Textile students take business angle 

By Kate Hammit

NI Features Writer

            Step aside, fashion Barbie.

            Two UNI seniors will be heading to the International Textile and Apparel Association conference in Kansas City today to do a presentation on their discoveries in their new textiles lab.

            Sarah Burkhardt and Meredith O’Day began their journey last fall when they learned the National Science Foundation had given the textiles department a $125,000 grant – which the university then matched – to build a new lab located in Latham.

            According to their professor’s (Mitchell Strauss) web page, the purpose of the materials analysis laboratory was to enable the UNI Textiles and Apparel Program with the ability to test different fabrics to determine their performances, whether it be how well they obtain moisture or what makes fabric wear and tear in the manner it does.

            Another purpose was to create an environment that was supportive of both the students as well as the faculty.  Strauss’ web page went on to explain that none of this could be possible without the funding from both the grant, which was sponsored by the National Science Foundation’s Course, Curriculum and laboratory Improvement Program.  

            The grant, Strauss explains, was the combined effort of the TAPP faculty and represents the culmination of several years of work.

            The lab’s equipment, containing nearly a dozen pieces, falls under several different categories:  durability analysis, color and colorfastness analysis, safety and comfort analysis and optical analysis.

            “This is a rare opportunity because less than a handful of schools are fortunate enough to have one,” Burkhardt said.  “We are reminded of the fact that only a handful of schools have this amazing lab almost daily.”

            Burkhardt believes there’s a wide variety of career choices in textiles.

            “Many people don’t realize there is a lot more to a textiles major than just making clothes look pretty,” Burkhardt said.  “We are studying why clothes act the way they do with more of a business approach instead of the artistic approach.  There is less of an emphasis on design and more on the science.”

            O’Day agreed.

            “Instead of someone pulling something our of their head and saying ‘this is brilliant – we’ll do this,’ we study the market and trends.

            One of the stipulations of the grant, explained Burkhardt, was to try to get more women in the lab. 

            “Women make up 45 percent of the workforce, but only 16 percent of them are in the field of science/technology,” Burkhardt said.  “What the National Science Foundation wanted to ensure was that as women we would have a chance to work with the equipment and become comfortable with it, and maybe increase the possibilities that we work with it in the future.”

            The two teamed up last spring semester, and while they were doing their own experiments, they were observed by professors to fulfill the stipulation of the Science foundation.

            The observation was done primarily by the woman’s study program, directed by Annette Lynch.

            “She was the one who really facilitated the whole project on us and all of our studies came together – ours and the new equipment and theirs on women in science,” O’Day said.

            The two received Intercollegiate Academic Funds for their project. Their 15-minute presentation will cover what they’ve learned while studying and setting up the olab and the actual testing they did for a clothing company, along with their professors, who will touch on theories of women in science, according to O’Day.

            Professor Mitchell Strauss has been behind them every step of the way.

            “There are a lot of textile and apparel programs around the country that have stripped out the technical science part of the program and gone strictly business, and they’re losing relevancy in the market place,” Strauss said.

            Strauss, who has been working at UNI for nearly three years, feels that the program is a challenging one that requires technical skills to navigate through it successfully.

            “We are penetrating companies like Target, Sears.  Wal-Mart is falling all over themselves to hire our kids . . . this program is a real diamond in the rough,” Strauss said.