In joining the University of Idaho, I’ve emphasized a new approach to administration, relying on issue-specific working groups to garner input, examine issues and offer recommendations. The university has challenges and opportunities – our budget not least among them – and I’ve wanted to make sure we’re getting a holistic understanding of those strategic areas of focus, hearing from people inside and outside the university. Two months in, I can report that we’ve hit the ground running. Chandra Zenner Ford, special assistant for strategic initiatives, herself a Vandal graduate and formerly with the Boise mayor’s office and U of I before that for 25 years, is shepherding our efforts with the working groups. Our most immediate area of focus is creating a sustainable financial model. Provost John Wiencek and Vice President Brian Foisy will co-chair this group, with the valued participation of external representatives as well as U of I faculty, staff and students. We have a number of other areas to tackle. We’re either forming or have formed working groups for a sustainable athletics model (new Athletic Director Terry Gawlik has graciously agreed to chair), enrollment management, the student experience, online education, and special projects such as ICCU Arena and the Idaho Center for Agriculture, Food and the Environment. Each group will have diverse internal and external representation. We’ve engaged a facilitator to guide our work. We’ll communicate during those processes, and, once recommendations have been arrived at, we’ll share those with key groups such as the administrative cabinet, our Faculty Senate and our Staff Council. That input will help as we finalize recommendations and create roadmaps for their implementation. I expect the conversation to be open, robust and productive. I appreciate that these conversations are not easy, especially for those of us who work at the university. We will face difficult choices. But in my engagement with our faculty and staff so far, I’ve been struck by an eagerness to put aside concerns and focus on what’s best for the university over the long term. To succeed in our mission to support students, conduct research and scholarship, and serve our state, we have to work collaboratively but efficiently, and with the big-picture goals at the center of our target. This can be difficult work. But we’re Idaho’s brave and bold university. I know our Vandal Family is up to the challenge. | | Go Vandals! C. Scott Green President | | | | from U of I | | NSF Grant Supports Native American STEM Doctoral Students Twelve Native American students will receive funding to participate in STEM-based doctoral degree programs at the University of Idaho as part of a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (NSF-LSAMP) Bridge to Doctorate fellowship program. Program funding will cover the first two years of the students’ doctoral programs. Assistantships and other fellowships will cover any remaining funding. Participating students and their program leaders will be encouraged to integrate traditional ecological knowledge, an indigenous way of seeing science and the environment, into their studies. U of I’s College of Graduate Studies will administer the grant and recruit participating students for fall 2020 through a partnership with the All-Nations LSAMP program, which involves 25 tribal and higher educational institutions. Eleven Northwest tribes, signatories to a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with U of I and members of the president’s Native American Advisory Council, will also help with referrals and recruitment. | | | student success | | The student chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, a student organization in the School of Journalism and Mass Media, was named the "Outstanding Campus Chapter" and the "Campus Program of the Year" for Region 10, which includes Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington. As the regional winner, the chapter is a finalist for the national award. Jamie Waters, a marketing and marketing analytics student in the College of Business and Economics, is one of two people selected for Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA) awards to Cambodia. ETAs help teach English while serving as cultural ambassadors for the U.S. Prior to this award, Waters also received a Benjamin A. Gilman Scholarship and a Freeman ASIA Award. Brian Pugliese, a Ph.D. candidate in experimental psychology in the Department of Psychology and Communication Studies, was named a 2019-20 student fellow by the Society for Public Health Education and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. The fellowship supports the training of public health researchers and behavorial science practitioners. | | For all the latest news, tips, events, services and funding opportunities that help advance and expand our growing research enterprise, sign up for Scholars and Researchers, the Office of Research and Economic Development’s monthly online newsletter for faculty, students and staff. | | | | | |