Vol. 38, No. 18

2-27-2007
By: Adam King

Building confidence by defying gravity

If rappelling from a 53-foot-high tower as coworkers encourage you sounds like fun, get ready. The university may soon have a course that helps build leadership skills and team cohesiveness.

A campaign by the Department of Recreational Sports to raise $700,000 in private funding to build a Leadership Challenge Campus Course at the Adventure Recreation Center starts later this month.

The LCC, similar to a ropes course, brings in elements of problem solving, teamwork and navigating challenges — everything an employee would experience in the workplace.

Bruce Maurer, associate director of recreational sports and the project’s leader, knows from personal experience that such a course is invaluable.

“In my case, I’m 60 and I have a tendency to be more conservative, and when someone comes up with something new on the job, I sometimes come up with reasons why we can’t do it,” he said. “But doing these courses gives me a rebirth of feeling and energy and that can-do thing. You go in nervous and walk away with a higher feeling of confidence not only in your abilities but in those around you.”

During the planning stage for the ARC in 2000, the Department of Recreational Sports left a space between the building and the railroad tracks that run adjacent to Ohio 315 so the course could eventually be constructed.

The department had planned to do it sooner, Maurer said, but former Vice President for Student Affairs Bill Hall, who was committed to finding the funding for the project and was a former brigadier general in the Ohio National Guard, died of cancer before completing his work.

Beau Rugg, Recreational Sports associate director of development and administrative services, is confident funds will be raised because his department is partnering with the Army, Navy and Air Force Reserve Officers Training Corps.

ROTC has nearly 500 cadets on campus that must use Camp Mary Orton’s course, just south of Delaware on Ohio 23. The cadets also travel to Ohio University for ROTC competitions. The proposed university course will have military-quality elements and be able to host any skills event.

“Challenge towers, rappel towers, confidence (obstacle) courses — we’re going to be the first place that has everything together,” Rugg said. “We’re going to have a much wider range and be able to provide more depth to the experience.”

Dave DeAngelo, Recreational and Physical Activity Center director of facility operations, said these courses are perfect for training his student managers.

“When I first got to OSU, I took a group of facility managers to a low-ropes course because I didn’t think they all had the same end goals in mind in terms of where they were at, and they weren’t very cohesive,” he said. “But I saw an almost immediate transformation in that group. This year I want to take them
because I have a really young group of managers and it will create some instant bonding.”

Maurer said Rec Sports and ROTC hope to save on construction costs by working with the Army Corps of Engineers, which already has course design plans, but that has yet to be approved. The course could take less than three months to build, although using the Corps would extend that since its engineers can only work on weekends.

Once the course is completed, Rugg said Ohio State will welcome outside groups, expanding the university’s outreach and engagement with the community. A high ropes indoor course in the ARC also is planned.

The funding campaign kicks off at 11:30 a.m. March 16 at the Veterans Lunch Series in the RPAC upper floor meeting rooms. Those interested in contributing can contact Rugg at 292-7994 or rugg.1@osu.edu.

onCampus Home