Spivey To Turn Haunted On Halloween

The house, not John.  Just read the Houstonian (Oct. 30):

CJ To Welcome Freshmen With New Learning Community

Today@Sam has more about the changes at Houston House, home of the new College of Criminal Justice Learning Community:

Residence Halls Overcrowded, New Dorm Pushed Back

The September 10 edition of the Houstonian highlights some of the issues in student housing that begin the Fall 2013 semester:

Active Shooter Drills On SHSU Campus Today

From the Huntsville Item:

Today at 1 p.m., Walker County law enforcement agencies along with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Office of Inspector General will participate in the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) on the SHSU campus.

Members of the Walker County Sheriff’s Office, Huntsville and Sam Houston State police departments and the OIG will receive training on how to respond to a number of active shooter situations through simulated, live-action drills.

The ALERRT Center at Texas State University-San Marcos was established in 2002 following the deadly mass shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado, where two teenagers murdered 12 of their fellow students and one teacher in 1999.

The program’s curriculum has become the standard that law enforcement agencies around the country use to train for active shooter emergencies.

For the past 11 years, ALERRT has used more than $27 million in state and federal grant funding to train more than 40,000 law enforcement officers.

Today’s training session will be taught by veteran Special Weapons and Tactics team specialists with experience in active shooter situations and training.

The drills will be conducted at the Smith-Hutson Building and the Spivey House Residence Hall on the SHSU campus.

2013-14 Residence Life Changes

The Department of Residence Life has announced housing changes for the 2013-14 academic year. The biggest change is that beginning in Fall 2013, all first year students in the Bearkat Learning Community will live on the 4th floor of Raven Village. The BLC began in Fall 2001 and moved to Randel and Vick houses in Fall 2002. Those two houses will now be open for all classifications.

Elsewhere, academic areas – which offer 24 hour quiet areas to encourage a study environment - include the ground floor of Belvin Hall, the 3rd of Elliott Hall, or, for honors students, Spivey House.

Finally, scheduled summer repairs include:

• Elliott Hall: interior painting
• Estill and Jackson-Shaver halls: addressable smoke alarms in resident rooms
• Estill Hall: fire sprinkler system
• Shaver, Gibbs, Houston, and Jackson houses: carpet in public areas
• Bearkat Village: cameras in clubhouse and laundry rooms

Two Parking Lots Short

Construction projects – some confirmed and others in the planning stages – will eliminate a number of prominent parking spaces over the next school year, as explained in this Houstonian article (Aug. 24):

The faculty parking lot in between the Frels-Wilson complex will be removed along with the buildings to allow for the expansion of the new student mall area. According to [Director of Public Relations, Frank] Krystyniak, this parking lot will be the first to be replaced and will be unavailable by the end of November.

The lot north of the Vick House is to be replaced by Academic Building V...the schedule for construction has not been started yet, but Krystyniak said the lot will not be available for use in late spring.

Another parking lot may be lost due to a new Performing Arts Center... if the building is approved, Krystyniak said that construction would probably start in the fall of 2007 and a parking lot will be lost to the project.

Even though the university may lose the lots this year, Physical Plant Director John McCrosky said that more parking lot locations are discussed when buildings replace them. "We try to plan for things," said McCrosky, "We always try to come up with space for additional parking lots."

Jackson-Shaver to Receive Face-lift

From the Houstonian:

The Jackson-Shaver residence hall will be closed for a restoration process during the fall 2003 semester and is expected to reopen in the spring of 2004.

"(Jackson-Shaver) is going to close in May after everyone moves out and it will be closed down for the fall, and then all the renovations should be complete for it to be back online in January," said Joellen Tipton, director of Residence Life.

Residents of Jackson-Shaver were allowed a couple of days in advance of renewal week to choose where they wanted to live in the fall semester.

"(Residents) are (reserving a room) right now during renewal week, and they were given a couple of days ahead of time if they wanted to choose where to go to, such as Bearkat Village and the new apartments. They basically get first run at that since they are being displaced because of the renovation," Tipton said.

The makeover for the Jackson-Shaver Hall will consist of a new air conditioning and heating system, fresh paint and new carpet in the public areas and new tile floors in the student rooms.

"The biggest task for (renovating Jackson-Shaver) will be the whole H-Vac system, the air conditioning and heating system is getting completely revamped," she said. "This involves a lot of engineering, and then they are going to give the hall some cosmetic changes."

Several other housing renovations will take place in the 2003 to 2004 academic year also.

Renovations such as painting student rooms, hallways, public areas and new carpet in public areas will be changes made to the Barrett, Parkhill, Randel, and Vick Houses.

During the summer of 2003, renovations will occur in Alpha Chi Omega, Alpha Delta Pi, Sigma Sigma Sigma, Zeta Tau Alpha, Gibbs, and Rachel Jackson houses with new heating and cooling systems, fresh paint for the student room, new carpet in public areas and new vinyl tile in the student rooms. The Anne Shaver and Houston Houses will also receive a heating and cooling system renovation.