UM will announce a major, multi-year fund-raising campaign – “Invest in Discovery – Connecting People, Programs and Place” – during a public event on campus today, Sept. 30.

The announcement will take place at 2 p.m. in the University Center Theater with keynote speaker James Grady, national campaign chair Deborah McWhinney and UM President George Dennison participating.

This campaign, the largest comprehensive effort in UM’s history, has a goal of raising $100 million for student scholarships and fellowships; faculty positions; a wide variety of research, service and educational activities; and the renovation and construction of a number of campus facilities.

Grady’s speech, titled “Walk in the Sun,” will address the University’s unique role as a haven for growth and development. A 1972 School of Journalism graduate, Grady is known especially for his novel, “Six Days of the Condor,” which later became a Robert Redford film.

The public is invited to the ceremony, which also will include viewing of the official campaign video, a display of the historical “Pathway of Memories” and refreshments.

Griz fans young and old are invited to cheer on the Montana Grizzlies football team during a pep rally Friday night on the eve of Saturday’s big Homecoming match.

The Grizzly Growl Pep Rally will be included in the 8 p.m. Singing on the Steps of Main Hall ceremony, featuring head coach Bobby Hauck and the Montana Grizzlies football team, the marching band, cheerleaders and dancers. The free event on the Oval promises fun for the whole family.

The Grizzlies will play the Weber State Wildcats at 1:05 p.m. Saturday. The game will be televised on KPAX-TV in Missoula.

The ceremony also includes crowning of the Homecoming Royal Ambassadors and the traditional lighting of the M.

Following Friday’s big rally and ceremony, the Alumni Social and Dance begins at 9 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Parkside.

UM’s Homecoming Parade has gotten too big. So big, in fact, that changes in the route need to be made this year to avoid huge traffic snarls Saturday morning.

Total entries numbered more than 145 in last year’s parade. In the past, the 10 a.m. parade has traveled from downtown Missoula south on Higgins Avenue, turning east on University Avenue. The parade dispersed somewhere in the University district off University Avenue.

This year, only parade entries directly linked to UM will travel east on University Avenue to Arthur Avenue. About half of the parade entries now will disperse in the Slant Street Neighborhood using Plymouth and streets intersecting with Plymouth.

The change means viewers on University Avenue will not see the parade in its entirety. Those who want to see the whole parade must watch from Higgins Avenue.

UM enrollment continued its record growth this semester with students taking more classes than ever before.

A total of 13,602 students are enrolled at UM, an increase of 44 over last fall semester’s headcount of 13,558. In addition, full-time equivalents (FTE) increased slightly for a total of 11,695, compared to last fall’s 11,668. An FTE represents 15 undergraduate or 12 graduate semester credits.

The strongest area of increase came at the College of Technology, where the FTE climbed by 96.5 – primarily among resident students. Enrollments also held strong at the graduate level and among students participating in the Western Undergraduate Exchange.

However, while overall headcount and FTEs increased, UM did not meet enrollment projections. The problem lies with flat resident enrollment, particularly at upper-division levels. To correct the issue, the University is implementing a new program called MPACT (Montana Partnering for an Affordable College Tuition).

The National Institutes of Health will provide about $9.5 million to a UM center over the next five years to fund research on the brain and neurological disorders. The grant renews funding for UM’s Center for Structural and Functional Neuroscience.

Housed in the College of Health Professions and Biomedical Sciences, the center works to understand the chemical and molecular processes used by brain cells to communicate with one another, and how these processes are disrupted by disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, stroke and depression. The grant will help continue center operations until 2010.

The center is directed by Richard Bridges, the grant’s principal investigator, who said the award is among the largest ever given by NIH in Montana.

Some of the world's top Korea experts -- including two former South Korean foreign ministers and some of America's best policy analysts -- will speak Thursday, Oct. 6, during the 21st annual Mansfield Conference at UM.

The speakers will address the North Korean nuclear crisis and the controversial get-tough U.S. policy toward Pyongyang that has been in place for the last several years.

Sponsored by UM's Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center, the conference will be held from 9 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. in the Dell Brown Room of UM's Turner Hall. The event, titled "On the Edge of the Abyss: Crises in North Korea and the U.S.-Republic of Korea Alliance," is free and open to the public.

Ethics at Noon, a speaker series that brings community and campus members together to discuss ethics in everyday lives, will begin Monday, Oct. 3.

This year’s theme is “Ethics 2020: Envisioning the Promises and Perils of Building a Just and Sustainable Future.” The lectures take place from 12:10 to 1 p.m. on the first and third Mondays of each month in Gallagher Business Building Room 201. Sponsored by the Center for Ethics, the series is free and open to the public.

