Greetings from the President
I think you will find in this issue of the Montanan a wonderful panorama of the new developments and activities on the campus. “The Discovery Continues,” a phrase that you will hear frequently in the next few years as a part of a University promotional effort, clearly describes life at The University of Montana. Whether we concentrate on research that pushes back the frontiers of knowledge, the academic programs that prepare students for the challenges of the new millennium, or the work in the communities that exemplifies the engagement of our students, staff and faculty, the conclusion is the same: What a great tradition and what a wonderful legacy for the people of Montana.

Having held the position of president of The University of Montana for nearly a decade, I have witnessed some truly remarkable changes, mostly for the better. The changes that have occurred have come because of the excellent work of the students, staff and faculty. We have become much more student-oriented and student-centered in our approach to business procedures. We have worked hard to develop, improve and sustain those programs that have the potential to prepare people for the challenges they will confront in the twenty-first century. We have made good progress toward developing or renovating our facilities to make certain that they meet and fulfill the needs of the faculty, staff and students. We have made good progress toward ensuring an environment and atmosphere on campus supportive of each person’s journey of discovery.

In brief, the discovery continues, as our new theme declares. As we move into the new millennium, the University has outstanding faculty and students committed to attacking and resolving global problems threatening the quality of life for all of us. This issue of the Montanan will introduce some of these wonderful people to you.


George M. Dennison
President

Trial Lawyers Laud UM Law School
The UM law school found itself in good company when it won the 1999 Emil Gumpert Award from the American College of Trial Lawyers for excellence in teaching trial advocacy. Past winners include Harvard, Yale, Northwestern and New York universities and the University of California, Los Angeles.

“This truly is a recognition of a very strong trial program,” law school Dean E. Edwin Eck said. “This sort of recognition leads to all sorts of good things.” The award consists of a plaque and a $50,000 check, both of which were presented to Eck last September.

Applications for the award are submitted by law schools in the United States and Canada. The UM law school was chosen after its program was reviewed by ACTL evaluators who inspected campus facilities, met with faculty members and observed class sessions and law practice.

Cutting Ribbons
The Pharmacy/Psychology Building and its new addition were dedicated Homecoming weekend. Named for its chief benefactor, L.S. “Sam” Skaggs and his wife, Aline, the 70,000-square-foot building includes a 250-seat underground lecture hall, pharmaceutical sciences laboratories and physical therapy and pharmacy practice space. The building brings the pharmacy and physical therapy programs under one roof for the first time and provides space for research labs and classrooms.

The Skaggs’ philanthropic organization - the Salt Lake City-based ALSAM Foundation - contributed $5.7 million to the $10.4 million project. Other funds came from the American Stores Co., which recently merged with Albertson’s (a $2.5 million gift), the Montana Legislature ($2 million) and UM faculty, staff, alumni and friends.

Retired archivist Dale Johnson wrote the captions for the "Hallways to History" exhibit.

Hallways to History
If we’ve whetted your appetite for historical photos in this issue, it’s probably time for a trip to Missoula’s Southgate Mall to see an impressive historical exhibit of ninety photos of Missoula and western Montana dating back to 1883. Think of Missoula in the horse and buggy days. Think of the original Oxford Cafe. Think of Higgins Avenue when it still was “paved” with bricks.

The good news if you don’t live in the area is that “Hallways to History” will be up for three years.

The exhibit was organized by art curator Mary Staninger and features photos from her collection and other local collections as well as from the Mansfield Library’s K. Ross Toole Archives. After the exhibit closes, the mall will auction the photos, with proceeds going to benefit the Friends of the Library Photo Committee. The committee will use the funds to obtain more historical photos. Meanwhile, mall patrons may buy prints of their favorite photos. Those interested should address their inquiries to Archives at the Mansfield Library, The University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812.

Archie Bunker No More
With a $1 million gift to UM’s Center for the Rocky Mountain West, Carroll O’Connor once more debunked the myth that he might be vaguely similar to the lovable bigot he created for the popular 1970s sitcom “All in the Family.” O’Connor, together with his wife, Nancy Fields O’Connor, presented the gift, which helped to match a challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. It will support the center’s multidisciplinary work in regional studies and public policy. With the gift, the center took on a new name, the Carroll and Nancy Fields O’Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West. The O’Connors are 1950s UM graduates, and Nancy is a Montana native.

