Brag Points

  • National Jurist ranks Idaho as 9th best value for legal education in US. The law school continues to provide one of the best values in legal education, as recognized by The National Jurist in its September 2009 issue. This year, the National Jurist identified 65 schools that “carry a low price tag and are able to prepare their students perfectly well for today’s competitive job market.” Idaho was ranked 9th in the survey, and was described as a law school which offers “students an excellent education at a reasonable price.”  Read the full article or view a copy of the issue.
  • Alen Mahic captured the first place award in the chair portion of Fresh Wood, a national student woodworking competition. Mahic designed and built the chair, entitled "Cinnamon Roll," while completing his bachelor's and master's degrees in architecture in spring 2009. Made of Baltic Birch plywood, the chair's design is one continuous line that folds into itself to create two pieces: a chair and an ottoman. The competition attracted 165 entries from 49 different post-secondary and high schools in the U.S. and Canada.
  • The University of Idaho women’s golf team has been honored as the recipient of the 2008-09 National Golf Coaches Association All-Scholar Team GPA Award. The award recognizes the women’s collegiate golf program with the highest collective average team GPA for the 2008-09 season. Idaho’s seven team members had an average GPA of 3.780.
  • The University of Idaho is included in the 2009 edition of Princeton Review's "Best 368 Colleges." Only about 15 percent of the nation's colleges are included the in the ranking of the nation's best institutions for undergraduate education.
  • The University of Idaho has the largest study abroad program in the state of Idaho and one of the most extensive programs in the U.S. with access to 364 universities in 63 countries, students in virtually any field can enhance their University of Idaho education.
  • The June 2008 edition of Men's Journal magazine lists Moscow as one of the five "Best Places to Live: College Towns." It describes Moscow as "a hip little city... an hour from Hells Canyon and five from the Bitterroot Mountains." Bloomington, Indiana, topped the list, and Moscow joined Durham, North Carolina; Madison, Wisconsin; and Missoula, Montana, in the top five.
  • Three out of four awards given by the Association for Fire Ecology went to University of Idaho students and emeriti. Leon Neuenschwander, professor emeritus of forest resources, received the Association for Fire Ecology Harold Biswell Lifetime Achievement Award in Fire Ecology and Management. With just one award given annually to a fire ecologist who has worked primarily west of the front range of the Rocky Mountains, including west and central Texas, the competition is fierce and the awards highly coveted.
  • University of Idaho graduate engineering student Edward J. William II received the 2009 Mike Shinn Distinguished Member of the Year from the National Society of Black Engineers. The prestigious award is given to one male and female NSBE member who has demonstrated high scholastic performance, dedicated service to NSBE and other organizations, and who possesses high professional promise. The awards honor the best and brightest in technology.
  • Poet and University of Idaho Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing faculty member Robert Wrigley has earned an astounding sixth Pushcart Prize for his poem, “Beautiful Country."
  • The annual Thomas H. Carter Prize for the Essay, from Washington and Lee University’s literary magazine Shenandoah, was awarded for 2009 to Brandon R. Schrand for his essay “The Bone Road.”
  • Author and University of Idaho creative writing professor Kim Barnes recently learned that her third novel, “American Mecca,” has sold based on a proposal submitted to renowned New York publishing house, Alfred A. Knopf.
  • University of Idaho Creative Writing Professor Mary Blew’s first novel, "Jackalope Dreams," published in 2008 by University of Nebraska Press, earned The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum 2009 Western Heritage Award.
  • Vandal Pride reached new heights when Astronaut Steven Swanson took a University of Idaho flag into space on board the Discovery Space Shuttle. Swanson carried the flag on behalf of his nephew Greg Swanson, an electrical engineering graduate student at the University of Idaho and a nominee for the NASA International Year of Astronomy Student Ambassador for the state of Idaho.
  • The University of Idaho's Clean Snowmobile Team earned praise and honors this year for their third place finish at the SAE International Clean Snowmobile Challenge. The team also earned the Michigan Snowmobile Association Endurance Award and the NGK Spark Plugs Cold Start Award at the competition, and garnered the best subjective ride, second best oral presentation, and second best design paper and lightest snowmobile honors.
  • The University of Idaho received a piece of the $16.5 million from the National Institutes of Health Grant for biomedical research. The renewal grant to the Idaho Institutional Development Award (IDeA) Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) supports undergraduate, graduate and faculty research and other statewide efforts. The grant is the largest scientific grant award to Idaho’s higher education and research institutions and brings the total federal investment in INBRE to $40 million.
  • The University of Idaho student publication, Blot, placed in Best of Show at the National College Media Convention in 2009.
  • Two things astronauts did not service on the final Hubble Telescope mission are data chips created by the University’s Center for Advanced Microelectronics and Bimolecular Research (CAMBR). Those chips still are working perfectly nearly two decades after their installation on Hubble’s first repair mission. One chip is a key component in two on-board solid state data recorders. When Hubble was first launched, NASA called CAMBR engineers to say they were having trouble with the data paths. The chips were the heroes, correcting errors happening elsewhere in the system. The second chip provided an interface between the Hubble systems and the new computer that had to be installed. The chip helped to save the mission and avert a major NASA crisis. Without it, the breathtaking photos supplied by Hubble may never have been taken.
