Hundreds of students, faculty, alumni and other well-wishers gathered Friday at Montana State University’s Norm Asbjornson Hall, home of the engineering and honors colleges, to celebrate the newly constructed building with a ceremony and ribbon cutting and to say thank you to the man who made it possible.

MSU alumnus Norm Asbjornson’s 2014 gift of $50 million funded the building's design and construction and inspired other donors to round out the university’s South Campus project at $70 million.

"Your generosity will impact not only current students, but students far into the future," said MSU President Waded Cruzado of Asbjornson. "In turn, those students will have an immeasurable impact on science, technology and enterprise in Montana and the world beyond."

With a growing engineering college and record enrollments at MSU, the building will provide much-needed classroom and lab space, said Brett Gunnink, dean of the Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering.

The 110,000-square-foot building houses 10 classrooms seating 800 students as well as 17 instructional and research labs with a capacity of 430 students and faculty. One interactive lab, named for donor Bill Wurst, will house 3-D printers and other tools for students to turn their ideas into reality.

"That's what I'm most excited about with this building," said Hilary Fabich, who won the Gates Cambridge Scholarship in 2012 while earning her bachelor's in chemical engineering at MSU.

According to Fabich — one of four MSU engineering and honors alumni who have won prestigious scholarships and who spoke at the event — the interactive lab, called a makerspace, resembles the work environment at the high-tech company where she works now. Having such a lab during her time at MSU would have enhanced her education, said Fabich, who earned her doctorate from University of Cambridge.

MSU alumnus and 2017 Rhodes Scholarship winner Josh Carter, who earned bachelor's degrees in mechanical engineering and microbiology, noted that combining the engineering and honors colleges in an open and interactive building would foster the kind of interdisciplinary learning that launched him on his career.

"(The building) will serve as a hub for students to learn and engage with each other and hatch the sorts of ambitious dreams that just might change the world," he said.

Other major financial contributors to MSU's $70 million South Campus development — which includes Norm Asbjornson Hall and the adjacent parking garage — include the estate of Bill Wurst, a 1959 MSU electrical engineering alumnus; the Gianforte Family Foundation; and Tim and Mary Barnard of Barnard Construction.

Also at the event, MSU project manager Sam Des Jardins unveiled a plaque honoring the building as one of only 10 in Montana to becertified LEED Platinum, the U.S. Green Building Council's highest certification. The building includes a solar electric system, solar air-heating and a geothermal system used to heat and cool the space, which will significantly reduce operating costs, according to Gunnink.

A 1960 mechanical engineering graduate from MSU, Asbjornson grew up in the small farm town of Winifred, Montana. After MSU, he worked his way through the heating, ventilation and air conditioning business for 28 years and then founded AAON, a Tulsa, Oklahoma-based HVAC manufacturer that is traded on NASDAQ and that had sales of $450 million in 2018.

MSU's total student enrollment has grown every year since 2007, from 12,170 to this year’s record fall enrollment of 16,902. Enrollment in MSU's engineering college has grown from 2,065 in 2008 to 3,889 this past fall.

Project architects for the building are A&E Architects and ZGF Architects, LLP. Martel Construction is the general contractor. Associated Construction Engineering Inc. is the engineering consultant, and Kath Williams + Associates is LEED consultant.

One of the last projects of Montana State University’s yearlong 125th anniversary celebration is one with a lot of heart.

Heartwood, that is, that comes from the heart of the MSU campus. That’s what the MSU 125th anniversary time capsule is made from, according to master woodworker Bill Clinton of the MSU School of Architecture who handcrafted the time capsule that was presented to MSU students at the 2018 Lighting of Montana Hall ceremony on Dec. 5.

Clinton, who is director of the MSU School of Architecture’s Fabrication Space, part of the MSU College of Arts and Architecture, made the 12-by-12-by-18 inch box from wood salvaged from campus trees cut to make room for both the MSU Chemistry and Biochemistry Building and Jabs Hall in the center of campus.

MSU President Waded Cruzado, who shared the box with the president and vice president of the Associated Students of MSU during the lighting of Montana Hall on Dec. 5, said the grace and beautiful simplicity of the box represents the university’s strength and connection to the landscape.
 
