As UM students wrap up their fall semester finals, TGIF concludes its final issue of the calendar year next Friday, Dec. 16.

The e-newsletter will return Friday, Jan. 20. Spring semester classes begin Jan. 23.

In rousing action last Friday, the Montana Grizzlies defeated basketball powerhouse Stanford Cardinal 88-69 at home in Dahlberg Arena.

Senior guard Virgil Matthews scored a career-high 23 points and redshirt freshman forward Jordan Hasquet also had a career night with 20 points. The partisan and boisterous crowd of 6,929 was the second largest since the Grizzlies resumed playing in the facility after its 1999 renovation.

Tuesday night, senior guard Kevin Criswell and sophomore forward Andrew Strait each scored 17 points, while five other Grizzlies also scored in double figures, defeating the Loyola Marymount University Lions 79-61 at home. It was Montana’s second triumph over Loyola Marymount this season; a Nov. 21 game in Los Angeles resulted in a 81-75 win.

The Grizzlies now take their 5-1 record on the road, continuing the team’s 2005-06 non-league slate at the Drake Regency Classic in Des Moines, Iowa. They’ll play the Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils at 4 p.m. today.

More than 200 UM faculty members took part in the national 2004-05 Higher Education Research Institute Survey, and the results are in. They show that teaching is a primary value and focus at UM.

Ninety percent of UM faculty members reported that teaching is their principal activity, compared to 75.4 percent at other public universities.

UM faculty members emphasize the same primary goals for undergraduates as do those at other public universities: to develop abilities to think critically, to promote writing abilities and to prepare students for employment.

More than 90 percent of UM faculty members said that promoting students’ ability to write effectively is a very important or essential goal, and many expressed a concern about the lack of basic preparedness of undergraduate students.

The survey showed that UM faculty members value engagement with students. They overwhelmingly report that the University is a place where it is easy for students to meet with faculty, where faculty care about students and where faculty respect one another.

The 31st Annual Montana Economic Outlook Seminar will focus on the relationship between the state’s business and legal environments.

Recent trends and the outlook for Montana’s important industries also will be examined in detail at the seminar. Experts from the UM Bureau of Business and Economic Research, Montana State University and the Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research will look at the wood products industry, manufacturing, agriculture, health care, and travel and tourism.

The seminar will be offered at seven Montana cities in January and February. Following is the schedule of dates and seminar locations:

• Helena –- Jan. 24, Great Northern Hotel
• Great Falls –- Jan. 25, Hampton Inn
• Missoula –- Jan. 27, Holiday Inn Parkside
• Billings –- Jan. 31, Northern Hotel
• Bozeman –- Feb. 1, Holiday Inn
• Butte -– Feb. 2, Copper King
• Kalispell -– Feb. 7, Kalispell Center Hotel

Registration is $70 and includes the seminar, proceedings booklet, lunch and a one-year subscription to the Montana Business Quarterly. For an additional $20, continuing education credits are available.

Register on the BBER Web site or by calling (406) 243-5113.

“Lasers, Lights, and Optics” is the title of the next Saturday Science Day scheduled at UM on Jan. 21.

The event is sponsored by the Health Careers Opportunity Program and is open to 11th graders from all area high schools. There is no charge to attend, but students must fill out a short application.

Saturday Science Day is a monthly program of HCOP with the goal of raising interest in science, particularly health fields such as medicine and pharmacy. Events are scheduled for area seventh, ninth and 11th graders. Those selected to attend receive a small stipend, and students coming from outside Missoula are offered a mileage reimbursement to help with travel costs.

The deadline to apply for the January event is Friday, Jan. 6, and space is limited. To apply, or for more information, visit the HCOP Web site (see link below) or call (406) 243-4095.

HCOP is funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation has been awarded a three-year, $3.7 million grant to manage and expand the Doris Duke Conservation Fellowship program.

UM is one of five universities in the nation that have been selected to participate in the fellowship program, founded in 1997 by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Yale and Duke universities and the universities of Michigan and Wisconsin also participate in the fellowship program.

Doris Duke Conservation Fellowships are awarded to graduate students who are committed to careers as practicing conservationists and who show outstanding leadership potential. UM, which has participated in the program since 2000, has awarded 20 fellowships to UM students.

UM recently received a grant from the U.S. Department of Education that will keep its Educational Opportunity Program operating through 2009.

EOP is one of 948 student support services funded at colleges and universities in the nation by the department’s TRIO program. UM's EOP was first funded in 1972 with a grant of $35,000. This year the program received nearly $400,000.

EOP at UM provides academic support to first-generation and low-income undergraduates and to students with disabilities throughout their baccalaureate education.

UM Professor Janet Finn recently co-edited a book that takes readers on a journey through three generations of women who lived and worked in Butte.

The idea for the book was hatched three years ago by Finn and co-editor Ellen Crain, director of the Butte-Silver Bow Public Archives. Both felt there were many untold stories of dynamic 20th century Butte women.

“Motherlode: Legacies of Women’s Lives and Labors in Butte, Montana” is a collection of those stories. The stories are about women who were pioneers in their fields and leaders in social and political organizations, as well as the unsung heroines who made a difference in their families and neighborhoods.

In “Motherlode,” 20 writers explore women’s perspectives on and contributions to labor, family and community. Finn and Crain, who both grew up in Butte, also wrote stories for the book, which is published by Clark City Press in Livingston.

Wylie Gustafson has performed in venues from the Lincoln Center to the Grand Ole Opry, gained rave reviews from Billboard Magazine and recorded with Merle Haggard, but it’s more likely you heard him somewhere else.

Think of commercials for Yahoo!, and the mile-wide yodel belting the company’s name.

Gustafson and his group, the Wild West, are bringing that distinctive voice and their music to UM Friday, Jan. 27, at 8 p.m. in the University Theatre.

Gustafson, a native of Conrad, Montana, now lives on a ranch in Dusty, Wash., raising cattle and cutting horses. “Paradise,” the latest from Wylie and the Wild West, was voted the best cowboy album of 2001 by Amazon.com.

Tickets are $15 in advance, $17 at the door for adults. Admission is free for children 12 and under. To purchase tickets, visit GrizTix online or call (888) MONTANA.

The University of Wyoming Cowgirls limited the Lady Griz to 30.9 percent shooting last Friday in Laramie, defeating Montana 45-50.

The UM women’s basketball team held Wyoming to 30.6 percent shooting and dominated the boards 51-34, but it was not enough to avoid Montana’s second loss in a row. Senior Katie Edwards had a game-high 15 points for the Lady Griz. Sophomore Johanna Closson and freshman Sonya Rogers both added seven. The Lady Griz fall to 3-2 on the season.

After playing four of their first five games of the season on the road, the Lady Griz return to Missoula to face Long Beach State at 7:05 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 10, in Dahlberg Arena.