Editor’s Moment

James Tedrick

Well, it’s time to finally say adieu to the year at Rose, and, more importantly, the seniors. This year’s senior class made this chapter one of the seven best in the United States. Tate Jacobitz and Blake Gage led the chapter with volunteer efforts like the wheelchair ramp earlier this year and Campus Beautification. Jerry Milliman and Chuck Spivey made this publication an active, quality work.

Well, we’ve been a busy chapter this quarter. Along with Campus Beautification, our Steel Bridge team won first place at the regional competition at Purdue and went to the national tournament at California. In addition, a team from Dr. Descoteaux’s timber class constructed a timber bridge that did will, winning the non-wood use category and placing seventh in the nation. Parent’s Day was a success, with both the balsa wood bridge and the concrete cylinder competition enjoyed by all in attendance.

Outside the chapter, Civils have been in key roles as well. Freshman Ben Parker was appointed as Publicity Director for Student Government, and Katy Klein performed wonderfully in 1940’s Radio Hour and The Music Man.

The quarter was not all fun and games, however. We are all saddened by the loss of Scott Jank, who lost his battle against leukemia this past March. Our sympathy goes out to Scott’s family, and no one will ever fill in the space he left at Rose.

The summer promises to be a great time with work, fun, and the sun for a small eternity. However, the fall quarter and new classes will soon loom in front of you.

From the President

Brent Nemeth

The first half of the 1997 term is ending for the Student Chapter, with the coming of summer. But what a first half-year it has been! The chapter has accomplished a great deal in the past few months, sponsoring 25 activities ranging from speakers and field trips, to hosting a golf scramble for the American Red Cross. With all of these activities, the chapter continues to provide the Rose-Hulman civil engineering students with a variety of opportunities for extending their learning and experiences outside of the classroom. Participation in these events also offers the members some excellent means of interacting with their fellow civil engineering students. But that’s enough generalizing for now. Let me tell you exactly what the chapter and its members have been doing since my last writing of the President’s Corner.

Probably the most noteworthy event of the last two quarters has been the success of the Steel Bridge Team. The work that these guys have put into the bridge is amazing. The design of the bridge began during the winter term, and it was then followed by the fabrication of the bridge in the beginning of the spring term. Putting the bridge together has meant countless hours of labor, and I am sure it has pushed the completing of the team members’ school assignments into the very late hours of the night. But the work has paid off.

I got the opportunity to see the Bridge Team in action when I accompanied them at the AISC Regional Steel Bridge Competition held over spring break at Purdue University. Rose faced some very tough competitors in schools such as Purdue, the University of Illinois, and the University of Wisconsin. As I saw all of these teams practicing, I figured that the contest would be a rather close one. It wasn’t however. The Rose-Hulman team blew the competitors away as they were awarded first place and a position to compete at the AISC National Steel Bridge Competition to be held in California at the end of May. With all of the effort that the team has made thus far, they are definitely deserving of bringing home first place from the National Competition. Everyone is eagerly waiting to hear the turnout. The main designer of the bridge, and organizer of the team, is Ryan Seavert. Adriano Silva also helped a good bit on the design. Chad Leinart is responsible for the bridge fabrication. Finally, the members of the assembly team are Peter Haug, George Lewis, Eric Panhorst, and Timothy Wuestefeld.

While speaking of hard work and time put into the success of the chapter, I can not forget the endeavor that Ben Merkling has put forth into arranging the ASCE Golf Tournament in order to benefit the American Red Cross of the Wabash Valley. When I took over the office of president in December, I had an idea that it would be nice to have a golf tournament at the end of May for chapter members and civil engineering faculty as a way of celebrating the end of the year. I went to Ben with the idea, asking him if he would be willing to organize the event. I got more than what I was asking for when I approached him with the question. Not only did Ben want to organize a golf tournament, but also he wanted to put together one for a charity in town, where the tournament would be open to the public and all proceeds would benefit the charity. What a great idea!

