With the summer exodus of most students, the University can make progress on several major campus building projects--from a new parking garage, to a major addition/renovation for Du Pont Hall, to several small parks and a Career Services Center.

Construction on the Academy Street garage and office building began in June and is scheduled for completion in February. This project includes a two-story office building and a three-tier parking deck for approximately 500 vehicles. The Career Services Center, Human Resources, Public Safety and part of the Professional Theatre Training Program will occupy the office building.

Work on the Du Pont Hall addition also began in June and will continue until December 2001. The existing front of Du Pont Hall will be demolished and replaced with an addition providing new laboratory space for the departments of Materials Science, Civil and Environmental Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering. A new office for the dean of engineering also will be included. The new facility, which will complement the design of Gore Hall, will be the final piece in the original Mall plan envisioned nearly a century ago.

A mini-park with trees and other plantings, as well as benches, was created this summer at the corner of Amstel Avenue and Orchard Road, providing more direct access from the Smith Hall area to the Amy E. du Pont Music Building parking lot.

The Hullihen Circle project began in June and is scheduled to be completed by September. According to UD landscaper Thomas C. Taylor, the circle's redesign as a park area
is part of the campus beautification project and will improve safety and accessibility. The new walkway will connect a central circle with converging walkways, giving pedestrians convenient access to Memorial Hall, Morris Library and Hullihen Hall.

To compensate for parking previously accommodated there, an expanded parking section was created south of the Morris Library. That parking lot now has a new handicapped ramp that connects users to the library's main entrance, and a similar ramp will provide access from the new park area.

"Our goal is to provide for smooth pedestrian flow in a park-like atmosphere," Taylor says. "We believe that people will get the same experience as they do when strolling through the landscaped area known as The Grove by Alison Hall."

To create this atmosphere, many of the original plants and trees in the Hullihen Circle area are being retained, with additional landscaping and complementary lighting.

"When it is done, this will be the formal gateway to UD's Newark campus, a nice place to take a leisurely stroll," Taylor says. And, one that ensures pedestrian and vehicle safety.

Jennifer M. Buckley of Wilmington, Del., a junior at the University, has been awarded a prestigious Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship. More than 1,700 college students applied nationwide for the 309 scholarships awarded this year. The awards support careers in mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering.

A mechanical engineering student with a 4.0 grade point average, Buckley grew up in her parents' Ninth Street Bookstore. As the first scientist in a family of English majors, she has an irreverent sense of humor and says she has endured a lot of teasing from her politically liberal relatives over the "Republican" nature of the scholarship--something she is very willing to endure.

Buckley has conducted research on the fracture of nonhomogeneous materials, which are found in plant and animal tissue as well as adhesive layers and matrix regions of fiber-reinforced composites.

An athlete who rows on the UD crew team and participates on Team Delaware Cycling, Buckley says she hopes to compete in a triathlon or biathlon this summer.

"I think my athletics complement my academics," she says. "Balance is important. I'd be even more of a psychopath about my schoolwork if I didn't have athletics to bring me down a notch. I'm able to get everything done and still maintain my sanity because of my family. They give me a lot of support. I'd be a real mess without them!"

Those family members, all with UD ties, include Buckley's father, James J. (Jack) Buckley, AS '70; her mother, Gemma Marsilii Buckley, CHEP '71; and her brother, Matthew, currently a sophomore at UD, majoring in civil engineering.

A self-described homebody, Buckley says she wants to stay in the area for graduate school and is considering the University of Pennsylvania. For the summer, she will be working for the DuPont Co. in its engineering consulting division, possibly doing troubleshooting at nylon plants.

Copies of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment signed by Abraham Lincoln, and a set of original Currier & Ives prints depicting Lincoln's fatal shooting at Ford Theatre, death and funeral, are among the more than 2,000 items in the Lincoln Collection, now housed in Special Collections at the Morris Library.

Donated by the Lincoln Club of Delaware, the collection also includes busts and photographs of Lincoln (1809-65), including the president with his cabinet and his family, plus portraits; books about Lincoln in Japanese, German, Spanish and Braille; books owned by Lincoln; books of cartoons of the period (some not favorable to the president); a book about Lincoln illustrated by famed local artist Frank Schoonover; funeral orations; and a book of condolences from other countries after his death.

Founded in Wilmington in 1929, the club acquired a large and priceless collection of Lincoln material in 1938 from founding member and Wilmington attorney, Frank G.Tallman. First displayed at the Wilmington Institute Free Library, the collection grew and was presented to the University in 1941 and housed in three rooms with period furnishings at the University's Goodstay Center on the Wilmington campus.

