[ Hightlights/ Snapshot/ Campaign UMass/ Kay Scanlan]

"It should be a little jewel box," says Richard Nathhorst `79. "It should be the Faneuil Hall of the campus."

Nathhorst speaks, as readers will deduce from the illustrations accompanying this story, of UMass' picturesque, 1884, Romanesque-Revival Old Chapel. He also speaks -- as he himself is wont to say -- with his facilities-planning cap in one hand (Nathhorst is a planner in that campus department) and his alumni beanie in the other (the Shutesbury resident earned a BA in botany at UMass).

Indeed, Nathhorst is at the moment waving his beanie, as it were. So are a lot of other lovers of Old Chapel, since the old dear was reported, in recent months, to have serious problems with its steeple. By the time this issue of UMass reaches readers, it's expected that the spire will be banded and netted to prevent any tumbling down of its exterior granite blocks and brownstone quoins.

The problem, explains director of facilities planning Jim Cahill, is simply one of age. The apparently monolithic bell tower and spire are actually a triple-thick structure, with a granite shell, a subcutaneous brick lining, and a cast-iron skeleton. The cast iron is the part no longer "doing its job," Cahill says. Increasingly unstable as it ages and oxidizes, the iron frame has been shrinking and swelling, not only failing to support the granite shell properly but actually placing outward stresses on it. The drawing at left, prepared by consultants Caolo & Bieniek, shows as dotted lines the resulting cracks in the masonry.

The Class of 1944, with its 50th anniversary gift of $50,000 to restore the Old Chapel clock, may be thanked for focusing attention on the steeple. In the course of repairing the clock, the problems behind the bricks were uncovered. And -- not to prolong the suspense -- more than stopgap measures have been decided upon. The banding and netting are only "a six-month solution," Cahill emphasizes, to keep the stonework safely in place while the bell tower and steeple are measured and documented. Then they will be taken apart stone by stone, the cast iron replaced with stainless steel, and the structure rebuilt.

This expensive proposition -- Cahill estimates the project at -- will be funded out of the current facilities-planning budget. Other similarly pressing needs elsewhere on campus made this no easy decision and mean that questions remain about the extent of the restoration. One possibility, which Cahill has pretty much dismissed, would be to rebuild the bell tower only. Another, which Nathhorst hates the very sound of, would be to rebuild the steeple but clad it in slate rather than the original granite blocks.

Cahill cautiously expresses the hope that the current drama surrounding Old Chapel's steeple could catalyze a campaign to restore the squatty but charismatic landmark from top to bottom. It wouldn't be cheap, and it wouldn't be easy. (Where, for example, would we put the Minuteman Marching Band, for which Old Chapel serves as a somewhat incongruous but beloved practice facility?) But the building would meet us more than halfway. Everything below the bells, says Cahill, is in excellent structural shape. And a tour of the interior by Nathhorst reveals almost total survival of the original woodwork, the great crossbeams of the upper auditorium, much of the stained and pebbled glass, even light fixtures.

"A jewel box," says Nathhorst, his eyes beginning to glitter and his arms beginning to pinwheel. "The Faneuil Hall of campus. Plant that idea in people's minds."



 

Holiday activities for UMass students included helping to bag 900 pounds of squash for distribution to needy families. Students also helped the Amherst Council on Aging with its Thanksgiving dinner and spearheaded volunteer work for this year's "Shelter Sunday" and "Make a Difference Day." And once again this fall, some 200 inner-city children were guests at Halloween Fest `96, touring a "haunted house" in Leach Hall and enjoying the traditional fare of All Hallows Eve.

Ever question the relevance of what scholars do? Consider recent reaction to The Battle for Christmas, a briskly selling study by UMass historian Stephen Nissenbaum. An account of the often bawdy history of the modern holiday, the book was greeted with delight in the New York Times, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, the Boston Globe, the Detroit News, the Montreal Gazette, the Calgary Herald, the Dallas Morning News, the St. Louis Post Dispatch, the Washington Times, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. Appearances on NBC's "Today Show" and NPR's "Morning Edition" rounded out Professor Nissenbaum's Christmas.

