This is my final story for the Montana Kaimin this semester. I'm looking forward to working at the Santa Cruz Sentinel this summer as a reporting intern. Check back for updates; anything I write will be posted here.

Graduation 2013S. Korean grad takes on UM with no fears

Posted: Friday, May 3, 2013 12:32 am | Updated: 10:27 am, Fri May 3, 2013.

Posted on May 3, 2013

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  by Ketti Wilhelm

When she decided to come to the United States for college, Min Sun Park was a 19-year-old high school dropout and international vagabond who had traveled in New Zealand for two years.

A month later, she arrived in Missoula. 

Hailing from Seoul, the South Korean capital of 10 million people, Park said she was ready to leave city life behind. When deciding where to go to college, she first ruled out the East and West coasts. She then eliminated the South because of the heat and humidity. The Midwest was next to go  —  too flat. Alaska wouldn’t do because of its lack of winter sunlight. 

That left the Rocky Mountain West. 

Idaho, Park said, was a weird shape; Wyoming and Colorado were too square. 

“It’s kind of risky,” Park said of her decision making process. “But if you don’t read anything and you don’t know anything, you don’t have any expectations. So, it’s always better.”

To choose between the University of Montana and Montana State University, she just looked at the mascots. 

“I decided I should just go for the bigger (animal),” she said.

Now 22 years old, Park will graduate this month with a degree in political science and minors in international development studies and mathematics after seven semesters at UM. Although she’s always loved working on cars and wanted to be a mechanic, she said she chose to study a social science to have a stronger background for development work.

She has taken on her years at UM with the same fearlessness that brought her here, visiting more than 20 states and traversing the United States and Canada on a Greyhound bus. 

Her boldness used to cause her trouble in South Korea, Park said. She dropped out of high school because she felt stifled by the conservative culture, which doesn’t allow students to debate with teachers or question authority. 

At UM, she has been free to express herself, but the stereotypes of her more conservative culture have followed her.

“Some professors were surprised when I raised my hand to speak,” she said. “‘Oh, an Asian girl — an international student — can also speak.’ They didn’t really say that, but I could feel it from their facial expression.”

She hasn’t let the stereotypes keep her quiet. 

Peter Koehn, one of Park’s professors, said she was the first, and so far the only, student to write and perform a play as the final project in his global migration class.

In her solo play, she was a successful diplomat between North and South Korea. 

Outside the classroom, Park said she’s tired of politics and wants to do more hands-on development work. She plans to go into missionary aviation, involving flying into remote areas in developing countries to deliver goods on Christian mission trips. 

Park said she’s enjoyed Missoula for its snowboarding, mountain biking and rock-climbing, but she’s been frustrated by the party-happy students she often encounters.

“All they have to talk about is weather, football, pot-smoking, drinking and sex,” Park said. “People don’t even understand why I’m dying to travel, dying to do more, dying to see more.”

After graduation, she’ll go home to see her family, but she said she plans to settle anywhere but South Korea.  

As far a North Korea’s nuclear threats, Park said she’s not worried.

“American media is the only media freaking out,” she said. “We are fine. South Korea is fine.”

Missoula CollegeMissoula College funding bill slides through Republican-controlled House committee

Bill would give UM $29 million to build Missoula College, likely on golf course

Posted: Tuesday, March 26, 2013 12:18 am | Updated: 9:29 am, Tue Mar 26, 2013.

Posted on March 26, 2013

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  by Ketti Wilhelm

The Montana Legislature brought Missoula College one step closer to a new home Friday afternoon.

House Bill 14, known as the Jobs and Opportunities by Building Schools bill, passed the House Appropriations Committee on a 13-8 vote. All eight Democrats on the committee voted yes, along with five Republicans, said committee Minority vice chair Rep. Galen Hollenbaugh, D-Helena.

The bill would provide $29 million dollars toward building Missoula College — part of a $100 million package of college and university construction projects across the state. 

Hollenbaugh said the committee made two amendments to the bill.

One amendment, introduced by Rep. Duane Ankney, R-Colstrip, establishes an option to pay for the projects with cash, instead of bonding, if the state has the money at the end of the fiscal year. 

“I did that to try to keep this bill alive,” Ankney said. “There’s a big movement to try to cash what buildings we can and not to bond anything.”

