Montana's 2004 Republican candidate for governor, Bob Brown, has joined the O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West as a senior fellow.

UM's O'Connor Center is a regional studies institute focused on public policy and economic and cultural issues in the Rocky Mountain region.

Brown started work in Missoula after finishing his duties as Montana secretary of state in early January. He previously worked for UM as director of university extension at Flathead Valley Community College in Kalispell.

In his role as senior fellow, Brown will do some teaching, as well as research and writing on regional public policy issues. He also may work on a limited basis with UM's Public Policy Research Institute.

Two UM student groups are responding to the tsunami tragedy in Southeast Asia by collecting donations for the American Red Cross International Response Fund.

Students from UM's International Student Association and the South and Southeast Asian Organization of UM have been collecting donations all this week in the University Center.

The IRS has announced that charitable contributions made in January for the tsunami relief will be tax deductible on 2004 taxes.

The upcoming Alumni Association Community Lecture Series will feature six accomplished UM faculty members discussing the theme "Whatever Happened to Right and Wrong?"

The series begins Tuesday, Feb. 1, and continues each Tuesday through March 8. Lectures take place from 7 to 9 p.m. in the University Center Theater. Series tickets are $15 for dues-paying members of the Alumni Association, $20 for nonmembers and $10 for students. The cost includes a wine reception following the last lecture.

Lectures are:

• Feb. 1 -- "Ethics and Human Rights," Paul Lauren, Regents Professor of History.
• Feb. 8 -- "The Role of Truth in Professional Ethics," J. Martin Burke, professor, School of Law.
• Feb. 15 -- "Media Ethics and Other Frightening Thoughts," Jerry Brown, dean, School of Journalism.
• Feb. 22 -- "Environmental Ethics as Moral Wildness," Deborah Slicer, associate professor, Department of Philosophy.
• March 1 -- "Ethics and Healthcare: Who Does What to Whom and How?" Ann Cook, research associate professor, Department of Psychology.
• March 8 -- "The Pursuit of Happiness," Albert Borgmann, Regents Professor of Philosophy.

Tickets are available from the Alumni Association Web site or by calling (406) 243-5211.

Officials at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, one of the oldest institutions of higher education in China, have included UM in a ranking of the top 500 universities in the world for academics and research.

UM comes in at 378 on the list, ahead of U.S. counterparts such as the University of Nevada-Reno, the University of Wyoming, Utah State University, Auburn University, Boston College and Brigham Young University-Provo. Montana State University landed at 436 on the list.

The Shanghai list ranks universities by several indicators of academic or research importance. Among these are alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes, highly cited researchers, articles published in the journals Nature and Science, and academic performance with respect to institution sizes.

Experts from UM's Bureau of Business and Economic Research, UM's Institute for Tourism and Recreation and Montana State University will examine Montana's tax situation, economic forecast and industries during the 30th Annual Economic Outlook Seminar.

The seminar is being held in cities across the state through March 9. This year's theme is "High Taxes, Low Taxes: What's Next for Montana?" The series is cosponsored by BBER and First Interstate Bank.

Speakers include Douglas Young, an MSU professor who specializes in tax issues and policy, and Paul Polzin, BBER director.

Seminars are scheduled for:

• Missoula -- Jan. 28, Holiday Inn Parkside.
• Billings -- Feb. 1, Northern Hotel.
• Bozeman -- Feb. 2, Holiday Inn.
• Butte -- Feb. 3, Ramada Inn Copper King.
• Kalispell -- Feb. 8, Kalispell Center Hotel.
• Sidney -- March 8, Sidney Elks Club.
• Miles City -- March 9, Town and Country Club.

Registration is $70 and includes the seminar, proceedings booklet, lunch and a one-year subscription to the Montana Business Quarterly. Continuing education credits are available for an additional $20. Register online or call (406) 243-5113 for more information.

"Images of Leisure -- Works from the Fra Dana Collection" will be on display Feb. 4 through March 6 at the Montana Museum of Art and Culture at UM. The exhibit takes place in the museum's Paxson and Meloy galleries at the Performing Arts and Radio/Television Center.

Fra Dana, a rancher's wife who lived near Wyola, studied art in Chicago, New York and Paris, working with some of the greatest American Impressionists.

