Iowa State University Alumni Association| online edition | spring 2007

SPRING 2007
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ISU Sesquicentennial:
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AROUND CAMPUS

Honoring Hugh Sidey
Happy to be alive
You are here.
Writing the book on ISU
Campus gears up for Sesquicentennial kickoff
Sesquicentennial Trivia
SesquicenTENnial
How now, bronze cow?
In Brief

Honoring Hugh Sidey (Return to top)
In what amounted to an unofficial “Iowa State Day at the White House,” dignitaries including former President George H.W. Bush and current First Lady Laura Bush honored the late Hugh Sidey (’50 journalism) in the presence of visiting Iowa State faculty, staff, alumni, students, and friends.

The occasion was the official announcement of the new Hugh S. Sidey Scholarship in the ISU Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication, which supports aspiring print journalists who have interest in covering the chief executive of the United States in their future journalism careers. The award, funded through a donation by former deputy assistant to President Jimmy Carter David M. Rubenstein and the White House Historical Association (WHHA), honors Sidey, a Greenfield, Iowa, native who was Time magazine’s White House correspondent and a celebrated presidential biographer during his 30-year career.

Fred Love, a junior in journalism and political science from Quasqueton, Iowa, is the first recipient of the scholarship, which included a $5,000 award from the WHHA and a trip to Washington, D.C. Love was selected as the inaugural recipient after being judged to have written the best essay on the “challenges, principles, and importance of reporting on the modern presidency.”

During the White House ceremony, former President Bush spoke about his close personal relationship with Sidey. He described him as a probing reporter but one who respected the office of the president. “The world of journalism needs a few more Hugh Sideys,” he said.
Sidey began covering Dwight Eisenhower for Life magazine in 1957 and later became Time magazine’s political and White House correspondent. He was the author of “The Presidency” column in Time and published five books on the presidency.

He was a fourth-generation journalist, getting his start on his family’s weekly newspaper in Greenfield.

First Lady Laura Bush said Sidey treated the presidents “with dignity and respect. Whenever I saw Hugh’s byline, I knew that a thoughtful, even article would follow. And as someone married to a president, I appreciate that.”

Following his graduation from Iowa State, Love says he hopes to become a White House reporter.

'Happy to be Alive'(Return to top)
One minute the five Iowa Staters were driving along in their mini-van, returning to Iowa from a weeklong ski trip in Colorado on Jan. 6. The next, they were hurtling down the side of a mountain, swept off the road by one of the largest avalanches ever to hit a roadway in Colorado.

Struck by a wall of snow 100 feet wide and 18 feet deep, the van went over a concrete railing and down 300 feet into a ravine, turning over 10, maybe 15 times. Windows shattered. Luggage flew out into the snow.

But amazingly, the five passengers not only survived the crash, they walked away with minor injuries.
“We’re all happy to be alive,” said Mark Bland (’04 mgmt. info. syst.), a computer programmer at Iowa State. The group credits seat belts and air bags for their ability to ride out the crash with only cuts, bruises, and a few broken ribs.

Media coverage of the accident was swift and expansive. The five appeared on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and “Good Morning, America,” and news of the crash could be seen on the BBC, Newsweek, Fox, CNN, and every major network.

“The paramedics said we’d be famous,” said Jordan Cook (’03 history / pol. sci.), a graduate assistant in ISU’s History Department. “But we just did
not expect it at all.”

Bland and Cook – along with fellow passengers Darren Johnson (’01 mgmt. info. syst., ’06 hotel, rest. & inst. mgmt.), Sarah Law Johnson (’04 el. ed. / music), and Peter Olsen (ISU sophomore in materials engineering) – are back in Ames. And yes, they say, they’ll go back to Colorado to ski the next time they get the chance.