While that movement is mostly Republican-led, Ankney said he’s not opposed to bonding.

“I don’t have any heartburn with it,” he added. “I’ve always been a supporter of the bonding bill.”

Hollenbaugh said he supported Ankney’s amendment, although he’s not sure paying cash will be an option.

“I don’t know how much money we’re going to spend in this session,” he said. “But I supported it because if we do end up being in a good cash position, maybe it’ll be okay to do that.”

Because bonding is still a possibility, HB14 requires 67 votes, in place of the usual 50, to pass the 100-member House. Every bill that requires the state to take on debt needs a two-thirds majority to pass. 

Zach Brown, president of the Associated Students of the University of Montana, said he’s happy the bill is moving forward. 

“It’s all cash as far as we’re concerned,” Brown said. “No matter how the Legislature wants to pay for the buildings, we just want the funding for a new Missoula College by the end of the session.”

The other amendment to HB14 removes funding for a new Montana Historical Society building in Helena. Hollenbaugh said the $23 million dollars the bill would have provided for that project will be tacked on to House Bill 5, instead.

Hollenbaugh said he expects the House to vote on HB14 early this week; if it passes, it will then be transferred to the Senate.

The JOBS bill is still feeding controversy in Missoula. If the Legislature passes the bill and provides the funding to build a new Missoula College, construction will commence on the UM golf course, as planned. 

Something a little different from my usual policy and politics stories:

Bridge Pizza expands into sweets with Treasure State Donuts creation

Bridge Pizza expands into sweets with Treasure State Donuts creation

Posted: Tuesday, March 19, 2013 1:32 am | Updated: 6:58 pm, Tue Mar 19, 2013.

Posted on March 19, 2013

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  by Ketti Wilhelm

Inside a small storefront on East Broadway, Stephanie Lubrecht  spends up to 14 hours a day alone, quietly churning out dozens of doughnuts behind locked doors since December, or possibly earlier.

“Time is kind of no longer real to me,” she said, trying to recall exactly when she started baking, testing and tweaking her recipes, seven days a week. “It's been just doughnuts all the time.”

Lubrecht, a 24-year-old Missoula native, has worked at the long-standing Missoula restaurant The Bridge Pizza for six years, rotating between the kitchen, the counter and any other job that needed doing. Last fall, she was promoted to general manager and head baker of Treasure State Doughnuts, a new shop soon to be unveiled by the owners of The Bridge. 

“I’ve always been a baker, since I was little,” Lubrecht said. “It’s something I’ve always wished I could make a career out of, but didn’t really think it could be a realistic opportunity. It’s always been a joke or a pipe-dream.”

The opportunity arose when Del’s Place, a diner located at 400 East Broadway, shut its doors, and The Bridge owners Erin McEwen and Dmitri Murfin seized the moment to make that old joke become a reality.

“We didn’t really have plans in place before that,” Murfin said. “But I’m a chef and I’m a restauranteur, so I’m always kind of thinking about this stuff.”

They rented the building and started renovating it themselves while Lubrecht began toying with doughnut recipes at home.

While she doesn’t have any formal training as a baker, Lubrecht said as a biology major, her science background helps her understand the chemistry of baking. She’s taking this semester off from classes to focus on the shop.

“A lot of work just went into three basic recipes,” Lubrecht said of the hours she spent developing the perfect cake, old-fashioned and yeast-raised doughnuts. 

She said she has developed about 20 to 30 variations, including an orange cake donut with orange icing and pistachios on top, which she was just finishing up Monday evening, as a spring snow storm swirled outside the shop.

“I’m all about the sweet and savory,” Lubrecht said. “So we try to do as much of that as we can.”

This batch turned out well. The inside is moist but light, the icing is delicately tangy and the pistachios add a bit of crunch and a slightly salty, nutty flavor.

Most of her test doughnuts have gone to the staff of The Bridge, Lubrecht said while flipping a still-hot raised donut in a bowl of cinnamon-sugar.

“They’ve been our discerning taste buds and our critics,” she added.

The Bridge owners McEwen and Murfin are both 30 years old and both have masters degrees from UM. They’ve been married for three years and McEwen’s family has been running restaurants in Missoula since the 1970s. Treasure State Doughnuts is another locally-focused, family endeavor.

Just like The Bridge, Murfin said Treasure State gets as many ingredients as possible locally, through Western Montana Growers’ Co-op. 

