DATE:   March 21, 2002

TO: Board of Regents

FROM:  Geoffrey Gamble, President, MSU-Bozeman

RE:  Campus Report for the March, 2002 Board of Regents Meeting

  1. MSU graduate student Andrew Bunn was one of eight students in the nation to receive a Canon National Parks Science Scholarship for 2001. The program, which provides a $75,000 scholarship, is designed to create leaders in the fields of conservation, environmental science and park management. Bunn is using tree rings from trees in Yellowstone, Yosemite and Sequoia national parks to interpret what the climate was like at high elevations over the past 1,000 years.

    The Canon Scholars program is a collaboration among Canon USA, Inc., the National Park Service, the National Park Foundation and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

  2. Two Montana State University seniors have been named to the 13th annual All-USA College Academic Teams. The selections were announced in the Feb. 27 edition of USA Today.

    Phenocia Bauerle, an enrolled member of the Crow Tribe who grew up in Bozeman, crafted authentic Crow stories collected 50 years ago by her family into a book to be published this year by the University of Nebraska Press. She was one of just 20 students named to the newspaper's first team. Kay Kirkpatrick of Dillon, a senior majoring in math, is also a pianist and mountain climber and who is said to be a "genius" in the fields of abstract math and dynamics, was named to the third team.

  3. Athletic Honors: Montana State senior Jessica Blake, who was named the Big Sky Conference Most Valuable Women's Basketball Player, was also selected to the 2002 Verizon Academic All-America Women's Team. Blake has over a 3.6 GPA as a psychology major. Sophomore Jason Erickson was named Honorable Mention Basketball All-America by the Associated Press. Erickson, a 3.6 GPA student in Computer Science, was also named the Big Sky Conference's Most Valuable Men's Player. Men's basketball coach Mick Durham was named Big Sky Men's Basketball Coach of the Year. This is the second such honor for Durham, having also received the distinction following the 1995-96 season. Lyle Weese, a senior distance runner in Business Management from Dillon, earned All-America honors at the recent NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships. Weese finished 5th among U.S. runners in the 3000 meter run.

  4.  In January and February representatives from the Governor's Office, the Department of Commerce, the University of Montana and Montana State University traveled to 15 communities on the Hi-Line and in central and eastern Montana. Discussions were held at each site regarding assistance which could be provided by State agencies and the MUS in areas such as Community Development Block Grants, Small Business Innovation Research Grants, technical assistance, Montana Manufacturing Extension Center, Distance Learning Programs, TechLink and others. Several calls have resulted from this tour and connections have been made with appropriate assistance providers.

  5. Montana State University-Bozeman student, Meredith McCannel, was voted, by her peers in the recent Miss USA Pageant, as the most congenial, charismatic and inspirational participant. McCannel, a junior from Billings, is a political science major with a 3.62 GPA and plans to complete an internship in Congressman Denny Rehberg's Montana office, where she has served as a volunteer. She plans to return to MSU in the fall and finish her degree.