Campus News Category
05.03.2013
Photo courtesy of Abe Harman.
The NC State men’s rugby club team took on UNC’s club team a couple of weeks ago in what was supposed to be another close affair in what’s been a fairly even rivalry.
But the contest ended up being something so much more. First off, the Wolfpackers beat the Tar Heels in historic fashion, downing them, 100-0. “It’s usually not like that,” says Abe Harman, NC State’s club president. “All credit to Carolina. They usually have a competitive side.”
And on top of hitting the century mark and securing a shutout, the club team saw in that game the culmination of its efforts to grow the last couple of years. Three years ago, the club team was competing against smaller club teams, like Duke and East Carolina, on the Division II level. But they finished eighth in the nation in 2010 and qualified to movie up to Division I. The Carolina game was validation that they now belong.
“We’ve been building as a club the last couple of years,” Harmon says. “We’re starting to get really competitive at the Division I level now.”
Photo courtesy of Kyle O'Donnell.
NC State’s club rugby team has been building for a while, in fact. Dating back to 1965, they are one of the oldest teams in NC State’s club sports program, which is housed under University Recreation and welcomes student, faculty and staff from across campus to participate. Having such a rich heritage is very profitable for the current team. “We have a really big group of alumni,” Harman says. “We have a great index. They help us out as far as funding travel.”
Harman says several of the club’s alumni are still in the area, having gone on to play for the rugby club the Raleigh Vipers. One of those alumni, Jim Latham, serves as NC State’s club team’s head coach. While filling that slot was easy, Harman also says that its recruiting players that sometimes presents its challenges.
Photo courtesy of Kyle O'Donnell.
“We’ll get good athletes [coming] out,” he says. “They’re not rugby guys. They’re football guys and soccer guys. So that first year they play, there’s a lot of them getting the intricacies of the game.”
Currently, the team has its sights set on the Collegiate Rugby Championship that will be held in Philadelphia in June. And it’s the first collegiate rugby championship in the United States to be covered on television. It will air on NBC Sports.
Harman says it’s just another example of how far the club team has come. “We’re at a unique position where a lot of those things are coming to head,” he says.
For more on club sports at NC State, check out the Spring 2013 issue of NC State magazine. We profiled the rich program at the university and featured different club sports teams, some of which are the most successful and the best-kept secrets on campus.
04.29.2013
Shawn Rychcik grew up wanting to play for the New York Yankees. But that didn’t happen because he traded in baseball for fastpitch softball, a sport in which Rychcik (pronounced “RI-check”) had a storied career as a member of the U.S. men’s national team from 1994-2002. He was named the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Athlete of the Year in men’s softball in 1999 and 2000.
He took that success and rolled it over into a career coaching collegiate women’s softball, serving as head coach the last eight seasons at Boston University, where he led the Terriers to the NCAA Regionals and the America East Conference championship three of the last four years.
Rychcik’s pedigree as a player and coach breeds a self-assurance of inevitable success for Wolfpack softball as the team prepares for the ACC tournament, held May 10-12 in Tallahassee, Fla. NC State magazine sat down with him and learned that Rychcik entertains no other option.
Why he was a successful player: I was a really good hitter and smart player. I hit quite a few home runs in my day. I could run. I could throw. I could hit for power. I could hit for average. I wanted to be the best. If I didn’t hit .400 or .500 on a weekend, I was back at it on Monday afternoon.
Why he’s a successful coach: I’ve been on the national team and a part of world championships. And that’s the standard for myself. I know how to get there. …We were talking as a team [in the fall], and I said, “We’ll be better. We’ll be better because I’m here. Period. I’m here. I win.”
The style of his teams: I like to trust my teams to hit. I want to see if we can swing. Run and hit, trying to keep the pressure on. And, defensively, the plan is not to give anyone extra bases, extra runs. Get the ball back to the pitcher, and let the pitcher get the outs.
On coming from Boston to Raleigh: I think things move at a little slower pace than I’m used to in Boston. It’s probably how I like it and how I grew up [in New York state], but I’ve been away from it for ten years, especially living in Boston. I think that city hardens you.
What drives him: Being somebody was an expectation of myself. …My dad told me there’s a lot of good players out there. But how many great players are out there? So I was fueled by wanting to be more than just a good player. I knew to separate myself from people, I had to be great at something. The next step for me here is to be a great coach.
