Heard on the Mall

Mother-daughter act

When classes began in the fall, Julie Brown and her mother, Karen, had more in common than the same home address in Wilmington. Both are freshmen in the Class of 2003.

Because Julie is only 15 years old, she is commuting to the campus from home. Karen's been home-schooling her since Julie was 3 years old. That's how Julie was able to finish her schooling before other children her age.

"You have to remember that in home-schooling you don't have all the seat work, and the teacher doesn't have to deal with large numbers of students," Karen says. "So, it's conceivable that a student can get six hours' worth of learning in only three hours."

UD-owned housing to be smoke-free this fall

University of Delaware-owned student housing on the Newark campus will be smoke-free, beginning this fall, President David P. Roselle has announced.

"We are joining the growing number of organizations that have made all of their building smoke-free," Roselle said. "In so doing, our desire is to ensure that the University of Delaware offers the highest degree of protection--both from the standpoint of health and safety--for the students who live on campus as well as the staff and visitors who work in and use our facilities."

On the recommendation of UD's Faculty Senate, all academic and office buildings and UD vehicles were declared smoke-free in 1995. This action also included a ban on smoking during football contests in Delaware Stadium.

"Extending the ban on smoking to our student housing is the right thing to do and this is the right time to do it," Roselle said.

"Indeed," he said, "because of student preference, we have added numerous additional smoke-free housing options in the past few years. As was earlier the case with the airlines, this step-by-step restriction of smoking areas was clearly only a transition to a smoke-free environment."

Barbara Kreppel, associate vice president for administrative services, said any returning students who already have signed up for residence hall rooms have until July 1 to cancel their housing contracts should they wish to do so. Full refunds will be given to those who cancel by the end of the semester, she said.

"The smoking policy is being announced now so students who choose to do so will have the time to seek alternative housing," Kreppel said.

Additional smoking-cessation classes and workshops, as well as an education campaign on the dangers of smoking, will be offered.

Dr. Joseph Siebold, director of Student Health Services, said medical evidence clearly shows that smoking has resulted in a health epidemic and is an irritant and a discourtesy to many non-smokers. Effects of smoking include worsened allergy conditions, heart disease and lung cancer.

UD currently has 15 residence halls and several floors of other residence halls officially designated as smoke-free, Kreppel said.

The skaters at UD's Ice Skating Science Development Center glide across the ice, locked in the isolation that only complete concentration can bring, practicing their jumps, turns and spins.

Off the ice, it's a different story.

The skaters, their parents and coaches are part of an extended family, one that binds together individuals in this sport all across the country. That connection has been most evident in the aftermath of a skating accident that interrupted the career of pairs skaters Paul Binnebose and Laura Handy, who train at the UD center.

Skaters across the country have rallied in support of Binnebose, who faces a long road to recovery after a near-fatal fall Sept. 29 that resulted in a severe brain injury. Skaters who train at UD, as well as friends of the skater, are wearing and selling ribbons to raise money to help pay Binnebose's hospital bills. The ribbons are navy blue and purple--the colors Binnebose and Handy wore last year when they placed third in the nation in pairs figure skating and became part of the elite U.S. Senior World Team.

The ice arena is accepting donations to a Binnebose fund, administered by the Delaware Amateur Skating Foundation.

Binnebose's coach, Tracy Poletis, says that cards and letters have been pouring in, and young skaters across the country have sent drawings. Internet chatrooms, like one maintained by Figure Skating World OnLine, are full of get-well wishes for Binnebose.

"We're all very close. It's been hard on everybody," Poletis says. "Right now, we all just want him to get as healthy as possible. It's tough. He has a lot to face.

"He's a big strong kid with a strong mind. He's a fighter. He's had to fight to get this far and he'll continue to fight," Poletis says. "When you think that the two of them have only skated together for two years and that they made the U.S. team--well, that's determination, that's pretty unheard of. Paul and Laura have left quite an impression on people across the country."

Binnebose, who was in a coma for 11 days, returned home at the end of November. He is still undergoing physical therapy and greeted fans at a recent ice show at the Rust Arena.

Staff members of the UD library will go to the ends of the Earth if it means adding to the library's collections. Well, at least as far as Morocco.

So it was that Timothy Murray, head of Special Collections, and Francis Poole, associate librarian, journeyed to Tangier to visit Poole's longtime friend, Paul Bowles, to discuss the disposition of his literary papers. Bowles, 88, died Nov. 18 of a heart attack.

