Around Huntsville

The Huntsville Item notes the growth around the SHSU as #6 in the top 10 Stories of 2010:

Among the milestones the university celebrated this year: a new president, Dana Gibson, who has said she intends to continue policies and programs initiated by James Gaertner; an increase in campus and online enrollment, growth on its satellite campuses in The Woodlands and Tomball; a basketball team that won the Southland Conference championship, and the grand opening of a performing arts center for its new College of Fine Arts and Mass Communications.

SHSU also has been stepping up its game in research and development as well. In 2010, SHSU patented a potentially life-saving wastewater treatment purification process that university officials hope will save millions of lives.

It also managed to raise $62 million in funds during its first ever Capital Campaign, exceeding its goal of $50 million.

The Hometown USA series of the Los Angeles Times features Huntsville:

The prison system is one of the biggest employers in Huntsville (note to the unemployed: they're hiring), and practically everyone in town falls within a couple degrees of separation from someone who makes a living at a prison.

Still, many bristle at how death row has shaped the identity of Huntsville to outsiders. They point to Sam Houston State University, which has about 17,000 students, and the school's namesake, who was governor when Texas became a state and president when it was a republic.

Also, some information about the containment of Town Creek :

For years now, the City of Huntsville has had staff and City Council members brainstorming on a plan to fix Town Creek drainage issues. A newly received grant may be able to kick-start the process of replacing areas of the Town Creek drainage system that are currently old railroad cars that are rusting and falling apart.

“There are places where it has flooded so much we’re getting holes in the roads,” she said. “Back in the ‘60s, Town Creek was open. They decided to put in decommissioned railroad tanker cars and they welded them together and used rubber from old tires to seal them. Now, they’re starting to rust out.”

Areas along Bearkat Boulevard by the university are well-known in Huntsville as places to avoid during heavy rainfall because of flooding.

“You get one inch of rain and Bearkat floods,” McKibben said. “That’s the problem right there in a nutshell. Every time it does that, it messes with the roads and then we have to go fix the roads.”

Memories: Kappa Delta Sorority House

Tamberly wrote us recently to pass along some memories of her time in the old Kappa Delta Sorority House, renamed the Houston House c. 1995:

Northside Hall Named “Lone Star”

The December 2 edition of the Houstonian announces that the new north-side residence hall scheduled to open for the Fall 2011 semester will be known henceforth as Lone Star Hall:

The name of the new building was decided on by students who participated in a campus-wide online vote that included four prospective names, all of which were pre-approved by President Dana Gibson.

This student-naming trend follows similar campaigns used for Raven Village and the SouthPaw Dining Hall.  The article also mentioned that Sam Houston Village and Raven Village will open to all student classifications for the next school year:

There will no longer be any all-freshman dorms with the exception of both Vick and Randel houses, which are designated for the freshmen Bearkat Learning Community. Several reasons account for this change, Joellen Tipton, Director of Residence Life, said.

"We realized, over the years, that a large building housing only freshmen doesn't work for building a community. Freshmen are more rowdy, and there tends to be more vandalism and wear-and-tear on the rooms," she said. Tipton also said that living in Sam Houston Village isolates freshman socially because they are less likely to interact with other students on campus or attend on-campus events.

Donation to library to honor Virginia Gibbs Smyth

The Huntsville Item reports the funding of "The Gathering Place" at the renovated and expanded Huntsville public library in memory of Virginia Gibbs Smyth:

The donation was by Mrs. Smyth’s children, Joseph P. Smyth, Mary Katherine Smyth Basquin, Virginia Smyth Low, and the First National Bank of Huntsville. The Gathering Place will be exactly what the name implies, a place where people come together near the front of the library and will be a focal point in our new space. Virginia Gibbs Smyth was the eldest child of Dr. James Philip Gibbs and Mary McAshan Gibbs. She was the great granddaughter of Sam Houston State College’s (now SHSU) second president, H.H. Smith.

During her long and generous life, Mrs. Smyth made many contributions to educational and children’s programs in Huntsville. She furnished the children’s reading room in the original public library in memory of her sister Sarah and gave a valuable ornithology collection to the library in memory of her father. SHSU has several scholarships within the College of Criminal Justice, the English department, and Journalism division given by Mrs. Smyth in memory of her parents and brother James Philip Gibbs Jr. An endowment in the Library Sciences division was established in her name by her son. In spite of the many years she spent in New York City, Mrs. Smyth never forgot her heritage in Huntsville. The Huntsville Public Library Friends are thrilled to be able to place the name of Virginia Gibbs Smyth in a central place within the library and the city which meant so much to her thanks to her children and the First National Bank of Huntsville’s gift of $20,000.

November 2010 Regents Report

Today@Sam reports on the recent Texas Sate University System Board of Regents meeting held November 19:

A revision of plans for a proposed building near Bowers Stadium was among the items approved by the...Board of Regents....

