The Friday Letter

March 7, 2014

Dear Friends,

This is my first Friday letter, and it comes at the end of my first week as the University of Idaho’s President. As I reflected on the subject of this letter, I realized that Interim President Don Burnett had once again given me a perfect segue in the subject of his final Friday letter: change. I’d like to thank Don again for all he has done, and I hope you will send him your own thanks here. Certainly this week has been an enormous change for me personally -- one I have awaited somewhat impatiently.

An important part of preparing to lead a national, public, land grant university has been coming to a deeper understanding of why such universities are so vital to their students, to their states and to the United States. Institutions like ours bring value by providing an irreplaceable means for positive development, particularly now that higher education is changing and being questioned.
 
Public higher education in the United States began when the Founding Fathers recognized that an effective democracy would need an educated elite to serve as leaders. Universities provided leaders for the new American society, but the role of universities evolved and broadened.

New Bill, New Opportunities

President Lincoln signed three bills in 1862 that opened opportunities for men and women regardless of their backgrounds while also offering a means to build the economy of growing states: the Railroad Act, the Homestead Act, and the Morrill Act. All played a part in Idaho's development and in the founding of the University of Idaho. 
 
Lincoln's words can encourage us at the University today, “The land-grant university system is being built on behalf of the people who have invested in these public institutions their hopes, their support and their confidence,” Land-grant universities met state needs with classes in “scientific and classical studies…agriculture and the mechanic arts…in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions in life.” Land-grant universities educate students who contribute to their states and to the United States, economically and as engaged citizens.
 
One of the next great challenges to the United States began with World War II and continued through the Cold War, when our country recognized the role of universities in research that could enhance our security. Today, particularly after the recession of 2008, the United States looks to its public universities to provide the education essential for employment, to cultivate leaders, and to provide the research and research capacity to ensure global economic competitiveness.
 
Changing Higher Ed Environment

Curiously, even as the nation looks to its universities for help, public funding for universities has decreased. The value of degrees outside STEM disciplines -- even the value of a college degree is questioned, and new, untested ways of educating students, typified by the Massive Online Open Course excitement, create fanfare. Our challenge is to balance issues of resources and access, to make evident the value of a college degree, to ensure that our research and engagement have the greatest possible impact, and to distill from educational trends those advances that can benefit our students and our University.
 
I know that a leadership transition is a time of institutional anxiety. People at the University and throughout the state are looking at me, and looking to me, in ways that I had not imagined prior to assuming this role. Believe me, the anxiety is not all outside the president’s office. In fact, a close friend asked me about my greatest concern in taking this presidency. I told her that the complexity and difficulty are daunting; that it's difficult to see how to take advantage of all the opportunities that the University has to succeed.
 
Together We Succeed

But, over the past week, I have seen what should have been obvious as we spoke, that I am not alone. I’ve seen how much passion surrounds the University. I see faculty and staff contributing their extraordinary talents. I meet students who amaze me with their ability and energy. I meet supporters and friends who astound me with their interest and generosity. So, we can all be heartened that when we pull together, we will succeed.
 
I’m glad to be here to join in saying, “Go Vandals!”
 
Sincerely,

Chuck Staben
President

Here's the Latest News from the University of Idaho

See President Staben's Welcome Address here.

Researchers Show BPA Threat To Hearts. UI researchers reported Tuesday that fetal heart development in rhesus monkeys whose mothers were exposed to bisphenol A or BPA, a common plastics additive, showed genetic changes that may signal later heart problems. Gordon Murdoch, an associate professor of physiology in the animal and veterinary science department, led the study funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Passport foundation. The results were reported recently in PLOS ONE, an open-access scientific journal. When the pregnant monkeys were fed fruit containing BPA, their blood and their fetuses’ blood showed increased levels of BPA, according to a simultaneous study by researcher Fred vom Saal at the University of Missouri, Columbia. Murdoch examined the same monkeys and found fetal genetic changes affecting heart health. “Our study was the first to show that BPA affects heart muscle development in primate fetuses,” Murdoch said. Read more.

Athletes Win In Three Sports; Some On To Championships. Women's basketball, swimming and indoor track teams as well as the men's indoor track team have recently finished strong. Some are now headed to conference or national championships.

