DATE:  May 17, 2001

TO:  Board of Regents

FROM:  Geoffrey Gamble, President, MSU-Bozeman

RE:  Campus Report for the March, 2001 Board of Regents Meeting

1.       Status of Key Administrative Searches

After interviewing four finalists for the position of Dean of Engineering, Interim Provost David Dooley and the Search Committee were informed by the top candidate that financial considerations prevented him from continuing in the search process. The committee and the Provost, in consultation with the President and the department heads in Engineering reached the conclusion that MSU would be best served at this time by continuing the leadership of current Interim Dean, Robert Marley. Marley has been named Dean for a three year term. A search for a permanent Dean will take place during the third year of the term. Marley will be eligible to apply for the permanent position if he wishes.

The search committee for the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs has completed its work A field of four finalists was narrowed to three when one candidate dropped out for financial reasons. Following the three on-campus interviews, the committee met with the President to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each candidate. President Gamble is reviewing all search materials and will make a decision in the near future.

President Gamble has appointed Mary Sheehy Moe, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Student Services at MSU-Great Falls College of Technology, as Interim Dean of the College, effective July 1. Moe's appointment will run until June 30, 2003. Prior to serving as Associate Dean on the Great Falls Campus, Moe was employed by the Helena College of Technology. She served on the faculty and as Department Chair and Accreditation Coordinator. She was also an adjunct faculty member of the staff of The University Montana and liaison for their on-site Master's of Education program.

Laura Humberger, a certified public accountant who received her degree in accounting from MSU in 1990, began her work as MSU's Controller on May 14. She comes to MSU from the position of Controller at Anchor Gaming in Bozeman. Humberger has extensive experience in the preparation of institutional financial statements and previously served as finance director of the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman and manager of auditing services for Deloitte & Touche in Reno, Nevada.

2.       Michelle Show, a senior majoring in microbiology at Montana State University-Bozeman, has received a $7,000 Phi Kappa Phi graduate fellowship given to 51 top college graduates in the country. Show, from the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation and a member of the Assiniboine tribe, is interested in pre-natal infant alcohol syndrome and diabetes. Show intends to enter medical school and has been accepted into the WWAMI program.

3.       Kathy Bancroft, a graduate student in Cell Biology, has earned a Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship for Minorities from the National Academy of Sciences in the amount of $24,000 a year for three years. Bancroft is a member of the tiny Lone Pine Paiute Shoshone Reservation 60 miles south of Bishop, Calif. She has been working on her doctorate in the chemistry labs of Valerie Copie' and the cell biology/neuroscience lab of Frances Lefcort.

4.       Klein and Karen Gilhousen, through their Gilhousen Family Foundation, have pledged $5 million to the College of Engineering at Montana State University to establish the Gilhousen Telecommunications Chair and related programs in the college's Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. The Gilhousen Family Foundation's gift establishes the first fully-endowed chair in the history of Montana State University and represents the largest gift in the history of the university. Klein Gilhousen is a founder of Qualcomm, Inc. of San Diego, Calif. He currently serves as the company's Senior Vice President for Technology and is a pioneer in the technology that makes digital wireless communication possible.

5.       Laura K. Jennings and Kay Kirkpatrick, both juniors, are 2001 winners of the Goldwater Scholarship, the top undergraduate scholarship in the country for students studying engineering, math or science. The scholarships' cover the cost of tuition, fees, books, and room and board up to a maximum of $7,500 per year of undergraduate schooling. Their awards bring to 37, the number of MSU students who have won the prestigious scholarships, placing MSU among the top rank of institutions in the country.

6.       Montana State University-Bozeman conferred approximately 2,369 degrees at the university's 105th annual commencement on Saturday, May 12 in the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse. President Geoff Gamble, delivered the charge to the graduates. MSU-Bozeman awarded 1,915 bachelor's degrees, 402 master's degrees and 52 doctorates. Among the baccalaureate recipients was MSU's 80,000th graduate, Deena Hendrickson of Livingston, who received a Bachelor of Science in Biotechnology.