FOCUS Is Published Quarterly by the Boise State University Office of News Services
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-t ..=> z- :a ..... • ~ "'.. 0"' -• "'z I.. i ..•0 .."'e Iu e -• 0 0 ..0 • ..I I :a "' BARBARA MCFARLAND, WEST ONE BANKER. CHILDREN'S VILLAGE VOLUNTEER. t. ~ IJ)hvld Aflt}'-/>U_ hhJ cf: &n ~ ~ tLi J~uJ. ~ 1itbaL ~ w'+Mn Nlfs ~ Qlmm~ . .{jrd Yhil~ L ~f-1- n· ~~ -rJf 1-VtlMti West One Bank. A friendly, neighborhood bank with the resources of an intermountain giant. We have more than 140 offices in Idaho, Utah, Oregon and Washington. $4.3 billion in assets. And 3,217 people with the good-hearted grace of Barbara McFarland. WE BRING A WEALTH OF EXPERIENCE To WORK. JJ'EST()NE" BANK Member FDIC Discover the Magical World of "NURSERY RHYMES" Through the Eyes of Artist JAMES CHRISTENSEN ' NURSERY RHYMES by james Christensen ©1990 The Greenwich Workshop, Inc. 30 Lindeman Dr. Trumbull, CT 06611 "Nursery Rhymes" Available as a three piece open edition print We cordially invite you to visit Gallery 601 and preview these and other James Christensen works of art, shown exclusively in Boise and Sun Valley at Gallery 601. Call for your full color brochure. 400 Sun Valley Road 601 Main Street P.O. Box 2318 Boise, Idaho 83702 Ketchum, Idaho 83340 (Located in Old Boise) 726-5899 336-5899 ~ GREENWICH WORKSHOPW a m II a a BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY VOL. XV, NO.4 SUMMER 1990 FEATURES RURAL REVIVAL 16 Turning towns around. DIRE NEEDS 21 The ills of rural health care. TOWN PORTRAIT 24 Shoshone weathers slow times. AIRWAVE EDUCAnON 26 BSU delivers education to all corners of Idaho. LOCAL HEROES 30 Some of BSU's best come from small towns. DEPARTMENTS FIRST WORD 7 CAMPUS NEWS 8 SEARCH 32 ALUMNOTES 38 GALURY 45 YES! IT'S FOR THE LIBRARY In July, Boise State and its president, John Keiser, left, received welcome news from Albertsons chief executive Warren McCain that the Boise-based supermarket chain will donate $6 million for an addition and renovations to the BSU Library. See story on page 8. FOCUS is published quarterly by the Boise State University Office of News Services. PRESIDENT: John H. Keiser EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT: Larry G. Selland VICE PRESIDENT FOR FINANCE AND SILVER MEDALLION ADMINISTRATION: Asa M. Ruyle VICE PRESIDENT FOR STUDENT AFFAIRS: David S. Taylor EDITOR: Larry Burke STAFF WRITERS: Bob Evancho, Glenn Oakley and Amy Stahl $200 Deductible PHOTOGRAPHY: Glenn Oakley and Chuck Scheer EDITORIAL ASSISTANT: Brenda Haight • $1,000,000 of Protection • $300 Accident Benefits ALUMNI NEWS: Mary Ostlund • Vision Benefits • Chiropractic Care STUDENT ASSISTANT: LaVelle Gardner • Prescription Drugs • X-ray & Lab ADVERTISING SALES: P.V. Quinn & Co., 411 S. Fifth Street, Boise, Idaho 83702 SILVER MEDALLION Phone: (208) 385-0338 Nonsmoker Smoker PUBLISHING INFORMATION: FOCUS' address is Age of Monthly Monthly BSU Education Building, Room 724,1910 University Drive, Boise, Idaho 83725. Phone: (208) 385-1577. applicant Letters regarding editorial matters should be sent to or spouse male female male female the editor. Unless otherwise specified, all articles may Under 30 .. $29.60 $46.95 $34.20 $54.30 be reprinted as long as appropriate credit is given to the author, Boise State University and FOCUS 30 - 39 . 36.60 54.65 42.30 63.15 magazine. Diverse views are presented and do not 40- 49 .... 49.65 65.40 57.35 75.55 necessarily reflect the opinions of FOCUS or the 50 - 59 .... 75.55 85.85 87.30 99.15 Blue Cross~ official policies of Boise State University. ------------------------60 - 64 .... 111.05 111.05 -------------128.25 128.25 of Idaho -r '¥.' ADDRESS CHANGES: Send changes (with address One Child label if possible) to the BSU Alumni Office, 1910 University Drive, Boise, Idaho 83725. If you receive (under age 19) ... $26.55 ...... $30.55 Why settle for anything less. duplicate copies of the magazine, please notify the Two or more children Alumni Office at the above address. Friends of the (under age 19) .... $43.65 ..... $50.25 university who wish to receive FOCUS may do so by submitting their names and addresses to the Alumni Call t·BOO·J65·2J45 Office. ~CORRESPONDENCE \ • ,w, STUDY from: in University of Idaho Idaho Boise State University Idaho State University Lewis-Clark State College ~ J:x_ ~dd: ~-nuA-r~ Name ----------State ------Zip Areas of Interest ----,e.