Basketball

The Idaho Vandals women’s basketball team accomplished a feat that has not been met in 29 years with the defeat of Seattle University's Redhawks, 60-57, last Saturday, that secured  to win the Western Athletic Conference regular season title and claim its first 20-win season since 2003-04. The team will now travel to the WAC Championship games in Las Vegas March 12-15.

Swimming

The University of Idaho Swim and Dive team won three events and broke four school records March 1 to take second place in the Western Athletic Conference Championships. Sophomore Jamie Sterbis won the 200 fly today with a time of 1:56.77, a new school record. She's now headed to nationals. Kelly Gufford, first year coach for the Vandals, was named Diving Coach of the Year. Mairin Jameson earned the Diver of the Year award, and Rachel Millet earned the Swimmer of the Year award.

Indoor Track And Field

The University of Idaho men’s track and field team claimed the 2014 Indoor WAC track and field championship title in a dramatic meet that came down to one point. The Feb. 28 event saw the women's team take third in the conference.

See More News And Features.

Ahrens Lend Support to Boise Law Program. Ed Ahrens ’71 and his wife Teri have generously pledged $125,000 to the College of Law in support of expanding the law program in Boise. The couple are long-time donors to the University of Idaho, having supported areas across the University for 28 years. The Ahrens’ recent gift will help complete the tenant specific renovations in the Idaho Law Learning and Justice Center in Boise, keeping the college on track for occupancy in fall 2015. In addition to financially supporting Idaho, Ed has served on the College of Law Advisory Board and is a former member of the University of Idaho’s Campaign for Idaho Committee. He is a partner at Ahrens DeAngeli Law Group which offers services in the areas of wealth planning and preservation, as well as, trust and estate law. The firm’s attorney roster includes a number of University of Idaho undergraduate and law alumni, including the firm’s other partner, Darin DeAngeli ’87. For more information on giving to the College of Law, contact Terri Muse, director of development, at (208) 364-4044 ortmuse@uidaho.edu.

Dear Friends,

The snows of winter bring a quiet, austere beauty to the Arboretum on our Moscow campus. A white blanket covers the clearings and the frozen ponds.  Deciduous trees from forests around the world stand silently in leafless clusters. Native evergreens and yellow tamaracks sway gently, adding color to a landscape of light and shadow.
 
Soon spring will come to the Arboretum. When it does, life will abound. Trees, shrubs, and flowers will burst forth in profusion. Geese, ducks, quail, and other wildlife will appear. As summer unfolds, the Arboretum’s walking paths will be filled with strolling visitors. In the fall, when every brilliant hue is on display, the Arboretum will be a destination for artists, photographers, and lovers. In the winter, the cycle will begin again.            
 
A Symbol Of The Extraordinary

At all times of the year, whenever I recruit prospective students and new members of our faculty or staff, I take them –- if time permits -- to the Arboretum. Invariably, they find it enchanting. I encourage them to think that a university able to create something this extraordinary is also capable of helping them rise above the ordinary in their own lives.
 
The Arboretum has not always been a place of enchantment, however. Until the 20^th century, it was a tract of dusty hills and cheat grass. The transformation was a work of visionaries. You may not recognize the name of the first visionary, C. L. Price, but you probably have heard of his boss: Charles Houston Shattuck. In 1909 Price and Shattuck began the forestry program at the University, and in 1910 they began planting trees in the grove now known as the Shattuck Arboretum -- the first arboretum west of the Mississippi River. Price also beautified the campus by creating the iconic, tree-lined “Hello Walk” as well as the community of trees gracing the Administration Building lawn.
 
In the late 1970s, the original arboretum vision was expanded to a 63-acre tract contiguous to the golf course -– an area we now call the “new” arboretum or, simply, “the Arboretum.” George Gagon, the University’s director of physical plant, gained President Ernest Hartung’s blessing to begin work on the site. By 1980, the University of Idaho Arboretum & Botanical Garden had emerged. The University recognized the educational value of the Arboretum by naming botany professor Richard Naskali, Ph.D., as the Arboretum’s coordinator and, ultimately, as the Arboretum’s director. Dr. Naskali, in conjunction with horticulturalists Jake Leppart and Paul Warnick, a group of supporters who formed the Arboretum Associates, and a host of civic groups and volunteers, turned the dusty hills into a verdant complex. Through Dr. Naskali’s leadership, the Arboretum earned a national ranking in the Morton Register of Arboreta. It became, and now is, part of the academic life of the University and a place of distinctive beauty on campus.
 
