Editor's Desk
The Police Blotter
It’s easy to say that I grew
up at UM. I came here a wet-behind-the-ears eighteen-year-old
from Montana’s eastern plains and left an eyebrow-arching
twenty-one-year-old with a journalism job in another state.
Becoming editor of this magazine was a sort of coming home.
Needless to say, it was disorienting: same place, so much
different.
One welcome element in my daily working life quickly became
the Montana Kaimin. I had my own memories of working on the
Kaimin. So it came as a surprise to me that, although I
appreciated much of what the student newspaper had to offer in
news stories and editorials, the section I most enjoyed was the
Police Blotter.
I’ve spent many happy hours reading the
“just-the-facts” reporting of the strange, often
hilarious, and always human happenings on campus. I won’t
get into the vaguely illegal or decidedly tawdry occurrences that
find their way into the paper (still no censoring—thank
you, J-school!).
What I’ve appreciated is the gestalt more than the
actual occurrences. I can see the budding journalists’
brains working behind each sentence. The five
w’s—who, what, where, when, why. Why, of course,
often being the most difficult if not impossible to explain. For
instance, one day Public Safety responded to a report of a
bicycle chained more than six feet off the ground in a tree.
Officers notified a maintenance crew, which cut the lock and
brought the bike to Public Safety for impound.
Or this one: A person collecting recycling from bins at the
Physical Plant found a suspicious powder in a bin, Officer Lemcke
said. Tests later showed that the powder was laundry soap.
There’s a certain amount of tolerance on a college
campus: Officers saw two men tipping over a portable toilet at
the Griz home football game. No one was in it at the time. One
officer noted, “someone will have to clean it up.”
The men will be punished according to the Student Conduct
Code.
And patience: Police said a male trying a key in various
vehicles in Lot W was identified and released. Lemcke said the
man had borrowed a car and was uncertain of which vehicle it was.
“He tried doors till he got the right one,” Lemcke
said.
Sometimes a sort of Zen-like acceptance: Officers found a
shopping cart with alcohol in it perched on the bear statue on
the Oval. “The bear gets a lot of attention,” Lemcke
said. The officers confiscated the alcohol, and the cart was
placed at the northeast end of the Lommasson Center so its
rightful grocery-store owner could pick it up.
Officer Lemcke is a favorite source and—possibly because
I’ve never met him—I swear I can see him as Sergeant
Friday, grimacing a little as he says, “just the facts,
ma’am.”
One recent story was broken on the front page of the Kaimin,
but went on to bigger press in the Missoulian. It seems a UM
custo- dian watched a rodent make a valiant attempt to enter
Craig Hall. Thinking he might be a dorm resident’s pet
(unsanctioned at UM), the man captured the small animal and
turned him over to Missoula County Animal Control. He told them
he thought it was a chinchilla. They promptly reported the little
guy was just a pack rat and said they’d prob- ably just
turn him loose somewhere. Stories in the Missoulian brought on a
flood of concern. Girls called in saying that they were convinced
the rodent was a degu, like their pets, and would die if left to
his own devices. The debate about his species went on for a few
days, ending when he was adopted.
Another story featured a woman and her seeing-eye horse. The
woman had called cam-pus security, complaining that in-line
skaters in the UC had spooked her horse. The story was written in
a clear and concise way and I learned everything I needed to
know. The horse was only thirty-six inches tall; the woman was
traveling through town; the skaters weren’t actually
skating, but were walking by her and her horse; the woman had
been in and out of the UC several times and had reprimanded her
horse earlier in the day, resulting in the animal crashing into a
window. The reporter ended with, “the horse was not injured
and the window wasn’t broken.” The main source for
the story: a woman working in the coffee stand for The Market who
had witnessed just about everything.
Journalism often isn’t pretty. But it’s nice to
know UM’s students are up to the task.
Joan Melcher
Editor, Montanan
Letters
Peace Corps Connection
When Kassy Holzheimer told her colleagues in UM’s
University College that she was heading for Togo as a Peace Corps
volunteer, we gave her the usual advice: Get plenty of sleep, eat
well, and write to us. [Kassy was featured in the Winter 2004
Montanan’s story, “Volunteers in Time.”]
Kassy had been a peer adviser for a couple of years [with
University College] and a special populations/re-admit adviser in
her last year with us. We knew her as a sharp cookie. We also
knew the breadth of her compassion and her interest in other
cultures.
Kassy took us at our word and, writing back recently, asked us
if we could send a few things that were desperately needed in her
village. She mentioned such basic supplies as toilet paper and
Kleenex. She also told us about the environmental club she had
started at the primary school where she was volunteering. She
needed books to help with teaching both English and environmental
concepts, and she needed supplies for the club—lots of
supplies. University College decided to make Kassy’s school
project in Togo our Christmas giving project.
Big cardboard boxes appeared in our department workroom and
objects began to fill them: toilet paper, tea, incense, markers,
pencils, simple children’s books, even a book on teaching
math. Kassy’s Togo box was mailed in early December.
Melanie Hoell, M.A. ’97
Director of University College, UM
Grizzlies in Idaho
We have lived outside of Montana longer than we care to
remember, but the Montanan always brings our minds back! Thank
you for all of the interesting articles about the people of
Montana and UM. We are always proud to tell everyone here that we
are proof that Grizzlies live in Idaho.
Bert and Teresa Cole ’80
Lewiston, Idaho
A Friendly Voice
I noticed that you are honoring Emma Lommasson on the occasion
of her ninety-third birthday. Emma played a significant role in
my attending UM, although she probably doesn’t realize it.
In 1964 I graduated from high school and wanted to study wildlife
management. No one in my family had ever attended a university
and we weren’t familiar with how one was admitted.
We lived in a remote part of Saskatchewan, north of Glasgow,
Montana. We had an old-style crank phone on the wall and my
mother was able to have the operator find the University of
Montana (MSU then). She finally got through to a woman named
Emma. It was Emma who patiently explained that if we mailed
transcripts down she would see if I met the requirements. I did,
and thanks to the kind and thoughtful efforts of Emma Lommasson,
I was able to complete my degree in 1968. Thanks for your help,
Emma. I hope you live another 100 years. My mother is ninety-two
now and still remembers talking to you on the old crank
phone.
Ray Glasrud ’68
Shauanvon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Forgive Us
The last issue of the Montanan contained several errors. There
was a mix up of page numbers on the Contents page for the story
on Marc Racicot and William Kittredge’s essay. Sorry about
the dyslexic number placement. Then a letter writer noted that
his name was Earl Christensen, not Ed Christensen. There’s
just no excuse for that sort of error and we’re even
sorrier about that. Another letter writer, Atiyyeh Mahmoud,
corrected us when we read his letter to imply Emma Lommasson
visited Jordan with ex-Dean of Women Maurine Clow; she
didn’t—he was just passing his regards to Emma. Whew.
One of our writers weighed in with another correction: in the
story, Volunteers in Time, the person quoted was Kevin Fiori, not
Kevin Novotny.We did have one more reader e-mail in we should
know Marc Racicot played basketball for the Carroll College
Fighting Saints, not football. We checked that out, and what we
had there was an error of omission. Racicot played basketball and
football and ran track for Carroll. We regret the errors and
promise to do better in the future. - JM
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