“We are thankful for Bill Clinton’s extraordinary craftsmanship and vision of this artifact, which is truly MSU made, in every sense,” Cruzado said. “The capsule puts a beautiful exclamation point on what has been a memorable year of celebration.”
 
Clinton said that two types of wood were used for the box, which will be stored in the MSU Library Archives. The body of the box was made from Douglas fir harvested to make room for Jabs Hall in 2015. The white oak that Clinton used to fashion the knob, key escutcheon and plaque came from a tree harvested to build the chemistry building in 2008.

“I’ve been saving this wood for a long time and am so happy to be able to use it for this project,” Clinton said.

 
He said that he has been using the oak for several MSU projects over the years, including a hand-crafted meeting table in the chemistry building, “nearly exactly where the tree we made it from once stood.
 
“And that was kind of the last of that (white oak), so I’m glad it is going to something like this,” he said.
 
Clinton said he and ceramics professor Dean Adams, who is assistant dean of the College of Arts and Architecture, developed a basic design for the capsule. Clinton said he opted for a simple design that wouldn’t take away from the eventual contents of the box. He hand-carved the 125th seal on the lid, which gave the box both texture and three dimensions, he said. All of the dovetailed joints were cut by hand.

“I love to do things like that,” said Clinton, who has been making furniture since 1976 and teaching architecture design-build courses for 15 years. “It got me back to my roots of hand woodworking.”
 
Among objects already submitted from across campus representing MSU at this point in its history includes a letter from Cruzado written to the Class of 2093 to be read on the university’s 200th anniversary celebration. Other items range from a deck of souvenir cards identifying 125 women honored at the recent “Extraordinary, Ordinary Women” ceremony to the Nov. 18 issue of the Bozeman Daily Chronicle with a story about “The Miracle in Missoula,” MSU’s recent last-second  football victory over the University of Montana. Cruzado said campus entities will have the opportunity to submit items until the end of December.

Clinton said that was honored to make the capsule and be a part of the last bit of history that closes out MSU’s 125th anniversary year.
 
“It was a joy to do this hand project,” Clinton said.  “I was very flattered to be asked to do it.”

The Bozeman High School Speech and Debate Team, currently ranked #44 in the nation, will be hosting its Invitational tournament at Bozeman High School on December 7 and 8.  All 14 MT class AA Schools, 10 Class A schools, and several class B & C schools are planning to attend, making this by far the largest tournament in Montana this year, with over 800 students competing.  The tournament is still in need of community judges. There are rounds on Friday afternoon, Friday, evening, and Saturday morning.  To sign up, go to http://bit.ly/bhsjudge2018.

Joan Milkovich had been searching for colleges that would be a good fit for her son Jack, who has learning disabilities, but she couldn’t picture sending him to one outside of Montana.

“I had been dreaming of programs for him, but they were all so far away,” she said. “I wasn’t quite ready to send him to Maine or Texas.” The Milkovich family lives in Great Falls.

Then, in the spring of 2018, she heard about a new program at Montana State University for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Called LIFE Scholars – LIFE stands for Learning Is For Everyone – the program was set to enroll its first group of students in the fall of 2018.

“I felt like it was a miracle,” she said. “Jack had always wanted to go to college. It was his dream. The other miraculous part was he always wanted to be a Bobcat …. This whole thing, the way it came together, there’s no other word I can say except that it was a miracle to our family.”

The MSU LIFE Scholars Program is an inclusive post-secondary experience that opened this fall to its first seven students, according to Christy Sofianek, program director. The program consists of three main components: academics, career development and campus engagement. Students who are enrolled in the program may choose to either audit classes or take them for credit. Students this fall selected courses in meteorology, creative writing, public speaking, horse handling, aviation and tae kwon do, among other subjects, Sofianek said. LIFE Scholars also engage in extra-curricular campus activities and complete an internship in order to develop job skills and explore careers.

LIFE Scholars is a three-year program, but students may complete it in as few as two years or extend it to a maximum of four years. Scholars who successfully complete the program requirements earn a LIFE Scholars certificate and are eligible to participate in the university’s commencement ceremony.