A Changing Season -- A New President

The story of the Arboretum illustrates how every generation works for the benefit of future generations. In the life of a university, there is a sequence of inter-generational giving and receiving, not unlike the sequence of seasons in the Arboretum itself. In leadership, there is a similar succession of seasons.  Tomorrow, on March 1, 2014, Dr. Chuck Staben, the 18^th President of the University of Idaho will take office. He is, as many alumni and friends already know –- and as others will soon discover -- a splendid choice. His abundant talent and collegiality will enable him to bring forth the best in our academic community.
 
For every arrival there is a departure, but I’ll not travel far. When I carry the last cardboard box out of the president’s office, I’ll drive my old Subaru down the hill from the Administration Building back to the College of Law, where teaching, scholarship, and service await me as a faculty member. Karen and I have been humbled and honored to serve the University in our interim capacity. The service has enabled me to repay a family debt to the institution that opened a gateway of opportunity for my parents during the Great Depression.
 
We have too many people to thank, but I want to acknowledge all of our unselfish administrative colleagues, faculty, and staff –- including Brett Morris, whose research and ideas have contributed to my joyful task of writing the “Friday Letters.” Thanks also to everyone who has taken time to read them.
 
Now, a wind is rising -- a sign of coming spring. Above the Arboretum’s tree-lined hills, clouds billow and change shapes as they sweep across the winter sky. If you look closely, you may catch a glimpse of a flagship.

Go Vandals!
 
Don Burnett
Interim President

Dear Friends,

In 1950, University of Idaho President Jesse Buchanan told students in an open letter, "Attending the University is important to both you and your country. The strength of our nation is based upon a continuing production of well-trained young men and women –- well-trained in all fields of knowledge vital to progress."

A university underwrites our country’s progress when it provides educational rigor –- that is, when it simultaneously challenges students and enables them to post records of achievement worthy of national recognition. One of our most notable alumni, the late U.S. Senator James McClure ’50, discovered first-hand the meaning of academic rigor at the University of Idaho. “I managed to be a good student in high school,” he later told a biographer (W. Smallwood, McClure of Idaho, 2007), “but I never really learned how to study.” He eventually surmounted that challenge, yet the University demanded more. In one semester he posted A’s in all of his courses with a single exception where a professor gave him a B -- not because his work had fallen short of A quality, but because the professor believed he had the ability to do even better.   
 
National Scholars

Senator McClure’s formative experience was what we might call “tough love” today. The teacher-scholars on the University of Idaho faculty genuinely want our students to excel, and the results are heartening. We produce a remarkable number of national scholars, especially those in the Goldwater, Udall, Fulbright, and Boren programs. Last year, for example, our University produced two of the prestigious Goldwater Scholars selected from a nationwide field of mathematics, science, and engineering students. We had one of only 50 Udall scholars chosen from a field of 488 finalists in the environmental track -– the most heavily contested of the Udall programmatic tracks. Within the past two years our University also has produced a Fulbright Scholar in both the student and faculty categories. 
 
Our Boren Scholar roster is even more replete with recent Vandals. This program, administered by the U.S. State Department, provides a small number of full-ride scholarships each year for American undergraduates to live and learn in areas of the world critical to interests of the United States. Recently, we have had UI Boren Scholars in China, Bangladesh, and Azerbaijan.

High Performers

In other categories of distinction, our College of Agriculture & Life Sciences has produced a winner of the National Science Foundation Undergraduate Research Fellowship in Mathematical Biology. Students at the College of Business & Economics have placed 5^th out of more than 1,600 competitors in the nationally recognized Business Plan Competition conducted at Rice University.  Members of the University of Idaho Chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers swept the first three places in the Technical Research Exhibition held last fall in Los Angeles. Students in our interdisciplinary Martin Institute have won the top research award in the National Model United Nations Conference in 10 of the past 11 years. A student in our theatre arts program recently was selected as a national finalist for playwriting awards bestowed through the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and another student’s work was selected for inclusion in the National Festival. During this academic year, a UI Army ROTC cadet earned recognition as the second-highest rated cadet nationwide, chosen from a field of 5,478 students.
 
