Bear Briefs

Community Service Award—Dr. George Reed, volunteer at UM’s Curry Health Center.Enrollment Rises—Once again, UM set a new 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. This spring’s boosted enrollment 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.

UM Adds Climate Office—Gov. Brian Schweitzer has officially endorsed an office of climatology at UM. This means the Montana Climate Office — located in UM’s College of Forestry and Conservation — has become one of the state’s premier conduits for weather and climate information. The Montana Climate Office’s Web site, http://climate.ntsg.umt.edu/index.html, is a gateway to information including weather alerts, current satellite snapshots of Montana skies and instant links to weather conditions in communities across the state. The Web site is maintained by UM’s Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group.

Special Print Exhibits—UM’s Montana Museum of Art and Culture is showing 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 through May 6. These complementary exhibitions feature prints from the museum’s Permanent Collection by several internationally known abstract expressionists and pop artists. The two art styles convey the transitions between post-World War II art and art of the 1950s and 1960s. For gallery hours and more information, visit http://www.umt.edu/partv/famus/.

Funding Indian Leaders—UM’s O’Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West has received $40,000 to operate the Indian Leaders Institute for a second year. The Helena-based Student Assistance Foundation made the grant to help continue efforts to enhance tribal self-governance, strengthen American Indian/state relations and encourage opportunities for future Indian leaders now graduating from post-secondary schools. This year, the institute plans to hold two governance seminars on the Fort Peck and Blackfeet reservations, as well as initiate professional development opportunities for Indian post-secondary students.

Joining the Corps—The Peace Corps has released its list of “Top-Producing Colleges and Universities 2006,” and UM retained its top-10 ranking for medium-sized institutions. With 39 alumni volunteers, UM ranked ninth nationally among colleges with undergraduate enrollments between 5,001 and 15,000. Last year UM was ranked 10th. This year’s ranking places UM ahead of institutions such as Boston College and Brown, Harvard, Northwestern and Yale universities. Montana State University landed at 13th on the list with 31 alumni volunteers.

Star-Studded Evening—A prominent musician and a talented actor/singer/playwright will headline the sixth-annual Odyssey of the Stars — A Celebration of Artistic Journeys at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 8, in the University Theatre. Performing artist Gary Herbig ’69 and actor Dennis Kozeluh ’82 will return to the UM stage during the event, which raises money for UM’s School of Fine Arts scholarship fund. Odyssey of the Stars showcases fine arts alumni who have gone on to successful careers. Herbig, a Billboard Top-10 jazz artist, is one of the most successful studio musicians in the business today. An accomplished soloist on all woodwind instruments, he has toured and recorded with Elvis, Donna Summer and other superstars. Kozeluh, a bass-baritone, has performed on musical, operatic and theatrical stages for more than 20 years. Living and performing in Vienna since 1983, he has appeared in more than 60 productions. For information about sponsoring the Odyssey of the Stars or to purchase tickets, call (406) 243-4971.

School Honors Partners—The UM School of Education recently held a reception to present its 2006 Partnership Awards. The awards recognize individuals and programs in the community that consistently provide mentoring to education students through various field experiences. The annual event provides individuals and community programs public recognition for their support. The Partnership Award acknowledges the important role each program or individual has in helping to prepare UM students for professional
careers. This year’s award recipients are: the English departments at Big Sky, Hellgate and Sentinel high schools; Mike Rankin, fitness director at the Missoula Courthouse Sports and Fitness Club; and Greg Oliver, a school counselor at Paxson Elementary School. Also presented was the 2006 Outstanding Educational Leadership Award to Mary Sheehy Moe, dean of Montana State University’s Great Falls College of Technology.

First-Prize Journalist—Stan Pillman, a senior in broadcast journalism at UM, took first place in the recent radio-news round of the Hearst Journalism Awards Program — considered the Pulitzers of college journalism. A student from Chicago, Pillman received $2,000 for his efforts and the opportunity to advance in the competition. If he performs well in the next round, he will be invited to the June finals in San Francisco. Pillman’s first-place stories were about meth use and a series of assaults in downtown Missoula.

No Longer Bland—A trip through the stairwell of UM’s School of Education building has become a lot more interesting. The stairwell walls of the second and third floors now have colorful quilts hanging on them. A third quilt also will soon be hung as well. The quilts were donated by Don Wattam, a School of Education alumnus and adjunct faculty member. Wattam made the quilts himself exclusively for the school’s stairwells.

Students Land Fellowships—Four UM students are among 24 in the nation recently named 2005-06 Doris Duke Conservation Fellows by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. The fellowships went to students enrolled in multidisciplinary master’s degree programs at UM, Yale and Duke universities, and the universities of Michigan and Wisconsin. Montana’s 2005-06 Doris Duke Conservation Fellows are Jeffrey Gailus, Anna Holden, Jamie Silberberger and Christa Torrens. The four are graduate students in the University’s Environmental Studies Program. The fellowships pay for a year of tuition, up to $25,000, and provide a $5,000 stipend for a summer internship.

Modern Musicians Honored—UM students Elisha Williams and Jason Varnado and UM Assistant Professor Charles Nichols have been selected to perform at this year’s annual conference of the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States. The conference will be held March 30-April 1 at the University of Oregon in Eugene. Williams, who is from Frenchtown, will present her composition “Silver Morning” for quadraphonic computer-generated sound. Varnado, a senior from Helena, will present “Epitaph,” a composition for octaphonic computer-generated sound inspired by Bart, a Kodiak bear of Hollywood fame. Nichols, who teaches composition and music technology at UM, will present “The Air Inside Our Heads” for electric violin and computer.

Exploring Pakistan—Sarah Halvorson, UM associate professor of geography, has been awarded the 2006 McColl Family Fellowship by the American Geographical Society. The fellowship, funded by Dr. and Mrs. Robert W. McColl, covers airfare to anywhere in the world to conduct research that results in an article suitable for publication in the AGS magazine FOCUS on Geography. Halvorson plans to spend three months in Northern Pakistan making field visits to 10 mountain villages to assess the impact of the recent cataclysmic South Asian earthquake. She will travel overland from Islamabad to remote villages to explore the wide-scale destruction and local response and recovery efforts.

Alcohol Education—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 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.

Encouraging Young Scientists—The interactive radio program “Science is Cool” promotes scientific exploration using experiments that children can perform easily at home while adults are available for assistance and discussion. The segment airs every other Saturday morning during the two-hour “Children’s Corner” program on the UM-based KUFM public radio. “Science is Cool” is hosted by UM Assistant Research Professor Katie George — “Dr. Katie” to her audience — who invites listeners to perform experiments at home along with her “lab assistants” in the studio. To reach wider audiences across the state, a four-compact disc set of the first “Science is Cool” broadcasts has been distributed to all Montana public libraries and elementary schools this month. The public radio program is funded by the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research grant awarded to UM jointly by the National Science Foundation and the state of Montana.