To help support LIFE Scholars, current MSU students serve as peer partners who are matched with individual scholars and meet on a regular basis to offer academic or campus engagement support. Academic peer partners attend classes with LIFE Scholars, while peer partners focused on campus engagement participate in a variety of activities with scholars – anything from having lunch together to attending a sporting event to watching a movie in the Procrastinator Theater. The program also offers monthly events for LIFE Scholars. Recent activities included a pumpkin carving party and zip lining.

“The intent is to support LIFE Scholars in getting engaged in campus life, and to take advantage of getting involved with clubs and activities and being part of the campus community,” Sofianek said.

Joan Milkovich and her husband, David, felt the program was a good fit for their son, who she said had earlier attended both public and private schools in Great Falls and who had benefitted from a combination of tutoring and one-on-one interactions with teachers.

“It was everything we wanted or were hoping to have for Jack,” she said. “Jack was over the moon excited.” He was thrilled to be accepted, she added.

“He was so excited,” she said. “He just felt inside that it was going to be his thing. It was a huge deal.”

And now, approximately three months into the program, Jack Milkovich said it’s going really well.

“I like doing new things,” he said. “I like coming here (to MSU) because I’m a Bobcat fan.”

“My favorite class is intro to speaking because it’s nice to be with nice people,” he added. “I just enjoy doing the presentations.”

He also enjoys meeting with three different peer partners each week, and he said it’s fun to be away from home. While he is a student, Jack is living with extended family in Bozeman. He often gets to campus by taking the Streamline bus.

In the future, Jack looks forward to finding employment as a student worker on campus, perhaps at the bookstore, he said. He also hopes to be able to live in a residence hall on campus someday.

“Then I could be here anytime,” he said, adding that it takes approximately 45 minutes to get to campus by bus. “It wouldn’t take time to get here.”

Joan Milkovich said she hopes that Jack’s experiences at MSU help him to grow academically and prepare him for a career. She also hopes the experiences help him to grow socially and personally.

“College is such a neat time,” she said. “It’s not just about academics. There are other parts of growing up that you learn.

“I really feel this (time at college) will be – maybe in his whole life – the most important four years,” she added. “I couldn’t be happier to have our son in this program.”

Sofianek noted that in order to help customize the program to each student, LIFE Scholars engage in a planning process to gauge where they are in areas such as self-determination, independent living, community engagement, employment and lifelong learning. That process also helps the students to identify what their goals are and to help them move in the direction of their goals, she said.

Sofianek added that the program is very purposeful.

“It’s purposeful in the sense that students are here to learn and gain skills and develop relationships for an outcome,” she said. “That outcome is whatever their individual goals are, but competitive employment is a piece of that, just as it is for any traditional college student.”

And, for her part, Sofianek said it makes sense for MSU to offer the program.

“We are a land-grant university with a mission of access to our community,” she said. “Of course we want to include a wide range of learners in the community.”

Students with intellectual and developmental disabilities who are at least 18, who have completed high school and who have a strong desire to attend college are eligible to apply for the LIFE Scholars program. Individuals who would like to learn more are invited to visit montana.edu/ehhd/lifescholars/ or contact Sofianek at 406-994-3114 or christy.sofianek@montana.edu.

Montana State University and the Bozeman community rallied for a win in the 19th annual Can the Griz food drive, with supporters donating a record of the equivalent of 448,720 pounds of food to the Gallatin Valley Food Bank.
 
Can the Griz and the corresponding Can the Cats food drive in Missoula is an off-field competition between MSU and the University of Montana to see which school can collect the most donations for its local county food bank.
 
This year, MSU and the Bozeman community donated 263,263 pounds of food and $185,457 to the Gallatin Valley Food Bank, according to Laurynn Olson of the MSU Office of Student Engagement, which coordinates Can the Griz. The Can the Cats food drive in Missoula brought in 211,811 pounds of food and $193,086 for the Missoula Food Bank, for a total of the equivalent of 404,897 pounds of food, Olson said.

She added that both communities surpassed last year's totals, which were also record amounts: Last year, MSU and the Bozeman community donated 257,336 pounds of food plus approximately $131,757 to the Gallatin Valley Food Bank, while donations from UM and the Missoula community in 2017 totaled 255,070 pounds of food plus approximately $139,008. 