As a result of their negotiations, the library has acquired a large collection of Mr. Bowles' work, including letters, manuscripts, revisions of manuscripts, translations, publishers' reports, memorabilia and numerous
other items housed for many years in the home of the expatriate writer and composer.

"The papers document the career of one of the most distinctive voices in modern literature," says Susan Brynteson, director of libraries.

Mr. Bowles was born in New York City on Dec. 10, 1910. Since the 1940s, he had written numerous works of fiction, essays, translations, travel essays, poems and other works. Among Mr. Bowles' best-known fictional works are the novels The Sheltering Sky (1949), Let It Come Down (1952) and The Spider's House (1955); and his initial short story collection, The Delicate Prey and Other Stories (1950). A film of The Sheltering Sky was made in 1991, starring Debra Winger and John Malkovich and directed by Bernardo Bertolucci.

Mr. Bowles also had a prominent career as a composer. He studied with both Aaron Copland and Virgil Thomson and, during the 1930s and 1940s, became one of the preeminent composers of American theatre music.

In 1938, he married the former Jane Auer, who under her married name of Jane Bowles, became an accomplished author. The couple spent much of their married life traveling throughout the world and, in the late 1940s, made Tangier, Morocco, their permanent home. Major figures in the world of letters and the arts frequently visited them there.

After many years of corresponding with Mr. Bowles and meeting with him on numerous occasions, Murray described the two visits to Tangier in March and September as "adventures in discovery," adding, "It has been a great privilege and certainly a professional highlight to have had the opportunity to work with Mr. Bowles on this effort."

The UD visitors had many lengthy discussions with Mr. Bowles in his home and, with the help of his assistant, Abdelhouaid Boulaich, were able to pack up and transport to Delaware scores of boxes filled to the brim.

Murray noted that the UD Library will mount an important exhibition in late 2000 that will contain items from the Bowles papers. While in Tangier, Poole interviewed Mr. Bowles on videotape, which will be added to the Paul Bowles Archive.

The new materials are being processed and should be available to researchers within two years, Murray says.

Team building outside

Ever want to build a human ladder, walk on a cable or manipulate your way through a rope spider?

Now in its sixth year, the University's Adventure Challenge Experience (ACE) is available to businesses, community groups, schools and other organizations. The goals of the ACE program are to encourage participation, team building, responsibility, creativity, trust and learning through adventure.

Activities can range from low-level programs to the high-challenge ropes course, which is 20 to 40 feet in the air. Rock climbing is another option.

ACE programs are specifically designed to meet the goals of different groups. Facilitators assist the participants in meeting challenges and relating activities to the group's objectives, such as teamwork and developing communication skills.?

For information about ACE, contact Roger Spacht at (302) 831-8611.

When GQ: Gentlemen's Quarterly put together a special supplement on aging in its September 1999 issue, it seemed only natural to include the likes of Dick Clark, whom the magazine tagged "a paragon of preservation," and John Glenn, who the magazine says "has grown old gracefully by following the simple yet effective strategy pioneered by Red Buttons: Adopt the look of a stunned infant and stick with it."

And, the magazine tags one individual as "the ultimate authority for men's style news." Who? Someone near and dear to UD's heart–101-year-old Chap Tyler.

The retired economics engineer, continuing education faculty member, B&E lecturer and UD benefactor is included in the article modeling his favorite multi-colored Shetland sweater, one so admired by the women at his Cokesbury Village retirement community in Hockessin, Del., that he calls it "my pick-up sweater."

Tyler, who authored the book, Building for Success in Business: Your Midlife Career at the age of 98 and who has just completed a new book, View from Age 100, says his recipe for longevity is simple: "Don't retire–ever."

A proponent of regular medical checkups, Tyler also concedes that it may take the right genetics to make a centenarian.

Tyler told the magazine he regularly wakes up between 6 and 7 a.m., has breakfast at 8 a.m. and reads three newspapers each day. Two or three days a week he attends fitness classes. On the others, he attends to business and personal correspondence and finance. After lunch, he takes a short walk or a short nap and spends more time reading.

He describes dinner as a "two-hour social event with 200 to 300 who live in Cokesbury Village." In the evenings, Tyler said he may watch a movie and is in bed between 9 and 10 p.m.

Tyler also told the magazine his favorite food is broiled scrod and his favorite author is Ernest Hemingway, adding "I won't discuss my sex life, such as it is."