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May 1, 1997

At UPB, they're planning to paddle to Pittsburgh

Tradition is important to a school, says Carol Baker, vice president and dean of academic affairs at Pitt's Bradford campus (UPB). She believes it is the glue that binds a loose collection of individuals into an institution.

When Baker speaks of tradition, she means more than just excellence in the classroom. She thinks such things as Harvard's Hasting Pudding Awards and the Army/Navy game are just as important as academics in building an institutional community.

To help create an informal UPB tradition, one that ties in with a liberal arts education, Baker has launched the "Allegheny River Scholars," what she hopes will be an annual canoe trip down the Allegheny River from Kinzua Dam in Warren County to Pittsburgh. Staff, faculty and students from other Pitt campuses also can take part in the trip if space is available.

The first annual "Allegheny River Scholars" trip (the name is tentative) will depart Warren on July 27 and arrive at the Three Rivers Rowing Association headquarters on Washington's Landing at midday Aug. 1. Baker decided to start an annual canoe trip down the Allegheny because of the river's importance to western Pennsylvania and the direct link it provides between Bradford and Pittsburgh. The Allegheny was the river most early settlers to the region traveled down.

"Annual might be a deadly thing to call it the first year," she adds, "but I hope it's good enough the first year that it will happen every year forever." Along with creating a fun tradition, Baker wants the trip to support UPB's public service mission and its role as a public liberal arts school that provides educational opportunities for students, faculty, staff and administrators outside of the classroom.

To fulfill those roles, participants will hear lectures on aspects of the river and its history every evening at their campsites. They also will collect samples of river water to test in UPB laboratories. The results of those tests will be available for use by students and groups such as the U.S. Forest Service, Department of Environmental Protection, and Fish and Boat Commission.

Plans also are underway to videotape at least part of the trip for viewing by members of the UPB community.

To accommodate as wide a spectrum of individuals as possible, the trip will be broken up into reasonable lengths of river. Details still are being worked out. Canoes will be transported around difficult areas and a road crew with the camping equipment will follow the paddlers.

Participants need not be experienced canoeists. The cost of the trip has not yet been determined.

For individuals who cannot camp, Baker said the group might reserve rooms in motels and/or bed and breakfasts along the route. Space will be limited to 16 or 17 canoes, which would accommodate about three dozen people. However, paddlers are expected to leave and join the group throughout the week, so the actual number of spaces available could be twice that number or even higher.

Anyone interested in the trip should contact Christine Geary at 173-27526 or e-mail chg3@vms.cis.pitt.edu.

–Mike Sajna


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