 
Bozeman and the MSU community have won the competition for 16 out of the 19 years it has been held, Olson said.
 
"The Gallatin Valley never ceases to amaze me with (its) generosity,” said Randi Maiers, community engagement program coordinator with the MSU Office of Student Engagement. “It’s truly amazing to see everyone come together and help their neighbors.”

The significant donations from the Can the Griz drive will help the Gallatin Valley Food Bank provide food for families in the community through the spring and into the summer, said Laura Stonecipher, programs coordinator at the food bank. The Gallatin Valley Food Bank is one of the HRDC Food and Nutrition Program’s initiatives. During the last fiscal year, the food bank served 1,240 households – or more than 3,000 people per month, Stonecipher said. It also helps other nonprofits serve families and individuals in the community.  

“This food will go to benefit a wide range of people,” Stonecipher said.

She noted that the food bank was “blown away” by the generosity of the community.

“We cannot express our appreciation enough to everyone that helped us out,” she said. “It’s just so humbling the way people came out to help. We need more of that.

“There are lots of issues in our world, but as long as people are looking out for each other, we’ll be OK. There are so many people looking out for each other in our valley and beyond.”

A research collaboration between Blackfeet Community College and Montana State University involving tribal college students that looks at the health effects of stress on Native American communities has been featured in a national journal.

The article, "The Spirit of Our People Runs Deep: How a Program at Blackfeet Community College Offers Students Biomedical Research Experience," was published Oct. 22 in the Tribal College Journal of American Indian Higher Education online. It is the leading scholarly and journalistic publication featuring the achievements of the nation's 38 tribal colleges and universities.

Bill Stadwiser, the program communication specialist for Montana INBRE who wrote the article, said the collaboration shows what can happen when academics and communities discuss problems and solutions on an equal footing.

"The work that the BCC undergraduates are doing on this project is really quite impressive and on par or even more sophisticated than some of the research happening at larger institutions in the state," he said.

Students working on the project investigate the relationship between stress and disease on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation near Glacier National Park and how to reduce stress by building a sense of community, said Betty Henderson-Matthews, chair of the BCC Math and Science Division and INBRE project leader.

The students have surveyed 350 tribal members on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation between the ages of 18 and 80 since the BCC-MSU collaboration began in 2012. The students also collected saliva and blood samples for testing to reveal more about the connection between stress and disease. More recently, the students expanded their research to look for ways to reduce ongoing stress by building community through hikes and talks about the importance of culture, place and staying active.

The project exemplifies long-term, community-based participatory research, meaning that “it fosters a partnership where communities are equitable collaborators in all phases of research and cultivate an environment for producing mutually beneficial goals,” said Ann Bertagnolli, Montana program coordinator and director of the Community Engagement Core.

"Investments in undergraduate research at tribal colleges are building professional, academic and social bridges between institutions like Montana State University and Blackfeet Community College,” Stadwiser said.

"The significance of the collaboration is that it develops the student pipeline into biomedical research and careers, has developed and works to sustain a relationship focused on community-based participatory research and uses this CBPR approach to collaborate on improved health for the Blackfeet Nation," Bertagnolli said.

Founded in 2001, Montana INBRE is a network of 16 tribal colleges, community colleges and universities focused on building biomedical research capacity and a workforce pipeline in Montana. The research is supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number P20GM103474.

When researchers at Montana State University hosted a conference about snow and avalanches in Bozeman during the fall of 1982, they made flyers featuring ski tracks alongside a math equation, planned a field day and after-party at nearby Bridger Bowl ski area, and called the event the International Snow Science Workshop.

Because most of the 220 participants were Americans or Canadians, "the 'international' part was a little bit tongue in cheek," said Ed Adams, one of the event's organizers and a recently retired MSU civil engineering professor. Still, the name gave the event — which has since been held at least every two years — "room to grow," he said.

And grow it has. Last month, Adams and more than a dozen other locals joined roughly 1,000 attendees from 27 countries at the 2018 International Snow Science Workshop in Innsbruck, Austria, a colorful city often referred to as the capital of the Alps.  
 