04.03.2013
It’s been open for three months. But today, the James B. Hunt Jr. Library was formally dedicated.
Keynote speaker Vartan Gregorian, president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, called the library “a Laboratory of human endeavor, a window to the future.” He said the library embodies the spirit of the Morrill Act, the legislation signed 150 years ago that created land-grant universities such as NC State. Gregorian, the former president of Brown University, praised the vision of Gov. Hunt and his support of education. “I salute you. Today is your day,” he said to Hunt, who sat on the front row with his family.
Chancellor Randy Woodson said the library on Centennial Campus is nothing like the libraries of the past. To those who haven’t been through its spaces, he said, “you’re in for a surprise.’’ Woodson added, “Today’s students need to interact across disciplines in creative ways….We created space for that to happen.’’
The library uses an automated bookBot retrieval system that allows storage of over a million volumes while freeing up more space for study areas. The group study rooms are each equipped with large-screen display monitors, and walls made of whiteboard are ready for students to write down equations and notes. A Teaching and Visualization Lab and Creativity Studio offers opportunities for simulation that can enhance teaching. And patrons can use technology such as 3-D printing. At the conclusion of the dedication, Woodson presented Gregorian with a 3-D printed version of the Hunt Library.
Andy Walsh addresses the audience at the dedication of the James B. Hunt Jr. Library.
Andy Walsh, student body president, spoke of the buzz among students about the building— saying it was a constant presence on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. He noted that more than 1,700 images of the library are online through the #myhuntlibrary campaign to collect photos of the library.
You can read more about the library in the upcoming issue of NC State magazine, a benefit of membership in the Alumni Association.
03.12.2013
A campus landmark that students have called home for decades — the Talley Student Center — is undergoing an extreme makeover.
Construction is underway on the new Talley Student Center, a $120-million project that will transform the aging building into what planners are calling “the crossroads of central campus.”
The Talley project is a renovation and an expansion made necessary by NC State’s growth and the building’s deteriorating conditions. Since the center was built in 1972, the student population of NC State has more than doubled to its current level of 34,000, making the facility too small to meet the increasing number of students.
The old building also suffered from numerous infrastructure problems including limited electrical power, plumbing problems, inefficient heating and cooling systems and elevator failures. The existing building also has no sprinklers for fire protection, says Tim Hogan, operations director for University Student Centers.
But that will all change when the new student center opens in 2014.
Students — and visiting alums who drop in — will find an “open and welcoming” student center with abundant glass across the exterior offering a sweeping view of campus, Hogan says.
Those who want a bite to eat can check out the Pavilions Food Court. It will offer freshly made pizza, burritos and more vegan and vegetarian options than ever before. A variety of international cuisine will also be available in the dining area, and those pulling a late night can stop for a burger in the new Talley diner. They can perk up the next morning with coffee at Starbucks or Port City Java in the student center.
Talley will also be modernized to allow for Wi-Fi access throughout the building, and a two-story grand ballroom and meeting spaces will be equipped with audiovisual technology for presentations of up to 1,000 people.
Student organizations and several university services will also call Talley home, including student government, the Union Activities Board, student Senate, Student Union Administration and Facilities Management.
Quiet nooks and recreational spaces will be built into the new Talley – all part of the design to give it a living room feel. Large screen TVs will allow for group viewing on Wolfpack game days as well, says Jennifer Gilmore, spokeswoman for Campus Enterprises. And plans call for an elevated walkway across the train tracks to connect north and south campus.
Talley replaced NC State’s first student center — called the Student Union — which was built in 1952 and located in what is now the Erdahl-Cloyd wing of D.H. Hill Library.
—Diana Smith
01.27.2013
There are few moments in NC State’s history that stand out more than the Wolfpack’s NCAA basketball championship in 1983.
We know that a lot of memories were made during the Cardiac Pack’s run to the Final Four and the national championship 30 years ago, and we hope you will share your memories with us and other Wolfpackers.
How did you celebrate when the last shot went in? Did you still have any mementos of that amazing moment? What is your favorite memory from the championship game — or one of the games leading up to that moment?
Share your stories here, and we’ll publish some of them in an upcoming issue of NC State magazine. If you prefer, you can send your memories (and any photos) to us at ncstate_editor@ncsu.edu.
11.06.2012
Think bananas. Vanilla wafers. Then, instead of pudding, think ice cream.