Licensure Exam Leaders

Further evidence of student achievement is revealed by the results of national licensure examinations. Graduates of the College of Law have a higher first-time pass rate on the Idaho Bar Exam -– a standard, uniform national examination –- than the average pass rate for first-time takers from other law schools. UI graduates had a first-time pass rate of 87% versus 81% for non-UI first-time takers on the summer 2012 uniform exam. In the summer of 2013, UI graduates again outscored non-UI takers with a first-time pass rate of 83% compared to 80% for first-time takers from other law schools. 
 
Last year graduates of our College of Art & Architecture posted an overall pass of 76% on the national architecture licensure exam, comparing favorably with such universities as Harvard (74%) and UCLA (70%). Especially impressive has been the success of our engineering students. Among those who have taken the national Fundamentals of Engineering Examination, the average pass rate in recent years has been 93% compared to a national average of 81%.
 
Want more evidence?  I’m just getting warmed up!  It is not possible, however, to present a full compendium of student achievements within the space limitations of a single “Friday Letter.” The accomplishments mentioned above are simply illustrations of the excellence of students who embrace rigor and strive mightily. We are proud of all such students. They give us confidence in our university’s enduring reputation, and in the strength of our beloved country.   
 
Go Vandals!
 
Don Burnett
Interim President

Dear Friends,

In more ways than one, Dr. Donald R. Theophilus is a towering figure in our University’s storied history. While serving as president from 1954 to 1965, he became famous for insisting on high standards of academic performance. He did not mince words about it. At the beginning of each academic year, he would bluntly tell the incoming undergraduates, “For you to achieve less than your full ability is a disgrace to you.”
 
Yet he was also warmly supportive of students who applied themselves. During his presidency, the University broadened its financial aid offerings, established an advanced placement pathway for talented high school students, and –- perhaps most memorably –- created the precursor to our current University Honors Program. Today, Theophilus Tower, the tallest building on the Moscow campus, provides a home for newly arriving Honors Program students.    
 
Center For Excellence

Our “crested hill", as the Moscow campus has been called, is not the geographical center of Idaho; but it emphatically is, and has long been, a premier center of excellence in Idaho higher education. As regular readers of the “Friday Letter” know, Newsweek magazine in 1947 published a study showing that the University of Idaho had produced more Rhodes Scholars up to that time than any other university -– public or private –- west of the Great Lakes. 

In recent years our students have earned national recognition as Fulbright, Goldwater, Truman, and Udall Scholars. The University of Idaho is home to one of the highest proportions of National Merit Scholars in the Pacific Northwest. The best and brightest college-bound students of Idaho, and of surrounding states, are attracted by the reputation of our faculty and by our Honors Program.
 
Students With Talent And Motivation

The Honors Program embraces students with high potential; it is not limited by formulaic credentials. As noted in the program’s inaugural announcement, published in 1959, the program “is intended to provide the student with more intensive training, and/or research experience, than is ordinarily available to the undergraduate.”Students who aspire to high challenges, and are ready and willing to meet them, can apply. Some honors students are the first in their families ever to attend college, but they have a history of personal achievement and they take a back seat to no one in talent and motivation. Currently, the program boasts more than 400 extraordinarily hard-working participants. They span the academic disciplines; indeed, many have double, triple and even quadruple majors.
 
“This is one way you can receive a private college education at a public institution,” says Professor Alton Campbell, program director. “It’s not about the tuition or the buildings, it’s about the nature of your peer group, and these students are exceptional – they’re exciting.”  Tom Drake, an active supporter of the program and English instructor, has observed: “Decades ago, when I was an undergrad, a friend of mine who’d attended Stanford pointed out that … [education is] is not a function of where you are … but who you are, and how hard you work at making the most of your opportunities.”
 
