Bear Briefs

UM Tops For Peace Corps Volunteers—New figures rank UM No. 10 in the nation for producing Peace Corps volunteers. The 2009 list ranks medium-sized colleges and universities with enrollments between 5,001 and 15,000. UM now has 30 alumni serving in the Peace Corps. Last year, the University was ranked 17th nationally, with 23 volunteers serving abroad. This year’s improved ranking places UM ahead of universities such as Brown, Notre Dame and Yale. George Washington University topped the list with 57 volunteers. The Peace Corps was founded in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy, and more than 195,000 Americans have served in the organization since then – including 727 from UM. Volunteers have been invited by 139 host countries to work on efforts such as AIDS education, environmental preservation and information technology.

COT Offers Noncredit Online Courses—The UM College of Technology has partnered with Ed2Go to offer hundreds of high-quality, instructor-facilitated noncredit online courses. Ed2Go is a Web-based online learning center that offers noncredit courses at reasonable rates – usually about $79. No enrollment to UM or COT is required. New sessions of each course begin every month. Sessions are six weeks, with two new lessons released weekly for a total of 12 lessons. The courses are entirely Web-based with comprehensive lessons, quizzes and assignments. A dedicated professional instructor facilitates every course to pace learners, answer questions, give feedback and facilitate discussions. To learn more, call the COT Outreach Office at 406-243-7812 or go online to http://www.ed2go.com/cot.

Cultural Celebration On Tap—UM will celebrate International Week March 15-20 with a festival, food bazaar, music and dance performances, and informational and educational sessions. Events begin with the International Culture and Food Festival on Sunday, March 15, in the University Center, sponsored by the International Student Association and Foreign Student and Scholar Services. The festival kicks off with a parade of flags at noon and runs until 5 p.m. General admission is $2 for adults and $1 for children under 12. During the festival, a food bazaar in the UC Atrium will feature authentic dishes from 50 cents to $4. Children's World will be stationed on the second floor of the UC, and a five-hour Cultural Show will take place on the third floor. The Missoula Food Bank in partnership with ISA will accept nonperishable food donations and cash at the door of the Cultural Show. For more information about the festival call 406-243-2226. All other UM International Week events are free. Events will include information sessions on studying, interning and working abroad, and educational sessions about Ethiopia, Siberia, Georgia and Bhutan. The International Week opening ceremony begins at noon Monday, March 16, in the UC Atrium. A complete schedule of International Week events is online at http://www.umt.edu/ip. For more information, call UM International Programs at 406-243-2288.

Fire Center Conducts Research, Classes in Georgia— Research scientists with the National Center for Landscape Fire Analysis at UM are performing research on prescribed fire-related fuel consumption and thermal characterizations of fire in southeastern Georgia. The center is a unit of UM’s College of Forestry and Conservation. As part of an ongoing partnership with The Nature Conservancy to conduct prescribed burning for ecological objectives in Georgia’s forests, Montana researchers will be joined by six UM undergraduate students in the University’s Prescribed Fire Practicum course. Those students will plan and conduct prescribed burns on more than 1,000 acres in the longleaf pine ecosystem on Nature Conservancy holdings in the state. The Prescribed Fire Practicum, a course in UM’s forestry college, gives undergraduate students with previous wildland firefighting experience the opportunity for technical training and theoretical learning in prescribed burning for ecological benefits. During the two-week class, students rotate through fire management roles, plan and implement burns, and document and evaluate burn successes. The inaugural class was in January 2008.

Montana Artisans Attend National Market—The Montana World Trade Center at UM and the Montana Arts Council took 10 Montana artisans to sell their wares at one of the country’s premier handicraft shows Feb. 19-22 in Louisville, Ky. The group attended the 27th annual “Kentucky Crafted: The Market.” The trip was designed to expose other regions of the country to the richness and diversity of Montana artisanship. The artists received business instruction before competing in the national marketplace. The selected artisans use a variety of media and come from all parts of Montana. Funded in part by a grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce as part of the EnterpriseMontana Program, the artisans received additional support from the Montana Department of Commerce and the Governor’s Office of Economic Development. The artists’ launch was also part of the Montana Arts Council’s new program “To Market We Go,” which focuses on helping rural Montana artists become market-ready.

Professor Helps Develop Federal Grant Criteria—UM Professor David Schuldberg assisted the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in developing criteria for the federal agency’s new national evaluation contract during a focus group held in Rockville, Md., in December. The recommendations from Schuldberg and others will impact the way hundreds of federal grants are evaluated annually. Schuldberg, a member of the UM Department of Psychology and director of clinical training for Clinical Psychology, was invited because of his role as director of evaluation for the National Native Children’s Trauma Center. Schuldberg shared experiences from work he and his colleagues are engaged in with American Indian tribes across Montana, Alaska, Minnesota and South Dakota. He said one of his goals was to ensure that unique issues surrounding client privacy and protection of human subjects data in tribal communities will be sensitively reflected in future grant evaluation requirements.

Album Recorded At UM Wins Grammy—A recording of a live performance at UM by children’s storyteller and songwriter Bill Harley won a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children at the awards presentation in Los Angeles on Feb. 8. The album, “Yes to Running: Bill Harley Live,” includes stories and songs that paint a vibrant and hilarious picture of school, growing up and family life. It is a collaboration between Montana PBS and Montana Public Radio and was recorded in June 2007 at UM’s University Theatre. Daniel Dauterive, operations director at KUFM-TV, originated the idea of recording the popular performer and co-produced the Grammy-winning CD with Harley. Michael Marsolek, MTPR program director, coordinated the audio for Harley’s two live concerts at UM and was the engineer for the recording.