for
the Amherst campus of the University of Massachusetts
Nov.
17, 2000
|
Administrators host exchange with University of Delaware colleagues by Sarah R. Buccholz, Chronicle staff
 uring
her stint as an American Council on Education fellow at the University
of Delaware last year, Elizabeth Dale made some new friends she wanted
to share. So she arranged for officials from UMass Amherst to travel
to Delaware last spring to see how their counterparts at another university
operate.On Nov. 10, their Delaware hosts made the opposite trip to see what they could learn about Dale's home institution. The nine member delegation had lunch with their counterparts, heard some of Chancellor David K. Scott's retrospective on the campus's long-term plan, Strategic Action, toured the campus, met alone or in small groups with their UMass counterparts and had dinner with the chancellor at Hillside. "This is really a wonderful chance to have an in-depth and meaningful dialogue," said Margaret McDermott, assistant director of facilities planning and construction at Delaware. McDermott was visiting Beth Anderson, director of the Office of Space Management, and Judy Steinkamp, principal planner in Campus Planning and Space Management. McDermott said her campus has done a lot of building in the past few years, including constructing a new student center. "They have a great campus," said Ruth Yanka, associate to the vice chancellor for Administration and Finance, "[and a] good endowment." The group's interests, as diverse as their responsibilities, were reflected in their comments during the bus tour. "You guys have a lot of roads to maintain," remarked one visitor. "We don't have that many." "Where are the bus stops?" someone asked. Does the plaza leak yet?" another visitor inquired duing a tour of the Mullins Center. "Did you see?" McDermott pointed for a colleague while examining the ice rink. "They put their racquet sports along the edge, there." "One of the challenges to design and construction here is our glacial lake soils, some of the worst soils for building," director of Facilities Planning Jim Cahill told the group on the bus. "You just described Delaware," said president David Roselle, laughing. Roland Smith, vice president for Student Life was anxious to meet with Javier Cevallos, vice chancellor for Student Affairs and Campus Life to learn about the Campus Career Network, Student Union, Lincoln Campus Center, Greek life and student organizations. He said Delaware has had a successful alcohol-abuse reduction program that he would tell Cevallos about. Visitors included: Gregg Silvis, assistant director of libraries, who met with Marilyn Hanley, coordinator and head of Libraries Information Systems; David Hollowell, executive vice president, who met with Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance Paul Page; budget director Carol Rylee, who met with Jacqui Watrous, Administrative Systems director, and Joyce Hatch, associate vice chancellor for Finance; John Brady, resident district manager, who met with Auxiliary Services director Ashoke Ganguli and Ken Toong, Dining Services director; Roselle, who met with Scott; Richard Walter, director of facilities management, who met with Physical Plant director Earl Smith; and supporting services director Charlene Benson, who met with Sandy Anderson, director of Campus Services, and Transit manager Al Byam. |
