MEMO

DATE:  May 1, 2001

TO: Montana Board of Regents

FROM: Stephen T. Hulbert, Chancellor

SUBJECT: Campus Report for May, 2001, Board of Regents' Meeting

Professor Craig Zaspel, visiting research professor Dr. Yuriy Rapoport and Western student Jordan Mantha have recently had the article, "Soliton Evolution in Magnetic Thin Films" C. E. Zaspel, J. H. Mantha, Yu. G. Rapoport, and V. L. Grimalski accepted for publication in Physical Review. Jordan Mantha, an undergraduate student at Western, did a significant amount of numerical work for this paper and is therefore listed as one of the co-authors.

Dr. Zaspel has also had the following papers accepted for publication. Yuriy Rapoport was a co-author of the first article:

"Shock Formation in Magnetic Thin Films", C. E. Zaspel, Yu. G. Rapoport, WMC; K. Yashiro and S. Ohkawa, Graduate School of Science and Technology, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan; to be published in: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Transactions on Magnetism.

"Localized Impurity-Pinned Inhomogeneous State in the Spin Ladder System", Boris A. Ivanov, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine; Alexei Yu. Merkulov, Taras Shevchenko Kiev University, C. E. Zaspel, WMC; to be published in: Journal of Applied Physics.

"Small-Amplitude Mobile Solitons in the Ferromagnet" Coauthors are Boris A. Ivanov, Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences; I. A. Yastremsky, Taras Shevchenko Kiev University has been accepted for publication in The Phycical Review. This work was done at MSU-Bozeman, and supported by a National Science Foundation grant that Dr. Zaspel has through that campus.

Dr. Craig Zaspel and Dr. Yuriy Rapoport and colleagues have had accepted for publication in the Proceedings of the 8th European Magnetic Materials and Applications Conference the following two papers:

"Numerical Modeling of Wave Front Reversal for Two-Dimensional Spin Wave Packets in Magnetic Films", V. V. Grimalsky, Yu. G. Rapoport, C. E. Zaspel and A. N. Slavin.

"High Power Ultranarrow Solitary Waves in Magnetic Thin Films", C. E. Zaspel and Yu. G. Rapoport.

Dr. Craig Zaspel chaired a special session (Selected Topics on Dynamics and Structure of Magnetic Materials) at the European Conference on Magnetic Materials and Applications in Kiev, Ukraine, June 2000.

Jordan Mantha, has been awarded a prestigious National Science Foundation REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) summer research appointment at MSU-Bozeman. Jordan is a student in the Environmental Sciences program who is focusing on both Chemistry and Applied Mathematics. The REU program is a new program in the Montana State University Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

Environmental Sciences student Rob Richardson received a $1,000. scholarship from the NASA space grant consortium. This award is for outstanding students who have interests in aerospace sciences.

Professor Sandra Oldendorf, Dr. M. Reisz Riney, former Western Assistant Professor, and Jack Hutchison, Lima High School history and English teacher, have co-written a chapter for a book that will be published in May, 2001. The focus of the book is on collaboration between colleges and high schools to improve social studies education. The book, published by the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), will be distributed to all of its members (about 12,000). Dr. Oldendorf is also an invited panelist to speak about the collaborative project to the College and University Faculty Association at the annual NCSS conference in Washington, D.C. in November, 2001.

Dr. Gary Lundy has had a poem " From Loves Conduit" published in the Winter/Spring edition of So to Speak, a feminist journal of language and art published by George Mason University.

Dawn Stodden, a senior at The University of Montana Western, has been selected to participate in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History "Undergraduate Research Training Program" in Washington, D.C. The program is a highly competitive 10-week summer research and study curriculum. This year, participants include undergraduates from Canada, South America, Europe, and all over the U.S. Dawn will be working with Dr. William Melson, Senior Scientist of Petrology in the Department of Mineral Sciences.

This past fall, Associate Professor Julie Bullard presented "The Power of Documentation" at the Early Childhood State Conference. She also facilitated a session at this conference that resulted in a new state coalition, "The Coalition of Campus Child Cares."

Dr. Bullard also assisted in writing "The State of Montana Early Childhood Apprenticeship Program Grant". Western is listed as the training program for those involved in the apprenticeship program. The apprenticeship program will provide bonuses of $1800.00, paid incrementally for completed early childhood coursework and hours of training. Scholarships will also be available.

Last November, Dr. Bullard was asked to be on the editorial board of the international Journal for Early Childhood Teacher Educators published by Elsevier.

In January, Dr. Bullard participated in an Early Childhood Education NCATE folio review, in Washington D.C.

Dr. Bullard is participating on a national task force to develop coursework for early childhood higher education faculty. Their first meeting was in Washington D.C. in January. As part of this initiative the task force will design a series of faculty institutes, increase networking of early childhood faculty through distance learning and the internet, develop materials that can be used to enhance learning, and develop grants which can lead to institutional change.

In January, Dr. Bullard was reappointed to represent higher education on the Early Childhood Advisory Council. This council determines the allocation of over 22 million dollars while meeting federal mandates. This includes the development of a sliding fee scale to assist families with childcare expenses and the development of initiatives to improve quality for young children and their families.

Professor Alan Weltzien has been elected to the Executive Committee of Western Literature Association. Both Alan and Professor Jane Maddock presented their work at WLA's national conference in Norman Oklahoma in October, Alan, his creative non-fiction, and Jane, a paper on Poetics and Politics in Ivan Doig's "Bucking the Sun."

Professor Clara Beier and student Cheryl Tatum presented papers at the national convention of the National Council of Teachers of English in Milwaukee (November 16 - 18). The session focused on using children's literature as an introduction to issues relating to social justice. Joyce Herbeck, formerly of WMC-UM and currently at MSU-Bozeman, was a co-presenter.

Geology professors Rob Thomas and Sheila Roberts have received a $200,000 federal grant, as an earmarked item in the Montana Department of Transportation budget, to put up interpretive geologic road signs in Montana.

Associate Professor Sheila Roberts had a publication in the September 2000 issue of Journal of Geoscience Education. It is in a special volume of that journal dedicated to methods for building quantitative skills of post-secondary students in geoscience courses: Roberts, Sheila, 2000, Reinforcing quantitative skills with applied research on tombstone weathering rates: Journal of Geoscience Education, v. 48, p. 469-473.

Dr. Roberts is also a coauthor of a book entitled "Desertification in the Third Millennium," to be published by Balkema Press (Netherlands) next year: Spencer, Ronald J., Wenbo Yang, Roberts, Sheila M., and Krouse, H. Roy, Hydrology and climate change, Death Valley, California, from 180 to 100 ka [thousand years ago].

Western was well represented at this years Montana Education Association/Montana Federation of Teachers Annual Meeting in Billings on October 19-20, attended by more than 2000 Montana teachers. Presentations were made by professors Cheri Jimeno, Mark Rogstad, Sandra Oldendorf, Otis Thompson, Janet Thompson, and Frank Simon.

Professor Jim Sethi presented a paper on "E-Commerce: Change Management and Leadership Straegies" at the Robert B. Clarke Direct Marketing Educators' Conference, organized by the Direct Marketing Association of New York. The session that took place in New Orleans, was held on October l5, 2000 and was attended by well over 200 participants, drawn from both practitioner and academic communities. The paper will be published in the forthcoming book, "Frontiers in Direct and Interactive Marketing Research" to be published by John Wiley & Sons, 200l.

Dr. Sethi has also been accepted as a member of the Advisory Board to the Annual Editions-Internet and Business sponsored by McGraw-Hill/Dushkin, Guilford, CT.