Mecho shades "cover" the campus at UD

Mecho shades have become the window treatment of choice in the residence halls at UD. We started with the Christiana Towers and now have spread their installation across campus including all the new residence halls up north, in West Campus, and in East Campus except for Harrington Complex. One area not addressed that will be started this coming summer is Central Campus. Although the Central Campus buildings underwent an extensive renovation approximately 10 years ago in the "Mall Project," our standard life expectancy for window treatments other than Mecho shades is actually 10 years. In the Mall Project we used simple venetian mini-blinds, which while functional, are less durable than a Mecho shade. The buildings to be retro-fitted this summer include Smyth, Cannon, Sussex, and Squire. Other buildings will follow in succeeding summers. UD gets many calls from colleges and universities across the country asking for input and advice about installing Mecho shades due to the fact that our campus has used so many of the shades in our residence halls.

Stoves with "no time to burn"

Residents around campus are beginning to see a new electric stove in our public area kitchens that is the same as a "normal" stove in all respects except that the burners are flat saucers instead of the typical coil burner. These stoves have a built in Safe-T-Element, which is a patented device that keeps the temperature of each burner from reaching scorching temperatures if left unattended and potentially cause a fire or a nuisance fire alarm. Traditional burners continue to heat up but the Safe-T-Element has a thermostat which operates like a governor, keeping the temperature from rising above a certain level and also cooling down the element. You might wonder how it cooks food and the answer is that little changes in the way food cooks, the only big change being reduction in the threat of a serious fire if accidentally left unattended. The plan is to replace all the stoves in the Christiana Towers in the next two summers with these Safe-T-Element equipped stoves. An added bonus is that it saves electricity versus a traditional burner that "overheats" when not necessary.

Rodney basement extreme makeover plans

The basement ares in the Rodney Commons buildings could use a makeover. One of the basic plans shared with some students and Residence Life is to add an area carpet, new lighting, a big screen TV, some cafe tables for snacks, and some additional comfortable seating. Plans aren't finalized yet but the intent is to make more of a "living room" atmosphere and take the edge off the current institutional look. The first mock-up would occur in Rodney C/D basement late this spring with plans for the other two Commons areas to follow based on feedback from the result in C/D. Input and ideas are welcome.

Christiana Meeting Room Make-Over

Last Thursday the new furniture came in to upgrade the functionality and appearence of the Christiana Commons Meeting Room A. The new furniture above is better quality and has a richer appearence to emphasize the fact that this room is a designed to be used for formal meetings of student groups and conference guests over the summer. Of course when meetings are not in session the room is always available to any resident student to use for study or group projects.