Houstonian: LSC offers tours to students

From the Houstonian:

Students who may be wondering what the Lowman Student Center will look like when the construction is done now have the opportunity to see its progression. The Lowman Student Center Office is offering tours of the facility to interested students and organizations, according to Keith Jenkins, associate dean of Student Life.

Jenkins said students should expect to see a lot more space in the renovated LSC.

"We've gained a lot of square footage in the building," he said. "Student organizations will have a room just to themselves to go and do work. We've never had that. We'll have a nice ballroom (where the swimming pool used to be). They'll see a Barnes and Nobles that's gong to be double the size it's ever been."

The renovation, which began in December 2000, is running on time, and the LSC should be fully operational by the fall, Jenkins said.

"It's coming along great. I would say we're probably about 85 to 88 percent complete," he said. "The contractors could be out within the next couple of months."

A History of Huntsville

The Houstonian has a short piece on the origins and early history of Huntsville.

Fountain Fixed After Being Soaped

Today’s Houstonian reports that the Mall Area fountain is operational again after recent vandalism:

Plumber John Turman, a SHSU Physical Plant employee, was in charge of cleaning the fountain and making it functional again.

The fountain was turned off for a few days because vandals poured soap into the fountain pump. Turman had to clear the pump with cleaning chemicals several times to remove the soap.

"It had so much soap in it we had to shut it for a few days to completely clean it out," Turman said.

The prank has become a recurring problem for the maintenance staff. There were 18 incidents last semester alone.

This latest incident causes more damage than usual because the person or persons responsible almost tore the pump's electrical box off the wall.

Although no suspects have been identified, Turman has his suspicions as to who's involved.

"They're probably college students with an elementary education," Turman said.

Houstonian: Dan Rather at 70

Sabrina Jackson has an interesting article about alumnus Dan Rather in the December 6 edition of the Houstonian.

Houstonian: Greening explains Sam's blueprint for next decade

Douglas Greening, director of the Physical Plant, spoke to a small gathering of faculty and students on the campus master plan that will take construction of SHSU into the next decade and beyond. The rest of the story is in the Houstonian.

Highlights:

...the master plan calls for at least five parking garages to be built at various locations on campus including behind the library, the University Hotel, the LSC and the Criminal Justice center.

Greening said constructing five garages before 2005 is both unlikely and unnecessary.

"That's a lot of parking garages to build in five years and I personally don't think it will happen," he said. "We may put one somewhere in the near future but I don't think we'll be looking at a lot unless they really pan out and are a success."

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Greening said the university plans to focus on surface parking by adding new lots and adding spaces to existing ones.

According to Greening, these new lots would account for 700 new spaces. He said students might see new parking lots near the tennis courts and in part of Colony Park.

"We know that Colony Park is pretty controversial and many students are not really happy about that," he said. "However, we do intend to just use the open space in the middle, not the area with the trees on both ends. I don't know if that's going to stay in the project or not, as far as I know it is still part of the project."

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To relieve traffic problems, the master plan also calls for street extensions and elimination of offset intersections to relieve areas of congested traffic.

Campus housing is the other major component of the plan to be tackled in the next five to 10 years.

"We regret doing no housing in the last master plan," he said. "Spencer feels it is the biggest problem on campus. It has been ignored for the past 20 years and it can't be anymore."

Greening said during his 10 years at SHSU, the Physical Plant has tried to keep the dorms in good condition but added that it is expensive.

"Our dorms are just tired. They're old and they've been around for a long time," he said. "You can go through and paint and put carpet down but when you walk through, it still looks like an old dorm."

New Freshmen Housing Option Emphasizes Retention

Today@Sam reports that the Department of Student Life has implemented a new program on the SHSU campus that is helping freshmen adjust. The Bearkat Learning Community (BLC) is a concept designed by the University Retention Committee that specifically targets freshmen with aims to help them adjust to the social and academic challenges of college.

The thirty-six students that comprise the inaugural BLC group live in Stewart House, a coed academic small house on campus that was the former home of the Chi Omega sorority.

Item: Gaertner Outlines Vision for SHSU's Future

From the Item:

Sam Houston State University's new president James Gaertner addressed a packed house of faculty and staff Tuesday in Killinger Auditorium, announcing that the university is "poised to make a giant step" in its history.

Today@Sam: A Brief Biography of Bobby K. Marks

Bobby K. Marks, who came to Sam Houston State Teachers College in 1960 as an instructor of management, retired in August 2001, after serving almost six years as the 11th president of Sam Houston State University.

Today@Sam: The Master of the Plan

Ralph Spencer, the well-known architect and new Huntsville resident, just finished designing the new Master Plan for Sam Houston State University that will take the institution through the next 10 years of its development.

President Marks was able to get Spencer to come out of his 1989 retirement and design the new master plan. Spencer designed the previous plan in 1980 that took the university to the year 2000.

"It was hard for us to think in terms of working with a different campus master planner, one who would have to start from the beginning to know the University," said Marks. "Ralph knew the personality and infrastructure of the University well.

"Frankly, we began to contrive ways of coaxing him out of retirement on a temporary basis, to update the campus master plan one more time. To shorten the story, we were successful in our attempts."

Today@Sam: Y2K+10 Master Plan Adopted

Y2K+10, a master plan calling for expenditures of more than $200 million, has been adopted for Sam Houston State University for the first decade of the 21st Century.

The plan submitted by architect/planner Ralph D. Spencer Sr. and approved by the university's board of regents emphasizes new student housing, better definition of campus edges, new and improved academic facilities and structured parking.