GRADUATING INTO A GLOBAL ECONOMY Under an unexpected and peerless blue sky, faculty, friends and nearly 1,400 University graduates settled into the bleachers of Washington-Grizzly Stadium on May 15 to celebrate the University's last commencement of the twentieth century and receive their diplomas. An honorary doctorate-UM's highest honor-was awarded to entrepreneur and philanthropist L.S. "Sam" Skaggs Jr., who is known for his contributions to biomedical research nationwide and pharmacy education in the West. Skaggs, who retired in 1995 as chairman of American Stores Company, has been committed to providing scholarships for minority students attending western universities. The new addition to the Pharmacy Building will be named after Skaggs, who contributed $5.7 million to UM. After the graduates heralded their families with a boisterous "thank you," internationally renowned economist Lester Thurow tried to prepare them for the century ahead. The new world will expand in a way people can't imagine, and to thrive means constantly acquiring new skills, said the Anaconda native and Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who currently writes columns for the Boston Globe and USA Today. "What we see now is very crude compared to what is coming," he said. Greetings from the President For this issue of the Montanan, we have chosen the theme "History in the Making: The Women of UM" to commemorate the accomplishments of some of our most distinguished students, alumnae and faculty. Most Montanans and many Americans know of alumna Jeannette Rankin, the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress and the only member of Congress who voted against entry into both world wars. Fewer probably know of the distinguished service of alumna Jessie Bierman, who did so much for children and families, or of the tireless work of retired Professor Maxine Van de Wetering, who established The University of Montana as a school that produces Rhodes Scholars. We have much to celebrate in the achievements of these great women. Women of all ages continue to add luster to the University through their dedication and talent. Alumnae such as jazz singer Dee Daniels and television producer Erika Bishop, and students such as artist Amie Thurber and biologist Karen Short inspire us with their accomplishments and energy. In athletic competition, the Lady Griz rank with teams from much larger schools in win-loss and attendance records. The newly formed Montana women's soccer team has performed at the highest level on the field and in the classroom. Female student athletes have done so well that some have suggested we refer to our teams as the Griz and the Men Griz! The record of significant service by women of distinction permeates every level of University life. One of the people who made a real difference for me when I attended the University rarely lets the world know of her work. Former Associate Director for Admissions and Records Emma Lommasson, who worked at the University from 1946 to 1977, helped me and thousands of other students achieve our goals by working behind the scenes to create an environment that nurtured excellence. Without her dedicated service, and that of hundreds like her, UM would not have survived and could not flourish in the future. This issue of the Montanan provides a forum in which to detail women's achievements in academics, athletics, the arts, sciences and business. I believe you will share my pride that the people featured decided to attend The University of Montana. George M. Dennison President and Professor of History Anchors Away News anchors, that is. The University community lucked out on April 17, when world crises abated for a spell to allow NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw to deliver the School of Journalism's annual Dean Stone Lecture. People swarmed the Montana Theatre to hear Brokaw praise the Depression and the World War II generations. This was his second stab at the Dean Stone Lecture. In 1989 Brokaw was in flight to Missoula when he was called back to New York City to cover the Tiananmen Square uprising in China. Three New Deans Come fall, boxes will be unpacked and new pictures will be on the walls of the deans' offices in the Davidson Honors College, the School of Journalism and the School of Fine Arts. Longtime UM German Professor Gerald Fetz is the new dean of the Davidson Honors College, a position he held on an interim basis during the 1988-99 academic year. Actively involved in international education and study abroad programs, Fetz has taught at UM since 1970. Jerry E. Brown, professor and journalism department head at Alabama's Auburn University and a former newspaper editor, is the new dean of UM's School of Journalism. The School of Fine Arts' new dean is Shirley Howell, associate dean of the College of Performing and Visual Arts at the University of Northern Colorado. While Fetz will simply erase the interim from his title, Brown and Howell will have to pack their bags and move across country. They will assume their new positions at the start of the academic year. Kudos for Koehn For seventeen years, Eftychia "Effie" Koehn has guided hundreds of students from farflung countries through the maze of