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Think Grizzly, It's Friday | Feb. 13, 2009 | Volume 15, Number 4

In This Issue:

Former CIA Officer To Deliver Lectures
University Honored For Service Efforts
UM Center Named Confucius Institute
The Decemberists Perform At Wilma May 24
New Bus Hits The Streets
Album Recorded At UM Wins Grammy
FVCC Hosts Crown Of The Continent Events
UM Offers Online Teaching, Learning Institute
Professor Scores Second Award For Article
Renewable Energy Presentation At COT Feb. 18
World Rhythms Concert Feb. 27
Lady Griz In The Pink Zone
Griz, Lady Griz Sweep Cats

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Griz Greetings!

Welcome to TGIF News. This e-mail newsletter is provided weekly, except during the summer and scheduled academic breaks, to subscribers who include students, alumni, employees and friends of The University of Montana.

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Former CIA Officer To Deliver Lectures

Former CIA officer and author Michael Scheuer will give the next installment of the President's Lecture Series at The University of Montana on Monday, Feb. 23.

Scheuer will present "Marching Toward Hell: America and Islam after Iraq" at 8 p.m. in the University Center Ballroom. Earlier that day from 3:10 to 4:30 p.m., he will give a seminar titled "A Conversation with CIA Veteran Michael Scheuer" in Gallagher Business Building Room 123. Both events are free and open to the public.

In his 22-year career with the CIA, Scheuer served as the chief of the Bin Laden Issue Station and the Osama bin Laden tracking unit at the Counterterrorist Center. He also worked as special adviser to the chief of the bin Laden unit from 2001 to 2004.

Scheuer is the author of several books, including "Through Our Enemies' Eyes: Osama bin Laden, Radical Islam and the Future of America," "Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror" and "Marching Toward Hell: America and Islam after Iraq."

President's Lecture Series

University Honored For Service Efforts

The Corporation for National and Community Service honored UM this week with a place on the President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for exemplary service efforts and service to America's communities.

Launched in 2006, the Community Service Honor Roll is the highest federal recognition a school can achieve for its commitment to service learning and civic engagement.

UM students engaged in academic service learning provided more than 30,500 hours to the Missoula community during the 2007-08 academic year. The students also participated in nearly 5,000 hours of extracurricular volunteering and in more than 34,000 service hours through the AmeriCorps national service program.

"Taking into consideration the current dollar amount attached to a volunteer hour in Montana, UM student service to the Missoula community during the 2007-08 academic year equated to an economic impact of nearly $875,000," said Andrea Vernon, director of UM's Office for Civic Engagement.

"Given the current economic challenges, the value -- both monetary and social -- of the service students provide has escalated rapidly, making a critical difference for people in need," agreed UM President George Dennison. "But of even greater importance, the students involved have benefited immensely in terms of personal growth that comes with service to others and the development of those 'habits of the heart' that power the ethic of civic engagement."

UM Center Named Confucius Institute

China's Ministry of Education recently designated the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center at UM the 39th Confucius Institute in the United States.

There are currently 269 Confucius Institutes worldwide, which are supported by the Chinese government to promote the teaching of Chinese language and culture. In the United States, they are awarded on a one-per-state basis.

No K-12 program in Montana currently offers Chinese language studies, and Montana teachers have few resources at their disposal to teach China's history, culture and current events. Mansfield Center Director Terry Weidner hopes the Confucius Institute designation will change that.

UM's institute will receive at least five years of funding from the Office of Chinese Language Council International, approximately 3,000 books and related educational resource material and one or more visiting faculty members from a partner institution in China.

The Decemberists Perform At Wilma May 24

The Decemberists will play the Wilma Theatre at 8 p.m. Sunday, May 24.

Tickets costs $29 and go on sale Saturday, Feb. 14, at The Source in the University Center, Rockin Rudy's, EarCandy and online at InTicketing.

The Decemberists formed in 2001 in Portland, Ore. The band is fronted by singer/songwriter Colin Meloy, who attended college at UM. The band has released four albums, and is set to release its new album, "The Hazards of Love," on March 24.

For more information, visit the UM Productions Web site.

UM Productions

New Bus Hits The Streets

The Associated Students of UM Office of Transportation has added a new bus to its fleet, just as ridership numbers have reached an all-time high.

The transportation office purchased the new Optima bus -- the seventh bus in the fleet -- with funds from its own budget and money from the Office of Student Affairs and the Office of Administration and Finance.

The addition comes at a critical time. In the first week of spring semester 2009, the Office of Transportation carried a record-breaking 13,155 passengers on its four routes: the South and North Park-N-Rides, the UM College of Technology shuttle and the UDASH bus downtown. The new bus will primarily serve the COT shuttle route.

ASUM Office of Transportation

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 the 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.

FVCC Hosts Crown Of The Continent Events

Flathead Valley Community College in Kalispell will host the Crown of the Continent Symposium on Feb. 20-21. The symposium is free and open to the public. All events will take place in Arts and Technology Building Room 138.

The Crown of the Continent -- also known as the Backbone of the World -- represents a magnificent piece of geography that spans the Continental Divide from Crowsnest Pass in Canada to Rogers Pass in Montana.

