Bear Briefs

Graduation Stats—UM graduated 2,163 students spring semester. The total includes 107 certificates, 187 associate’s degrees, 1,262 bachelor’s degrees, 406 master’s degrees, 73 juris doctor degrees, 118 doctoral degrees and 10 education specialists. Eighty-nine students earned two degrees.

Education Dean—“Interim” has been dropped from Roberta “Bobbie” Evans’ title at UM’s School of Education. Evans, who has served as the education school’s interim dean since July 2006, was hired to be the school’s permanent dean in May. She was chosen from among three candidates interviewed for the position and officially started her new role June 1. “Bobbie brings to her new position the expertise and experience of a seasoned professional and an engaging academic,” UM President George Dennison said. “In a word, she has the experience and the competencies we need at this stage in the development of the school and the University.” Evans served as UM’s education school dean from 2001 to 2003.

StoryCorps—National Public Radio’s StoryCorps will return to Montana this summer with a mobile booth tour stop in Butte July 5-28. The visit is sponsored by Montana Public Radio, which is housed at UM’s Broadcast Media Center. StoryCorps is a national oral history project aimed at instructing and inspiring people to record one another’s stories in sound. Participants interview grandparents, relatives and others whose story they want to hear and preserve. StoryCorps won a Peabody Award in 2006. StoryCorps’ first trip to the West in 2005 included a three-week stop in Missoula. Michael Marsolek, program director for MTPR, said the 100 slots available in Missoula were filled quickly. Slots for the StoryCorps booth this year will be available about two weeks before the mobile booth arrives in Butte, he said.

New Provost—Royce Engstrom soon will begin his duties as UM’s new provost and vice president for academic affairs. Engstrom currently is the provost and vice president for academic affairs at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion and teaches in the USD Department of Chemistry. As UM provost and vice president for academic affairs, he will serve as the second-highest-ranking executive officer on the Missoula campus and will work closely with President George Dennison to provide direction and leadership for the University. Engstrom has held positions at USD as vice president for research and dean of graduate education and was a Regents Fellow on the South Dakota Board of Regents during 2003-04. Dennison currently is serving as UM’s interim provost. He said Engstom will assume the permanent position on or before Aug. 1.

Orientation Approaches—It may be difficult for some to admit, but fall semester is just around the corner. Orientation on the UM campus takes place June 27-29, July 11-13 and Aug. 22-24. For more information, contact Karissa Drye, director of orientation, 406-243-2332, toll-free at 800-462-8636, karissa.drye@mso.umt.edu, http://www.umt.edu/nss/orientation. 

J-School Dean—For the first time in its history, UM has hired a woman to lead its venerable, award-winning School of Journalism. UM journalism school alumna Peggy Kuhr of the University of Kansas in Lawrence was selected from among four candidates interviewed for the job. She currently is Knight Chair on the Press, Leadership and Community for the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications. UM’s journalism school was started in Army surplus tents in 1914, but Kuhr will find herself in much nicer digs when she arrives to replace retiring Dean Jerry Brown in August — the J-school’s 57,000-square-foot new home, Don Anderson Hall. Kuhr has worked at the University of Kansas since 2002. Before that she held four editing positions — including managing editor for content — at the Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash., from 1986 to 2002.

Another Backroads—The popular public television series “Backroads of Montana” presented a new episode recently on Montana PBS. Titled “Capitol Rock and Community Folk,” the program covers the state from Troy in the extreme northwest corner to a site near Ekalaka in the far southeast. The Backroads crew first visit the Hot Club of Troy, a coffee house and music club named after a famous Paris nightclub of the 1930s. The crew attended Easter services at the Holy Trinity Serbian Orthodox Church in Butte. Painted icons of saints decorate every surface of the sanctuary, and the Easter service features the Serbian Orthodox liturgy. Thirty miles southeast of Ekalaka is the least-visited National Natural Landmark in America. Capitol Rock is a chalk and limestone formation that was a beacon for prairie pioneers and homesteaders. The program completes the journey in Alberton, a tiny town west of Missoula, where encroaching development is challenging the community’s sense of identity. William Marcus hosts the program on location at the American Computer Museum in Bozeman. Montana PBS is a cooperative service of KUSM-TV at Montana State University, Bozeman, and KUFM-TV at UM. PBS is available in more than 175 communities across the state.

Glamorous Distinction—Hilary Martens, a 21-year-old UM physics and music major, was named one of Glamour magazine’s Top 10 College Women of 2007. Martens and nine other outstanding college women were profiled in the June issue of the magazine. Among her many talents and accomplishments, Martens helped discover what may be an atmosphere around one of Saturn’s moons while interning with NASA scientists working at UM. She also is an accomplished violinist who plays in a fiddle band, is a marathon canoeist, and raises money for Guatemalan libraries. “It all happened really fast. There wasn’t much time to take it all in,” Martens said of the honor. “Literally from the moment I heard I was a finalist, a week later I found out I won and two weeks later I was on a plane to New York.” Glamour flew Martens to New York City for a photo shoot in March and will bring her back to the Big Apple in June to sightsee, attend an awards banquet and spend time with the other winners and some top female professionals from around the country.