  • More than 1,900 University of Idaho students enrolled in 87 service-learning courses and provided more than 100,000 hours of service during the 2008-09 academic year. Some 150 community agencies opened their doors to give students the opportunity to apply classroom learning to real world environments, develop and practice skills of citizenship, and explore how they can be active agents in producing social change.
  • The College of Education graduate degree program is ranked 87th in the nation in the 2010 U.S. News & World Report rankings of America's Best Graduate Schools in the category of Schools of Education.
  • The College of Law celebrates its centennial in 2009. A featured event was the March Bellwood Lecture presented by Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts, Jr.
  • At the end of fall semester 2008, our women’s cross country team compiled a 3.73 cumulative GPA – that ranks them third in the nation in team GPA out of 364 Division I cross country teams.
  • Students from the College of Engineering consistently score well above the national average for passage of the Fundamentals of Engineering exam; in 2008 the College of Engineering’s overall pass rate was 94 percent compared to a national average of 79 percent.
  • The University of Idaho's PGA Golf Management (PGM) students took first place in the PGA Jones Cup against the 19 other PGM-certified schools in the U.S. The Idaho team rallied from a two-stroke, first-round deficit to grab the title with a two-day winning total of 615 in the 36-hole event.
  • The University of Idaho Foundation distributed a record $8.1 million to the University to support scholarships and programs in fiscal year 2008. The funds came from investment earnings on 1,290 endowments created by donors to support the University.
  • The August/September 2008 issue of Mother Earth News ranks Moscow as one of the “Nine Great Places You’ve Never Heard Of.” The magazine likes the flavor of Moscow. “Remarkable communities combine classic elements such as climate, architecture, natural assets and civic energy in a way that makes places healthy, safe and lively.” Moscow is cited for blending cultural activities and environmental action to create a better community.
  • Gold medal - Alumna Kristin Armstrong '95 won the gold medal for the women's cycling time trial at the 2008 Summer Olympic in Beijing, China.
  • The University of Idaho is a member of Internet2, the foremost U.S. advanced networking consortium. Idaho faculty and staff have access to an extraordinary amount of research bandwidth that links the Moscow campus to more than 200 other Internet2 universities, U.S. government research laboratories, 70 companies, and many research facilities throughout the world. The primary objectives are to facilitate extreme research, collaborative development, distributed experiments, grid-based data analysis and experimentation using high performance networking.
  • Outstanding students and faculty – The Civil Engineering Department received the inaugural Walter LeFevre Award from American Society of Civil Engineers in fall 2008. The award recognizes the department’s commitment to licensure, ethics and professionalism. The award is based on the percentage of students who take the national Fundamentals of Engineering exam, the percentage of students who pass the exam and the percentage of faculty in the department who are licensed engineers. Idaho civil engineering students’ pass rate for the exam has been almost 100 percent for the last 10 years. Also, the percentage of faculty who are professional engineers is 100 percent.
  • Spring 2008 Scholarships - Idaho students have earned a number of prestigious, national scholarships. Cassie Byrne and Nathan Larson both received the National Security Education Program David L. Boren Scholarship that funds a year of Arabic language and culture studies in Jordan. Junior Lissa Firor was awarded a Morris K. Udall Scholarship - one of 80 students nationally chosen for the award. Bryan J. Wilson and Joshua R. Pohlman are Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship recipients. Since 1991, University of Idaho students have garnered 22 Goldwater scholarships, the most in the state. Chris Chandler '08 received a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship that allows him to study nutritional anthropology in Zimbabwe. Anna Makowski '08 is the recipient of a Fulbright Teaching Assistantship award and she will study and teach English in Colombia.
  • NASA interns - 12 University of Idaho students have been selected as NASA interns for summer 2008 and will work and study at three NASA locations around the country.
  • The June 2008 edition of Men's Journal magazine lists Moscow as one of the five "Best Places to Live: College Towns." Here's their reasoning: "An hour from Hells Canyon and five from the Bitterroot Mountains, University of Idaho students make sure their hip little city is the most agnostic outside Boise. A thriving food co-op drove out KFC, and BookPeople’s mustachioed owner, Bob Greene, will make sure you don’t leave without something to read. On Saturdays drag steelhead out of the Clearwater or fight rapids on the Snake."
  • The Corporation for National and Community Service has named the University of Idaho to the 2008 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for exemplary service efforts. The Community Service Honor Roll is the highest federal recognition a school can achieve for its commitment to service-learning and civic engagement. This year 2,250 students at Idaho engaged in some 70,500 hours of service. This is the third year the university has received this recognition.
  • John Clayton, artistic director of the Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival at the University of Idaho, is a 2008 Grammy Award winner. Clayton was given the award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) for his work as arranger on the song "I'm Gonna Live Till I Die" from Queen Latifah's "Trav'lin' Light" recording.