Much of the collection has now been moved to the Special Collections Department, headed by Timothy Murray, in the Morris Library. A special display case also highlight selected Lincoln memorabilia.

The collection also is accessible for research purposes during Special Collection Department's regular hours from 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday-Friday, and until 8 p.m. on Tuesday.

The Goodstay Center still maintains portions of the collection and facsimile reproductions of original manuscripts and artwork in the Lincoln rooms, which have the aura and feeling of the Civil War period. The Lincoln rooms in the Goodstay Center are open noon to 4 p.m., Tuesdays, from October through May, and also 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 12, Lincoln's birthday; noon-4 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 20, and 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Monday, Feb. 21, in honor of Presidents' Day.

For more information, visit the Lincoln Collection web site at [http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/exhibits/lincoln/index.htm].

Ron Ludington, director of the UD Ice Skating Science Development Center, added another jewel to his sparkling array of awards and honors May 11, when he was inducted into the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame. A member of the induction class of 2000, he shared the honor with several others honored for their contributions to Delaware sports.

A member of the World and U.S. figure skating halls of fame, Ludington said the state honor is special because it is the first time he has been recognized outside the sport of figure skating.

"This is the first non-sport-specific honor I've received," he said. "I have been honored in my own field, but this is the first time I've been recognized as a sportsman outside of skating.

"When sports writers ask me to name the highlight of my career, I always point to the 26 Olympians we've trained here, especially the eight we took to the Olympics in 1984. But, when I sit down and really reflect on what's made the biggest difference in my career, I have to say it was joining hands with the University of Delaware. The program and the relationships we've been able to build here are very special for the skaters," he said.

Ludington, who holds several titles from his own days of competitive skating, came to coach at Delaware in 1970, from facilities at the Skating Club of Wilmington.

Today, the Ice Skating Science Development Center supports some 300 athletes and 56 coaches who teach all aspects of ice skating, including figures, freestyle, pairs, dance and stroking. Programs are designed to meet the needs of first-time competitors and Olympians.

Its primary goal is to assist athletes and coaches in reaching their maximum potential. Housed in a state-of-the-art facility, the center provides the most complete training environment in the country. UD faculty who specialize in sports medicine, exercise physiology, biomechanics and sports psychology and students majoring in those areas work with the athletes to advance their competitive stance and to advance the body of knowledge in figure skating.

Ludington has coached skaters in nine consecutive Olympics and 36 World Championships. His own skating titles include U.S. Pair Champion (1956-60), U.S. Silver Dance Champion (1958), World Bronze Medalist (1959), Olympic Bronze Medalist (1960) and World Invitational Dance Champion (1965).

While youngsters petted baby animals or rode ponies at the annual Ag Day celebration in April, avid gardeners were able to buy annuals, perennials and vegetable plants. Friends of the University of Delaware Botanic Gardens sold shrubs, ferns and trees adapted to grow well in Delaware, many of which are unavailable in catalogs and nurseries. Bedding plants were available for purchase as well, provided by greenhouse class students who were graded on the quality of the plants they produced.

Among the multiple events featured at UD's Black Arts Festival in April were a Gospelrama, an appearance by noted poet Nikki Giovanni and the annual Richard Wilson Stepshow. National Pan-Hellenic Council step teams performed at the popular event held at the Bob Carpenter Center. Top winning groups included Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, below, and the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity.

Former Duke University assistant coach David Henderson was named head coach of the Blue Hen men's basketball team July 21, succeeding Mike Brey, who resigned only a week earlier to become the head coach at Notre Dame.

Henderson, who served as an assistant coach to Duke University's Mike Krzyzewski for the last three seasons (1997-2000), was himself a player at Duke and had a 10-year professional basketball career.

"I think it is a great opportunity here at Delaware," Henderson said. "I am looking forward to working with the student-athletes, Edgar Johnson [director of the intercollegiate athletics program] and President [David] Roselle. I am looking forward to my first head coaching opportunity and I'm ready to get going."

"Coach Henderson is highly respected in collegiate coaching circles and has been identified as a rising star," Johnson said. "He comes to us highly recommended, and it was obvious to us that he had all of the qualities and abilities needed to help our basketball program continue to grow and flourish. We are very pleased he has agreed to join us."

