A team of UD students participating in the first-ever Solar Decathlon, sponsored this fall by the U.S. Department of Energy, received a special perseverance award for overcoming daunting obstacles in a competition on The National Mall in Washington, D.C.

UD's student-built solar house was part of a solar village erected on the mall by teams from colleges and universities across the nation and toured by thousands of visitors from Sept. 26 through Oct. 6.

Students designed and built the house, completely powered by the sun, on the UD campus, disassembled it and reassembled it for the competition in Washington.

During the contest, teams competed to capture, convert, store, and use enough solar energy to power an entire household, including a home-based business, along with the transportation needs of the household and business.

A truck accident that prevented the disassembled house from getting to D.C. on time kept the team from competing in all 10 contests. Still, UD placed well in some of the most important engineering events, coming in third in the energy balance competition, which judged how well the team generated sufficient electric power for the home, and fourth in the comfort zone category, which judged how well the home's heating and cooling system worked. It also placed eighth in the hot water competition.

The special "perseverance" award lauded the team's efforts despite starting almost a day late due to the transport accident.

"Our students did a superior job explaining every system to about 4,000 visitors walking through the house on the mall, even though a majority of these same students did not know what solar electricity and solar hot water were one year ago," faculty adviser Lian Ping Wang, associate professor of mechanical engineering, says. "They learned fast because they designed and built every part of the house.

"We were very happy to see almost all the systems worked as designed. The PV electric power system worked beautifully, and all appliances, lighting and office equipment were powered by solar. The solar hot water collectors provided 150 degree Fahrenheit hot water in the 80-gallon storage tank. The open design provided comfort and ventilation for the home," Wang says.

Tentative plans call for UD's house to become a solar classroom/permanent solar energy exhibition open to the public and utilized by K-12 school groups. Support for UD's team came from Astro Power, a Newark, Del., solar cell company, ELO-Thermal Panel Systems, DuPont Co., Hardcore Composites and Moeckel Carbonell Associates.

Honoring a benefactor

With the dedication of the newly expanded Du Pont Hall on Sept. 22, the University paid tribute to one of its greatest benefactors, P.S. du Pont, the industrialist, philanthropist and educational visionary.

At the ceremony rededicating the 1958 building, which has undergone a two-year, $27 million expansion and renovation since June 2000, Carol Hoffecker, Richards Professor of History, noted that du Pont's gifts totaling more than $1 million allowed what was then Delaware College to purchase the land on which The Green was to be built and to hire the top architects of the day to plan the new campus.

Hoffecker said that du Pont transformed public education in Delaware, pushing for reforms over two decades that included building better schools for the state's black school children.

The dedication ceremony also included a parade of more than 100 students bearing state and international flags, celebrating the role P.S. du Pont played in establishing the University's Junior Year Abroad Program, the first of its kind in the country.

A new time capsule was sealed and buried in the cornerstone of the renovated Du Pont Hall along with CD replicas of the documents from an earlier capsule. Although the contents of the 1957 capsule, uncovered during the renovations, were found to be wet, University archivists Jean K. Brown and Ian Janssen were able to decipher the documents, which included an invitation to the 1957 ceremony, copies of speeches delivered, an undergraduate catalog and the May 10, 1957, editions of The Review student newspaper and The Wilmington (Del.) Morning News. Also found in the capsule
was a small silver drafting angle engraved with information about the ceremony at which the original cornerstone was laid.

The new capsule includes recent issues of the Messenger, UpDate and other campus publications, the UD master plan, histories of the University and the du Pont family and historic and modern photographs of the campus. A sampling of yellow ribbons and messages written on them by members of the University community after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks also were included.

Biosphere 2 for two

Two University students are attending classes at Biosphere 2 Center in the Arizona desert under a partnership agreement between Columbia University and UD.

Edward Colin Ruggero, left, a sophomore biology major from Wallingford, Pa., and Alexander Roy, a senior geography major from Greensburg, Pa., are participating in the unique undergraduate program at the Biosphere 2 site. Known as "Earth Semester," the program is team-taught by an interdisciplinary team of social, biological and physical scientists. Since 1996, more than 300 students have enrolled in the program, which focuses on the planet as a huge, complex interactive system. Earth Semester is offered twice a year, and students can acquire as much as 16 units of undergraduate credit.

Summing up UD's students

Although a record number of applications--20,362--was received for this year's freshman class, the overall student enrollment at UD has been fairly stable since 1996, remaining around 21,000.

"We have had an increase in the number of full-time undergraduates and graduate students. but a smaller number of continuing education students have enrolled," says Provost Dan Rich.

UD is becoming increasingly selective in undergraduate admissions, Rich says. Offers were made to 47 percent of applicants as compared to 53 percent last year and more than 80 percent a decade ago.

The quality of the new freshman class of 3,418 is exceptional, he says, increasing UD's SAT average "19 points in a single year." With an average SAT of 1178, the University surpassed the national average of 1020 by 158 points.

