Source: Emily Lehning, 785-532-6237, lehning@k-state.edu
News release prepared by: Andy Badeker, 785-532-6415, abadeker@k-state.edu
Thursday, May 24, 2007
K-STATE CHALLENGE COURSE TO SHOW VISITORS THE ROPES
MANHATTAN -- After enduring a few challenges of its own from wet spring weather, the Kansas State University Challenge Course has planned its grand opening for 10:30 a.m. Friday, June 1.
The course, west of Manhattan Avenue and north of the Hoeflin Stone House Child Care Center, is intended to foster team building and leadership through a range of tasks learned in a natural environment, according to Emily Lehning, assistant dean of student life at K-State.
Recent rains have slowed installation of some equipment, but she still promises demonstrations of such features as the "whale watch." This large platform on a pivot can be used to challenge a group to achieve perfect horizontal balance, for example, or to require a group to move from one side to the other without having an edge touch the ground.
Such exercises would be part of a plan customized to suit whichever group has reserved the course. Outings to similar ropes courses have proved popular with school groups, scouts and corporate customers, Lehning said.
"We've already scheduled some groups for the summer," she said, including 300 incoming freshmen for Wildcat Warm-up. That challenge will start with the course coordinator and the facilitators, who will have to sort those participants into smaller units to maintain the desired ratio of 15 visitors per staff member.
"Groups of 15 to 20 people probably work best," Lehning said, "so you get a range of experiences and personalities."
A typical session starts with "initiatives," in which the group and its facilitator sketch out a plan to concentrate on communication, say, or leadership. Then the group would tackle the course's low elements. (The "high elements" -- as in high off the ground -- would come later in the day.)
"A lot of people get worried about the level of physical activity," Lehning said. "But people can participate at whatever level they feel comfortable. There's no pressure." She terms this "challenge by choice," and the course philosophy is one of creating appropriate activities for groups of various ages and abilities.
Rates start at $15 a person for a half-day session. To schedule call 785-532-6327 or e-mail challeng@k-state.edu. The course Web site is http://www.k-state.edu/nss/challenge
Construction on the course started in November 2006 with volunteers from K-State's student chapter of the Associated General Contractors. They prepared the site while preserving much of the wooded landscape. Midwest Concrete Materials donated materials and additional labor.