THE Inauguration of Brian C. Mitchell - Bucknell University

High Hopes for High Ropes
’RAY BUCKNELL
6 BUCKNELL WORLD • June 2005
a challenge in the classroom, but students, faculty, and
staff can get a challenge in a classroom without walls,
in the great outdoors, at CLIMBucknell.
In March, Bucknell joined an increasing number of
colleges and universities offering high ropes challenge
courses with the completion of its own challenge course,
CLIMBucknell, at the Forrest D. Brown Conference Center,
located in the village of Cowan (nine miles west of Lewisburg).
The course contains a number of “high elements” — a
70-foot climbing tower, a 400-foot zip line, and several 35-
Jim Hostetler BUCKNELLIANS ALREADY KNOW THAT they get
• Bucknell men’s lacrosse coach
Sid Jamieson received the Spirit of
Tewaaraton Award in June. The award
was presented by the Tewaaraton
Award Foundation in Washington,
D.C. (Tewaaraton is the Mohawk
name for lacrosse.) Jamieson retired at
the end of the 2005 season after 38
years with Bucknell, having coached
16 All-American players during his
tenure. Also, 13 of his players were
invited to the North-South All-Star
game, and 111 of his players earned
the All-League distinction.
• Juliana Brafa ’05 and Todd G.
Beiber’s five-minute short film Neck
Deep won the Viewers Voice Award
at the Cinequest Film Festival in San
Jose, Calif., in March. Neck Deep is a
humorous story about a class warfare
battle at a fishing hole. Two men cross
paths in a stream only big enough for
one. Gary Grant, associate professor of
theatre, plays both of the main characters.
Brafa graduated in May with a
double major in theatre and English/
creative writing and a double minor in
film studies and women’s studies.
foot high-ropes activities — designed to teach individuals
about risk assessment and personal challenge. The “low
elements” have names like Commitment Bridge and Tight
Rope Walk, require group participation, and teach group
dynamics, leadership, and cooperation. CLIMBucknell stands
for challenge, leadership, innovation, and motivation.
Jim Hostetler, who is the director of construction and
design at Bucknell, spearheaded the project. As a longtime
mountain climber and spelunker, he has touted the benefits
of outdoor education. He says, “The process is exciting and
provides a huge step in teaching people how to cooperate
and get a project finished, which is something you can apply
in the classroom or in the boardroom. The Cowan course
presents great opportunities to foster bonding, trust, and
leadership among faculty, staff, and alumni.”
The facilitators for the course are student and staff
volunteers, who trained at the facility for six days over
spring break. Says Hostetler, “It takes a special person to
give up valuable time on weekends to come to this site and
teach, but that’s the kind of people we have at Bucknell.”
President Brian C. Mitchell also endorsed the challenge
course, saying, “Experiential education serves as a bridge
between our liberal arts curriculum and focused human
development. The lessons learned on the challenge course
blend with academic education in a highly additive way.”
CLIMBucknell was funded by two brothers, both
Bucknell alumni and outdoorsmen, Ben ’69 and Myles
Sampson ’67. Says Myles, “After taking a tour of Cowan,
Ben and I realized that this beautiful wooded property was
the ideal spot to capitalize on the growing interest today’s
students have in the outdoors. Jim Hostetler convinced us
that a challenge course could really help to boost students’
self-confidence and enhance their abilities to work as a
team. Our hope is that the challenge course will be the first
of many projects that will encourage students to connect
with the outdoors and each other in this great rural location.”
The Sampsons dedicated the course in the names of
Bucknell alumni who perished during the Vietnam War:
Guy B. Creep ’63, Michael A. R. deMagnin ’67, Robert A.
Doten ’69, John D. Duncan ’67, Norman E. Fine Jr. ’68,
Lewis B. Gaiser ’65, Alan D. Gardner ’62, Ronald C. Osborne
’63, and A. Robert Toal ’58. — Gigi Marino
• Andrea Halpern, professor of
psychology, has been awarded a
$39,526 grant by the GRAMMY
Foundation ® to study how training
in music changes the way the brain
works. Halpern will identify the
location and the nature of brain activity
patterns associated with auditory
imagery in musicians and relate these
to musical imagery ability. A leader in
the study of cognitive and biological
aspects of music perception, she has
published more than 30 articles and
book chapters on the topic.