Comparable To The Ivys

Honors Program students have an exceptional work ethic.  Professor Tom Bitterwolf, a 25-year faculty veteran of the program, puts it this way: “The Honors Program allows us to educate … at a level that I would put up against any of the Ivys. Many [of our students] could have gone to an Ivy League school but the realities of finances and family obligations made that impossible. We challenge them, stretch them, demand too much of them and they come back for more. Not all students are able or willing to seek excellence; but for those who are, the Honors Program is here for them.”
 
The program provides three primary components: a robust academic emphasis, unique living arrangements, and a wide array of extracurricular activities that promote growth and community. The program’s emphasis on the “whole person” reinforces a Vandal ideal for all students, and it pays a lifetime of dividends.
 
Alumni agree. Melanie Coonts Samuel, Ph.D., who graduated in 2002 with majors in microbiology, molecular biology/biochemistry, and English, before going on to do postdoctoral work at Harvard, has written: "In Freshman Honors Chemistry, I met friends … who I believe will be friends for a lifetime. Honors Program classes excite and stimulate. They have defined my university experience and helped me see the world from new and varied perspectives."
 
Again, Professor Bitterwolf: “The Honors Program is a beacon on the hill. It is what higher education was meant to be -- intellectually vibrant, challenging and exciting, educating the leaders of tomorrow. The UI Honors Program is justifiably one of the brightest jewels in the university's crown. I'm proud to be a small part of it.”

High Ambiitons
 
When President Theophilus welcomed our incoming students, he challenged every one of them – within and beyond the Honors Program -- to fulfill their individual potential. “[Y]ou have sufficient native ability,” he said.  “What you will have to prove is that you have motivation –- the kind of motivation which will make it possible for you … to develop an appreciation of individual responsibility, an ability to evaluate events, a sense of judgment in human affairs and an ability to enjoy the good things of life.”
 
“We should cultivate our souls as well as our minds,” he would say. And then in closing, he would add, “Don’t forget: Write the folks at home who love and cherish you and whose ambitions for you are so high.” 
 
As we enter our University’s 126^th year, we still hear President Theophilus’ words of challenge and warmth -- and our ambitions for our students remain high.    

Go Vandals!
 
Sincerely,

Don Burnett
Interim President 

Yesterday we had a birthday party, and it was a dandy. In a festooned Idaho Commons building -- with an overflow crowd filling the main floor, and more observers elbowing for a view from three circling balcony levels – we celebrated our 125^th anniversary. The festive setting resembled Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.

The celebration, video-streamed from Moscow to other University of Idaho locations around the state, featured a reading of Governor Otter’s proclamation declaring January 30, 2014, as “University of Idaho 125^th Anniversary Day,” as well as congratulatory communications from our Board of Regents, the City of Moscow, and Latah County. President-designate Dr. Chuck Staben, who will take office on March 1, came from South Dakota to join the celebration. The renowned Vandaleers sang, the nation’s best marching band played an imaginative blend of “Go Vandals Go” and “Happy Birthday,” the Spirit Squad exhorted the audience, and Joe Vandal danced.

History has smiled upon us. As our state’s national land-grant, founding, comprehensive, and constitutionally recognized university, the University of Idaho is the historic flagship of Idaho higher education. Today, we are members of a higher education fleet, fulfilling our statewide leadership responsibilities through collaboration with highly valued sister institutions.
 
In 1889, of course, we were the only ship in the fleet. Our early voyages were not without difficulty. The University moved slowly from existence on paper to full operation. In 1892, at an initial gathering of students, then-President Franklin B. Gault noted that there were no chairs on which to sit. Adapting nimbly to the situation, he said, “It is not every college which can give its students academic standing on the first day.” During an interview of a faculty candidate seeking to teach the classics, President Gault stated that the job would also involve milking cows. When the candidate inquired by what law he could be required to perform such a task, Gault replied, “By the greatest law of all -- the law of necessity.” The candidate withdrew.
 
Despite such resource struggles, the founders of the university had high ideals. They wrote into the territorial act, and later into the Idaho Constitution, a governance structure based upon a regent model rather than a legislative model.  By creating an independent Board of Regents, and giving it constitutional authority, our founders adopted the most forward-looking wisdom of the day about the governance of institutions of higher learning.
 
