You might have thought all those baby boomers lined up in the early morning hours inside Pearson Hall were trying to purchase tickets to a Beatles reunion.
In reality, these were parents waiting to drop off
registration forms for the University's immensely popular Saturday Morning Math Program-an enrichment activity offered by the Mathematics and Science Education Resource Center to help kids in grades 1-8 realize that math can be fun.
By 9 a.m. on registration's opening day, all but three slots had already been filled in the most popular time slot-the 10:15 a.m. class.
Love may make the world go 'round, but it was music that had members of a Mitchell Hall audience spinning in their seats when all the UD student vocal and instrumental performing groups-
including the UD Marching Band-joined forces to present Calliope in November.
The fast-paced, high spirited evening of music was put together by Marching Band director Heidi Sarver, who showcased UD's student musicians in a unique merry-go-round setting, with groups playing from the balcony, the sides of the theatre and, of course, on stage.
The performance netted $3,000 for the Robert King Scholarship Fund.
Someday, Sarver says, she hopes to schedule the performance for a date when more alumni are on campus. Meantime, for more information on next year's Calliope or the King Scholarship Fund, call the music department at (302) 831-2577.
So, you want to apply for a job in Alaska, or
maybe New Mexico, but you're living in Newark. Hmm...how to get to the job interview?
The Career Services Center has the answer in VIEWnet, a video conferencing system that makes it possible to conduct long-distance job interviews. Just ask Chris Proud, Delaware '93, who landed a job in Colorado after a video job interview on campus.
Proud, who majored in political science and international relations, interviewed via VIEWnet with Laplata County in Durango, Colo., last summer. After an hour-long interview, Proud was offered, and
accepted, a job as a regional and community planner there.
"Using video conferencing was a bit awkward at first," Proud says, "but, after a while, things started to flow more smoothly. Without this technology, I wouldn't have gotten the job."
Jack Townsend, director of the Career Services Center, says, "Video conferencing offers students and employers a low-cost method of expanding their interviewing options. Students can now access a wider recruiter base, and employers don't have to limit their recruitment efforts to a few college campuses."
In December, Hewlett Packard arranged video interviewing for nine positions in marketing, sales, finance and engineering from its site in Palo Alto, Calif. Delaware was one of 10 schools selected for this video job fair.
For more information, contact the center at (302) 831-8479. *
An area near Townsend Hall, home of the College of Agricultural Sciences, has been converted into a habitat trail for children (and adults) to view birds, butterflies, insects, reptiles and small mammals.
Featuring 10 stations within the UD Botanic Gardens, the one-acre trail meanders through wooded areas, a meadow, a miniature wetland and a herbaceous garden.
New Castle County Master Gardeners, professionally trained volunteers who help disseminate gardening information for Cooperative Extension, created the trail to teach environmental awareness in elementary schools. A recent $5,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency will help them maintain and improve the trail, adding benches, signs and a viewing platform over the summer.
Students and faculty in the college and Cooperative Extension staff also assisted with the construction, which began in the spring of 1995.
Students of Gary Smith, associate professor of plant and soil sciences, came up with the design, laid the path and helped plant more than 400 native plants. Master Gardeners oversaw the layout and planting, wrote the trail guide, built station markers and added bird boxes. Students in UD's Wildlife Club built a brush pile to shelter small animals, and Wallace Pill, professor of plant and soil sciences, constructed the signs.
The trail was laid out around existing plantings of native trees and shrubs. Turf was left unmowed to create a released meadow of wildflowers and grasses. Shrubs and fast-growing trees were allowed to grow into a woody field. Already in place were honeysuckle to attract hummingbirds, choke cherries and winterberry holly to provide food for birds and goldenrod and asters to offer nectar for Monarch butterflies.
"With the grant, we're putting together trail guides and instruction materials that meet new school standards," says Master Gardener Peg Baseden. "We're planning teacher workshops on how to use the school yard habitat to teach about the environment. And, we're hoping to inspire children and teachers to create their own wildlife habitats.
"It takes some education to appreciate a meadow like this," Baseden says. "Some people see it as just an unmowed mess. But, you can learn to appreciate the changing mosaic of the wildflowers and the sound of the grasses blowing in the wind."
Ever wonder just who are those glamorous men and women performing in the University's Professional Theatre Training Program (PTTP) productions? Twenty-five percent are card-carrying members of Actors Equity, so the newest incoming class may include some familiar faces.
There's Hayden Adams, who left a trail of tears across the country when he appeared as the lead in the national touring company of Les Miserables; Kim Byers, who has been seen in Sprint commercials and in small roles on Doogie Howser, M.D., and Unsolved Mysteries; Peter Daddabbo, who has appeared in the soap operas, The Guiding Light and As the World Turns; and Michelle Tauber who has played small roles on Kate and Allie and Law and Order.
Students are admitted to the University's prestigious graduate program only after a grueling audition process conducted by faculty at locations throughout the United States.
"The faculty and I feel that this is potentially the best class we have ever recruited, and we are very excited about what is possible over the next three years," Sanford Robbins, chairperson of the theatre department, says.
The University of Delaware is a great place to work. That's the good news from the College and University Personnel Association (CUPA) and the Families and Work Institute (FWI), which rated UD a "family-friendly" institution with programs and policies in place to make the work environment supportive of employees' personal lives.
UD ranked among the top 29 "Leadership Campuses" in the nation in terms of family friendliness, according to the results of a CUPA/FWI survey. "Leadership Campuses" have at least 30 programs or policies designed to help employees balance their personal and family lives with work responsibilities.
Star gazing
A family-friendly place