Other news from the O’Connor Center is the publication of a journal, “The Rocky Mountain West’s Changing Landscape.” The journal features articles aimed at helping people in the West survey and understand conditions and trends in their region. Journal authors employ various perspectives to address subjects ranging from history, art and literature to economics, the environment and public affairs. For information about the journal, call the center at (406) 243-7700.

La Dolce Vita for History Dept.
One of the largest gifts ever given the UM history department will fund a fellowship for the most promising graduate student in European history. Ezio Cappadocia, a retired professor of European history at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and his wife, Helen Ingersoll Cappadocia, gave $100,000 to establish the fellowship. The gift was given out of friendship for UM Professor Richard Drake, who shares an interest in modern Italian history with Cappadocia. The fund memorializes Helen Cappadocia’s parents, Rufus and Janet Ingersoll, who studied at UM in the 1920s.

The inaugural Cappadocia Fellow is Peter Lawless, a master’s candidate from Seattle, who is preparing a thesis on German intellectual history. Lawless earned an undergraduate degree in comparative history of ideas and Germanics at the University of Washington in 1996 and has studied at Tubingen, Germany.

Happy Trails, Caroline
Caroline Patterson ended a notable five-year stint as editor of the Montanan last fall. She now has time to spend with her two children, write the great Montana novel, and give more attention to her freelance writing. In fact, she and her husband, Fred Haefele, have both written articles for national magazines recently touting Missoula as one of America’s best communities. Haefele’s article in the October 1999 issue of American Heritage gained Missoula the Great American Place Award. Patterson’s piece in Sunset (November 1999) recognized Missoula in a feature titled “The West’s Best Cities.”

Buddy DeFranco

All that Jazz
Jazz enthusiasts at UM and Missoula will have something to croon about in the next few months. In February the Mansfield Library and the Missoula Public Library will host a national traveling exhibition titled “The Jazz Age in Paris: 1914-1940.” The portable panel exhibit examines Europe’s early jazz movement and its close relationship to development of jazz in the United States. Scheduled to open February 10, the exhibition features portraits of remarkable artists and performers of the era.

The exhibit will be housed at the Missoula library where it will be more accessible to viewers, according to Harriet Ranney, music librarian at the Mansfield Library. UM will host a number of jazz-related performances, lectures and art exhibits during the six weeks the exhibition will be town.

Roamin' Numerals
UM enrollment:
50	1895
283	1905
2,020	1937
7,903	1969
12,204	1999
UM faculty:
5	1899
16	1905
84	1937
400	1969
664	1999
Books in library:
81	1895
18,946	1906
32,715	1965
879,254	1999
Curricula:
13 subjects	1899
370 majors	1999
UM budget:
$13,552	1895
$55,000	1905
$1,696,787	1950
$191,142,512	1999
Parking places:
none	1899
2,974	1975
2,591	1985
4,430	1999

The Missoula library is one of only 30 libraries nationwide chosen to host the exhibit. “We are lucky to have it come here,” says Ranney. “Most of the hosts are much larger than we are--libraries like the Martin Luther King Memorial Library in Washington, D.C., and the New Orleans Public Library.”

The exhibit will whet the jazz appetite, which can be satiated in April when jazz legend Buddy DeFranco lends his name and talent to UM’s annual jazz festival.

A part-time resident of Whitefish, DeFranco was a headliner at the 1998 UM festival and will perform at the Buddy DeFranco Jazz Festival to be held at UM April 21 and 22.

“Buddy is a world-class clarinetist whose many years of dedication to jazz makes him without equal among living jazz artists of today,” says Lance Boyd, UM jazz director.

DeFranco’s career traces back to the big bands of Tommy Dorsey, Gene Krupa, Boyd Raeburn, Count Basie and others. Along with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, DeFranco is a pioneer instrumentalist in modern jazz.