Ben and I met with Dr. Lobo the following morning to inform him on what we planned to do. He thought that an event of this size would be a massive undertaking for the chapter, especially with all of the other Student Chapter activities that would be taking place for the rest of the year, but he never discouraged us from attempting to have the event. And since Ben began work on the project, Dr. Lobo has been very helpful. Next, we made contact with the American Red Cross in January, and they quickly accepted the offer. So Ben began sending out flyers, public service announcements, rounding up volunteers to help, and calling corporations to sponsor the event. Everything is underway. The tournament is set for Saturday, May 17. Those helping Ben with the tournament are Don Bales, Scott Davis, Eric Ellis, Morgan Hawker, Chad Leinart, Sean Stoughton, and Tate Jacobitz. I must also add that Ben did an excellent job this year in heading the chapter’s selling of the EIT Manuals. I know that I am safe in saying that the golf tournament will also turnout successfully.

Recently, the Student Chapter attended the annual ASCE Indiana Sectional Meeting held at Conner Prairie, near Indianapolis. Here, some of the senior design groups took part in the annual competition of presenting their projects to national ASCE members who attended the conference. Some of the other schools involved in this contest were Tri State University, the University of Evansville, Valpraisio, and Purdue. For the fourth year in a row, a Rose design team emerged victorious in the competition, as they presented a project which involved conducting surveying work on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in order to determine if there were any problems associated with the layout of the track. They have thus put considerable pressure on next year’s seniors to make it a 5 - peat for Rose-Hulman at the Sectional Meeting. This team consisted of Carl Bradway, Erik Moore, Kent Murphy, and Eric Wathen.

In the area of promoting civil engineering to the community, Kent Elliott, along with the help of Scott Davis and Kelly Ojala, hosted a balsa wood bridge competition for high school students of the Terre Haute Explorer Post. These are students who show their interest in science and engineering by partaking in various sciences related events, such as the bridge competition, during National Engineer’s Week. Ben Merkling, Gary Pool, Tate Jacobitz, Eric Ellis, Mike Holm, and I have been involved in putting on some demonstrations in the soils lab for elementary school children, as part of Rose open house shows hosted by the National Society of Black Engineers. The Steel Bridge Team demonstrated the assembly of the Steel Bridge for the Lost Creek elementary school. Christian Colvin, Blake Gage, and Bryce Clark did some surveying and design work on an outdoor learning center for Lost Creek elementary school. Zack Hany also did work on this Lost Creek Project by coloring a topographic map and once again, ASCE was responsible for the civil engineering department’s part in representing the Civils in the annual Rose Show. The Student Chapter hosted a bridge busting competition and concrete cylinder busting competition. Also, the Steel Bridge, surveying equipment, and the Water Wall were all put on display for those attending the Rose Show. Scott McBrayer, Jared Cornelius, Scott Davis, Wade Dexter, Pete Haug, Chad Leinart, Joe Mize, Kirk Myers, Bill Odle, Kelly Ojala, Gary Pool, Tim Rohe, James Tedrick, Adriano Silva, and I all helped in making the Rose Show a success.

Here on campus, ASCE has also been hard at work. Kent Elliott, Tate Jacobitz, Kirk Myers, Brad Schnarr, James Tedrick, and I helped with Campus Clean Up and Beautification Day by replacing a portion of the concrete sidewalk on the north side of BSB. We even had the honor of inscribing "ASCE ’97" in the concrete for all passersby to see. Furthermore, Susan Ellett has been hard at work with the recycling program.

In the area of community service, Tate Jacobitz and I are in the process of designing a wheel chair ramp for a handicapped lady in Terre Haute. We will begin construction on the ramp during exam week. The project should be a fun time, since the lady we are building the ramp for, and her husband, are very congenial people. This will also be one of the last opportunities to spend time with a very close friend who will be graduating at the end of the year. And community service does not end here. Already planned for next year is the remodeling of the inside of the American Red Cross building in Terre Haute and the designing of a haystack maze to be done by Shanna Rives and Stephanie Dunagan for Bogey’s Halloween celebration, a miniature golf course in Terre Haute.

