invitational, defeating Brown in three games, 31-29, 30-25, 30-26.

The win snapped a four-match losing streak for the Grizzlies. The Grizzlies split a pair of matches Saturday at the Invitational, dropping a three-game match against Nevada as the Wolf Pack cruised to the tune of 30-15, 30-17, 30-25. In the late game, the Griz up-ended host UC-Davis 3-2 in a five-game thriller. Montana won 18-30, 30-23, 30-23, 29-31, 15-12.

This week the Grizzlies head to the Boise State Northwest Challenge in Idaho. They will face Boise State today and No. 3-ranked Washington and Florida A&M Saturday.