Glitch Crashes Satellite Parties
We’re sad to report that a technical error resulted in many alumni missing the Grizzlies’ 49-3 victory over the Bobcats on November 20. Unfortunately, many of the locations hosting television Satellite Parties across the nation that day had difficulties receiving the satellite signal. Some locations were never able to download the signal and missed seeing the game altogether. Alumni Director Bill Johnston reports it was a technical error and not the fault of the sports bars where the parties were held or the alumni volunteers who helped organize the events. Johnston sends apologies to all who missed the game.

Spandex Rules
By a narrow vote, the state Board of Regents approved a new $10.6 million recreation facility at UM that received student approval in an ASUM election earlier in the year. The 4-3 vote by the regents followed intensive lobbying by UM administrators and students. Plans are for the facility to be up and running the first day of classes fall semester 2001. At that time students will start paying an $81 recreation fee--a $65 increase from the current fee. Faculty and staff also will have access to the recreation center for a fee.

Lewis & Clark--Virtual Discovery
They couldn’t have imagined in 1805, as they struggled up the Great Falls of the Missouri, that one day their route would be the subject of a massive Web site. Indeed, they couldn’t have imagined the World Wide Web, but the Corps of Discovery’s accomplishments--the courage, forbearance and sheer will it took to walk, paddle and portage across a continent and back--has left this country agape with awe and appreciation for going on two centuries now.

Former UM music Professor Joe Mussulman is bringing the story of America’s most famous explorers to the attention of the world with an enormous and thorough Web site. “Discovering Lewis and Clark”--some 2,500 files and hundreds of individual Web pages--has been described by historians as the best source of Lewis and Clark information on the Internet. The site is housed on UM servers and is maintained by the University’s Information Technology Resource Center.

There are four ways to explore the site. One is through a nineteen-part essay by UM history Professor Harry Fritz, a Lewis and Clark specialist. Other methods are: selecting a journal entry, clicking on portions of an interactive map of the explorers’ trek, or using “discovery paths” to access subjects as diverse as geography, native nations and the corps itself.

At least one interpretive episode is added each month--such as a study of Indian modes of navigation or a new treatment of York, Clark’s black slave. Mussulman says the site will continue growing, at least through 2003. Find it at http://www.lewis-clark.org/.

David Ackroyd plays Hemingway to Renata Godfrey’s “woman.”

“It Just Catches”
The Montana Rep was part of last summer’s celebration of Ernest Hemingway’s 100th birthday. UM’s professional theatre in residence, the Rep presented “It Just Catches,” an adaptation of three of Hemingway’s short stories by Carol Thompson Hemingway. Literary figures and Hemingway fans gathered at Oak Park, Illinois, in July for a wide-ranging celebration of the writer’s birth. The Rep will stage “It Just Catches” February 22-25 in the Montana Theatre.

Getting it Right
The Montanan inadvertently failed to identify two campus ministries in the article on religious life at UM in our last issue. They are the Presbyterian Campus Ministry and the Intervarsity Christian Fellowship. Our apologies.

Readers of our summer 1999 issue wrote in to correct a story on the Women’s Studies Program.

Diane Sands wrote: “I did not create the Women’s Action Center in 1969 ... a whole group of women did.” That group did not include Judy Smith, who arrived in Missoula in 1974, when “she reorganized the WAC into the Women’s Resource Center.”

Julia Watson also wrote in, providing more information on the two programs.

Unfortunately, the amount of space available for our stories often limits how much detail we can provide our readers. Many more people contributed to the Women’s Studies Program and the Women’s Resource Center than we were able to credit in our stories. Kudos to all concerned.

The Last Best Plates
The Griz got bigger and bolder, at least in type, with a new design for UM license plates. President Dennison and Montana Attorney General Joe Mazurek gave the 19,000 fans attending the Grizzlies’ Homecoming football game a “sneak” preview of UM’s second official license plate. The plate, in white with maroon and black lettering and graphics, features the Grizzly mascot. It will be sold in addition to the existing Main Hall plate.

“We had so many requests for a choice between a Griz plate and a Main Hall plate,” said University Executive Vice President Bob Frazier, who oversees Grizzly merchandising.

The new plate will be available to the public this spring at Montana Department of Motor Vehicles offices statewide. The plate will cost motorists an extra $22.50, with UM receiving $20 of that amount for student scholarships.

