Regents Award Building Contract;
Approve Facelift For Sam's Museum

Rotunda diorama "Houston at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend."

SAN ANGELO - A contract for a new $8.7 million classroom/
office building and the first stage of a $1 million Sam Houston Memorial Museum exhibits renovation were approved Friday by the Sam Houston State University board of regents.

The new four-story building will contain 62,000 square feet of space for the departments of history, library science, and psychology, as well as a computer laboratory, testing center, honors laboratory, and reading, writing and learning enrichment center. It will contain a 300 seat lecture hall.

The construction contract was awarded to ICI Construction Inc., of Spring. Work is expected to begin about Aug. 1, with completion in the fall of 2001.

Southwest Museum Services of Houston was hired to begin the first phase of a project estimated to eventually cost $1,050,000, to completely re-design the exhibits area of the Sam Houston Memorial Museum. The first phase will cost $250,000 and will be limited to the rotunda area.

The centerpiece of the rotunda will be a scaled-down copy of David Adickes' 67-foot statue of Sam Houston, located on Interstate 45 in south Huntsville. Also in the rotunda will be dioramas depicting Sam Houston as a youth, Houston at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, and Houston as president of the Republic of Texas.

"We have hundreds of artifacts not on display simply because we don't have space for them," said Patrick Nolan, director of the Sam Houston Memorial Museum. "There is a whole range of new display techniques that we plan to take advantage of. It's time to bring Sam's museum into the 21st century."

Funding for the three wings not included in the first phase of the project is being sought from public and private sources.

In other business, the regents approved a new schedule of recreational sports and student service fees, international study programs for the spring and summer of 2001, the promotion of 22 faculty members, and the 2000-01 holiday schedule.

The recreational sports fee, now at $36 per semester, will increase to $39 for the 2000 fall semester and by increments to $48 per semester in fall 2004. The increases will be used for new and upgraded outdoor recreation facilities, a new natatorium and an enlarged weight/conditioning room.

The student service fee is now $16 per semester hour, and will increase by $1 per semester hour each fall for the next three years to $19 per semester credit hour by fall 2002. The increases will provide funds for staff salaries and wages for employees in the areas funded by student service fees and additional support funding for student activities.

International programs were approved for spring 2001 in Sevilla, Spain, and summer 2001 in China, Hawaii and Mexico.

The faculty members and ranks to which they were promoted included:

Benny E. Arney, Jr., to professor in chemistry; Karolis R. Bagdonas, to associate professor in biological sciences; Rosanne M. Barker, to associate professor in history; A. Wayne Barrett, Jr., to associate professor in music; James L. Carter, to professor in political science; Peter A. Cooper, to associate professor in mathematics, computer science and statistics; Caroline Castillo Crimm, to associate professor in history.

Also, Judith A. DeTrude, to associate professor in educational leadership and counseling; Jo Ann Duffy, to professor in management and marketing; Jurg Gerber, to professor in criminal justice; Kenneth E. Hendrickson, III, to associate professor in history; Beverly J. Irby, to professor in educational leadership and counseling; Gerald Kohers, to associate professor in management and marketing; Harry D. Kurtz, Jr., to associate professor in biological sciences.

Also, Sharon A. Lynch, to associate professor in language, literacy and special populations; Joyce K. McCauley, to associate professor in language, literacy and special populations; Dana E. Nicolay, to professor in theatre and dance; N. Ross Quarles, to professor in accounting; Mitchel P. Roth, to associate professor in criminal justice; Rafael E. Saumell-Munoz, to associate professor in English and foreign languages; Phillip J. Schroeder, to associate professor in music; and Tracy L. Steele, to associate professor in history.

The 2000-01 holiday schedule will be Thanksgiving Nov. 23-24, Christmas Dec. 25-Jan. 2, Martin Luther King birthday Jan. 15, spring break for staff March 15-16, Memorial Day May 28, and Independence Day July 4.

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SHSU Media Contact: Frank Krystyniak
May 19, 2000
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