~ ABOUT THE COVER: Small towns like Shoshone, photographed by Glenn Oakley, have long been romanticized as calm, peaceful domains free of the troubles plaguing big cities. And much of that is true. But small towns in Idaho are under going dramatic upheavals these days. Idaho's ~ORRESPONDENCESTUDY traditional industries .. agriculture, mining and In Idaho logging ... are not as stable as they were a gener ation ago. What's a community to do? Diversify University of Idaho campus and tap into the educational system, say a host of Moscow, ID 33343 state leaders. It's working in towns that have (208) 885-6641 organized and hustled to survive in these changing times. In this issue, FOCUS looks at the health of small-town Idaho. 6 FOCUS a a II II a II m II a I'D RATHER BE IN PINE all them "slickers" and recite the daily Mass. It started at 4:30a.m. when the aunt as "Central." A hunting license, a evils, but for a century, Americans miners' wives said the rosary, usually in collection of special stamps, begging permis accepted the wisdom that prog Croatian. When the whistle at the mine blew sion, or the use of guides is qualitatively Cress, sophistication, wealth and "accident," prayer was important to all of us. different than parking your pickup on the achievement came from the city. The com My mother played the organ at church. We prairie, in sight of four or five farms, and plete story had the small town populated by memorized all the songs, no books neces being certain everyone knew who it was isolated, backward, narrow, and comic men sary, as well as the responses- all in Latin. because they recognized the truck. Coal and women labeled "hicks" and "hayseeds." The Catholic Church was the same in each miners fought, too often; but that fact set In 1990, when 85 percent of our population of the surrounding towns. automatic limits on conversation. It was lives in cities, emphasizing differences and No one had much money. In fact, we were natural to be polite, and respect was based disparaging names is unacceptable. But the all poor, or lower class, in modern sociologi on real knowledge. In my early years, regu real gap between rural and urban Ameri cal parlance. Gardens were necessary, lar confession was an important part of the cans is actually much wider, as we speak of chicken yards, too. During a strike or illness, Catholic Church. But I always felt the priest renaissance men and women capable of food and assistance just arrived. No one knew the details before I told him, and, that operating in a world community, and, those asked. Neighbor had meaning. We had no he had a personal interest in helping. untrained provincials who must join the idea we were poor or lower class and to be Small towns had problems, and it's easy millions of non-playing nationals from called either would have caused a fight. to romanticize about them. That's why around the globe- contemporary "hicks." Somehow no one was better than anyone Lake Wobegon is so popular. But decision During the same 100 years, most Ameri else, but everyone was as good as his neigh makers and policy-makers of all sorts would cans lamented the disappearance of tradi bor. Democracy was easy. do well to study the small towns, support tional values. What happened to self-iden There was no tennis court or golf course them, and recognize that they can be agen tity and esteem, individual security, support, for 40 miles. Football and baseball were the cies to solve some of the more critical, per a sense of belonging, of family? Small town games for which the entire town turned out. sonal challenges of the modern world. Be residents contend these values eroded with My town was German and Croatian; Benld certain that in Idaho's second century there their way of life. Some even maintain these was Italian; Gillespie was Scottish; East is something in Council, in Fairfield, in traits are more important than high-paying St. Louis was Afro-American; and each of Weiser, in Pine worth finding. 0 jobs, shopping centers and golf courses. Is the others had a national identification there room for any of them in a world made which made people closer. Athletic con By John H. Keiser up of city states ruled by international slick tests were terribly serious and ended with an President, Boise State University ers? added touch of respect and appreciation. Let's examine a case study, using, as my We knew the players from the other towns, wife Nancy puts it, my favorite person-me. and when they called me "krauthead" I had When I was 3 or 4 years old, I learned that responses that made them proud, too. all I had to do was pick up the phone and tell My family lived in Mount Olive, Ill., from "Central" (who was my aunt) that I wanted the time they came from Germany in the to speak to my grandmother. I never said 1850s until recently. I am the last one. The who I was, or which grandmother I had in cemetery bristles with stones with our name, mind, but she connected me - and some and the names of the families of friends. It times joined in the conversation.