Thursday, April 21, 2011

Honors Continue for Boise State's Creative Writing Professors

Members of Boise State's faculty in Creative Writing and the Master of Fine Arts program at the university continue to set the pace in Idaho and beyond.

Brady Udall's novel, "The Lonely Polygamist" was named the #1 work by Entertainment Weekly, and made national top 10 fiction lists at Publisher's Weekly (#9) and Amazon.com (#10).  "The MS of My Kin", the latest work from Boise State's Janet Holmes, was a 2009 bestseller for international publisher Shearsman and for Small Press Distribution.  Mitch Wieland's 2009 book "God's Dogs" was named Idaho Book of the Year, was a John Gardner Fiction Book Award finalist and a selectee for the "Best of the West" prize anthology.

Also, a new collection by Martin Corless-Smith, "English Fragments:  A Brief History of the Soul," led Boston Review poetry editor Timothy Donnelly to name Corless-Smith as one of his six favorite contemporary poets.  Visiting Boise State professor Anthony Doerr's latest book, "Memory Wall," was named one of the best of 2010 by the Boston Globe (#3), the Oregonian (#6) and Amazon.com (#9) as well as being a New York Times Notable Book and winner of the $20,000 Story Prize.

New Boise State Business Building Beginning to Take Shape

When construction began on the new Business Building at Boise State, I showed pictures and did a story about the project, which will elevate an already-strong and well-respected Business School at Boise State to a new level in terms of capability and respect.

The facility will be the Gateway to the campus from the West side, perfectly situated at the corner of Capitol Boulevard and it's going to be gigantic--four stories tall and 118,000 square feet and at a cost of $37 million.

Of course, Boise State's business college already holds the gold standard of accreditation.  It is included in the four percent of all business programs in the world and 25 percent of business programs in the United States that have AACSB accreditation.  Boise State's business school was honored by U.S. News & World Report as one of the nation's Best Undergraduate Business Programs in 2011. 

As enrollment in Boise State's graduate programs is expected to double over the next ten years, the university wants to build graduate and undergraduate programs that are recognized nationally for their quality and innovation and to create internationally-renowned centers of excellence. 

I'll continue to provide details and photos as construction continues on this exciting development and new facility.

Discoverer of New Dinosaur Species is Conducting Postdoctoral Research at Boise State

In 2004, Celina Suarez and her identical twin sister, Marina, discovered the remains of a dinosaur in Utah no one had ever seen.  Now Suarez is now a geochemical paleontologist conducting her postdoctoral research at Boise State.



The Suarez sisters where investigating the sediment profile above a dinosaur dig site when they spotted dinosaur bones sticking out of the rock.  So far, three species have been recovered from the "Suarez Sisters Quarry" so far, including one that was not officially classified until late in 2010.  Geminiraptor surezarum habitated the Earth about 125 million years ago, and the dinosaur is the oldest known to be present in North America during the Early Cretaceous period.  The newly classified dinosaur is named after the sisters' family name and refers to Gemini, which is Latin for "twins". 

Suarez received a prestigious fellowship from the National Science Foundation to be able to conduct her research at Boise State over the next two years.  Working with Matt Kohn in the Department of Geosciences at the university, Suarez will examine an area of paleontology that is not well understood, the process of fossilization.

Boise State Consturction Continues at a Dizzying Pace

As I told you on this blog recently, the Destination Distinction campaign is near 100% of its goal and over the last four years, Boise State has started construction on 11 new projects encompassing more than 600,000 square feet of living, classroom, laboratory, office, event, parking and common areas. 

New facilities like the Environmental Research Building, the Micron Business and Economics Building and the Transit Center are the most visible signs that Boise State is completing the transformation to a metropolitan research university. 

The academic progress, while startling, is not all that is happening on campus.  Boise State recently broke ground on a new student housing community that will open next January.  They take the form of two-story townhouses along Lincoln Avenue, which will be home to 360 additional students as Boise State has doubled the capacity of student housing on campus since 2004.  The new housing is dedicated to juniors and seniors only.

And of course, the athletic department is beginning the first phase of massive stadium expansion with a brand new football facility, upgraded weight room, removal of the track in Bronco Stadium and the construction of a new 10,000-seat track facility across Broadway Avenue at Dona Larsen Park.  If all goes right, construction can begin following the upcoming football season.  Right after that, the next phase will be to add 10,000 seats to the north end zone.

Destination Distinction included plans for many other facilities, upgrades and structures that have not been announced yet but when it's all completed, the campus will look considerably different, from the Gateway Business building at Capitol and University all the way to Bronco Stadium at the other end of University Drive.

It's an extremely exciting time to be a Bronco or to be connected to the university.

Boise State Offers Davis Twins

Fitch High School in Ohio has been churning out some top student-athletes, and Boise State hopes good things will soon happen in pairs, as in both Demitrious and Chris Davis committing to Coach Chris Petersen and the Broncos. 


DavisTwins

Demitrious was the Federal League Player of the Year, accounting for 28 touchdowns and 2,077 yards of offense.  He ran for 1,091 yards and 9 touchdowns (6.9 yards per carry) and passed for 986 yards and nine scores.  Davis completed 62.6% of his passes and was intercepted just twice in 99 attempts.

He did everything. He rushed for over 1,000, and passed for almost 1,000. He was the catalyst for our offense. He was a great leader. Very coachable. He had a real high quarterback rating. Just a tremendous kid with a tremendous work ethic.” — Fitch head coach Phil Annarella

Chris had 400 yards in receiving with eight TD receptions and ran for another 200.

Chris runs a 4.37 40 and Demitrious has been clocked at 4.38.  Hopefully, one or both of them will play in Boise.