Clocking In

PROTECTION. More than 10,000 Healthy Griz Kits were distributed to UM students and employees this fall. The kits are designed to help members of the campus community avoid illness during the coronavirus pandemic. Each kit contains two cloth masks, refillable hand sanitizer, a micro-cloth for cleaning, a refillable disinfectant spray bottle and a card describing UM’s commitment to campus health and safety.

RECREATION. The secret is out – UM is an incredible place to receive an education and play hard. UM’s Campus Recreation recently was featured in the national magazine Campus Rec, which shared the breadth and depth of UM’s outdoor recreation programs that have been incorporated seamlessly and robustly into UM’s culture of partnering with place and exploring one’s boundaries. 

HOOPS. UM History Professor Wade Davies recently inked “Native Hoops: The Rise of American Indian Basketball, 1895-1970.” The book details the role of sports in Native communities and how basketball provides both a link to the past and a source of independence and confidence to expertly compete for “family, tribes and Natives everywhere.” Davies teaches classes in Native American studies. 

BUTTE. UM alumna Nora Saks was awarded the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize for her work as a reporter, producer and a host of Montana Public Radio’s “Richest Hill” podcast. The series dives deep into the history of Butte to tell the colorful and complicated story of how the city became one of America’s largest and most notorious Superfund sites while asking the question, “What comes next?”

GLACIERS. The National Science Foundation awarded UM researchers and partner institutions $1.3 million to study the melting of one of Alaska’s most iconic glaciers. UM Department of Computer Science researchers, along with collaborators at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the University of Arizona and the National Park Service, will use the grant to conduct computer modeling of changes now taking place to Malaspina Glacier, the world’s largest piedmont glacier.

EQUITY. Twila Old Coyote, an enrolled member of the Apsáalooke tribe and a member the White Clay Nation, has been named the University’s first director of the S.E.A. Change Initiative, a new program focused on advancing equity for all. Through this initiative, UM fosters an environment that is safe for women – one that uniquely empowers all women to reach their full potential while accelerating them into careers of impact.

GARDENS. UM’s own gardens, grown and managed by Campus Dinning, yielded more than 3,400 pounds of fresh vegetables this growing season – much of it served to students in the Food Zoo and patrons at UM’s American bistro, the Iron Griz, located at the UM Golf Course. Salad greens, summer squash, tomatoes, cucumbers and squash blossoms are the chefs’ favorite garden commodities. Visit the Iron Griz website at https://www.irongriz.com for their seasonal menu!  

WILDFIRE. When a wildfire broke out on Mount Sentinel on Aug. 20, UM’s professors of fire ecology saw a learning opportunity. A few weeks after the fire, they took their students up to the fire site and found new growth already sprouting. They’ll revisit the site throughout the semester as an opportunity for hands-on learning.