marred NHL-type plexiglass in Walker. Replacing the wooden boards of the old Walker Arena
are Cheel's new boards of steel with a plastic exterior. No longer are the team benches next to
each other; now the Clarkson team bench is next to the penalty boxes, and the opposing team's
bench is across the ice.
Walker Arena had seats for 1,446, which included 376 for students; Cheel seats 2,912
with 591 reserved for students. Instead of having the scoreboard at one end of the arena as in
Walker, a new Pepsi scoreboard hangs over center ice from the ceiling beams.
"Trustees on Ice."
Two teams, Greenman's Gorillas and Jocko's Jaguars, faced off at the new
Cheel Arena on October 19. Made up of Trustees, these two teams competed in the "Stack-A-
Puck" and "Slap-shot" competitions.
One Trustee from each team walked to the Stack-A-Puck area at center ice where on
signal they stacked pucks for 30 seconds. The winner then moved to the Slap-shot area at the
blue line where the Stack-A-Puck winner got two shots on goal, and the loser one shot. Then
two more team members appeared on the ice to continue the competition until every member of
each team had competed. Team captains Beecher Greenman and John "Jocko" McLennan
predicted fierce competition, for the team which scored the fewest points was required to make
an on-the-spot donation to the Clarkson Fund. This was the first time that the Board members
(some of them former hockey players) actually were on the ice in the new arena. This match
was held between halves of the annual Green and Gold game, Clarkson's first scrimmage of the
1991-92 hockey season.
Portside.
Donated to Clarkson by Mrs. Helen Cheel in the name of her late son, Bertrand Snell
Cheel '62, a huge white metal sculpture entitled "Portside" was erected beside the new Cheel
Center. It was created by David Black, professor of sculpture at Ohio State University. Richard
Parsons, director of new construction, observed:
I think it's kind of neat. The mark of good sculpture is that it generates discussion, and from what
I've seen, it's been successful so far.
Best of the Rest.
The September 30, 1991, cover story of
US News and World Report,
"America's Best Colleges," ranked the top 455 colleges in the US according to best buys in
education. Clarkson was listed with the "Best of
the Rest" among national universities; St.
Lawrence was listed among the national liberal arts colleges at the same level.
Clarkson was listed third (alphabetically) among 179 other colleges and universities in
this "Best of the Rest" category. The magazine classifies national universities as those which
offer a wide range of baccalaureate programs, give a high priority to research, and award a large
number of PhD degrees. RPI and MIT were ranked as national universities in the survey. Only
the top three specialized colleges were ranked: Harvey Mudd in California, Cooper Union in
New York, and Rose-Hulman in Indiana took the gold, silver, and bronze, respectively.
Lewis House Meals.
Because of poor turnout over the weekends, ARA food service closed the
Lewis House cafeteria on Saturdays and Sundays starting on October 5. Of the students who
lived downtown, only 42 were on the meal plan, and an additional 30 were on declining balance
cards. Before the University approved the closing, the results of an informal poll conducted
among the students concerned showed that the students did not feel the closing presented a
major problem.
