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University of Montana Vision 2018

Welcome to this issue of Vision https://medium.com/vision-2018 , the magazine that celebrates the vast range of research and creative scholarship by University of Montana faculty and students.

The big news is that the University has a new president, Seth Bodnar, who started in January. He graduated first in his class from West Point, received both the Rhodes and Truman scholarships, and earned two master’s degrees from the University of Oxford. His wife, Chelsea Elander, is a fifth-generation Montanan, pediatrician, fellow Rhodes Scholar and graduate of Oxford and Harvard Medical School. Chelsea and Seth have three children.

The research enterprise at the University continues to show amazing growth. UM brought in $89.3 million in new funding during the past fiscal year, which supports our research, entrepreneurship and statewide outreach missions. University researchers also set a record for research expenditures at $88.2 million – a 12 percent increase from the previous year’s $78.5 million record total. The new expenditure total is 50 percent higher than the 2014 fiscal year amount of $58.3 million. The productivity of our faculty is on par with elite institutions anywhere.

These metrics indicate UM continues on a path to become one of the nation’s top-tier research universities – Carnegie Research 1. That classification also requires an increase in the number of doctorates produced. The fall semester graduate and professional student enrollment is up 10 percent over last year, and the largest graduate school in the state of Montana now houses 2,326 students – also a record for the University.

UM continues gaining national and international recognition in the arts, humanities, social sciences and business. The University’s Montana Repertory Theatre celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2017 with a series of performances of "To Kill a Mockingbird" in China in front of large audiences to rave reviews. The article in this issue covering the School of Theatre and Dance’s presentation of Shakespeare’s "As You Like It" showcases a new project for the department: the construction of a set that mimics London’s old Globe Theatre. Another Vision story on the student-run Switchback record label focuses on student entrepreneurial efforts in UM’s Entertainment Management program in our newly renamed College of Business.

Research and creative scholarship at UM are robust and growing. We share more of our activities and accomplishments online. Be sure to follow our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/umtresearch, our Twitter account at http://www.twitter.com/umtresearch and my blog at http://research.blog.umt.edu.

And Go Griz!

Scott Whittenburg
UM Vice President for Research and Creative Scholarship

https://medium.com/vision-2018

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