Sunday, March 30, 2008

Today@Sam: College, Alumna To Remember Bowers At Dedication

SHSU’s College of Education will dedicate a statue donated by the daughter of former university president Elliott Bowers on Tuesday, April 1, 2008.

The ceremony for the Frances Handley Bowers Statue, which depicts a boy pushing a girl on a swing, will be held at 3 p.m. on the lawn in front of the Teacher Education Center.

The statue was given to the university last year by alumna Linda Bowers Rushing and her husband, Charles, who purchased the statue during a fundraiser auction at Alpha Omega Academy, where their daughter teaches.

“It reminded me of how my mother always taught school,” Rushing said. “It was the first thing I saw when I walked through the door, and I decided on the spot that I wanted to buy it.

“It’s very whimsical, and I thought it was a very sweet statue,” she said.

A Huntsville resident for more than 50 years, Frances Handley Bowers’ ties to SHSU and the community ran deep.

She came to Sam Houston State University as a drum major for the Bearkat Marching Band and earned her bachelor’s degree and two master’s degrees from the university.

One of her master’s theses was on the history of the Country Campus, “the second largest city in Walker County” that housed 850 veterans after World War II and where the Bowers family had lived for five years, Bowers had said in an interview.

She also taught, mainly the fifth grade, within the Huntsville school district for 23 years and “stayed busy” in the Huntsville community through civic organizations after she retired.

She died in 1999.

A reception will follow in the Teacher Education Center.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Campus Master Plan Update

The March 6 edition of the Houstonian reports on the Campus Master Plan discussion that was held Wednesday, March 5 on campus. Three potential plans were presented by JJR, as reported in the article:

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Today@Sam: Team To Unveil Three Potential Campus Plans

JJR, of Ann Arbor, Mich., SHSU’s campus planning team, will present three alternatives for the university’s 2010 Master Plan for public consideration on Wednesday, March 5.

The meeting will be held from 3:30-5 p.m. in the Lowman Student Center Theater.

In addition to the 45-minute presentation on the progress of SHSU’s Master Plan, which will include three potential concepts for how the campus could be developed in the future, the open forum will include 45 minutes of interactive dialogue, during which participants will be asked to give feedback and vote on alternative aspects.

The input received will aid the consultant team in identifying a preferred direction for the next steps of the master planning process.