campus life at UM. This year, in honor of her efforts to develop programs, policies and procedures related to foreign students and scholars, Koehn was named 1997 International Educator of the Year by International Group Services/Hinchcliff International, a health insurance company for international visitors and students in the United States. She received an inscribed plaque, and the UM Foundation received $3,500 in her name to be used for academic advancement. Koehn, who was born in Ethiopia of Greek parents, has headed UM's Foreign Student and Scholar Services office since 1991. Her involvement with foreign students at UM goes back to 1982 , when she became foreign student adviser. Okay Earth, Smile! Professor Steve Running and staff have designed software for NASA's Earth Observing System satellite, a $7 billion satellite that will be launched into orbit July 28, 1999. Running's program, designed to measure vegetation across the globe, will be used to predict the likelihood of forest fires, study drought conditions and chronicle other global changes. The satellite will become a premier instrument for measuring global warming. But work of Running's group won't end after this summer's launch. With the new EOS Natural Resource Training Center, founded in February at UM, they will be able to teach natural resource managers and educators about NASA's newest remote sensing applications. Nurtured by a $3.5 million budget and a $10,000 gift of software from LizardTech Inc., the center will use the skills of faculty and staff in the schools of forestry and education, as well as those of peers at universities in Alaska, Idaho and Missouri. Jurists Abound The event of the spring in the land of the lawyers was the lecture given by U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas on April 13. A crowd packed the University Theatre for his lecture on judicial independence, the second in the Judge William B. Jones and Judge Edward A. Tamm Judicial Lecture Series. The day before Thomas's lecture, the Montana Supreme Court convened in the University Theatre to hear the appellate argument for Missoula YWCA v. Allen Bard. Both events coincided with the school's annual Law Week. The students put in more court time May 7, when the three justices of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals-including alum Judge Sidney R. Thomas-gathered in the Castles Center to hear four cases. Three civil cases involved excessive police force, employment preferences for tribal members on the Fort Belknap Reservation and alleged negligence of a public utility in installing power lines. The fourth case, on a habeas corpus petition, challenged the plaintiff's jury conviction and a thirty-year sentence for rape. Then, this spring semester the baby barristers made it to the big-time. Representing the tobacco industry in talks with a mock legislative committee, a student negotiation team won third place at the National Negotiation Competition. At the American Trial Lawyers Association Student Trial Advocacy Competition in New Orleans, another UM team participated in a mock trial about an allegedly defective seat belt and captured fifth place, losing by one point to the ultimate winner, the University of Texas. With a case about an employee claiming he was fired because of his disability, the moot court team made it to the elimination rounds at National Moot Court Competition in New York City, where they lost to Kent Law School of the Illinois Institute of Technology-Chicago. New Scholarships for Nonresidents A new scholarship program offering $1000 scholarships to as many as 100 nonresident freshmen and transfer students based on their academic performances in high school was announced this spring. Named in honor of the longtime director of Auxiliary Services who retired in 1981, the Cal Murphy Scholarships will be awarded to high-performing students who applied for but did not receive UM Presidential Leadership or Western Undergraduate Exchange scholarships and didn't match donor restrictions for general scholarships. For more information, call (800) 462-8636 or e-mail: admiss@selway.umt.edu. The scholarships will help UM attract bright students from around the nation who bring greater diversity to campus life, said Vice President for Student Affairs Barbara Hollmann. "We've been missing good students who didn't match the criteria for other scholarships," she said. "We're able to provide scholarship support to Montana residents because donors have been very generous." Birdcalling on Letterman Zach Dorman's birdcall-the yips and hooting of the long-eared owl-landed him on the Late Show with David Letterman last summer. Dorman got the call from the Letterman people last July while he was working at Lake Tahoe for the summer. Within days, the stunned high school graduate was on his way to New York for the taping. Letterman took advantage of Dorman's good nature to tease him a bit, then asked him where he planned to go to college. Dorman replied, "The University of Montana." Dorman said, "After the show we were famous throughout New York City. We were in Times Square and people would come up to us and say, 'Oh my God, you were on Letterman.'" Two days later, he flew to Montana for UM's