Vehicles available to the Department of Geological Sciences
and the subsequent program in the Earth & Atmospheric Sciences Department
for support of teaching and field research - the "mobile classroom"

Before 1975, the Geological Sciences at Albany had one assigned vehicle mainly to support field research, an International Scout, which might seat five passengers in an uncomfortable pinch. Field trips for undergraduate major classes required booking multiple passenger cars from the University motor pool, and these were often already in use and sufficent numbers of them not available.
Kevin Burke as chairman succeeded in convincing a notoriously tight-fisted Dean to provide funds for a 15-seat passenger van for use as a "mobile classroom", as well as expanding the support for graduate students for field research, and for graduate field trips. This vehicle, the red Dodge van, delivered in May 1975, was the first of several similar vehicles provided successively over the years, with fuel and maintenance obtained through the University Vehicle Operation Center and its budget.
These passenger vans and the utility vehicles assigned to the Department provided essential support for field-based teaching, and also in supporting field research by graduate students in the Geological Sciences during the existence of these programs at the University at Albany. These resources made possible many projects that would not have otherwise been easily done; the significant contribution of the University in providing them is here acknowledged.


Graduate field trip to the Blue Ridge and adjacent Piedmont in N & S Carolina, late March of 1978.
[some of the trip participants: Agostino, Gary White, Frieda Malcolm, David Rowley, Celal Sengor, Susan Anderson]













The red Dodge van seen in fall 1978 in the Taconic region of the New York - Vermont border near Granville with David Rowley in his MSc thesis field area, also near the location used that year for the undergraduate Field Mapping course.













East-downthrown normal fault cutting purple and green slates of the Taconic allochthon in Rte 4 roadcut east of Fair Haven, Vermont. Quartz veins along the fault; thin pale quartzite arenites in the green slates.
Field Mapping course, June 1978.












The red van was replaced by 1983 with the silver 12-seat Dodge passenger van seen in Frankfort Gulf.
The basal Silurian pebbly sandstone exposed here rests with major disconformity on late Ordovician shales and greywacke turbiditic arenites, the subject of the graduate student's MSc thesis.














Graduate field trip to Sudbury, Ontario in October 1989. The maroon replacement van provided in 1985 in the background; rocks of the basal norite and sublayer in the "discovery outcrop" CP railroad exposure.












Volker Bruchert with the maroon van and boat in tow near N Sydney, NS en route to the Newfoundland ferry for his MSc thesis research, July 1990.














Rolf Herrmann explains Vermont Valley geology to Nick Ratcliffe, who appears to have been paying attention to what Rolf had discovered in his MSc thesis field mapping. July 1992.












The Department had an agreement with the University Vehicle Operations Center for the van to be used for other University purposes between December and March when geological field classes and trips were not held, for obvious weather-related reasons. During these times in the early 1990's, cosmetic damage to this vehicle occurred several times, when in use by University sports teams, and was left unrepaired. In addition the vehicle had accumulated more than 100,000 miles by 1995, and rust was very evident on the lower body. It made a poor public impression, parked at stops on field trips, or when used to travel to the spring meeting of the Northeastern section of the Geological Society of America, for the reputation and evidently skimpy resources of the University at Albany.
A request to replace it made in October 1994 eventually resulted in delivery of a new dark green 15-passenger Dodge van in March 1997. This vehicle then sustained field education in Geology for undergraduate classes, and some graduate field research, until these activities ceased at the University at Albany at the end 2010; this vehicle had by then travelled more than 101,000 miles.


Green Dodge van on its first field class for Structural Geology I; roadcut with thrust fault on the ramp to NY  Rte 23 westbound at Catskill. 5 April 1997.














Green Dodge van in gravel pit in glacial outwash, valley of west branch Penobscot River west of Abol Bridge.
20 August 2004, during the Field Mapping course.














In fall 2012 the administration placed payment for vehicle fuel and maintenance onto the Atmospheric & Environmental Science Department expense budget without providing any additional funds to cover these expenses, nor for substitute rentals. The passenger van which was originally provided for teaching and field research support was therefore surrendered entirely to the University vehicle center.
It was allocated to University maintenance and grounds operations, and seen from time to time parked on campus or cruising the University roadways. Last sighted in 2021 with extensive peeling paintwork and rusty roof, and more than 120,000 miles on it.


the same vehicle, 22 years old, parked next to Indian Quadrangle 4 February 2019; in use by grounds and maintenance since 2013, the last photo available....















the other utility vehicles
The Scout originally obtained by Jack Bird in the late 1960's lingered for some time, but was eventually replaced by a green Jeep Cherokee, with the understanding that the Vehicle Operation Center would have full use of it for the winter season for snow clearance. This vehicle supported a considerable number of graduate field thesis projects. And in exhibiting reliability typical of its manufacturer, caused its eventual replacement to be specified as "not a Jeep".


Pam Stella's opinion of the Cherokee - road aggregate quarry in Cape St. John volcanics near Tilt Cove, Newfoundland, in her MSc thesis area, summer 1986.













It did allow her to escape Tilt Cove at high tide in the pouring rain!












The replacement vehicle, a Dodge Ram, was also used for field classes, and was helpful to a number of graduate students in their field research, and rather more reliable than the Jeep.

Field trip with Cornell and Albany students, April 1992. NY Route 22 north of Fort Ann, NY.
Dodge Ram and the SUNY maroon van beyond the outcrop, which exposes dipping foliation in Grenville gneisses, and the unconformity at the base of the Paleozoic platform sedimentary sequence, here with pebbly arenites of the Potsdam Formation lying above.












However, even 4-wheel drive has its limits, shown tested here by Michael Haschke in his MSc thesis area. The Dodge Ram being rescued from a ditch containing Lake Vermont clay soils; July 1993 near Highgate, VT.












This vehicle too was eventually (records fail to show when, but probably sometime around 2006) returned entirely to the control of the Vehicle Operation Center, and disappeared, leaving the green van as the only vehicle available to the Department.

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