Treasure State will also sell coffee and espresso drinks made from locally-sourced beans from Black Coffee Roasting Company, a business started in 2010 by two other UM graduates.

Matt McQuilkin, one BCRC’s owners, said the company is the only 100 percent organic coffee roaster in the state.

While she’s only five classes away from finishing her degree and joining the group of UM graduate-entrepreneurs, Lubrecht said that for now, she’s enjoying baking doughnuts and making people happy. 

“If that’s the worst part of my my day, going to work to do that, then I’m doing okay,” she said.

Treasure State Doughnuts will likely open its doors at the end of this month or early in April, when all of the testing is complete.

Young UM grad keeps busy in second House term

Posted: Thursday, February 14, 2013 10:16 pm

Posted on February 14, 2013

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  by Ketti Wilhelm

Two turns of the election cycle are all that separate a wide-eyed first timer and a progressive, political powerhouse.

Bryce Bennett made headlines when he was first elected in 2010 for being both very young – he was 25 – and gay. He’s now wading through his second session in the Montana House of Representatives. When Bennett won his seat representing Missoula’s House District 92, he was the youngest lawmaker in the state. Three years later he’s lost that accolade, but gained experience without letting success go to his head.

“I feel good about the fact that somebody walking up to my desk and calling me ‘Representative’ still feels a little silly to me,” Bennett said.

The University of Montana graduate grew up in the small town of Hysham, Mont., located between Billings and Miles City, but graduated from high school in Missoula. He said his transition from freewheeling freshman to legislative leader – a role he’s been training for since he was a teenager – has brought increased responsibility.

“Last session I felt like I had more free time,” Bennett said. “I always kind of felt like I was on top of things. Now, from the point I walk into the Capitol in the morning to the time I leave at night, I am constantly busy.” 

Bennett, 28, now chairs the House Democratic Caucus and is State Administration committee vice chair. As caucus chair, he helps communicate the House Democrats’ philosophy to the media, constituents and other legislators. As a committee vice chair, Bennett presents his party’s case in committee meetings and informs other Democrats of the details of bills that are produced or altered by the committee.

It’s not just free time that he misses from his first session in the House. Bennett said he laments not having as much time to keep in close contact with his constituents. 

“I don’t want people to be sitting at home thinking that I’m setting their concerns on the back boiler,” Bennett said.

The second-term legislator said his priorities this session are keeping voting rights strong and “bringing some transparency to politics in a post-Citizens United world.”

“We need to know who’s spending money in our elections, and how much and where,” Bennett added.

When he was elected in 2010, Bennett was Montana’s first openly gay man in the state Legislature. As the prominence of his youth fades, he hopes this distinction will, too.

“We're getting to the point where there are not going to be a lot of firsts anymore. You're not going to be the first gay, or lesbian or transgender person; you're just going to be another person” who got involved, Bennett said. 

He said some people feel Montana has a social and political climate that does not allow gay politicians or issues to be taken seriously. But he urged other members of the LGBT community to enter local politics.

“I think our state is moving forward,” he said, pointing to other successful LGBT politicians, including Missoula’s Democratic Councilwoman Caitlin Copple and Sen. Christine Kaufmann, D-Helena.

At UM, Bennett said he was involved with the Lambda Alliance and the College Democrats and was an ASUM senator. In fact, he said extracurricular activities were the highlight of his education.

“I showed up to class and did the work,” Bennett said. “But I don’t know if there are any professors who could pick me out of a line-up.”

When the Legislature isn’t in session, Bennett works as the political director of Forward Montana, an organization he helped found in 2004, while a freshman at UM.

“We were really tired of hearing the conventional wisdom that young people don’t vote; young people don’t care,” Bennett said. “So we put together Forward Montana as a response to that.” 

Matt Singer, a Forward Montana co-founder, said the organization has grown exponentially since that time, when his living room was its home base.

Forward Montana now has a paid staff and a mass of volunteers known around campus as the pink bunnies who relentlessly prompted students to register to vote upon coming or going from the University Center last fall.

Having worked with Bennett intermittently for eight years, Singer described him as “an incredibly hard worker and good listener.”

UM grad fights for children, students in Legislature

Posted: Thursday, February 7, 2013 10:17 pm | Updated: 10:31 pm, Thu Feb 7, 2013.