  • A $52 million project is underway to renovate and expand the ASUI-Kibbie Activity Center - the Kibbie Dome. Fundings will come from two sources: $17 million from university funds designated for life safety issues and $35 million from private gifts. The Kibbie Dome is one of only two NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision indoor, on-campus stadiums in the nation.
  • University of Idaho special purpose computers are hurtling toward the edge of the solar system at speeds in excess of 43,000 mph aboard NASA’s New Horizons probe. The probe carrying the university’s Center for Advanced Microelectronics and Biomolecular Research’s (CAMBR) EDAC5 chip was more than 882 million miles from Earth on Jan. 19, 2008; it was launched Jan.19, 2006. The chip provides error correction of the data New Horizons is gathering on its groundbreaking mission. The ultimate objective of the mission is to gather information on the dwarf planet Pluto and the unexplored Kuiper Belt region beyond it. The probe is expected to arrive at Pluto in 2015.
  • The University of Idaho is included in the 2008 list of Kiplinger's 100 Best Values in Public Colleges. Idaho ranked 98th out of more than 500 public four-year colleges and universities. The rankings reflect academic strength and affordability.
  • The University of Idaho's Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival was awared the National Medal of Arts by President George W. Bush in 2007. It is the highest national honor an individual or arts organization can receive. The University of Idaho is the first public university to be named a recipient of the award since it was created by Congress in 1984.
  • The University of Idaho Department of Athletics was recognized for its commitment to gender equity in the inaugural Glass Ceiling Report Card developed by a Penn State University political science instructor. Idaho was awarded an A grade in the report that reviewed gender equity among coaching staffs at the nation's Division I-A athletic programs. Idaho is one of 15 schools to receive an A grade and is sixth overall.
  • It started simply enough in 1894 with two students who earned degrees from the University of Idaho. Those two degrees were followed by thousands more and the University marked a milestone at May 2007 Commencement by granting its 100,000th degree.
  • The University of Idaho has stepped up to meet the growing demand for highly-trained fire professionals who can make sound decisions about fire prevention, suppression and management by creating the nation's first fire ecology and management bachelor’s degree.
  • The University of Idaho has taken another step in environmental leadership by joining the Chicago Climate Exchange, the world’s first and North America’s only voluntary, legally binding multi-sector market for reducing and trading greenhouse gas emissions. As part of this commitment, the university has committed to reduce its own emissions of greenhouse gases by six percent below the average of its 1998-2001 baseline by 2010. The University of Idaho is one of only six higher-education institutions that have joined CCX.
  • Idaho plant breeder Jack Brown and Gibraltar-based Eco-Energy Ltd. announced a research project to develop high-value oilseed crops worldwide for alternative fuel production. The agreement brings $2 million in research funding to the University during the next five years.Brown and his research team will develop new high oil yield varieties tailored to adapt to worldwide climatic and environmental conditions. The oil produced from these crops will have specific characteristics suitable for making the highest quality biofuel.
  • Sarah Heath Palin ’87 is the first woman to serve as Alaska’s governor. Palin was a candidate for vice president of the United States in the 2008 election. She earned a journalism degree from Idaho, and worked in media and the utilities industry before beginning her public service.
  • The University's National Institute for Advanced Transportation Technology is ranked among the top transportation research centers in the nation. It is one of 10 centers to receive honors from the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Research and Innovative Technology Administration for finding innovative solutions to immediate and long-range transportation challenges through research, education and technology transfer.
  • Idaho Extension reaches out to more than 12,000 Idaho youth through the Junior Master Gardener program. The science-based gardening curriculum aims to ignite a passion for learning.
  • The University is a participant in the national CyberCorps program, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Idaho will receive more than $800,000 through 2009 to support promising young scholars who intend to work on federal information assurance projects.
  • The University of Idaho has been selected to join the prestigious Institute for Information Infrastructure Protection, a consortium of approximately two dozen leading national cyber security institutions. Idaho joins with researchers at Stanford, UC-Berkeley, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon and MIT, to work toward identifying and addressing critical research problems in information infrastructure protection.
  • The Operation Education Scholarship program is the first of its kind in the nation. The scholarship is available to veterans severely and permanently wounded as a result of service since Sept. 11, 2001. The spouses of wounded veterans also are eligible for the scholarship.
  • The three mule clones born at Idaho are now five years old. Two of the mules, Idaho Gem and Idaho Star, are competing on the mule-racing circuit.
  • Idaho ranks second in the Northwest for enrolling new National Merit Scholars. Fall 2008 enrollment included 26 new National Merit Finalist Scholars -- the top 1 percent of the nation’s high-school graduates --in the freshman class. There are now 67 National Merit Scholars enrolled at Idaho.
  • The University provides more than $85 million in scholarships, grants, low-interest loans, work-study and internship opportunities to students.
  • Outside magazine listed the University of Idaho 29th on its list of Top 40 colleges offering the best in outdoor adventure. The magazine rated the university's Outdoor Program and the Student Recreation Center’s climbing wall as outstanding.