Her collection, part of the museum's permanent collection, includes her own work, as well as paintings by her teachers and artist friends Joseph Henry Sharp, Alfred Maurer and William Merritt Chase, all leading American painters of the 20th century.

A gallery talk titled "Fra Dana: Artist and Collector" will be presented by former curator Dennis Kern and author Ripley Hugo at 6 p.m. Friday, March 4, in the PARTV Center lobby.

Another gallery talk, "Turn of the Century Leisure and the Rising Middle Class" by UM Associate Professor Valerie Hedquist, is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 15.

Proposals are being accepted for the Matthew Hansen Endowment, an award encouraging people to further their goals in historical research, creative writing, wilderness studies or a combination of the three. Awards range from $400 to $1,000.

The endowment was established in 1984 as a memorial to Matthew Hansen and his ideals. Successful projects will encourage mindful stewardship of the land and contribute to the preservation of Montana's heritage.

Proposals must be postmarked by March 1. For more information, call (406) 243-5361 or write the Matthew Hansen Endowment, Wilderness Institute, College of Forestry and Conservation, The University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812.

UM will host two South Campus Community Input Sessions Monday, Jan. 31, at the Doubletree Hotel. The meetings are scheduled for 4 and 7 p.m. in the hotel's Bitterroot Room.

A design and development team will make a formal presentation about the proposed community for retired UM alumni, faculty and staff members to be built near Dornblaser Field. Site maps and concept alternatives will be presented. The team also will answer questions about the proposal.

Campus and community members are invited to celebrate Monte's second title as Capital One National Mascot of the Year at a Feb. 3 home men's basketball game.

Monte was named Mascot of the Year on Jan. 1 during the nationally televised Capital One Bowl. The victory, Monte's second in three years, comes with a $10,000 award for the UM mascot program.

Last summer Monte was one of 12 critters from I-A and I-AA football programs around the country selected to the Capital One All-America Team. He then submitted a video of his antics to a panel of judges who ranked Monte based on fan interaction, sportsmanship and community service.

As required, Monte's video highlights came from the 2003-04 athletic season. The man who powered the bear during that time was Barry Anderson, the UM graduate from Terry who has since gone pro as mascot coordinator with the Chicago Bulls.

Anderson said one of the sweetest parts of winning the national mascot championship this time around was beating James Madison University's Duke Dog, who finished first in online voting. JMU beat Montana 31-21 in the I-AA national championship game this season.

"It was nice to take down Duke Dog," he said. "At least we beat them in something."

Fifty percent of Monte's score came from the judges' ranking, and 50 percent came from online voting.

Freshman forward Andrew Strait scored a game- and career-high 22 points, and guard Kevin Criswell chipped in 20 points to pace the Montana Grizzlies men's basketball team to an 83-79 Big Sky victory over Northern Arizona a week ago Thursday in Missoula.

Criswell's 20 points made him the 21st player in school history to score 1,000 points or more.

On Saturday sophomore forward Matt Dlouhy tallied a career-high 16 points when the Grizzlies defeated the Sacramento State Hornets 84-72. Montana shot a blistering 72.7 percent from the field in the second half, making 14 of 18 attempts, and was 3-of-3 from three-point range.

The Grizzlies (9-9/3-2) are on the road for a pair of Big Sky Conference games, playing pre-season favorite Portland State Vikings Thursday night in Portland and the Eastern Washington Eagles tomorrow in Cheney.

The Montana women's basketball team played its second come-from-behind victory in as many league games, scoring the final nine points to win at Northern Arizona 61-57 last week.

Senior Juliann Keller recorded her third career double-double in the victory, with 14 points and 11 rebounds.

At Sacramento State on Saturday, junior Katie Edwards hit a Montana-record nine 3-point field goals and scored a career-high 27 points to lead the Lady Griz to a 70-46 victory. Edwards went 8-for-9 from 3-point range in the first half to help spark Montana to a 47-27 halftime lead. Edwards broke the Montana record for 3-pointers in a single game before halftime. The previous record was seven by Linda Cummings against MSU-Billings on Nov. 18, 1998.

The Lady Griz improved to 10-6, 3-0 in Big Sky Conference play. Tied atop the league standings after last weekend's road sweep, Montana continues Big Sky Conference play this week with home games against Portland State and Eastern Washington. The Lady Griz hosted the Vikings Thursday night and take on the Eagles tomorrow.