Posted on February 7, 2013

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  by Ketti Wilhelm

In 2007, Jenifer Gursky was volunteering with children in Cambodia when she realized she didn't have the skills she needed to deal with the poverty issues that confronted her. So she applied to the University of Montana from a computer kiosk in Phnom Penh.

Last month, Rep. Gursky, a Democrat representing northwestern Missoula’s House District 98, saw her first bill pass the House. House Bill 131 aims to help children lead a better life by requiring doctors, teachers and other professionals report suspected abuse.

“I have become incredibly driven for working on behalf of the public,” Gursky said of her new job. “There is no higher calling than to work for people.”

She added in an email that she is still learning how to fulfill her duty as a voice of her peers “with dignity, grace, patience, and humility.” 

After studying vocal performance in Wyoming, Gursky returned home to Polson to become a youth pastor. She joined Youth With a Mission and the group sent her to Amsterdam to work with victims of human trafficking in the Red Light District and study for similar work in Cambodia.

“I wasn’t really interested in politics initially,” Gursky said. “But I was really interested in how policy affects our lives.”

She didn’t wait for graduation to dive deeper into politics. She began her political career at UM, preceding Zach Brown as president of the Associated Students of the University of Montana. 

Brown said Gursky was a dedicated mentor as he began his term, even while she was in the heat of her campaign for the House last fall.

He said Gursky’s powerful leadership as president paved the way for ASUM to deal more professionally with administrators, politicians and the Board of Regents. 

Gursky graduated last May with a degree in political science emphasizing international relations and a minor in international development studies – just three weeks before winning the Democratic primary for HD-98. 

When it comes to getting involved, Gursky, 32, advises students to be bold.

“Don’t dip your toe in, just jump,” she said. “Any campaign that you can help in, any way that you can get connected in your community. Politics is really a hands-on sport.” 

But it’s not a sport for everyone, which Brown has learned. He said a career in politics used to interest him, but his current post has made him reconsider. The job didn’t have that effect on Gursky.

“She’s got the personality for it and she’s really good at what she does,” Brown said of his predecessor. “And she likes it and that’s amazing.” 

Though politics may suit her, Brown said Gursky is not a typical politician. 

“I really trust that she genuinely has students’ interests in mind,” Brown said. “You can't always know that kind of thing with politicians.”

Another of her projects, known as the Smart Buildings Initiative, is a collaboration with Brown and other student leaders that she started working on last spring. 

Brown said the bill would encourage retrofitting state-owned buildings to improve their energy efficiency. The buildings’ owners, such as universities, for example, would get to keep the money they save on energy costs and use it for future projects to improve other buildings.

The concept is popular, Brown said, but so complex that it has taken a year to iron out the details. They’ve just finished drafting the bill and Brown said a House committee should review it before the end of the month.

Gursky also plans to introduce bills dealing with human trafficking in Montana, adoption laws and landlord-tenant issues, among others.

After moving to Helena for the legislative session, Gursky said she misses Missoula’s sense of community, as well as some local restaurants and breweries. 

“I’m not really a big going-out person, but I would kill for a good Cold Smoke,” Gursky said. “They don’t sell it in Helena and it’s killing me.” 

2013 LegislatureBullock visited campus Friday to advocate tuition freeze and JOBS bill

Posted: Tuesday, February 5, 2013 1:30 am | Updated: 12:55 am, Tue Feb 5, 2013.

Posted on February 5, 2013

• 
  by Ketti Wilhelm

Gov. Steve Bullock and Commissioner of Higher Education Clayton Christian agreed Friday to freeze tuition if the legislative stars align.

During a visit to the University of Montana, Bullock and Christian promised to stop increasing tuition costs for all Montana University System schools if the Legislature passes House Bill 2. HB-2, also known as the General Appropriations and Revenue Estimate Act, would provide $34 million to cover a tuition freeze.

The agreement is not binding, but ASUM Legislative Lobbyist Asa Hohman described the pact as “a ceremonial way of saying they’re both committed to (the tuition freeze).”

This week, HB-2 is making its way through various subcommittees of the House Appropriations Committee.

While Bullock said he thinks the freeze is likely, he encouraged students to participate in the process by contacting their legislators.

“It’s important for you to add the exclamation point,” Bullock said in his speech to students at the University Center Theater.

