A student enters Teachers College Hall, the new entrance for the Teachers College that links Mabel Lee and Henzlik halls at the corner of 14th and Vine streets.

Education Departments Get a New Home

Hall Is Anchor For Teachers College

By Kim Hachiya, Public Relations

With faculty scattered in eight buildings across two campuses, Teachers College personnel sometimes felt they spent more time traveling than teaching.

But the opening of Teachers College Hall has relocated faculty from educational administration and educational psychology into one building that links two existing college halls.

"This is a big thing for us," said Jim O'Hanlon, dean of the college. "Connecting the three buildings makes us one unit. It's going to be really helpful in developing collaborations within the college and in helping us provide services to faculty.

"And it's designed specifically for our purposes, as opposed to Nebraska Hall that was designed to be a watch factory and Bancroft Hall that was designed to be an elementary school."

The new building replaces Bancroft and Lyman, which are slated for the wrecking ball later this summer. Renovation of the two would have cost more than constructing a new building. The legislature funded the project and, as part of the deal, the older buildings will go. They will become a greenspace as part of the campus master plan.

O'Hanlon said the net square feet in the new building is less, but the space is much more efficiently arranged.

The new building is more than just a grand new entrance. Behind that "neoclassic Georgian" façade lie faculty and departmental offices, classrooms and conference rooms as well as the library for the Buros Institute of Mental Measurements and space for educational psychology's clinical programs. One classroom, set up for distance learning, will be used exclusively by the nursing college. Other classrooms, mostly filled with Teachers College offerings, also will be used as general purpose classroom space.

The three-level building links to Mabel Lee Hall twice and has five connections to Henzlik Hall. Elliptical in shape, the building nestles between the older buildings, creating a courtyard area between it and Henzlik.

"I was really concerned about how they would join the two buildings," O'Hanlon said. "But the architects did a wonderful job in meshing them and overshadowing the two older buildings" so that the entrance on the corner of 14th and Vine streets gains prominence.

The college's signature statue, a sculpture of three children reading a book, will be relocated near the entrance. O'Hanlon said he was surprised at the number of people who react to the sculpture each day, taking pictures of it, sitting on it or just looking at it.

The most striking feature of the new building is the "ovoid" space on the main level. With sage green, dusky purple and yellow tiles on the floor, the two-story space has a winding staircase to the upper level. O'Hanlon said the ovoid is intended to be a gathering space for students and faculty.

He is convinced the college will see a flurry of collaborative activities now that most of the faculty are together (the college also has a number of faculty in the Barkley Center on East Campus).

"A lot of work we do spans more than one department. Our research and outreach activities are oftentimes broader than one department. People housed close together tend to work together and reinforce one another," he said. "It's not that they couldn't have or didn't work together before, but they often didn't. Now, they'll meet other faculty daily. I'm noticing that I'm seeing more Ed Ad faculty in the dean's office this summer than I have in years. Geography does make a difference."

Among the biggest decisions was how to address computing technology, O'Hanlon said.

"We're doing a lot of wireless technology in this building," he said.

The college did some pilot studies on use of wireless technologies and will continue to study this issue, he added.

The building was designed by Sinclair Hille Architects and built by Sampson Construction. Woody Haecker with UNL Facilities Management was project director.

The building will be dedicated Oct. 11.

"I really didn't think we'd ever get here," O'Hanlon said. "One year, we got to 27 on the (capital construction) list. The next year, they listed 30 projects, and we weren't on it. It's been 15 years or more since we were thrown out of Canfield. It's nice to be back together."

Scientists Find Rain Caused Sandstone Cliffs

By Kelly Bartling, Public Relations

UNL researchers have discovered that monsoon rains fell in a vast desert dunefield and helped create the Navajo sandstone deposits in Utah, Arizona, Nevada and Wyoming.

Evidence of heavy summer rains during the Jurassic Period, 208 million to 146 million years ago, is present in the geologic history of the Navajo sandstone cliffs in Utah, according to David Loope, a UNL geoscientist and a world-known expert on windblown sediment.

Loope's geologic field work with Matt Joeckel of the Conservation and Survey Division, as well as accompanying climatological research by UNL geoscientist Clint Rowe, is highlighted on the cover of the July 5 edition of Nature, the international weekly journal of science. The article, "Annual monsoon rains recorded by Jurassic dunes," reports that these Jurassic summer rains created slumps in the ancient sand dunes that were later covered by dry sand deposits.

That information is new and could offer hints about climate worldwide during the same period, Loope said.

"The paper reports new details of the nature of the weather and climate during that time," Loope said from Kanab, Utah, where he continues his research this summer. "Geologists are always trying to extract more information about Earth's history. In this case, an amazing amount of detail is recorded in these cliffs, and we can tell how far the dunes moved each year, and tell that the dominant wind was in the winter."

Loope said evidence of the desert monsoons is clear.