orientation. Asian Studies Elementary and middle school children can dig through toys, games, books and household items from Asia with the China Box developed by Professor Steve Levine of UM's Mansfield Center. The 10-gallon plastic tote contains material and teaching aids designed to help children learn the basics of Chinese geography, language and culture. The box also snared Levine the Franklin M. Buchanan Prize for developing the best new teaching material about Asia during the past year. In other news from the center, the 1999 Mansfield Conference, "Giving Life to The Ten Thousand Things: Water in Asia and the West," is scheduled for October 17-20. Keynote speakers -including water policy expert Dai Qing, historian Donald Worster and former Illinois Senator Paul Simon-will explore the role of water in the past and present of the American West and China. For more information, call (406) 243-2988. A Clam Whodunnit Researchers at UM and Texas A&M University have discovered fossils of a previously unknown species of giant clam that were shaped like big Mexican hats. George Stanley Jr., a UM geology professor and paleontologist, and former student Raylene Beier-Gettis found the fossils during the mid-1980s while exploring a limestone quarry in northeastern Oregon. The outlines of the flying saucer-shaped critters-some three feet in diameter-were found silhouetted in white in a wall of black limestone. Stanley shipped the fossils around to other experts in his field until Thomas Yancey, a researcher from Texas A&M, took an interest in them two years ago. Yancey used a special drill, preparation tools and more than 50 hours of painstaking labor to remove the stone surrounding the fossils. His efforts paid off . The unknown species of giant clam was revealed to have strange wing-like extensions surrounding their central body cavities. The researchers theorize that the giant clams used chambers inside their shell extensions to nurture and house algae. They also assigned the clams to a new family, Wallowaconchidae, named for the spectacular Wallowa Mountains in Oregon where they were discovered. The Four-Year Guarantee Delivers Four Bear, a UM program guaranteeing graduation in four years, graduated its inaugural class of seventy-four students at UM's commencement in May. The 1999 Four Bear graduating class comprised students in twenty-five majors. President Dennison also recognized these students' achievement at an April 7 reception. Begun in summer 1995, Four Bear provides students a contract stating that UM will pick up the extra tab for those who cannot earn a degree within four years. In return, students agree to take sixteen to seventeen credits each semester and follow an adviser's recommendations in each of eight consecutive semesters. Four Bear came about in response to parental and student concerns about the spiraling costs of higher education and the increasing number of years students were taking to graduate. By signing up for Four Bear, students are assured registration in the courses they need. Prizes for UM Publications Two University of Montana publications and the University's recently revised Web home pagewere recognized in the 16th annual Council for Advancement and Support of Education's District VIII Juried Awards Competition. Gordy Pace, assistant director of Admissions and New Student Services, won a Silver Award in the promotional copywriting category for UM's 1998-99 viewbook, UM's primary publication for student recruiting. University Relations won a Bronze Award in the newsletter category for Research View, a year-old community newsletter highlighting the work of UM student and faculty researchers. The University also won a Bronze Award in the Web site category for UM's main Web page at www.umt.edu, which changes daily with a new article and photograph. New Native American Studies Director Kathryn Shanley, an associate professor of English at Cornell University and a member of the Nakota (Assiniboine) Tribe of Fort Peck Indian Reservation, will become the new chair for UM's Native American Studies Department in July. Shanley will take over from Larry LaCounte, who has managed the program since November 24, 1997, when its previous director, Bonnie Heavy Runner, died of cancer. Shanley most recently taught Native American, American and Third World literatures at Cornell University and has written two books forthcoming this year from the University of Oklahoma Press titled Only an Indian: Reading James Welch and American Indian Autobiography: A Source Book. She believes a Native American studies program should have a strong academic component, community outreach and student-support services. "Such a strong three-pronged department," Shanley said, "often has a mix that is different and broader than other departments on campus." On the Airwaves Things have been busy this spring at the Broadcast Media Center. First came Montana Public Radio's boisterous annual pledge drive April 17-25. There were premiums galore-llama manure, massages, books, even lunch with Governor Marc Racicot-not to mention the Pet Wars (dogs beat the cats this year, 672-663). And once again, the loyal supporters came through. The radio surpassed its seemingly insurmountable $315,000 