The President’s Perspective

Greetings!

We are pleased to offer you this issue of the Montanan, our award-winning magazine that highlights the accomplishments of students, faculty, staff, and graduates of the University of Montana. The cover story describes spectrUM, our wonderful interactive science museum that opened its new location in downtown Missoula this past August. Mary and I took our grandchildren to the museum over the holiday break, and I can tell you that everyone was fascinated with the exhibits and activities. What a tremendous contribution to the University and to the community! I hope you enjoy learning about how spectrUM makes science fun, as well as the other features in this issue.

During autumn semester and continuing this spring, we embarked upon a tour of communities around the state in our “We Are Montana” project. The purpose of the tour is twofold: first, for members of the University to get to know the communities where our students come from and where so many of our alumni live; and second, to talk about the educational opportunities at UM and the accomplishments of students, faculty, and staff. So far, we have visited fifteen cities, with more to come during spring semester. By May, we will have traveled more than 3,500 miles around the state.

In each community we visit with high school educators, legislators, community leaders, students, alumni, and other friends of UM. I am pleased to report that excitement about the University’s mission and programs is tremendous. Montanans especially enjoy hearing about our students. For example, we talk about participants in the most recent John Ruffatto Business Plan Competition, students in the Global Leadership Initiative, and those in the Davidson Honors College who are involved in research or study abroad. We highlight pharmacy students who conduct health checks on outreach trips across Montana—a project you can read more about starting on page twenty-four of this issue. Of course, alumni and fans express pride in what Grizzly athletes have accomplished this year and the fact that our student-athletes now have completed seventeen consecutive semesters with a cumulative grade point average above 3.0.

Staying in touch with the communities that comprise the UM family is important to me, and those communities are not only all across the great state of Montana, but also across the country and around the world. The “We Are Montana” tour—and this magazine—are just a few of the many ways we want to stay in touch. As a new calendar year unfolds, I wish you a wonderful 2014. It promises to be an exciting one for the University of Montana!

Sincerely,

Royce C. Engstrom, President