Bullock said HB-2 would also provide $2 million for dual-credit programs for high school students attending two-year colleges, $2 million for educational services for veterans and $5 million for universal enrollment, which would allow enrolled students to take courses at any MUS school.

He added that 40 percent of Montanans possess some form of higher education degree, and he hopes to see that number increase to 60 percent. Bullock said the dual credit program is one way to accomplish that goal.

Earlier in the afternoon, the governor toured Missoula College to promote its expansion and House Bill 14. HB-14, or the Jobs and Opportunity by Building Schools bill, would raise $29 million in bonds for the project. 

“You all do an incredible job in shaping these kids,” Bullock said to a group of Missoula College professors he met on the tour. “But we have an obligation to provide you with adequate facilities.”

However, Bullock did not take a position on the controversial issue of the location of the potential Missoula College expansion.

“Teaching students who are paying tuition in a trailer is unacceptable,” Bullock said, referring to the eight trailers used as classrooms at the college. Applause met this comment.

The former College of Technology became affiliated with UM in 1994 and was re-named Missoula College in May 2012. The facilities originally intended to accommodate only 700 students now serve almost 3,000.

Hohman, the ASUM lobbyist, was once among those students.

After graduating high school with a 1.75 GPA, Hohman, 26, said he took several years off from school before enrolling at Missoula College and finding success. He made the Dean’s List his first semester and has since been an active student.

“I really had the support I needed there to find my academic stride,” Hohman said.

Anyone can leave a voice message for a legislator by calling 406-444-4800. To leave a message for the governor, call 406-444-3111. 

This is my first story in the Montana Kaimin, as it appears on montanakaimin.com. I will continue to post my Kaimin stories here, on my home page.

Missoula College bill crawling through state committees

Controversial House Bill 14 would raise $29 million dollars in bonds for Missoula College

Posted: Tuesday, January 29, 2013 1:15 pm | Updated: 6:06 pm, Tue Jan 29, 2013.

Posted on January 29, 2013

• 
  by Ketti Wilhelm

After months of debate in Missoula, state legislators are reviewing a bill that could finally determine the location and funding of the proposed Missoula College. 

ASUM President Zachary Brown and vice president Bryn Hagfors spent part of winter break in the Capitol talking to legislators about the college.

“In Helena, it seems like Missoula College is all there is to talk about,” Hagfors said. “There’s a ton of buzz going on about it.”

Much of that buzz is from House Bill 14, which would raise $29 million in bonds to help build the $47 million college. Hagfors attended a subcommittee meeting on the bill Monday morning.  

“It has a very strong chance of passing out of subcommittee,” Hagfors said. “I’m cautiously optimistic.”

If the subcommittee approves the bill, it will move to the full House Appropriations Committee. If it passes the full committee, it would require a two-thirds majority vote to pass the Senate and House because bonding requires the state to take on debt.

The subcommittee will likely vote on the bill later this week.

While Hagfors said he hopes the bill will pass, not all Missoulians support HB-14. The group Advocates For Missoula’s Future has been a vocal critic of the plan to build the college on part of the UM golf course.

“We do not want to appear as obstructionists,” said Sally Peterson, an AFMF volunteer who is pursuing a doctorate in community college leadership and administration. “We want a Missoula College, just a different location.”

Peterson said if HB-14 passes, the location discussion will be over because the funding will be available to start building on the golf course.

Instead, Peterson thinks the west campus at Fort Missoula should be expanded and the entire Missoula College should be unified at that location. She said this plan would give the college room to grow, keep the golf course open for recreational use and avoid over-crowding the university district.

Peterson also said she believes the west campus would be a better site for the college to increase the number of programs offered.

“A two-year college doesn’t have to be just culinary arts and health,” Peterson said, adding that community colleges function better independently.

Hagfors contends that it would be better to keep the college close to the main campus because Missoula College students pay the same fees as four-year students, so they should have equal access to services like recreational facilities, advising and ASUM.

While others debate the location, Rep. Champ Edmunds, R-Missoula, said he is more concerned with finding a way to fund the college without taking on debt through bonding. He said a new Missoula College is necessary, but he wants to pay for it by establishing a state savings account for this type of project.

“We’ll build the things that we need to build,” Edmunds said, “But we shouldn’t borrow money to do it.”

ketti.wilhelm@umontana.edu