Bear Briefs

UM Honors Distinguished Alums—Three outstanding alumni have been chosen to receive UM’s 2008 Distinguished Alumni Award. They are Jeff Hamilton of Spokane, Wash., retired senior managing partner of the global consulting firm Accenture; Judith Blakely Morgan of La Jolla, Calif., a journalist best-known for her award-winning travel columns; and Garry South of Santa Monica, Calif., one of the nation’s top political strategists. Hamilton retired in 2001 after working more than 25 years with Accenture, one of the world’s largest and most successful consulting and outsourcing firms. An active pilot for more than 40 years, Hamilton flies for Lighthawk – a volunteer-based aviation organization – and for a Stearman formation team. After graduating from UM, Blakely Morgan wrote an award-winning travel column from 1975-2005. Blakely Morgan’s articles have appeared in National Geographic, Travel & Leisure, Harper’s Bazaar, Sports Illustrated and more. South began his career in politics serving as president of Associated Students of UM. In 1975, he was public information director for the Montana Legislature, and he later served as the Montana state coordinator for the Carter-Mondale presidential campaign. During the past 36 years, South has managed or played leading roles in several major political campaigns. He now is principal of Garry South Group of Santa Monica, a public relations and communications firm.

Griz Royalty—UM graduate student Jennifer Hepner was crowned Miss Montana 2008 in June and will represent Montana in the Miss America Pageant in Las Vegas in January. Hepner completed her first year of graduate school at UM in communication studies last spring and plans to resume her education after her reign as Miss Montana. She received undergraduate degrees from UM in communication studies and anthropology and is a graduate of the Davidson Honors College. Hepner is a native of Great Falls and a graduate of C.M. Russell High School. These days she is busy touring the state to promote her personal platform, “Beyond the Bell: After-School Programs for Montana’s Youth.” She is also preparing for the upcoming national competition and will film a reality television show with fellow pageant contestants. Hepner will return to Missoula for UM’s Homecoming weekend, Sept. 19-20.

Catch Griz Football On TV—All 12 UM football games in 2008 will be televised live by KPAX-TV of Missoula/KAJ-TV of Kalispell, its sister station, CW-TV, as well as its Montana News Station affiliates. KPAX-TV Sports Director Phil Buck will serve as the play-by-play announcer for all 12 games. Former Grizzly quarterback John Edwards will join Buck in the booth as a color commentator. Former UM quarterback Grady Bennett also will be a color commentator again this season. Griz fans also can watch games on their computers for free through Big Sky TV, http://www.bigskytv.org. And a free, live audio feed of the KGVO radio broadcast of all games and a live stats package for home games also are available on the Montana Grizzlies Web site, http://www.montanagrizzlies.com.

Grizzlies Tops At Spirit Camp—UM dance and cheer squads, along with the Grizzlies’ team mascot, Monte, won nine awards at the three-day Universal Cheerleaders and Dance Association’s “College Spirit Camp” hosted by Central Washington University. Monte took a first place in the mascot division and won the leadership award, which is voted on by the other mascots at the camp. The UM Dance Team was first in the “Home Pom Routine” and also voted the “Most Improved Team.” UM’s Cheer Squad placed first in the Large Co-ed Sideline Division and was second in the Large Co-ed Cheer Division. The Cheer Squad also garnered an award for “Most Collegiate,” which is voted on by the camp staff and based on which school best represents themselves in a collegiate and professional manner.

Professor To Give Keynote Address—UM Professor Stewart Justman will be the keynote speaker at Science Day, a forum in Maryland for the exchange of scientific information sponsored by the Food and Drug Administration Office of Clinical Pharmacology. Justman, who directs UM’s Liberal Studies Program, will present “Finasteride and Preventive Medicine.” Finasteride is a drug proposed for use in cancer prevention. Justman’s book “Do No Harm: How a Magic Bullet for Prostate Cancer Became a Medical Quandary,” published in April this year, explains how finasteride, proven to dramatically reduce the incidence of prostate cancer, was found to be also associated with a distinctly higher rate of aggressive cancer. Science Day will take place Oct. 24 on the Shady Grove campus of the University of Maryland.

