Some measures of university success are clear: SAT scores of students enrolled, passing rates for professional certification, and the win-loss records of sports teams. Others are murky: morale of students and faculty, and ambition toward excellence. One commonly misunderstood feature involves the overhead rate for sponsored research. Grant writers must incorporate indirect costs — IDCs […]

My story starts like that of many other 24-year-old Bozeman immigrants. Last spring I was looking for a job. I wanted to stay in Bozeman, be challenged to think, have the opportunity to write, and work with interesting, thoughtful people. So I sent letters and resumes to a number of Bozeman environmental nonprofits. I approached […]

Creating the national parks was one of America’s best ideas, but inevitable political pressures jeopardize their mission. The parks’ strongest supporters warn of dangers from political management. Consider a recent New York Times editorial. After noting Americans’ overwhelming support for national parks, the Times opines: “Yet in the past two months we have seen two […]

Mark Twain’s observation, “Whisky is for drinking, water is for fighting,” arose from his experiences in the arid West. Some claim that more westerners have been killed with irrigation shovels than with guns. An old neighbor told me that a man was killed on our place during the drought of the 1930s. In Montana — […]

Here’s an early suggestion for your holiday gift lists. Soldiering for Freedom: A GI’s Account of World War II, by Herman “Obe” Obermayer, was published this year by Texas A&M Press in its military history series. Obe is a dear friend so this isn’t a neutral review. I strongly recommend it, not only as history […]