During the symposium, UM President George Dennison will join University Professors Rick Graetz and Gerald Fetz to unveil the Crown of the Continent Initiative, a program designed to showcase the beauty of the region and share the groundbreaking research carried out across the Crown.

The program begins at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 20, with a presentation by UM Professors Rick and Susie Graetz. From 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 21, several researchers, scientists and experts will present talks on several topics related to the Crown of the Continent.

For more information, call Rick Graetz at 406-439-9277.

UM Offers Online Teaching, Learning Institute

Extended Learning Services at UM will offer an institute on online teaching and learning on campus Thursday and Friday, March 5-6.

The Extended Learning Institute, which is slated to become an annual event, is free and open to all faculty, administrators, librarians, staff and technology personnel at UM and its affiliate campuses. The event will promote the exchange of knowledge, effective practices and research relative to online teaching and learning.

Rena Palloff and Keith Pratt will be the institute's keynote speakers in an interactive session titled "Best Practices in Online Teaching and Learning." They are the authors of five books about online teaching and learning.

For details on registration, how to submit a proposal to make a presentation and other information, visit the institute's Web site.

Extended Learning Institute

Professor Scores Second Award For Article

Dan Flores, UM's A.B. Hammond Professor of Western History, has won a second literary award for his article "Bringing Home All the Pretty Horses: The Horse Trade and the Early American West, 1775-1825."

The article, which was published in Montana: the Magazine of Western History last year, was recently named Outstanding Magazine Article by the Western Heritage Center and National Cowboy Museum in Oklahoma City.

"Bringing Home All the Pretty Horses" also received the 2008 Vivian Paladin Best Article Prize, given annually by the editorial board of Montana: the Magazine of Western History for the best article published in the magazine.

Renewable Energy Presentation At COT Feb. 18

The UM College of Technology will host a panel presentation titled "Small-Scale Renewable Energy Applications" from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 18.

The free event will be held in Health and Business Building Room HB01 at the COT East Campus, located at 909 South Ave. W. in Missoula.

The panel will discuss the variety of small-scale renewable energy systems available for homes or small businesses and will benefit contractors, carpenters, homeowners, electricians, plumbers, real estate agents, home-improvement retailers, architects, environmentalists and others.

For more information, call 406-243-7812 or visit the COT Web site.

UM College of Technology

World Rhythms Concert Feb. 27

Senegalese drummers and dancers will headline the UM Department of Music's annual World Rhythms Concert at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 27, in the University Theatre.

Concert tickets are $10 for the general public and $5 for students. They can be purchased at the door.

Master drummer Idrissa Gueye and master dancer N'Deye Gueye, both from Senegal, will perform traditional Sabar dances with the UM West African ensemble and other guest artists.

The concert also will feature traditional Mexican marimba music, the UM Brazilian ensemble playing in the batucada style and the Afro-Cuban drum ensemble performing Cuban carnival styles, including the mozambique and comparsa.

For more information call Professor Robert LedBetter at 406-243-4819 or e-mail robert.ledbetter@umontana.edu.

Lady Griz In The Pink Zone

The Lady Griz will raise funds for breast cancer research by hosting the Pink Zone during their home game against Northern Arizona on Saturday, Feb. 14. The game begins at 7 p.m. in Dahlberg Arena.

During the game, 500 Pink Zone T-shirts will be handed out and three pink basketballs signed by the Lady Griz will be raffled off with the proceeds going toward breast cancer research. A handful of patients from the St. Patrick Hospital Montana Cancer Center will join the Lady Griz on the court during player introductions.

The Pink Zone initiative, which began in 2007 as Think Pink, is an effort by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association to help raise breast cancer awareness on the court, across campuses and in communities. Last year more than 1,200 teams and organizations participated in the cause. The teams reached more than 830,000 fans and raised more than $930,000 for breast cancer awareness and research.

The game against the Lumberjacks will mark the second year of involvement with the Pink Zone initiative for the Lady Griz. The event is sponsored by UM Intercollegiate Athletics and St. Patrick Hospital and Health Sciences Center.

Lady Griz Basketball

Griz, Lady Griz Sweep Cats

The UM men's and women's basketball teams traveled to Bozeman last week and took turns beating cross-state rival Montana State University.

The Lady Griz played the early game Saturday, Feb. 7, defeating the Cats 67-60. The team was led by senior Mandy Morales, who had 17 points and seven rebounds.

Four of Montana's five starters finished with double figures. Sophomore forward Sarah Ena had 14 points and nine rebounds. Junior forward Lauren Beck finished with 12 points and six rebounds. Senior Sonja Rogers added 11 points and four steals.

The Lady Griz will host Northern Arizona at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 14, at Dahlberg Arena.

Later that day, junior guard Anthony Johnson scored 15 of his 23 points in the final five-and-a-half minutes of play to lead Grizzly men's basketball to a 78-63 win over the Bobcats.

Montana junior guard Ryan Staudacher and junior forward Jack McGillis scored 10 points each, while senior forward Kyle Sharp added nine. Griz senior forward Jordan Hasquet scored nine points and led Montana with a game-high seven rebounds.

The men play at Northern Arizona on Saturday, Feb. 14.

Montana Grizzlies

Jennifer Sauer, TGIF editor

The University of Montana

e-mail: jennifer.sauer@umontana.edu

phone: 406-243-4878

web: http://www.umt.edu