You are here. (Return to top)
Iowa State needs a more dramatic campus entrance, according to officials who recently participated in the creation of the “South Campus Gateway Plan,” which will aim over the next several years to raise funds for structures, signage, and landscaping along the south entry to the ISU campus. Among the ideas listed in the plan to better welcome visitors are the construction of an 18-foot gate-like brick and stone structure on Elwood Drive, a landscaped “gateway” structure between Mortensen Parkway and South 16th Street, and improved signage for way-finding. Officials also plan to request that the Ames City Council consider changing the name of Elwood Drive to “University Boulevard.” The road is currently named for Philip H. Elwood, former chair of ISU’s Landscape Architecture Department; the university would propose an alternate plan for honoring Elwood’s contributions on campus. “We have more than a million and a half visitors to campus each year,” said ISU President Gregory Geoffroy. “The gateway project will clearly announce to visitors that they have arrived on campus.”

Writing the book on ISU (Return to top)

The first copy of A Sesquicentennial History of Iowa State University: Tradition and Transformation, a book commissioned as part of the university’s sesquicentennial celebration that officially begins this spring at VEISHEA, was presented to ISU President Gregory Geoffroy in a special ceremony in January and is now available to the public.

Tradition and Transformation is only the second full history of Iowa State ever published. The first, A History of Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts by Earle Ross, was published in 1942. The new 368-page book, published by Blackwell Publishing under the former Iowa State University Press imprint, was written by 11 authors and contains more than 100 black and white photos. The book takes readers from a little college on the prairie to the
large, vibrant, technologically advanced institution that is Iowa State today, with an emphasis on the time period of the 1940s through current day.

The book is currently available through the ISU Alumni Association and the University Book Store and will be sold on central campus during the sesquicentennial kickoff April 21. To order by phone, call toll-free 1-877-ISU-ALUM. Retail price for the book is $49.99; members of the Alumni Association pay $42.49 plus shipping and handling. | Read more about the book online | Purchase online

Campus gears up for sesquicentennial kickoff(Return to top)
As we go to press, Iowa State is putting the finishing touches on its 150th anniversary kickoff weekend. The celebration will involve each college, many student organizations, and feature campus-wide activities:

• VEISHEA 2007: “A Timeless Tradition,” April 16-22, featuring parade, food stands, Cy’s Big Top, cherry pies, concerts, and more

• Distinguished Awards Celebration weekend, April 19-21; public ceremony and reception, Friday, April 20, 3:15 p.m., Parks Library

• Morrill Hall rededication, Friday, April 20, 11 a.m. ceremony and tours

• Sesquicentennial kickoff on central campus, April 21 following the VEISHEA parade

• Displays and exhibits throughout campus

More information on the yearlong
celebration is on page 16, and details can be found at www.iastate.edu/isu150/

Sesquicentennial Trivia (Return to top)
1. Which U.S. President
was a grand marshal for
the VEISHEA parade?
a. Ronald Reagan
b. George H. W. Bush
c. Harry S. Truman
d. Jimmy Carter

2. Who did not select a VEISHEA Queen of Queens?
a. Bing Crosby
b. Cary Grant
c. Bob Hope
d. David Hasselhoff

3. In recent years, riots connected with VEISHEA have brought Iowa State national attention. But few remember a three-night student rampage on Oct. 18, 19 and 20, 1953. Students set fires, tipped over sheds, and blocked Lincoln Way (then U.S. Highway 30). Police were called in from Iowa Falls, Eldora, Boone, Marshalltown, and Des Moines. Media coverage included a three page photographic spread in Life magazine. Why were the students rioting?

a. They wanted to dance the Tango, which was banned on campus.
b. They wanted a day off from school to celebrate the football team’s upset win over Missouri in the Homecoming game.
c. They wanted extended visitation hours in women’s
residences.
d. They wanted to attend “unsanctioned” events, that is, those that were not sponsored by a university group.

4. Most people know that the letters forming the word VEISHEA come from Iowa State’s original divisions (now colleges). What were those division names?
a. Veterinary Medicine, Engineering, Industrial Science,
Home Economics, and Agriculture
b. Veterinary Medicine, Education, Industrial Services,
Home Economics, and Agriculture
c. Veterinary Medicine, Engineering, Institutional Science, Home Economics, and Agriculture
d. Veterinary Education, Industrial Safety, Home Economics,
and Agriculture

5. The tradition of lighting the VEISHEA torch began in 1950, when President Harry Truman lit the first torch. In what location did this occur?
a. Independence, Mo., Truman’s home town
b. On Iowa State’s central campus
c. In Washington, D.C.
d. In Ottumwa, Iowa

– From the University Archives, ISU Library. Scroll to bottom of page for answers.

