Iowa State University Alumni Association| online edition | spring 1999

SPRING 1999
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Cover Story:
The Bells of Iowa State

Feature:
Driving Dr. Carver

Departments:
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ON CAMPUS

Lisa Ahrens elected FFA president
An invitation to Veishea 1999
How often do galaxies collide?
Universities charged with increasing minority enrollment
Hilton Coliseum has plan to expand seating
Retirees come home to Ames
Hawthorn Court to get a facelift
Extension Hotline calls reminiscent of 1980s farm crisis
Computer instruction held in workplace
Rabideau named LAS dean
Celebrating the Campanile's 100th anniversary
Solve pest problems on the web

Lisa Ahrens elected FFA president (Return to top)
Lisa Ahrens, a sophomore at Iowa State, was elected president of the National FFA Organization at the group’s annual convention in November.

Ahrens, who has been the student representative on the Iowa Board of Regents, will leave Iowa State behind for a year as she travels an expected 100,000 miles promoting agricultural education and the FFA to all 50 states and Japan.

The agronomy/agriculture business major is no stranger to FFA. She served as the state FFA president last year and was vice president of the Iowa group the year before. She is also on the Iowa State Dean’s List and the President’s Council.

An invitation to VEISHEA 1999 (Return to top)
Alumni are invited to return to experience old traditions and new events. Returning are favorites such as A Taste of Veishea, canoe races, cherry pies, the Veishea parade, and Stars over Veishea (SOV). This year’s SOV offering, produced by ISU theater, music, and students, is Cole Porter’s Anything Goes. Thousands of listeners will tap their feet to the classic melodies of It’s De-Lovely, I Get a Kick Out of You, and Blow, Gabriel Blow. Performances are April 16 and 17 at 7:30 p.m. and April 18 at 2:00 p.m.

Last year was the first for a new tradition – Veishea Village, a central campus extravaganza that included a cultural festival, international food fair, Cy’s Big Top, and educational/interactive open houses. The Alumni Association will have a tent, along with the Student Alumni Association, providing activities for alumni and children.

To purchase SOV tickets, call Ticketmaster at 515-233-1888. To become a Friend of Veishea or for other Veishea information, call 515-294-1026.

How often to galaxies collide? (Return to top)
Or, to be more precise, how often. According to new research by Russell Lavery, ISU physics and astronomy professor, the frequency of colliding galaxies, particularly in the universe’s earlier years, occurs much more often than had previously been believed. Lavery studies ring galaxies, which are massive systems of stars, gas, and other matter, whose unique shape is formed only after one galaxy smashes through the middle of another. Lavery’s findings, reported at a recent meeting of the American Astronomical Society, could help change conventional thinking about the universe and how big galaxies were formed.

“This is a really different picture and brings out a more dynamic universe,” says Lavery. “There are big changes going on.”

Universities charged with increasing minority enrollment (Return to top)
If Iowa’s state universities can entice minority student athletes, they should be able to attract them “across the board.”

That was the message to Iowa’s three universities, stiffly delivered by the Board of Regents at a recent meeting. In 1987, ISU’s number of African American students enrolled was 75; in 1998, it was 105. According to ISU president Martin Jischke, retaining minority students is a more difficult challenge for ISU than recruiting them. It is a problem ISU is committed to solving, he said.

Hilton Coliseum has plan to expand seating (Return to top)
Seating in Hilton Coliseum will become more plentiful if a proposed expansion plan is approved later this year. The plan, which calls for the addition of 1,400 seats at an estimated cost of $2.5 million, has been presented to the Ames City Council. A 2-cent hotel tax would fund the expansion. ISU supporters say they are encouraged that the proposal will be approved at a special election. We’ll keep you posted.

Retirees come home to Ames (Return to top)
Well, now the nation knows what we knew all along: Ames and ISU are good places to come home to.

Reporting on a national trend for college graduates to return to their alma mater when they retire, Newsweek, ABC News, Omaha World Herald, Washington Post, and the Des Moines Register all cited the Green Hills Retirement Community as an example of a retirement community with strong collegiate connections and appeal. ISU’s retired alumni benefit from ISU’s cultural and sporting events, classes, and lectures. In turn, ISU and Ames benefit from the volunteer involvement of senior Iowa Staters.

Hawthorn Court to get a facelift (Return to top)
Plans are underway for development of married student housing in Hawthorn Court.

The new Hawthorn will include 23 apartment buildings laid out in seven distinctive neighborhoods. It will include a multi-purpose community center with food service and meeting space.

Extension Hotline calls reminiscent of 1980s farm crisis (Return to top)
Today’s plunging crop and livestock prices have not received the national attention that the 1980s farm crisis commanded.

No white crosses decorate courthouse lawns; Hollywood stars are not raising voices, consciousness, and dollars. But one measure of the intensity of the problem is reminiscent of the 1980s. Worried farmers are calling the ISU Extension’s Iowa Concern Hotline. In October 1986, when the farm credit crisis was in full swing, 821 people called the hotline; in October 1998, 914 calls were made.

Computer instruction held in workplace (Return to top)
With the explosion of computer specialist needs, and a bulk of trained specialists working on the Y2K problem, the nation is experiencing a computer specialist shortage.

One way ISU is helping to solve the problem is to take instruction to the workplace. Beginning spring semester, ISU business faculty began offering classes in information systems at a John Deere factory in Ankeny, Iowa, where participating employees will receive a certificate in information systems. Plans are to extend the classes to more companies in the future.

Rabideau named LAS dean (Return to top)
Peter Rabideau is the new dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He comes to ISU from Louisiana State University (LSU), where he was dean of the College of Basic Sciences and professor of chemistry.

Rabideau’s research at LSU involved the synthesis and chemistry of bowl-shaped hydrocarbons, called “buckybowls.” In addition, he initiated his college’s first fund-raising efforts and spearheaded a center for excellence in science teaching.

He replaces former LAS dean Elizabeth Hoffman, who left ISU in October 1997.

Celebrating the Campanile's 100th anniversary (Return to top)
Events celebrating the Campanile’s 100th year will continue to be scheduled throughout 1999. To date, they include the following:

• Annual Veishea concerts, April 17
• The 57th Congress of the Guild of Carillonneurs of North America. This annual event will bring 150 of the best carillonneurs in the world to the ISU campus. Expect full days of concerts June 16-19.
• A commissioned work for carillon and orchestra by ISU composer and professor of music, Jeffrey Prater. The work will premiere on campus in the fall.

Solve pest problems on the Web (Return to top)
Computer bugs
In the past, if you had a sick tree, you knew exactly what to do. Call ISU Extension and describe the problem. Or, with all the charm you could muster, invite a specialist for a house call. Mysterious bugs you could carefully place in an envelope and mail to ISU for identification. But house calls ate away specialists’ time. And mail-delivered bugs arrived squashed or fungus-covered. Now there’s a better way. ISU’s entomology department has developed a website that identifies insects and the problems they can cause. The 20,000 hits the site receives daily is an indication that this is a solution whose time has come.