However, the material covered and the classroom time remain unchanged. For example, the former separate courses, Mass and Energy Balances and Thermodynamics, have been combined into Principles of Mass and Energy Conservation. Since the beginning of classes this Fall Semester, the transition has been progressing smoothly. Each year, the entering class at IPST participates in the annual Bush Trip. Historically, the Bush Trip is a time for students to tour various pulp and paper mills to familiarize themselves with the industry.
Students also get to know each other better after several days of riding on a tour bus.
With the semester conversion, Orientation now begins in August, so this was the first trip to mills during the month of August, a sweltering time of year here in the South. This year s trip took the group through Alabama, beginning in Mobile, and ending in Courtland. International Paper gave the group a tour of their Mobile facility, which makes uncoated free sheet and bleached kraft papers. Next, we visited the MacMillan Bloedel Packaging facility at Pine Hill and toured the wood yard and pulp and paper mill to see unbleached kraft linerboard being manufactured. The last stop was in Courtland at Champion International to see matte and gloss-coated offset printing papers.