Billed as the world's largest conference on snow and avalanches, the five-day event featured panel discussions, 140 presentations by world experts and 285 posters in an exhibition where researchers, avalanche forecasters and others discussed their work. MSU faculty and students presented a total of 23 papers, including seven papers with students as lead authors.

With topics ranging from the microscopic properties of snow crystals to satellite imaging to best practices for rescue operations, the ISSW covers "the full gamut of snow science," said MSU earth sciences professor Jordy Hendrikx, who attended with four of his graduate students.
 
Hendrikx chaired a session in which MSU earth sciences master's student John Sykes presented research he has conducted at Bridger Bowl about how skiers and snowboarders make decisions in avalanche terrain. As a result of the project, Sykes was one of three recipients — out of roughly 50 submissions — of the ISSW's Young Snow Professional Award.


Adams chaired a session about snowpack stability that featured presentations by Benjamin Reuter, a Swiss researcher visiting MSU to conduct studies in the university’s Subzero Research Laboratory, as well as Karl Birkeland, director of the Bozeman-based National Avalanche Center.
 
"Usually these sorts of things are all scientists ... with a separate meeting for practitioners to talk about problems and solutions," said Birkeland, who chaired a session about how forecasters and others communicate avalanche hazard. "The cool thing about ISSW is that it brings those two together."

Avalanche forecasters from Montana and across the U.S. were among the participants at the event, as were ski patrollers, including from nearby Big Sky Resort, according to Birkeland.
 
"Listening to people talk about the issues they're dealing with in the field helps spur ideas for research," said MSU assistant professor of civil engineering Kevin Hammonds, director of MSU's Subzero Research Laboratory. Hemmonds presented a study on how naturally occurring chemical impurities affect the bonds between ice and snow grains.

 
According to Adams, the ISSW has flourished because, as snow science has advanced and winter recreationists increasingly venture into the backcountry, the event fills a need for practitioners to exchange information with researchers. The workshop's practical bent emerged from the milieu of MSU snow science, which was pioneered starting in the 1950s by earth sciences professors Charles Bradley and John Montagne, both of whom were avid skiers involved in the creation of Bridger Bowl.

Montagne was the first director of Bridger Bowl's volunteer ski patrol, and he also taught a popular undergraduate class that emphasized practical skills for assessing avalanche danger. His and Bradley's scientific studies — which became more rigorous and internationally recognized after Bradley recruited MSU engineers — often revolved around predicting and preventing avalanches at the community ski area.

Shortly after Adams came to MSU in the late 1970s to study snow science, Montagne spearheaded the effort to create the ISSW, Adams recalled. Building on a tradition of more informal snow conferences in the U.S. and Canada, MSU's snow scientists coined the ISSW name and gave the event its enduring motto: "A Merging of Theory and Practice."

 
"The motto really says it all," said American Avalanche Association director Dan Kaveney, who lives in Bozeman and attended the Innsbruck event.
 
Birkeland first attended the ISSW in 1988 at Whistler, British Columbia, where the MSU contingent endured a week of rain while camping on the outskirts of town, he recalled. At the time, he was earning his master's in snow science in MSU's Department of Earth Sciences after working as a ski patroller at Utah's Snow Basin. He found the conference to be "instantly relatable," he said. At the 1990 ISSW in Bigfork, Montana, he presented his master's thesis, which built on Bradley's early experiments about how snowpack stability varies across mountain slopes.

 
Now, when he returns from ISSW, Birkeland writes a synopsis of select presentations and sends it to avalanche forecasters around the country, some of whom may not have attended the event. The summary includes links to the full text of the conference proceedings. Since 2012, as a result of an effort led by former earth sciences department head Steve Custer, all ISSW proceedings have been housed in a digital archive maintained by the MSU Library.

"The whole avalanche community is so grateful to MSU for doing this," said Birkeland, who is also an adjunct professor in MSU's earth sciences department. "For people looking for practical, scientific avalanche work, it's probably the first place that most people look."
 
"Ultimately, bringing people together at the ISSW has advanced our knowledge much more than if it never existed," Birkeland said. "ISSW has made people here, and around the world, safer from avalanches."