"We are fortunate that several of the most successful basketball coaches and athletics directors were willing to help us with our search," Roselle said. "Their good counsel and the fact that they describe our vacancy as one of the more outstanding opportunities in all of college athletics ensured that we would be successful. Even in the very strong field of candidates they recommended, David Henderson stood out as having all of the attributes needed to build upon the current strengths of the basketball program. We are very pleased to welcome him to the University of Delaware."

"David Henderson was a winner under Mike Krzyzewski as a player and continued to be a vital part as an assistant and he has learned from one of the best," said ESPN college basketball analyst Dick Vitale. "David is a 'Blue Chipper' in every way and will continue Mike Brey's success in Blue Hen Country."

Henderson graduated from Duke in 1986 with a degree in economics. After graduation, he began his
10-year professional
playing career in the Continental Basketball Association before joining the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers. After one season (1988) with Philadelphia, Henderson moved overseas and played eight more seasons in France (1989-90 and 1995), Israel (1991-94 and 1996) and Turkey (1994).

During the 1996-97 academic year, Henderson served as an intern in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) offices and has also worked with the Maryland-based Home Team Sports network (HTS).

The hiring of Henderson marks the third consecutive time a UD men's basketball coach has ties to Duke University. Prior to Brey, Steve Steinwedel served as Blue Hen basketball coach. He had served two seasons as an assistant at Duke under Bill Foster before going to South Carolina as an assistant coach.

As a player at Duke, Henderson finished his four-year career with 1,570 points to rank 20th on the Blue Devils' all-time scoring list. He averaged 12.3 points and 4.0 rebounds per game during his 128-game career. He was the co-captain of Duke's 1986 Final Four team, which finished 37-3 in reaching the NCAA title game, and earned ACC All-Tournament honors that season. He was also MVP of the Big Apple Pre-season NIT Tournament that same year. Duke was 84-21 during his final three seasons and earned NCAA Tournament bids each of those years (1984, 1985 and 1986), beginning the Blue Devils' incredible 15-year run.

Henderson is the 22nd men's basketball coach as the program enters its 96th season. While not the first minority head coach in University of Delaware history, Henderson is the first African-American head coach of any sport in UD's 113-year athletics history.

The Blue Hens open the 2000 season Nov. 13 in Philadelphia in the Pre-season NIT at Temple.

When Edmunds Bunkse, associate professor of geography, wrote an essay in the 1970s on the career of explorer and scientist Alexander von Humboldt, the UD professor had no idea that it would lead to a part in the making of a BCC documentary on the life of the famous German scientist.

Bunkse, along with Sir David Attenborough, is one of the presenters in the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) film series, Wilderness Men. The one-hour segment on which he appears, Alexander von Humboldt: Natural Traveller, aired June 14 in England.

Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), a German naturalist, is considered one of the most famous thinkers of the Napoleonic era for his contributions to the study of the natural sciences.

Humboldt's accomplishments include the discovery that the Earth's magnetic force decreases in intensity from the poles to the equator. However, his most important contribution was the idea of "unity in the variety of nature," a concept that was a precursor to ecologic thought.

Bunkse's contribution to the film involved shooting a segment in a television studio in Washington, D.C., about five blocks east of the U.S. Capitol Building.

"This film shows a step in the development of modern science," Bunkse says. "It recreates the excitement of the heroic explorations that occurred during the late 18th and early 19th centuries."

Belinda T. Orzada, assistant professor of consumer studies, won the Best of Fiber/Wearable Art category for her entry in the International Textile and Apparel Association (ITAA) 1999 design competition. Her winning entry was titled "Southern Living: Country Roads Cape."

The competition was held at ITAA's annual conference in Santa Fe, N.M. Innovative fashions and wearable art were featured in both mounted and live model exhibitions, and more than 100 designs by faculty, graduate students and undergraduate students were on display.

According to Orzada, "Southern Living" reflects memories of the rural south Georgia landscape where she grew up.

"In designing this cape," she says, "my goal was to interpret the agricultural landscape of south Georgia, using fiber as the artistic medium. I seek to express the feeling of driving down a country road surrounded by the elements of Southern culture I remember so fondly, but am distanced from in my suburban life."

Some of the items depicted on the cape are a dirt road, corn, watermelon, pumpkin, cemetery, pond with cypress tree, a barn and tractor.

The hip-length cape with an asymmetrical neckline is embellished with hand and machine embroidery, applique and picture smocking.

Orzada's specialty is apparel design, and her research is related to two- and three-dimensional special visualization for design students in the field.