Daniel Kemmis begins the series Oct. 3 with a lecture titled, “Sustainability and Scale: More Local, More Regional, More Global – and Less National.” Kemmis, senior fellow at the O’Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West, formerly served as Missoula mayor and speaker of the Montana House of Representatives.

Future Ethics at Noon speakers include Terry Weidner, director of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center; Missoula Mayor Mike Kadas; Mehrdad Kia, director of International Programs at UM; and Dane Scott, director of the Center for Ethics.

A historic mental health partnership between the Chippewa-Cree Tribe on the Rocky Boy Reservation, the National Child Traumatic Stress Network and UM is being expanded to the Blackfeet and Flathead reservations.

The expansion follows the project’s positive initial results at Rocky Boy and the approval of local tribal councils and schools. The project is run by the Montana Center for Childhood Trauma, which is part of UM’s Division of Educational Research and Service. Funding comes from a highly competitive grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The center provides training to school counselors who work with students with symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. PTSD was first diagnosed in soldiers returning from Vietnam but is now understood to also affect about 25 percent of children exposed to violence.

UM Executive Chef Tom Siegel brought home a gold medal from the second annual Montana Chef Competition for the Culinary Excellence Award.

Siegel’s winning entry came in the entrée division for which he prepared “Montana-inspired Braised Lamb Shank With Big Sky Mushroom Ragout, Goat Cheese Quenelles and Emerald Basil Oil.”

The competition, sponsored by the Montana Department of Agriculture to promote the use of Montana ingredients at fine-dining restaurants, drew more than 100 entries in three categories of competition – appetizers, entrées and desserts.

A wide variety of fun, short, inexpensive classes will be offered through UM’s Experiential College beginning Monday, Oct. 3.

The fall schedule features 12 classes: “The Tao of Health,” “Feng Shui Your Space,” “Dowsing with a Pendulum,” “Tarot Card Reading,” “Making Your Relationship Last,” “Beading Basics,” “Tribal Style Belly Dance,” “Intro to Contra Dance,” “Wing Chun,” “Women’s Self Defense,” “Yoga for Relaxation” and “Introductory Hatha Yoga.”

The noncredit classes run one or two hours in length once a week for one to seven weeks and are held in the University Center. The cost ranges from $7 to $30 for Griz Card holders, with an additional $5 fee for those without Griz Cards.

Register at The Source information desk in the University Center. For more information, contact ucexpcollege@mso.umt.edu.

UM’s Wilderness Institute will offer a Wilderness Photography Workshop Oct. 7-9 in Glacier National Park.

Led by accomplished photographer Tim Cooper, the workshop includes camping and hiking in the park. Transportation and dinners are included in the $85 fee, but participants must provide camping and hiking gear, as well as other meals.

For more information or to register, call (406) 243-5361 or e-mail wi@forestry.umt.edu.

Contemporary Chinese paintings will be on display at a reception from 4 to 6 p.m. today in the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center.

The paintings were created by Zhiqun Qian, a Dillon-based artist. Qian received his master of fine arts degree in Beijing and has since taught Chinese art, painting and calligraphy. His prize-winning work has been displayed in China and the United States.

The event is free and open to the public. Appetizers will be served.

Coming off a bye week, the fourth-ranked Montana Grizzlies football team opens its 2005 Big Sky Conference schedule this weekend.

Montana will host the Weber State Wildcats in UM’s annual Homecoming game Saturday, Oct.1. Kick-off is set for 1:05 p.m. in Washington-Grizzly Stadium.

Northern Arizona defeated the UM volleyball team 3-0 in the Big Sky Conference opener for both teams Thursday night in Flagstaff. Montana got 15 kills from junior Claudia Houle and 10 from freshman Jade Roskam, but hit just .065, their lowest hitting match of the season.

Saturday night, Montana lost at Sacramento State in three games. The loss dropped the Grizzlies to 0-2 in Big Sky Conference play, 10-6 overall.

Montana will wrap up its current stretch of six straight matches away from Missoula today, playing Montana State at 7 p.m. at Worthington Arena in Bozeman.

With no matches last weekend, Montana Soccer returns to the road this week at Eastern Washington and Washington State universities.

UM opens Big Sky Conference play at 5 p.m. today against the Eagles at EWU’s Sports and Recreation Center in Cheney. Montana faces the Cougars in a non-league match at 2 p.m. Sunday at WSU’s Lower Soccer Field in Pullman.