A three-day-long "Academy for New Legislators" was attended by 32 of the Commonwealth's 37 freshman legislators in December. Organized by the Donahue Institute, the event addressed ethical questions and the mechanics of the government while pleasing the legislators with a dinner at Hillside House and a basketball game against Drexel.

UMASS MEN'S SOCCER received its first-ever national preseason ranking this year, coming in 20th in the Soccer News poll. The team tied the UMass record for wins last season with a record of 15-5-2.

HUNDREDS OF HOME-OWNERS, do-it-yourself addicts, professional carpenters and building contractors have used an informational Website set up by the department of building materials technology and management. "This service fits nicely into our mission of teaching, research and public service," said webmaster-professor Paul Fisette. "It is on the cutting edge." The chips fly at www.umass.edu/bmatwt/

THE PRODIGIOUS ECONOMIC INFLUENCE of UMass on its three surrounding counties is detailed in a recent report entitled "Impact: Increasing the Common Wealth." The bottom line is an economic boon of $1 billion every year. Resource economics professor Barry Field conducted the study.

SNOW LEOPARDS IN THE ASIAN HIGHLANDS are the subject of a radio-teleometry study recently featured in International Wildlife magazine; UMass graduate student, Tom McCarthy of forestry and wildlife management is a member of the research team.

THE CAMPUS' ATHLETIC HALL OF FAME has been revived, redesigned, relocated to the third floor of the Mullins Center, and named after 1981 inductee and Quincy attorney George "Trigger" Burke `56. One of 23 members of the Hall of Fame, Burke triggered the revival through his financial support and active participation. "It's been my dream," Burke said at the dedication, "and tonight it came to full fruition."

A PRESSING NEED FOR HEALTH CARE IN HUNTINGTON will soon be addressed by nurse-practitioners at a School of Nursing-based health center. The School provides a similar service at the Putnam Vocational High School in Springfield. And planning is underway to meet another pressing need: a new home for the School of Nursing. A new $7 million facility will be built to house the school, the enrollment of which has skyrocketed in recent years.

THE LATEST NOVEL by UMass English professor John Edgar Wideman is earning rave reviews from key critics. Vanity Fair called The Cattle Killing "fiercely beautiful and deeply affecting." The New York Times "called its author "one of America's premier writers of fiction." An enthusiastic review in The Nation appeared back-to-back with one on Longer Views: Extended Essays by Samuel Delany, Wideman's departmental colleague.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL CALLS HIM "the bulldog at front and center" of the probe into TWA Flight 800. The Boston Herald calls him "a tough-talking G-man who lists his idols as his father, Ted Williams, Eisenhower and Patton." James Kallstrom `66, assistant director of the FBI and head of the New York region, has been in charge of the monumental task of investigating the crash, in which 230 people died. According to New York Supreme Court Justice Leslie Snyder, "No one could be better to lead this investigation."

ENGINEERING EDUCATION from UMass will be delivered via satellite in the African Virtual University, which provides videotaped programs to more than 40 African countries. Course contributions come from several American and European universities; the UMass connection is the campus-based Video Instructional Program.

FOR THE SIXTH YEAR IN A ROW, the varsity and novice crew squads are hiring out as "Rent-a-Rowers" to raise funds for their program. The goal is to earn $5,000 from raking leaves, cleaning garages, painting houses, and other odd jobs that require a strong back and a dedicated nature.

THE BOSTON GLOBE RECENTLY CARRIED a feature story on mystery writer Walter Mosley, who studied political science at UMass in the `70s and has just launched his fifth "Easy Rawlins" novel, A Little Yellow Dog. The article said Mosley has "a popular and critically acclaimed mystery series and counts President Clinton among his fans."

UMASS EXTENSION HAS RECOGNIZED 50 Baystate farmers as "Partners with Nature" for meeting state guidelines for environmentally friendly methods of handling crop pests. Participation, both in numbers and in scope, has been growing -- from 37 farmers and 68 crops in 1995 to 50 farmers and 125 crops in 1996.