Lifelong Learning This Fall—Community members 50 and older can explore topics ranging from art, music and writing to history, politics and global warming in fall courses offered by the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UM. The courses, taught by dynamic UM and community educators, will take place Sept. 29-Nov. 7. Courses also will be offered on Mondays and Tuesdays, Oct. 6-28, at the Daly Mansion in Hamilton. Registration is now open for all fall courses. An annual Osher Lifelong Learning Institute membership fee of $20 is required to enroll. The registration fee for each course is $50. Registration forms, complete course descriptions and detailed information about instructors are online at http://www.umt.edu/ce/plus55. For more information, call UM Continuing Education at 406-243-2905 or e-mail dannette.fadness@umontana.edu.

Timber Market Downturn Has Big Impact—Ongoing weakness in the U.S. housing industry and the longer-term issue of timber availability are plaguing Montana’s wood products industry in 2008, with potential repercussions for years to come, reports a UM researcher. Todd Morgan, director of forest industry research at UM’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research says Montana had 3,068 mill production workers in the state in the first half of this year, down from 3,330 in the first half of 2007 and more than 3,500 during the same period in 2006. Lumber production from Montana sawmills in the first half of this year was 387 million board feet, down 9.2 percent from the first half of 2007 and 21.2 percent from the first half of 2006. Morgan said the wood products industry employs more than 9,000 workers who earn about $400 million in labor income annually. The industry accounts for 10 percent of Montana’s economic base.

Business School Bestows Award—UM’s School of Business Administration and the Montana Academy of Distinguished Entrepreneurs will honor two world-class entrepreneurs with the 2008 Lewis & Clark Pioneer in Industry Award at a dinner Friday, Oct. 3. The recipients of this year’s award are Mark Kvamme of Sequoia Capital and Karen Puckett of CenturyTel. The evening begins with cocktails at 6 p.m. in the University Center Ballroom. Dinner and an awards ceremony will follow at 7 p.m. Tickets for the general public are $100 per person. Tickets for UM faculty and staff are $60 each. Reservations must be made by Sept. 24. For more information or to make a reservation, call Larae Hackney at 243-4830 or e-mail larae.hackney@business.umt.edu.

Stadium Expansion Wraps Up—The latest expansion at UM’s Washington-Grizzly Stadium wrapped up just as the 2008 football season began. As students returned to campus in late August, crews hustled to finish the expansion on the east side of the stadium. The addition will provide another 2,000 seats, bringing the stadium’s capacity to just over 25,000. The top-tier, glassed-in Canyon Club features 130 theater-style seats complete with cushions and cup holders, plus room for another 120 fans in the bar area. Another 250 ticket holders will have exclusive access to the new outdoor Hellgate Terrace, which offers spectacular views of Hellgate Canyon, the Clark Fork River and the Rattlesnake Wilderness. The student section gained 750 seats and the remaining new seats offer a mix of maroon fold-down seats and metal benches with seat backs for members of the Grizzly Scholarship Association. Other upgrades include a new entrance for students on the south end of the stadium, 27-foot speakers on top of the scoreboard, widened corridors, new rest rooms, an onsite kitchen for Dining Services, colorful new pads around the sidelines and additional landscaping around the stadium. “We’ve got an almost brand-new-looking stadium after 21 years,” said Jim O’Day, UM director of athletics.

Book Recognized Once Again—An anthology edited by UM Native American studies Professor Richmond Clow is a finalist in the 2008 National Indie Excellence Awards. The anthology — “The Sioux in South Dakota History: A Twentieth Century Reader” ­— was published by the South Dakota State Historical Society Press last year. It is a selection of 13 essays that examine a variety of themes in Sioux history since 1900. The essays were selected from past issues of South Dakota History, the peer-reviewed quarterly journal of the South Dakota State Historical Society. The annual competition is designed to champion independent publishers and the products they produce. The book also recently won bronze in the anthology category of the 12th annual Independent Publisher Book Awards.