The speakers who we have invited to our weekly meetings, and field trips we have taken to local construction projects, have both been very interesting and educational. A couple of the field trips include a visit to the construction site of the Alumni Center on campus and a visit to the Lone Star cement plant in Greencastle, Indiana. For the speakers: Bob Priolo told us about his civil engineering experiences overseas; Gene LeBoeuf explained his past role and responsibilities in the Army Corps of Engineers; Steve Rowe gave a presentation on the ASTM Specifications for Concrete Masonry; Ted Hazeldine made us aware of the real world responsibilities of engineers in the steel design business; Scott Dompke told us about his job as manager of the city of Bloomington; William Wieldeman informed us on the environmental issues involved in the West Lafayette Railroad Relocation project; Ed Tumulty gave a presentation on pre-stressed concrete; Finally, but what I feel to be the most important, Kevin Forbes, director of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, visited campus so that he could talk to the freshmen about the importance of being a member of ASCE, both as a student and as a professional civil engineer. In the previous President’s Corner, I noted that the center of my attention in the spring term would be to generate freshmen interest in the Student Chapter. With the help of Dr. McKinney and Dr. Descoteaux, I put together a meeting for freshmen in which Kevin Forbes spoke, as I have already mentioned, and I gave a slide presentation describing all of the activities of the Student Chapter. And I am proud to say that it worked. A good number of freshmen have been attending chapter events, something that they did not do in the past.

And finally, along the lines of ASCE tradition, Brad Schnarr is busy organizing the annual Spring Picnic for seniors. Its the chapter’s way of thanking the seniors for all that they have done for the chapter in the past. And I must not forget to thank Todd Burch for the work he did in arranging the annual ASCE Basketball Tournament. Thanks Todd.

Thanks to all of the members who have contributed to The Moment. I especially want to commend James Tedrick for all of the work he has done as editor.

As one can see through reading this rather lengthy article, the ASCE Student Chapter has been very busy for the past two quarters. However, staying busy allows us to stay focused on providing the civil engineering students with a way to enhance their undergraduate education outside of the classroom. Also, it is only with the participation and cooperation of the members that we can achieve our goal of being the best ASCE student chapter in the nation. Believe me when I tell you that involvement in ASCE is both educational and enjoyable. Let me leave you with the words of past president Tate Jacobitz when he stated that "I feel that every student that ever chose Rose-Hulman did so in anticipation that it would provide them with one of the best B.Sc. degrees offered in the country. With ASCE providing a way to further enhance this expectation, I encourage each civil to get the most from their Rose-Hulman education and take an active role in the ASCE Student Chapter."

It’s hard to describe what Scott Jank meant to all of us. For those of you who don’t know, Scott was a sophomore civil who passed away on March 23 from acute lymphoblastic leukemia at the age of 19. He had just been initiated into our fraternity, but he was known and liked by all. He was one of the best friends a person could have. He was timid at first, but once he got to know you he wouldn’t leave you alone. His smile and personality were extremely infectious. No matter how bad you felt prior to talking with Scott, you always felt better and lighthearted afterwards. Even though he had problems of his own, he was always in a cheery mood. In addition, he was very generous, especially with his time. Anytime you needed help with something, he was the first to volunteer. He was always up for a game of basketball, but skiing was his passion. It’s very hard to believe that he is gone from this Earth. Even though it has only been a couple of months we miss him extremely. He will never leave our hearts and we hope he will always be remembered.

It was a very big day in a small person’s life. I was five years old and finishing up a full year of kindergarten at Roach Elementary School in Decatur, Illinois. I was playing the role of a carrot in our end of year play. As I recall, the story line seemed to be less based on dramatic moments and more on maximum participation of the class. As luck would have it, there were 18 kindergartners and exactly 18 roles in the play.

Of course, to me, there was no role more important than the role of the carrot. I can’t really recall what my motivation was as the carrot, but my mom said I was the most handsome carrot she had ever seen. I don’t remember much about the play, but I do remember after the play. My teacher, Mrs. Ivy, said to me, "You were the best carrot I’ve ever seen." That moment is frozen in my mind. I can almost touch and see the kindergarten classroom.

I’ve always wondered why that moment has stuck with me for so long. I’m sure it was the recognition, being singled out, feeling special, sense of being loved- it all adds up to moments of cherished memories that we all have in our lives.

Today our cherished memories surround a special person in our lives- a son a grandson a fellow student, a fraternity brother, and a friend.

Scott left us with an abundance of cherished memories. He continued to teach us in the way he lived his life and was part of our lives. For mom and dad and grandparents it was a lifetime. For some of us, it was a few short years.

The tree we plant today is symbolic of those cherished memories, the laughs, the tears, the challenges, the successes, the friendships, and the special times together. When we walk past this tree in the future, think of it as a blessing from Scott to all of us.

What might he say?