MISSOULA – Dan Reisenfeld, a professor in physics and astronomy, made a discovery about Saturn.
Lisa Stone, the CEO of BlogHer, gave several talks about creating social change and the power of people and technology.
Graduates from the business school get their first or second picks for jobs.
The University of Montana is facing a budget crisis that may slash 201 faculty and staff jobs, along with $10 million to $12 million from the 2017 fiscal year budget. Students and faculty members are questioning the leadership at UM and the commitment to its core liberal arts mission, and the ramifications of the crisis and cuts aren’t yet known.
At the same time, vital research continues, and some professors are seizing on good work still taking place in the trenches.
“Although things at UM are somber due to the budget woes, many activities occurred last week that were inspiring, energizing and hopeful,” wrote Jakki Mohr, regents professor of marketing and the Gallagher Distinguished Faculty Fellow, in an email a couple of weeks earlier.
Along with Stone’s BlogHer event, Mohr named a lecture by award-winning history professor Kyle Volk, who talked about “the paradoxes of communication in the voice of the ‘moral minority’ and the ‘moral majority.’ ”
A conference called QuestMT has put the spotlight on UM students by a creative agency with an international footprint.
Andrew Ware, chair of the physics and astronomy department, said assistant professor David Macaluso has been taking students to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California to do work on advanced light sources. They’re studying heavy isotopes to help in astrophysical observations.
“The university is still very vibrant,” Ware told the Missoulian (http://bit.ly/1NXRQh9).
Joshua Herbold, associate professor in accounting and finance, said graduates from the business school go to top firms in the country. Deloitte. PricewaterhouseCoopers. KPMG. JCCS.
“Nobody thinks that accounting is that exciting, but I’m thrilled that our students, if they don’t get their first-choice job, they all get their second-choice job,” Herbold said.
The budget problem at UM is more complex than some faculty make it out to be, he said, but it must be solved.
“I wish the university could be a place where we could just explore anything we wanted to and think about great problems and not worry about the money, but someone has to worry about the money,” Herbold said.
Last week, students were worrying about it. In a demonstration that sent at least 200 people to Main Hall, a crowd of students, faculty and some community members protested proposed cuts and delivered a petition with 1,150 signatures to the president’s office.
Abby Fredrickson, a junior from Seattle who is studying anthropology at UM, is worried about the future of her program. Cuts will do a disservice to the students who are already at UM, and she worries about graduating on time.
“My main fear is I feel like they might end up switching how often classes are offered,” Fredrickson said.