Montana State University Bozeman - Montanan Yearbook (Bozeman, MT)

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Phenomenon Oenms Clark Anflerson 372 Halley’s Comet Returns 1986 brought to the world’s attention a phenomena that usually only occurs once in most peoples lifetime. Halley's Comet returned to the F.arth this year for the first time in 76 years. In 1910. Halley’s Comet was witnessed to be a spectacular show with doomsday scientists speculating it would destroy the world. Although this year the Comet was not as spectacular or filled w ith as much uncertain- ity as in 1919, it still drew a great deal o: excitement, publicity and became a medi event. A comet is composed of half water and ic and half dust. The tail, which makes for good sight, is made of two layers; dust ar. flourcscent gases. It can be up to millions miles long though the head is less than th: miles across.

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The Question Remains research programs. As a land grant institution, MSU is funded by taxes paid by residents throughout the state of Montana. Instead of strengthening our education programs, money is being diverted to enhance graduate programs at the expense of teaching and the overall quality of education. Collins and others foresee a decline in the quality of education, largely due to hiring practices that would harmonize with a shift in emphasis from teaching to research. To Brusaard, “New faculty members are not hired to do research. They are hired to teach and if it came down to a choice between a class and spending time doing research, the class wins out.” But according to another anonymous source, “New faculty members are hired at increased time doing research, the ratio of teaching to research being 60:40. The source went on to raise this question: if new faculty are indeed hired at a 60 percent teaching load, what happens when a 100 percent teacher retires: what fills the void! In answering their own question, the source said, “The way you’d make up the 40 percent deficit is by increasing the number of classses taught by TA’s, decreasing the number of sections taught, even cancelling classes.” In response, Brussard says, “It’s not a choice between teaching and research. Instead research and teaching complement each other, both being simply two aspects of any professor's job. In fact, most faculty members take pride in teaching and research and do well at both.” Strobcl embraces this idea saying the overlap between research and teaching enables students to participate in the thrill of a new idea or a breakthrough. “It’s like a shot in the arm for both students and the researcher teacher conducting the work,” he said. With respect to filling the role of both researcher and teacher, Brussard says that faculty members will differ in their areas of strength and expertise. Some will be most productive with the scale tipped towards research, and stil other with the scale tipped toward teaching. The ideal situation would then be to utilize the individual strengths of faculty members to a maximum in achieving the highest degree of departmental productivity across the board. In opposition, Collins said, “There are two ways for a university department to conduct research. Either have every faculty member to both — which is highly inefficient, or designate a few good teachers to handle large undergraduate classes and free up the time of other faculty members to conduct research; the latter being the optimum. He concludes, “Let those that are better at research-conduct research and those that are better at teaching-tcach. In the fields of science and engineering, no one disputes the importance of research. However, when speaking of emphasis, there still remains a disagreement as to the proper ratio of teaching to research activities here at MSU. It would seem apparent that as budgets tighten, some difficult decisions will have to be made. by Carolyn Sime 371 Milo Men

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Construction New Greenhouse Constructed The controlled environmental facility was funded by the 1983 Legislative session under long range building with $5.3 million dollars in funds. Dr. Dwane Miller. Department Head of Plant and Soil Science, says of it, The building will bring together in one place the latest technology in growing plants for teaching and research purposes.” The facility is basically divided in three areas; the greenhouse space and the environmental rooms, both with individual light and temperature controls, and growth chamber space for very confined growth studies. Construction began in April of 1985; phase I is expected to be completed by July 1986 and phase II in January 1987. The current antiquated greenhouse will be partially incorporated into the building. There will be a variety of facilities contained w ithin the building. Though designed mainly to create controlled environmental conditions for plant growth and research, it will also have two teaching labs, space for research and development, an insect quarantine lab. seed virus labs, isolation areas for plant disease studies, and a small plant conservatory. Barley and wheat breeders expect to grow six generations a year, while the current greenhouse can only raise one generation a year. Montana Potato Improvement will use seed virus labs to study quality and diseases to promote the crucial seed potato business. Studies will be done on stress physiology of plants and on genetics. The latcs soil sterilization process will be used. There will be soils research in physics, water, and fertility. The facility will be shared predominate grants and scientists, and will allow for a by the Plant and Soil, Plant Pathology, great deal of sophisticated research. Entomology, Biology, and Range Science departments. Undoubtably this multi- by Laura Green purpose and high tech building will attract Paisley Apartments Open 1985 Married and single parents were presented with a new living option with the August 15th, 1985 opening of the Paisley Apartments. The one year construction of the ninety apartments cost about 4.2 million dollars. Private storage areas, carpet, drapes, laundry facilities, reserved parking and landscaping arc special features here that people have learned not to take for granted elsewhere. The apartments arc energy efficient with passive solar heating, which helps cut utility bills. They are also equipped for handicapped residents. The apartments, located on 19th and Garfield, serve as a pleasant housing option for married MSU students. by Laura Green