The Wallace Stegner Center established a Behle Fellows Program this year, with funding from the Calvin A. and Hope Eccles Behle Fund. The Behle Fellows program will provide generous financial support, including a tuition waiver scholarship, to students who will serve as Research Assistants to Stegner Center faculty members. This year’s Behle Fellows include Sheena Christman, who is working with Professor Bob Keiter and Professor Arnold Reitze, and Dillon Olson, who is working with Professor Davies and Professor McLaughlin. Stegner Center Director Bob Keiter noted, “The Behle Fellows program reflect the law school’s commitment to collaborative faculty-student research efforts and will enable students to dig deeply into cutting-edge environmental issues.”
The funding is provided by the Calvin A. and Hope Eccles Behle Natural Resources Fund, which was established in 1988. The donors intended that the fund would be used to enhance teaching, research, and scholarship in natural resources law, with special recognition of the critical role that mining and water law play in a continually changing local, national, and international setting. Over the years, the Behle Fund has been used to support student engagement in the Wallace Stegner Center, as well as faculty research in natural resources law. The Behle Fund has also grown over the years, with additional gifts from the C. Comstock Clayton Foundation.
The Behle Fellows Program will yield benefits for students, as it will provide students with an intensive research experience in natural resources law and the opportunity to work closely with Wallace Stegner Center faculty. For the faculty, it will augment research efforts, as faculty will be able to work with some of the most talented students on key research projects.