Learning the ROPEs

By Christopher Dow

Liz Harwood has a simple philosophy: give students enough ROPE, and they’ll use it to get off campus and into the great outdoors.

ROPE, short for Rice Outdoor Programs and Education, is a new extracurricular recreation program that provides students the opportunity to participate in a variety of outdoor activities, such as hiking, camping, rock climbing, horseback riding, caving, and canoeing.

“Intramural sports are big at Rice, and they’ve been going on for a long time,” says Liz Harwood, assistant director for outdoor programs at the Rice Recreation Center. “But Rice wanted to offer other recreational opportunities for students who don’t have an interest in intramurals.” ROPE gives students a less-competitive physical outlet, and it’s also a good way for them to meet others on campus. “Most of the students come into the outdoor program knowing maybe one or two people, and they branch out from there,” Harwood says. “We can get them off campus and give them a break doing something a bit different.”

Harwood, who joined Rice in July 2005, also is responsible for the aquatics program. As an undergraduate at Ohio University, she wanted to go into high school alternative education, but after she became involved in the campus recreation program, she was hooked and graduated with a BS in adventure recreation. “I’ve gotten plenty of laughs about that over the years,” Harwood admits. She went on to earn a master’s degree in outdoor education and administration from Georgia College and State University. “A lot of universities now have outdoor programs,” she says, “and they’ve become successful elements of their campus recreation programs. There are so many opportunities in this area that Rice thought it was the right time to get something started.”

Although ROPE did not officially begin until this academic year, the program hosted its first trip last spring, when seven students went to hike and rock climb the huge granite dome of Enchanted Rock in the Texas Hill Country. This past fall, there were horseback riding, hiking, canoeing, backpacking, and caving excursions. There was even a seminar on cooking in the backcountry. One of the short nature hikes, held at Armand Bayou Nature Center, focused on native spiders, and another, appropriately enough, on owls.

Harwood wants to instill in her students not only a love for the great outdoors but also the technical skills to safely enjoy a variety of outdoor activities. So far, most of the participants are beginners in the various activities, but about a third have some experience. “As time goes on and we branch out,” Harwood says, “we’re going to get more advanced students. And we’ll try to get those students involved as trip leaders.”

There are three ranks of trip leader—assistant trip leader, lead trip leader, and adventure trip leader—each with succeeding levels of responsibility and training. The trip leaders assist in planning the logistics of excursions and then work to ensure the safety of the participants and staff during the outings. There also is a student outdoor program manager to help facilitate the program.

ROPE may be starting off modestly, but Harwood has grand plans for the future. “Some students say they’re interested in a sailing program, and I’m looking at the possibility of doing a scuba trip down to Corpus Christi for seniors who already are certified. Right now, we’re offering a beginner scuba class in the pool. Eventually, I’d like to get into some longer trips as well, such as going out to West Texas and hiking in the mountains. One of my big dreams is to do a sea kayaking trip along the coast.”

Taking excursions like this is fun, and that’s one of the main draws, but it isn’t Harwood’s sole motivation. “I want to give the students a general love of the outdoors,” she says, “but I also want to teach them both self-sufficiency and an understanding of the group process. This includes teaching leadership skills, especially with the student trip leaders as they learn to facilitate groups and to be responsible for the welfare of others.”

In an effort to further advance ROPE, Harwood has become one of the founding members of the Texas Outdoor Leadership Conference (TOLC), which will hold its first meeting this spring. “TOLC is made up of all the Texas schools that have outdoor programs,” Harwood says. “We’re hoping to get our students involved in local conferences, where they can go to workshops and pick up different skills. And I think there are going to be some roundtables for the student trip leaders to discuss issues freely without the administrators around.”

ROPE also has begun a tentative affiliation with the International Wilderness Leadership School (IWLS), which specializes in providing high-quality wilderness education, outdoor leadership training, and technical instruction and takes students to some of the world’s most alluring wilderness areas. “This isn’t an alliance, yet,” Harwood says. “I have a strong background with the National Outdoor Leadership School, one of the larger such programs. It does a very nice job of going around the country and doing presentations and bringing its EcoBus around. But IWLS asked to visit the campus, so we’re going to do a quick, one-hour presentation with it to see how it works out.”

Harwood has high hopes for ROPE, but she says it’s the students who make the program. “Rice students are so much fun to work with,” she says. “I definitely find they’re very challenging, which is great. They keep me on my toes. I love the fact that they’re involved in so many activities. They’ve really made the job for me.”