SesquicenTENnial (Return to top)

Iowa State: First in the nation

1. On Sept. 11, 1862, the Iowa legislature officially accepted the provisions of the Morrill Land-Grant Act, which brought to Iowa the honor of becoming the first state in the U.S. to do so.

2. Iowa State created the first state-funded School of Veterinary Science in the nation in 1879.

3. The world’s first electronic digital computer was built at Iowa State in the late 1930s by mathematics and physics professor John Atanasoff (’26 MS math.) and engineering graduate student Clifford Berry (’39 elect. engr., MS ’41, Ph.D. ’48).

4. Iowa State was the first land-grant institution to be co-educational from the beginning.

5. Iowa State was the first in the world to award an agricultural engineering degree.

6. Iowa State is a leader in virtual reality research, and its C-6 is the first six-sided virtual reality theater in the U.S.

7. Iowa State was the first land-grant college in the nation to offer training in domestic economy for college credit.

8. In 1933, Iowa State established the nation’s first Statistical Laboratory under the leadership of George Snedecor.

9. The College of Agriculture offered the first interdisciplinary graduate degree program in sustainable agriculture in the United States.

10. In 1989, ISU was the first university in the world to field-test a genetically engineered tree

How now, bronze cow? (Return to top)
Norma “Duffy” Lyon (’51 animal science), known for her butter cow sculptures at the Iowa State Fair, has created a cow sculpture for Iowa State – and this one won’t melt. Lyon’s sculpture, Jersey Jewel, is a life-size bronze cow created for the new ISU Dairy Farm. The sculpture was unveiled in a ceremony Dec. 8 in Kildee Hall. Lyon, of Toledo, Iowa, sculpted cows, people, and objects at the Iowa State Fair for 46 years before retiring in 2006.

In Brief (Return to top)
A college by any other name
Iowa State’s College of Agriculture is moving forward with a proposal to change its name to the “College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.” Dean of Agriculture Wendy Wintersteen said the new name would “more accurately describe both the long-held and the modern emphasis and breadth of the college.”

Ames Lab will stay in Ames
Continuing a relationship that dates back to the Manhattan Project, Iowa State was awarded a five-year contract by the federal government in December to continue managing and operating the Ames Laboratory, a Department of Energy Office of Science facility that seeks solutions to areas of national concern, including energy resources, high-speed computer design, environmental cleanup and restoration, and materials. ISU has been the lab’s sole manager and operator since its inception in 1947. The new contract runs through Dec. 31, 2011, with opportunities to extend for incremental periods up to 15 years as an incentive for superior performance.

A call to action
Leaders in the field of biorenewables gathered on campus Nov. 28 in response to a “call to action” by ISU President Gregory Geoffroy. The summit, “A Call to Action: Ensuring Iowa’s Leadership in the Bioeconomy,” focused on developing policy and investment recommendations to maintain the state of Iowa’s leadership in biorenewable energy. “Iowa is the nation’s clear leader in producing ethanol from corn,” Geoffroy said. “But there is urgency for Iowa’s leaders to start formulating policies and programs to ensure that Iowa continues its leadership into the era of advanced renewable fuels.”

Law of the land
Focusing on agricultural taxation, commercial transactions, tort law, property law, farm estate and business planning, bankruptcy, and environmental and natural resource law, the Iowa State University Agricultural Law Center became a reality when the Board of Regents, State of Iowa, approved its creation Nov. 8. The center will provide information to agricultural producers, landowners, businesses, and professionals on developments in agricultural law and taxation.

Trivia answers:
1. a) Ronald Reagan, in 1958
2. d) David Hasselhoff
3. b) They wanted a day off from school to celebrate the football victory, of course
4. a) Veterinary Medicine, Engineering, Industrial Science, Home Economics, and Agriculture
5. d) Ottumwa, Iowa