The building was originally designated as an alumni center. However, upon programming phase completion in October, it was changed to an event center when the need for an on-campus facility to accommodate university events, athletics sales and marketing, learning enhancement, and alumni relations was documented. The project will now go into the design phase.

The regents also approved adding a new Continuing Education and Small Business Center to the list of projects in SHSU’s capital improvements program. The facility will be located on university property at 13th Street in Huntsville.

Tuition will increase from $163 to $171 per semester credit hour, effective fall 2011. The increase was proposed to provide funds for the increasing costs of salaries and benefits for faculty promotion and tenure adjustments. In addition, the increase will help fund new nursing and allied health program costs, criminal justice growth, the new College of Fine Arts and Mass Communication, and general engineering initiatives.

Sam Houston State University Distinguished Alumnus Charlie Amato of San Antonio was named chairman of the TSUS Board of Regents. Amato has served as vice chairman of the board during the past year. He replaces Ron Blatchley of Bryan, also an SHSU graduate, who completed his term.

Sam Houston Moved This Historic Cabin

The Item reports on the building that recently was transported 40 miles to take up permanent residence on the Sam Houston Memorial Museum grounds:

Bear Bend is the name given to the old hunting cabin which was moved from Montgomery County where it has resided in two separate locations since at least the 1840s.

Patrick Nolan, director of the museum, said the cabin is an impressive part of Sam Houston’s history. “In the 1840s and 1850s, Sam Houston would go bear hunting here...that’s the legend. We found a quote in a book that said there was a bend in the creek near the cabin and they would drive bears into that bend." The cabin’s construction is unlike any other period structure available for viewing on the museum grounds. "It’s a two-story double pen log cabin. There are four rooms in two segments to the building connected by a breezeway."

For moving purposes, the cabin’s roof, chimneys and porches were taken off and moved separately. Over the next few months, inmates from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice will work to restore the cabin to its original form.

Originally, the cabin was located in Montgomery County near the Walker County line near a U-shaped bend in Atkins Creek. A couple named Carroll and Mae Tharp began collecting old structures and moving them onto a property they called “Fern Land.” This cabin was moved from its original site to Fern Land, along with two other cabins, a frame house and a blacksmith shop. The entire grouping was later donated to Sam Houston State University. All total, the property had buildings moved from Montgomery, Walker and Angelina counties.

“Over 40 years, they had developed these structures into a grouping in the woods that had a pioneer feel to it,” Nolan explained. “The university spent a number of years trying to figure out how to best deal with the issue (of the five buildings).

“It was 40 miles away. There was no infrastructure on the grounds and no parking,” he added. “To make it publicly available would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. A number of people in the city of Montgomery began working a deal where the university would lease the cabins to the people in Montgomery and they would be moved to a different site.”

In return for four of the buildings remaining in Montgomery County, the city of Montgomery paid to have “Bear Bend” moved to the Sam Houston Memorial Museum.

Writing on the Wall #8

It’s time for another look-see around campus. Can you identify the building or location where we took the photo for our scavenger hunt?:

And still yet another haiklu:

Never flitting visitors
Holy fields sliced by yon warriors
For those are not eggs

Breaking Ground on University Center

The Houstonian reports SHSU broke ground for its new University Center on Friday, October 22: "The new University Center building will be a four-story, 144,164 sq. ft.-structure that will include classrooms, labs, enrollment counseling and advising and administrative services, as well as a parking lot and a five-story parking garage."

SHSU shares the current University Center in the Woodlands with the University of Houston, Texas A&M University, the Lone Star College System and the private sector. "The only difference [with the new building] will be that we will own this building," Richard Elgsaer, Ph.D., associate provost, said.

The Woodlands Villager News adds the $40 million building will be on seven acres adjacent to the LSC-University Center. The acreage was deeded to SHSU by LSCS with the agreement that LSCS can use 50 percent of the classrooms and free parking from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. for the next 10 years. Then SHSU will allow LSCS to use 25 percent of its classrooms and parking for free for the following 10 years.

The Conroe Courier News reported October 16 that SHSU's construction site will put a close to the existing childcare facility at Lone Star College-Montgomery. That facility is closing December 17. “Unfortunately, the land best suited for [the SHSU] expansion is where the childcare center is,” said Steve Scheffler, LSC-Montgomery dean of college relations. “We’re working on a plan to continue providing child care for our students, just not at that location.”

Memories: Sam Houston Apartments

Ken Hestand (’57) shares some more memories of Huntsville - specifically of the Sam Houston Apartments (1945-81):

SHSU To Formally Dedicate Starr Theatre

Today@Sam reports that the University Theatre Center’s Mainstage Theatre will officially be designated as the Erica Starr Theatre during an unveiling ceremony on October 9. The theatre is named for the late Erica Starr Czerwinski (1979-1999), a theatre major who was killed by a drunk driver.

Scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. with an unveiling of the outdoor signage, the dedication will include comments by Jaimie Hebert, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences; Dana Nicolay, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences; Penny Hasekoester, theatre department chair; and the Czerwinskis.