"The reason we know the rain came at all is that when enough rain falls, the dune will slump, producing a distinctive contorted layer that is buried by smooth, undisturbed layers when the dune starts to move again," he said. Field observations at one site showed that during 37 years of dune migration, 24 "slumps" were generated. The Navajo sandstone forms canyons and cliffs throughout the southwest and is obvious to visitors at Utah's Zion, Capitol Reef and Arches National Parks, where some of the towering sandstone formations are more than 2,000 feet tall.

Loope said evidence of the monsoon rains appears to be restricted to the lower part of the Navajo sandstone. During the Jurassic periods, the area we call Utah was only 15 degrees north of the equator and lay toward the western margin of the supercontinent Pangaea, the largest landmass known from Earth's history. Studies on ancient deserts help reveal how climate patterns have changed during the Earth's history.

"We hope to be able to go into more detail, and Clint Rowe will be looking into computer-modeling the early Jurassic climate. Combining field observations with computer models, we will try to figure out how the wind systems changed during this time period," Loope said.

Rowe said previous modeling has looked at average seasonal shifts in the atmospheric circulation.

"Now, since we know that both seasonal - monsoonal - and shorter-term wind variations are recorded in the dune layers, we should be able to gain greater insight into regional weather patterns during the Jurassic," Rowe said. Those climate models and simulations may have use in research in other areas of the globe and continents, which were aligned much differently then.

The Nature article marks the third major science publication in one year for Loope. In July 2000, Nature published his research on volcanic ash at Scottsbluff, and also that month Natural History reported his research in the Gobi Desert.

The Alpine Tower II stands ready for use at the Campus Recreation Adventure Challenge Course, at 6900 W. Superior St., nine miles west of the downtown campus. The Challenge Course will be ready for use at the end of July, according to Chris Dulak, assistant director for marketing for campus recreation.

Campus Rec Offers Challenge Course

By Kate Grafel, Public Relations Intern

The latest challenge for UNL's Campus Recreation staff is finding instructors for Campus Rec's new Challenge Course.

The course, built adjacent to Nine Mile Prairie northwest of Lincoln, is a sort of obstacle course that requires teamwork to complete successfully. A series of high and low elements made of cables, ropes, poles, ladders and nets compose the course.

Campus Rec sponsored an Adventure Day July 11 to introduce the new course to the community and to recruit instructors.

The new Challenge Course replaces a course at Camp Easter Seals in Milford that Campus Rec used in the past. Two years ago a train wreck contaminated the site with diesel fuel, said Jon-Scott Godsey, assistant director for Outdoor Recreation. The camp has since relocated to Nebraska City.

Low elements of the Challenge Course are 5 feet or less off the ground; high elements are anything higher. The high elements on UNL's course are 35 to 50 feet tall. Godsey said 35 feet seems to be the "magic number" psychologically. According to studies by the Air Force, it doesn't matter whether the height is 35 or 300 feet; once that 35-foot line is crossed, it all creates the same level of fear, he said.

To Use the Course To schedule groups for the Challenge Course, call Outdoor Recreation at 472-8871. Anyone interested in training to become Challenge Course instructors should call Jon-Scott Godsey at the same number. Instructor training will be July 17-21.

Godsey said people of all abilities could feasibly negotiate the Challenge Course.

"The course is designed so you are able to pick the requirement," Godsey said. "Typically if you are in poor condition, you will be more self-limiting."

The course is compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Next spring, representatives of the company that built the course will conduct a specialized Challenge Course session for people with disabilities.

"It comes down to having the desire," Godsey said. "If you have the desire, we can figure out a way."

Some of the elements require a personal initiative, said Chris Dulak, Campus Rec's assistant director for marketing. All of the elements are designed to be facilitated by a team.

"Even though one person may be on an element, the entire team is cheering them on, finding a solution," he said.

The course is geared toward any group, whether it be a student organization or a corporation, Godsey said.

"Our primary focus is the Lincoln campus," Godsey said. "However, we understand that we are a part of a larger community."

Fees for using the Challenge Course: A full-day program costs $20 per person for a group affiliated with the University of Nebraska, $25 per person for non-profit groups and $35 per person for profit groups. Half-day and customized corporate programming is also available.

Certified instructors train the team on verbal commands and how to use the equipment, then guide them through the course.

Alpine Towers, a company based in North Carolina, built the course. The company has built courses for other universities, but Dulak said UNL's is the most extensive one.

Godsey said that although larger courses exist, the environment of UNL's Challenge Course is unique.

The course is adjacent to the Nine-Mile Prairie, which UNL bought in 1984. Only 20 acres of the 230-acre tall-grass prairie have ever been plowed, and the land is preserved for teaching, research and nature study.

To the west of the course lies land whose owner is attempting to restore to its natural state, so it's not uncommon to see quail or other wildlife fly overhead, Godsey said.

Campus Rec shares its 80 acres with biological sciences graduate student Lauren Young, who is researching bull thistle. Campus Recreation is also working with the agronomy department on planting trees, and Godsey said the pond might be stocked with fish.

Outdoor Recreation has already begun scheduling some groups to use the Challenge Course; the first group will be there the last week of July.