A New Twist on the Fifteen Minutes of Fame
Perhaps you’ve seen the commercials on television that feature prominent entertainment figures honoring their favorite teachers. Well, it’s your turn.

The Montanan would like you to write in with short homages to your favorite UM faculty member (500 words or less) for a feature story we’re planning. Just tell us who your favorite professor was and provide us with profound anecdotes and scintillating descriptive prose explaining why. You could be famous, too, if your story is chosen for publication.

Black Tie, Montana Style
The first out-of-the ordinary occurrence at the Annual Cowboy Ball is the valet who meets ballgoers as they arrive at the rustic Lolo ranch. Once inside Bill and Sandy Mytty’s indoor rodeo arena, the 600 attendees are greeted by tables decked out for fine dining with art and other auction items-all resting on a dirt floor. This western paradise is lined with freshly-cut pines.

The primary source of income for UM’s rodeo team, this year’s ball--the eighth annual--raised about $75,000 for the Grizzly Rodeo Team Scholarship Program. Dennis Lind, chair of the rodeo team board, says last year’s event netted about $62,000.

The most poignant moment of the evening came with a tribute to former UM journalism acting Dean Joe Durso, who died last year. Rodeo team members said Durso’s leadership was instrumental in creating the vibrant program UM has today.

Hallelujah!
“I dreamed it up one night when I couldn’t sleep,” says Nancy Cooper, the powerhouse behind Missoula’s annual Messiah production. A musician with a strong social conscience, Nancy was looking for a way to raise money for Habitat for Humanity.

The UM visiting assistant music professor found it in what she describes as a blend of walk-a-thon and community sing. Every year for the past four years she (almost) single-handedly has organized a free one-night performance of Handel’s Messiah, staged at the University Theatre on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. The “almost” element here is her husband, Dave Chrismon, vice president of Habitat for Humanity of Missoula’s board, who takes on many of the administrative tasks.

Singers in the production--usually numbering around 150--collect pledges to participate in the performance. Nancy recruits the musicians from the Missoula Symphony Orchestra, the String Orchestra of the Rockies and the UM Orchestra. Singers herald from as close as the UM campus to western Montana towns such as Polson, Hamilton and Potomac.

“I started out hammering nails and I loved doing that, but I know how Habitat needs money to provide the place where people can go and hammer nails,” Nancy says. “This idea struck me as something that had the potential of being very community building. And it was something I knew how to do.”

Approximately $45,000 has been raised in the four years the Messiah has been presented. “We try to have virtually no overhead other than a few operating expenses,” Nancy says. “All the proceeds go to Habitat for Humanity.” Nancy received the Volunteer of the Year award from that organization in 1997.

Being Billy Goat Gruff
Sarah Hamrick is not only reading a book, she is Billy Goat Gruff. Sarah takes on the voice of the goat, one of her favorite characters from The World’s Best Fairy Tales as she reads with her volunteer tutor Ruth Oldenburg. She’s beginning what Ruth hopes will be a lifelong love of literature. And she is improving the reading skills vital to her education.

Ruth tutors Sarah once a week for two hours in Glenn Moffatt’s resource room at Paxson Elementary School in Missoula. Tutoring Sarah through the America Reads program is Ruth’s latest effort in a history of volunteering in schools, including reading with a second-grade classroom at Roosevelt Elementary last year and ongoing work with students at Meadow Hill Middle School.

“I love working with kids, and any experience I can get in a school setting is very beneficial,” says Ruth, who is pursuing a degree in elementary education at UM. She feels that besides her tutoring effort, she is a role model and mentor for Sarah.

America Reads is a national effort designed to make sure elementary students don’t fall through the cracks in their reading skills. Many players contribute to the effort in Missoula, including principals and teachers, UM Volunteer Action Services, the UM School of Education, a VISTA America Reads coordinator and, of course, the tutors.

Sarah doesn’t know much about these people, but her eyes light up when she sees Ruth. Buzzing about the resource room, Sarah is quick to show visitors some of her new interests, such as “Paws,” a computer game that teaches keyboarding.

“It’s going great,” says Ruth. “She’s really excited.” Sarah’s main take on the process: “It’s been great fun!”