The two colleges with the largest increase in undergraduate students since 1996 are Business and Economics and Human Services, Education and Public Policy.

Delaware residents currently make up 40 percent of the student enrollment, essentially the same percentage as a decade ago, Rich says, adding that "Delawareans are truly first" at the University. Of the Delawareans who complete their applications, 70 percent are admitted to the Newark campus, with 15 percent more admitted to the Parallel Program locations. "We admit virtually all Delaware applicants who are predicted to succeed," Rich says.

UD's freshman retention rate has increased from 84.5 percent in 1993 to 88.9 percent in 2001. The University's rate compares favorably with the 85 percent national retention rate of highly selective institutions, Rich says. Graduation rates within five years also have improved, rising from 67.4 in 1986 to 71.2 percent in 1997. The comparable national rate is 66.5 percent

Rich says funds for financial aid have increased from $25 million available in 1990 to a projected $90 million by the end of this year. In addition, graduate funding has more than doubled since 1991.

Trends in graduate education also include a record increase in applications--from 5,208 in 2001 to 6,306 in 2002. Rich says there also has been a rise in the number of full-time graduate students and a difference in the gender of those students.

"In 1996, UD graduate students were predominantly male, but that has been changing since 2000," Rich says. Today, he says, women outnumber men in UD graduate programs, 1,625 to 1,565.

Candlelight Commemoration

To mark the first anniversary of Sept. 11, the University sponsored a day of commemorative activities for students, faculty and staff, including an afternoon service of remembrance with liturgy and music, an evening candlelight service and two discussion forums. The candlelight commemoration, pictured here in a special poster, was held on The Green on the south side of Memorial Hall, with students in the Professional Theatre Training Program reading from selected ribbons from UD's Ribbon Garden, created last year in response to the attacks. Several student speakers also reflected on how the events of that day are changing them as their lives unfold. Topics for the forums, held afterward, were "Casualties at Home: Civil Liberties and Freedom of Speech" and "The UD Campus and the World."

Quoted on campus

Audrey Forbes Manley, physician, public administrator and former president of Spelman College, received an honorary degree from the University at New Student Convocation on Sept. 3.

"In the aftermath of 9/11, we are all literally reeling from the devastating, unprecedented assault upon our personal and national spirits and psyches. This devastating attack and continuing threat to our national security and well-being have given all of us pause and given rise to contemplation and re-assessment in all areas of our lives. If you're wondering what you can do, permit me to suggest to you that there is something that you are being called to do right now. You must make a commitment with everything within you to pursue with passion a life that is noble, dedicated to excellence and service. You must commit at this time to an inspired and intelligent vision and a greater sense of mission than generations before you. For you face new realities and new challenges in an uncertain future."

Nicholas D. Kristof, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The New York Times, spoke on "From Baghdad to Beijing: Does the U.S. Shape the World?" on Oct. 2.

"We need to engage in the outside world. We have a tendency to see ourselves very far removed. We need to escape this, for if we try to run, it will catch up to us.... The idea that we can stay in this country and be largely immune from the forces raging in other countries is wrong. We in the U.S. should be very careful about overseas engagements, but the danger for a great power is not only imperial overstretch but imperial understretch. We've become very inward looking while the rest of the world has become very outward looking."

Jamie Wyeth, noted American artist, was presented an honorary degree from the University on Oct. 13.

"The words [John F. Kennedy] said nearly 40 years ago have all the more relevance today, so I thought I would quote a very few of the lines here today. 'When power leads men toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man's concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses. For art establishes the basic human truth, which must serve as the touchstone of our judgment.'... It is clear to me that the arts are a vital part of life at the University. What really thrills me is the participation and dedication in this area of study here in Newark."

Celebrating Hispanic art, activism

Edward James Olmos, actor, community activist, producer and director, opened UD's first National Hispanic Heritage Month on Sept. 17.

Olmos, who has starred in many television programs and films such as Selena, Blade Runner and My Family/Mi Familia, received an Oscar nomination for Stand and Deliver, which he also produced. He was nominated for a Tony Award for his performance in the musical Zoot Suit and won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Lt. Castillo on the popular television series Miami Vice.

In 1999, Olmos launched a nationwide multimedia project called "Americanos: Latino Life in the United States," a celebration of Latino culture though photography, film, music and the printed word. Currently, he serves as executive director of the Lives in Hazard Educational Project, a national gang prevention program.

UD's Hispanic Heritage Month was built around the theme of the Latino experience in art, activism and education. Guest speakers, panel discussions and a fiesta of food and music were included, along with the Lourdes Portillo Film Festival, a lecture/film series. The series featured the work of the Mexican-born independent filmmaker who has received recognition and awards at more than 10 international film festivals for her television documentaries, short films and a video-film collage. A discussion with filmmaker Portillo was held after the screening of Corpus: A Home Movie for Selena, a film documenting the fans of the Tejana singer Selena, who was killed in 1995.