Thursday, January 30, 2003

Houstonian: Construction on schedule

From the Houstonian:
The construction of the Bearkat Village apartments is still underway and expected to be completed for the fall semester.

The new apartment buildings, named Bearkat Village I and Bearkat Village II, will be located at the intersection of Montgomery Road and Bowers Boulevard across from Bowers Stadium.

John McCroskey, assistant director of Physical Plant, said the project is on schedule and is now 15 percent complete. One of the problems that arose during construction was the discovery of an unusual soil condition at the site of the future apartments. McCroskey said the soil had to be replaced with a more choice soil, but the switch did not affect the timetable.

Thursday, January 23, 2003

Clock to be Added to Alumni Garden After Alumnus Donation

From the Houstonian:
As a way to give back to his alma mater, Ron Blachley, of College Station, donated $30,000 to the SHSU Alumni Association, which will used to purchase a clock to be placed in the recently constructed Alumni Garden. The donation came after Blachley and his wife became interested in purchasing a $5,000 bench to be placed in the garden.

The 16-foot, four-faced Howard clock will be placed in the center of garden. The letters S, A, and M will replace 11,12 and 1. The letters H, O, U, S, T, O, and N will replace 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, and 2 on the face of the clock.

[T]he clock should be completed by August 2003 and will likely be dedicated during next fall's Homecoming activities.

Tuesday, January 14, 2003

Newest Building Goes Online

From Today@Sam:
All of the groups who have moved into the recently completed Academic Building Four have made the transition smoothly and are ready for classes to begin, according to Physical Plant director Doug Greening.

The first floor of AB4 now houses the testing, Honors, and scholarship offices and has one honors classroom. The S.A.M. Center, Computer Services, a computer lab, a 286-seat auditorium and classrooms are located on the second floor.

The library science department, psychology and philosophy department office, and classrooms are now on the third floor, as well as psychology faculty offices. The history department and philosophy faculty offices are on the fourth floor. Though those groups are moved into the building, there are still a few minor "punch-list items" that have yet to be completed.

"The inside of the building is ready to go, except for a few minor touch-up things they are working on," Greening said, which include paint touch-ups and a leak in the roof on the interior.

The completion of the outside of the building is pending two ramps and some brick trim work on the exterior that could not be finished because the brick wasn't available at that time. Greening said it will be finished at a later date.

"They're finishing a ramp and a brick wall on the Academic Building 3 side of the building, and they will build a ramp between the building and Lee Drain," he said, adding that the ramps will be used to facilitate moving such things as equipment from building to building.

Now that those departments are moved out of their old spaces, other areas of campus will also be moving and other areas will be gaining more space. The area used by the psychology department in the Lee Drain Building will house doctoral students, at least temporarily, Greening said.

The space left in the basement of the Newton Gresham Library, where the library science department and the Academic Enrichment Center previously called home, will be "turned back over to the library," he added. Though just in the planning phases, the library is planning to use the space to add librarian offices and a conference room and expand the government documents section and computer technicians' offices. The music listening room will be moved there, as well as a combined Copy Room, microforms room and interlibrary loans, according to library business manager Jackie Conrad. In addition, the university archives will be moved from the Peabody Building to the fourth floor of the library due to the increased space.