In keeping with the spirit of the Morrill Act (1862) that created the nation’s system of land-grant universities (described as “the people’s universities” by President Lincoln), our university became a “people’s gateway” of opportunity.  The University of Idaho’s first graduating class, in 1896, included two men and two women — Stella Allen, Florence Corbett, Charles Kirtley, and Arthur Adair.  In 1899, Jennie Hughes became the first African American graduate. Today, we are still the gateway. More than 35 percent of the students in our most recent entering class are the first in their families to attend a university.
 
Advancing another dimension of the Morrill Act, the University has spurred economic development. The University’s prominent role in agriculture, for example, can be traced to the confluence of the Morrill Act with the subsequent Hatch Act (1887), which created experimental stations at land-grant institutions, and with the Smith-Lever Act (1914), which provided for cooperative extension services. The University of Idaho opened its first experiment station even before it welcomed students to the Moscow campus. Today there are high-tech experiment stations around the state. The University also provides extension and outreach in all 44 Idaho counties; indeed, it opened an extension office at Boise as early as 1910. The partnership between our University and state’s agricultural industry has propelled Idaho to the third-highest level of production among western states -– trailing only California and (by a small margin) the State of Washington.
 
Many other colleges, institutes and centers have sprung from the University’s roots. Our Colleges of Natural Resources, Law, and Art & Architecture fulfill statewide missions. Other colleges conduct vital programs in Letters, Arts & Social Sciences as well as Business & Economics, Education, Engineering, Science, and the College of Graduate Studies. All of them contribute to our distinctive identity as both a land-grant institution and a founding, comprehensive university.
 
From these roots have grown academic programs with a long-standing reputation for high quality, enabling our students to find high-quality jobs. In 2012, Payscale.com rated the University of Idaho as the 11^th best school in the intermountain region for jobs with solid pay secured by graduates. If specialty aviation and mining disciplines were set aside, the University of Idaho ranked 7^th -- ahead of all schools in Utah, New Mexico, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, and most schools in Colorado and Arizona.
 
In the coming months, we will continue to celebrate the past and present in our quasquicentennial (fifth quarter of a century) anniversary observance. We’ll take our birthday party “on the road” to additional locations around the state. On each occasion, we will proudly recall our distinctive history, recommit to our collaborative leadership role in Idaho higher education, and reaffirm the familiar inscription found in the Administration Building’s arched entry: “Erected by the Commonwealth of Idaho for the training of her future citizens to their highest usefulness in private life and public service.” At Idaho’s first university, we are still moved by those words.

Go Vandals!

Don Burnett
Interim President

Avista and Water Resources Program Announce Annual Scholarship Winners. The University of Idaho Environmental Science & Water Resources Program announced the recipients of the 2014 Avista-Waters of the West Scholarship yesterday. Knut Marius Myrvold, a doctoral student, and Abigail Lute, a master’s degree student, will each be awarded $2,500 from Avista in support of their research. Avista contributes $5,000 each academic year to fund a scholarship for one or more graduate student in the water resources program whose research impacts areas served by the energy company. Read more.

See more news and features.

Wilson Gives Chemistry Majors A Boost. Terry Wilson ’71 of Albany, New York has made a $25,000 pledge to establish the Terry Wilson Family Chemistry Scholarship Endowment. The scholarship will benefit juniors and seniors at the University of Idaho majoring in chemistry. ‘‘Given the right educational environment -- faculty, classmates, facilities and technology -- students can be successful with the appropriate background, interest, perseverance and hard work,” said Wilson. “I’m emphasizing the last two as reasons for the scholarship. That is, to help produce successful students.” Wilson earned his bachelor’s degree at Wisconsin and started his career in science education. He went on to earn a master’s degree in chemistry at Idaho and his Ph.D. at Connecticut. He has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for many years and is currently a principal at Fort Orange Pharmaceutical Consulting. He has 57 publications and holds two patents.
For more information about giving to the College of Science, please contact Eric Bennett at ebennett@uidaho.edu

2014

January 10
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February 7
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