goal, netting more than $325,000. Then came the kudos. Sally Mauk, news director for KUFM, received a regional Edward R. Murrow Award for excellence in electronic journalism from the Radio and Television News Directors Association for the second year running. She won the award for a series of reports on wolves in Yellowstone National Park. Finally, there was a rush on tickets, which were selected in a lottery, for Garrison Keillor's two June 5 performances at Butte's 1923 Mother Lode Theater. Winners of the advance mail-in drawing packed the theater for the 4 p.m. nationwide broadcast of "A Prairie Home Companion." The show featured knock-knock jokes, imaginary ads for ketchup and rhubarb pie and a lively monologue about Lake Wobegon, an imaginary town in Minnesota. The 7:30 evening show featured a monologue about Keillor's boyhood and his development as a writer. Two Montana performers, singer-songwriter Stephanie Davis and alum and cowboy poet Paul Zarzyski, appeared on both shows. Dana Boussard, in the new teaching video Montana Defined by Images, explores how the changes in Montana's physical and cultural landscape are reflected in the work of contemporary Montana artists. Produced by the Center for Rocky Mountain West in cooperation with the Montana Historical Society, the cideo is available at 900-243-9900 or http://his.mt.gov/ On the television side of things, KUFM-TV, the public television station based at UM, announced the April 4 debut of its educational television series for children, How the West Is Fun. Using Montana middle school students as hosts, the program covers history, geography, characters and travel in the West with programs on topics such as orienteering and exploring in the 1800s. Series producer John Twiggs won an Award of Excellence for the shows, and the series itself nabbed three Tellys-two silvers and a bronze-during the twentieth annual Telly Awards in April. Baker Grants The name of relatively new financial aid grants for Montana students has been changed to honor the memory of former state commissioner of higher education Jeffrey Baker, who died March 22 of lung cancer. The Montana Tuition Assistance Program, now called the Baker Grants, offers grants to low- or middle-income students who often must work while attending school because they don't qualify for federal Pell Grants. Baker, who died at his Cambria, California, home at age 57, served as Montana commissioner of higher education from 1993 to 1996. Up until days before his death he was serving as president of Iowa's Luther College. Baker was instrumental in starting MTAP grants to make higher education more affordable for the average Montana student. The first grants were distributed to qualifying Montana students during the 1998-99 academic year. Mick Hanson, director of financial aid at UM, said, "Baker was the man who gave us the vision, authority and freedom to think outside the box." M Saiko Kobayashi of Seattle's "Oyoyo Sisters" performs neo- Japanese vaudeville at the UM's International Food and Culture Festival, where townspeople and students feasted on foods around the world. International Food and Fanfare Black Forest cake and live belly dancing were just a few of the attractions at the annual International Food and Culture Festival on March 28 at the University Center. Sponsored by the International Student Association, the festival, "Around the World in Eighty Flavors," opened with a parade led by Japanese students beating taiko drums and featured food ranging from spicy Thai chicken to baklava. Drums Along the Clark Fork There were the traditional-, fancy-, jingle- and grass-dance contests, as well as singing and drumming at UM's 31st annual Kyi-Yo Powwow, not to mention the Miss Kyi-Yo, Lil' Miss Kyi-Yo and Tiny Tot Princess contests. Organized by the Kyi-Yo Native American Students Association, Kyi-Yo (Blackfeet for "grizzly") Days ran April 29-May 2 and honored Bonnie "Sim sin" Heavy Runner, the late director of UM's Native American Studies Department, who helped organize the first Kyi-Yo academic conferences. Heavy Runner died of cancer in November 1997. Held at Loyola High School, the powwow featured host drums of Blacklodge and Eya Hay Nakota. The academic conference, "A Night in the Native Arts" featured performances by groups including Native Reign, Morning Star Zephyr and the Descending Eagle Aztec Dancers. The event also included the annual Bonnie "Sim sin" Heavy Runner Memorial Tipi Race, where participants competed to see who could erect a tipi the fastest in the softball field north of Adams Center. Roamin' Numerals Faculty in 1895-96 5 men 5 women Faculty in 1987-88 298 men 48 women Faculty in 1998-99 284 men 124 women 1898 undergraduate degrees 2 women 1901 undergraduate degrees 2 men 7 women 1997-98 undergraduate degrees 851 men 902 women 1896-97 enrollment 60 men 84 women Fall 1930 enrollment 776 men 590 women Fall 1944 enrollment 344 men 641 women Fall 1969 enrollment 5,217 men 2, 686 women Fall 1997 enrollment 5, 761 men 6, 363 women 1951-52 English degrees 5 men 16 women 1997-98 English degrees 58 men 55 women 1951-52 math degrees 5 men 1 woman 1997-98 math degrees 13 men 7 women Sources: Office of Institutional Research, Registrar's Office