Students examine campus construction as conservationists

On the third floor of the E-Quad, there is a small but bright and airy office filled with shelves and shelves of files.

In a deteriorated state and in need of preservation, the room fittingly is the office of civil and environmental engineering professor George Scherer, who is teaching a lab science course in art conservation offered for the first time this semester.

For Scherer, who used to work as a materials scientist at Dupont and Corning research labs, teaching at Princeton is a pleasure. It offers him more freedom and opportunities to explore his interests in science.

"The whole purpose of this course is to reach out to A.B. students. [To show them that] science is not the enemy but an ally," he said. Not surprisingly, there are no B.S.E. students enrolled in the course — CEE 105/ART 105: Lab in Conservation of Art — this semester.

During lectures, Scherer explains what materials are used in building construction and how they deteriorate. In the laboratory, he demonstrates the kinds of damage that can occur to structures over time.

Though he said he expected to prefer working with graduate students because he considered them "more professional," Scherer has found working with undergraduates and advising senior theses "pleasantly surprising."

"The labs are informal enough so that you can ask him [questions] personally. There aren't really dumb questions," said Emily Lenz '04, one of Scherer's students.

"He's very there for you," Sarah Swords '03 noted. "You would e-mail him and you would get a response within a few hours, even on the weekends."

This semester, Scherer and his students were fine-tuning the course. In the long run, he hopes the class will have a greater impact on the University as a whole. Scherer said he wants to provide an "internal . . . service to the maintenance department" through this course by having students take part in the care and preservation of campus buildings.

The University maintenance department already sends him pieces of campus buildings they are working on to use as teaching tools in labs.

In the future, Scherer also hopes to teach another art conservation course at "a higher, more technical level." He envisions that students from that course could be sent abroad to work on preventing building deterioration.

In light blue jeans and a pale green button-down shirt, Scherer looked comfortable in the middle of the chaos of his paper-scattered office.

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Relaxed as he might seem, Scherer's smiling eyes gave away his intense enthusiasm for the new course.

"He goes outside in the rain and watches how the water falls on buildings," Melissa Bermudez '03 said. She noted that the professor often comments during class about campus buildings. "He'll say, 'Man, I was walking by Frist and they cleaned up the gypsum crust on Benjamin Franklin's statue!' "

And Scherer's passion has spread to his students as well. "He makes you excited about otherwise overlooked things, minutiae," Lenz said.

Swords agreed, "He tells us all kinds of cool little things . . . [that is] the reason I love this class."

Scherer has built quite a following among his students who now often notice and point out building deterioration wherever they go.

"The best part," Jon Howe '01 said, "is going into Richardson with friends . . . and pointing out the places where salt is growing. They are astonished."

And Howe's colloquial use of his new-found knowledge is not an aberration.

Leaning back in his chair, right elbow on the table and legs crossed, Scherer smiled as he noted that his students "come to me when [a building on campus] has been cleaned. They come to me in horror."