THE LATEST BY JUDAIC STUDIES PROFESSOR JULIUS LESTER is a major makeover of the children's tale "Little Black Sambo." InSam and the Tigers, Lester and illustrator Jerry Pinkney transform the objectionable stereotypes of the original while retaining what Lester calls "a good story." In the new version, tigers still turn themselves into butter, while a clever little boy manages to eat 169 pancakes. The book was recently reviewed in Time.

A CHICAGO TRIBUNE STORY SINGS the praises of the INQUERY search engine developed at UMass. Software that continually scans more than 100,000 government-operated Web pages, says the Trib, is "a mighty slick piece of government work." Bragging rights belong to the campus' Center for Intelligent Information Retrieval.

UMASS IS NO LONGER APPEARING in lists of top party schools, and the omission is leading to more welcome assessments. "In academics as well as in social life," says a recent issue of The Princeton Review, "the school has sobered up its image in the past decade. Respect for UMass as an academic institution has soared."

DEFERRED MAINTENANCE on campus is everybody's pet peeve, but Physical Plant is chipping away at it. Recent renovations include classrooms in Machmer Hall, a new roof on, and repairs to one of the two auditoriums in Herter Hall. Several residential areas, including Moore House and McNamara, Hamlin, Gorman, James and Peterson halls, have seen Fernald improvements, and designs have been completed for the upgrading of Mahar Auditorium.

VETERAN PARK SERVICE RANGER RICK MCINTYRE `71 has become a world-renowned expert on wolves. McIntyre has published several books on wolf behavior and participated in wolf-restoration projects in the U.S, Scotland, Japan and elsewhere. In a recent lecture on campus he said that by the 1930s humans "had basically enacted a `Final Solution'" against wolves. "But now we're trying to bring them back. It's very exciting."

A RATING OF "EXCELLENT" shared by only seven other schools, was applied to UMass Amherst in a recent survey of 103 environmental education programs conducted by The New England Board of Higher Education.

WHAT DO YOU GET when you take two tons of dining hall scraps, add several hundred pounds of animal bedding, mix in grass clippings and leaves, and mulch until ripe? Certainly not salad, but a lot less campus waste that needs hauling away. When digested by the university's new "Wright In-Vessel Composting Unit," this elephantine concoction is expected to divert more than 10 tons of food waste a week from Amherst's landfill and wastewater treatment plants. UMass is the first pilot site in New England for new technology.

SINGER-SONGWRITER BUFFY SAINT-MARIE `70 returned to campus in December to give an entertaining and provocative lecture on "escaping the rat race" as part of the Eleanor Bateman Scholar-in-Residence program. The program brings two distinguished alumni to campus each year.

JERE BURNS `80, who played the boorish ladies' man in the sitcom "Dear John," recently resurfaced as the star of a new TV show, "Something So Right." After graduating with a degree in comparative literature from UMass, Burns drove a cab in Boston, worked as a lifeguard on the Cape, attended NYU and earned stage credits on and off Broadway.

UMASS IS BIG IN NEW JERSEY. The Champion sporting apparel store at the Garden State Plaza in Northern New Jersey is ablaze with UMass products as a result of market research done by its parent company. (UMass Amherst receives a disproportionate number of applications from northern New Jersey teens.) Sales of UMass caps, tee-shirts and such-like have soared to about $20 million in just four years; the bonanza has brought the university about $1.3 million in royalties used for scholarships.

"THE OWL AND THE LIGHTNING," a funny and powerful poem about a snowy owl arrested under the no-pet rule in a Brooklyn apartment building, was published by English professor Martin Espada in the December 29 issue of the New York Times Book Review. In January, Espada's Imagine the Angels of Bread was one of five books of poetry nominated for the National Book Cricitcs Circle Award.

RARELY REPORTED during the recent bad news about former UMass basketball star Marcus Camby is the establishment of his Cambyland Foundation for inner-city children. The 1996 collegiate Player of the Year was also one of the 42 nominees for the annual Sullivan Award for top amateur athlete in the United States.

Compiled by Charlie Creekmore