Banana pudding — the latest ice cream flavor from NC State’s Howling Cow creamery — was introduced to the public last month and had the best debut of any new flavor since Wolf Tracks was introduced two years ago. “We sold out in a less than a week,” says Carl Hollifield ’02. That means the contents of 30 3-gallon tubs, or about 2,800 scoops, were sold during that time period.
Hollifield, who got his degree in agricultural business management, is the business manager for Howling Cow, NC State’s ice cream-producing arm of the Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences. The ice cream production is run like a business but profits are plowed back into the department to help fund research. (Students don’t have a lot to do with the ice cream. “They are usually busy studying more advanced dairy topics, like probiotics,’’ Hollifield says.)
The Dairy Enterprise Center, as the operation is formally called, has about 20 regular flavors, most of which can be found on sale by the scoop at the Creamery at D.H. Hill Library in the Erdahl-Cloyd wing. About 10 more flavors that have been sold in the past are available to be rotated in as needed, and the center comes up with a new flavor about twice a year. All the ice cream is made in the basement of Schaub Hall.
The idea for banana pudding ice cream came after an all-natural banana flavor had been added to soft-serve ice cream on sale at University Dining locations. The students liked it, so some of the production managers at Howling Cow started thinking about a banana pudding ice cream.
But preparing to introduce a new flavor takes time, Hollifield says. After the concept is developed, the first step is to contact vendors to get samples of the best banana flavoring that would work in Howling Cow ice cream. It takes several weeks to get samples, and then once the correct vendor is selected, a larger volume order is placed, which takes several more weeks. For early test batches, he used Nilla brand vanilla wafers, but later purchased generic brands that taste the same. “We had to get a vendor that would sell 100 pounds of vanilla wafers at a time,” Hollifield says.
The final touch to the flavor was the addition of marshmallow swirl, called a “varigant” in ice cream-making parlance. Hollifield says the marshmallow swirl was already being used in another flavor — the s’mores-like campfire delight — so that part was easy. A first batch of a quart was made to test the flavors and the mix. The main tweaks to the recipe involved the amount of flavoring. After that, a 30-gallon batch was made with more taste-testing.
Now, Hollifield and his crew will wait to see if banana pudding has the staying power of Wolf Tracks, which is a mixture of vanilla, fudge and miniature peanut butter cups. The last flavor to “bite the dust,” Hollifield said, was coco-nutt, a blend of coconut and nuts. “Coconut is one of those flavors that’s kind of polarizing,” says Hollified. “You either like it or you don’t.”
If a scoop at the Creamery at D.H. Hill isn’t enough, you can buy a 30-gallon tub of banana pudding in Room 12 of Schaub Hall, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. The building is at the corner of Dan Allen Drive and Sullivan Drive. And in a few weeks, egg nog by the quart will be available.
—Sylvia Adcock ’81
08.17.2012
New students have seen special entertainers, concerts on the lawn and free food on campus this week during the university’s traditional Week of Welcome events. And on Saturday, Packapalooza, the week’s last event, will transform Hillsborough Street into an all-day block party.
The event will take place tomorrow from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. The event is free and open to the public, but everyone is encouraged to bring a can of food for the NC State’s new food pantry, which will provide assistance for families in need at the university.
Packapalooza is a new event this year. Lauryn Collier, president of the Union Activities Board, believed the concert that formerly took place at the end of Welcome Week did not fully encompass the excitement and pride that comes with the university’s 125th anniversary. So the Union Activities Board, NC State 125th Anniversary Committee and the Hillsborough Street Community Service Corporation teamed up to develop the festival.
“The other student leaders and I felt it was important to not only have a concert, but a festival to celebrate NC State’s 125th anniversary,” Collier says. “The event conceptually began to develop in the spring, and the Union Activities Board voted on the name ‘Packapalooza’ as the event components came to life.”
Throughout the day, Packapalooza will feature local bands performing on two stages located next to the Bell Tower and along Hillsborough Street. Headliners include Carolina Liar, Liquid Pleasure, Leela James and Mama’s Love. NC State’s co-ed a cappella group, Acappology, will also be performing.
There will be six zones at the event, including a Green Zone, Arts Zone, Wolfpack Zone, Sports Zone, International Zone and Public Safety Zone. Each zone will have a variety of different activities, including Bell Tower tours, a 40-foot inflatable water slide, and opportunities to meet and get autographs from NC State athletic teams.
