This week we unveiled University House on our Moscow campus. This special facility offers a private residence for the president’s family and a public space for the university community. The beautifully designed house nods to the tradition and heritage of our campus and our area, but it’s also a thoroughly modern facility that will serve the university well for many years. It has been very rewarding to work on this addition to the university community and see it completed this spring. University House is so named because it belongs to the U of I community. The house will provide space to entertain university groups, community organizations and other partners for the institution. Abundant space to exhibit art and other displays will welcome people to the space. Foremost, the house also offers privacy, practicality and sanctuary to the next U of I leader and his or her family. In the heart of our campus, University House will help the next president foster a close connection with our community. One’s life as president is all-consuming; to have a sanctuary literally within the university campus signifies this incredibly close relationship. The pictures below highlight the stunning design of the house. While certainly a non-traditional design, the house includes many ties to the traditions of our university and to the region. For instance, the fireplace is reused from the previous iteration of the building (as is the foundation). Black locust harvested on site accents the entrance gallery and dining room. The interior stair treads to the second story are made of glulam beams whose first life involved supporting the roof of the old house. The flooring is made from larch from our nearby Experimental Forest and cut by our own student logging crew. The gables and dormers echo features common on distinguished older buildings, such as the Life Sciences Building, across our campus. The end result is striking: A thoroughly up-to-date and modern venue, aligned with our aspirations for the future, but in touch with our past and with our place. University House is one of many exciting building projects at U of I. Our ICCU Arena project is out for bid and close to putting shovels in the ground. In June, our Idaho WWAMI Medical Education Program will open a completely revamped facility in Moscow. A new aquaculture center is up and running, and we’re moving ahead on a potato germplasm facility. The Sandpoint Organic Agriculture Center in North Idaho; a new classroom and office space at the Nancy M. Cummings Research, Extension and Education Center; our Idaho Center for Agriculture, Food and the Environment in the Magic Valley; and 10,000 acres of research possibilities at the Rinker Rock Creek Ranch near Hailey enlarge and enhance our statewide footprint. These facilities touch different aspects of our mission, from student success to research and scholarship to outreach and engagement. But in each case, an up-to-date, well-designed and fiscally responsible building represents a sound investment in future accomplishments. As we look to the future at U of I, we can be confident we have a good foundation. | | Go Vandals! Chuck Staben President | | | Vandal Giving Day 2019: Vandals Unite for Incredible Impact In typical Vandal fashion, the University of Idaho community has united in an incredible show of preliminary support for the upcoming Vandal Giving Day 2019. Contributing over $160,000 to over 50 matches and challenges, donors are instrumental to funding student scholarships and programming at the University of Idaho. The combined impact of these gifts touch every academic college and include pivotal areas like the Women’s Center, the James A. and Louise McClure Center for Public Policy Research, and Campus Recreation. This year’s theme, inspired by the nostalgia of early video games, will likely bring back the memories — and we hope you decide to “play.” Everyone is invited to make a difference and get involved. To learn more about getting involved, contact Eric Billings, director of annual giving at 208-885-5369, or visit vandalsgive.uidaho.edu. | | Project Echo Gives Idaho Doctors New Tools to Combat Opioid Addiction From the March 14 Idaho Falls Post Register: Twice a month, the doctors click the link and tune into the conversation. They call in from tablets at home and from computers in their hospital offices, representing Moscow, Coeur d’Alene, Shoshone, Hailey. At Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center, the call is displayed on a TV screen in a staff room and residency nurses eat lunch while they listen in. The largest group gathers in a conference room in Boise, a dozen experts from local hospitals, the Department of Health and Welfare and recovery networks. Lachelle Smith manages the meetings through Project ECHO, the only version of the international digital medical program currently operating in the state, through the University of Idaho’s Boise office to address opioid addiction and treatment. For an hour on every other Thursday, experts swap advice for treating recovering addicts in all corners of the state and rural doctors receive free online training. “The whole idea is to de-monopolize knowledge. Patients who need care live wherever they live, and we have some critical shortages in the state,” Smith said. Read more. | | Planning for Changing Landscapes in Idaho’s Magic Valley From the March 12 Burley Weekly Mailer: It’s not hard for Kathryn Frostenson to imagine her hometown of Jerome — part of Idaho’s agricultural epicenter — in the throngs of some pretty hefty changes between now and 2050. Frostenson grew up running heavy equipment on her family’s farm — swathing and raking alfalfa, wheat and barley. She’s already seen dairies in the region go belly up due to trade disputes involving foreign governments’ retaliatory tariffs on cheese and milk. She’s also heard chatter of the tech sector moving in to snatch up cheap land, which could put a strain on the region’s water supply. Then there’s the potential for increased water quality regulations, which would further limit farmers’ ability to irrigate. All signs point toward the Magic Valley, home to a thriving dairy and food processing industry that supports Idaho’s economy with thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in sales, in the midst of a fairly uncertain future. That’s why a group of University of Idaho faculty and students, including Frostenson, are working with the Center for Resilient Communities (CRC), a research facility housed in U of I’s College of Art and Architecture, along with 25 researchers across the nation and community members in the Magic Valley, to create models of alternative future scenarios that will allow the region to proactively plan for a very different time. Read more. | | | | |