May 2011 Regents Report

Today@Sam has a run-down of the capital improvement projects approved by the Texas State University System Board of Regents, the governing body of SHSU; these include:
Construction:

• An athletic office complex.
• A parking structure at Bobby K. Marks Drive and Bowers Boulevard.
• A soccer/track/tennis complex.
• A South Dining Commons

Demolition:

• Smith-Kirkley Hall.
• The buildings on Sorority Hill.

Name changes:

• The Northside Dining Facility will be known as Old Main Market upon completion. The new dining facility is located approximately one block north of the previous site of the Old Main building, which burned in 1982.
• The agricultural engineering technology center was renamed the William R. Harrell Agricultural Engineering Technology Center in memory of the late Dr. Billy Harrell, who served in a number of leadership capacities in the university’s Department of Agricultural and Industrial Sciences for 37 years.

Payne Concert Hall Dedicated

After 14 years of service to Sam Houston State University as its senior academic officer, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs David Payne will retire on July 31, 2011.  During an appreciation and farewell concert and reception held Thursday, May 5, SHSU President Dana Gibson announced the naming of the David and Grettle Payne Concert Hall within the Gaertner Performing Arts Center.

Today@Sam announced some of the changes to SHSU during Payne’s administration:

• Increased enrollment by 27 percent.
• Moved the university from a Carnegie classification of Masters University to the classification of Research Doctoral University.
• Established internal connections with 18 universities in eight countries.
• Opened a multi-institution teaching center in north Houston.
• Established an innovative advising center, which was recognized in 2005 as one of the six best in the nation.
• Restructured Academic Affairs, adding two colleges.