During the afternoon hours, there will be close to 160 vendors from NC State and Hillsborough Street. Through the use of various sponsors, the Union Activities Board, NC State 125th Anniversary Committee and the Hillsborough Street Community Service Corporation hope to raise awareness and get students and alumni more actively engaged.
“We hope that Packapalooza will not only provide entertainment and information to everyone in attendance, but serve as a way for people to learn more about our organizations and the great things we are involved in planning,” Collier says.
After the event, select Hillsborough Street vendors will have extended hours and feature food specials and live entertainment.
–Christine Urbowicz
07.17.2012
Richard H. Linton, chair of the Food Science and Technology department at The Ohio State University, has been named the new dean of NC State’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. His appointment is effective Sept. 15.
“He has a strong agricultural background and he’s led many successful collaborate efforts involving academia, industry and other important stakeholder groups,” Provost Warwick Arden said in announcing Linton’s appointment. “I’m confident that he’ll be a major asset to the college, the university and the state of North Carolina.”
Linton is an expert in food microbiology and developing food-safety systems to reduce the risk of foodborne illness. He most recently chaired the largest food science and technology program in the country at Ohio State. Before that, Linton served as a professor of food science, center director and unit leader at Purdue University.
At Purdue, Linton directed the Center for Food Safety Engineering, which aims to provide knowledge to detect and prevent chemical and microbial food contamination, doubling the center’s funding and building multidisciplinary research teams.
06.22.2012
Photo by Bryan Regan. Courtesy of Brian DuMont.
Brian DuMont ‘98 was sitting in a class during spring semester in 1997 when his mind drifted to what he would do for work that upcoming summer. He was dissatisfied with past summer gigs with unappreciative bosses, so he turned to one of his friends to brainstorm. That’s when his friend gave him an idea not just for that summer’s work, but one that was the basis for DuMont’s thriving business today.
“He said, ‘Forget about working for someone else,’” DuMont says. “‘Grab a mower and cut some yards.”
That’s exactly what DuMont did 15 years ago. He and a couple of his fraternity brothers spent that summer posting signs and depending on word of mouth to attract work. Fifteen years later, Dumont, 36, is still in the lawncare game as the owner and CEO of Yard-Nique, a Morrisville, N.C.,-based company that does commercial and residential landscaping maintenance and installations.
The company has grown to 225 employees with locations across the state. It is the official landscaper of the Carolina Hurricanes, and DuMont was recently named as one of the Triangle’s top executives in Triangle Business Journal’s annual “40 Under 40″ list.
DuMont, who came from Lawrenceville, N.J., to NC State because of its horticulture program, says he always knew he wanted to run a lawncare business.
“As early as I can remember, I loved working out in the yard with my dad,” he says. “My dad would get a truckload of mulch, and we would go lay it. We’d go to a nursery and pick out plants. I don’t think I ever changed my mind about what I wanted to do.”
Even though DuMont had the love of working outdoors, he had to gain his business acumen through on-the-job training. He says there were no business classes for him to take in his horticulture major, so his operation simply started out of his kitchen in his house he had near downtown Raleigh. He says the key to going from that small model to a company that continues to grow despite a poor economy is hiring good people he can trust, many of whom are Wolfpackers.
“That’s probably the hardest thing for small business owners is letting go,” he says. “I pulled a lot from State. I’ve had a lot of great interns from State. I think the biggest thing is to realize you can’t do it on your own.”
04.24.2012
It’s well known that World War II dramatically altered life at NC State, as students left school to join the military.
One of the biggest changes on campus was an influx of female students, whose numbers had been sparse up to that point. But on this day in 1942, there were urgent appeals made to young women to enroll at NC State.
“In an effort to obtain employment in traditionally male-dominated professions now facing labor shortages because of the war, women enrolled at State in ever-increasing numbers after 1942,” Alice Elizabeth Reagan wrote in North Carolina State University: A Narrative History.
Instructor Peele Johnson works with two students studying engineering in 1942 as Pratt-Whitney Fellows. (Photo courtesy of Historical State.)
Young women were particularly encouraged to study engineering, and NC State eventually became the only university in the south to offer Pratt-Whitney Fellowships to women to help them study engineering, according to Reagan’s book.
The 48-week course enabled the women to be hired as engineering aides at the company’s plant in Connecticut.
Once the war was over, though, the number of women at NC State dropped. It was not until the late 1950s that the number of female students at NC State began to rise again.
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