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Established in 1893
Thursday • July 13, 1995
ents award contract for Special Events Center
Dallas-based firm will
;g n building the center in
rpe weeks. Construction is
<pected to be finished by
a 1997.
Wes Swift
ie [Battalion
The Texas A&M Board of Regents
varded a $32 million contract
ednesday for the construction of the
oefcial Events Center to a Dallas-
Jts4d company.
Construction on the 12,500-seat
lefcial Events Center, which will be
sed for graduation ceremonies, con
certs and sporting events, will begin in
three weeks.
Dr. Barry B. Thompson, Texas
A&M chancellor, said the contract
marks a milestone
for the University.
“This is a historic
moment at Texas
A&M,” Thompson
said. “The Special
Events Center has
been discussed and
discussed and re
hashed over again.”
The contract comes
after 13 years of plan
ning for the center.
Plans for the Special
Events Center were rejected by the Texas
Higher Education Coordinating Board in
West
1991 because of the high price tag.
Later, acting on advice from the coor
dinating board, a scaled-down version of
the project was resubmitted and ap
proved in July 1994.
Mary Nan West, Board of Regents
chairman, said that at a recent A&M
Club luncheon in San Antonio, several
former students asked her about the
status of the center.
“[The graduates] asked me over and
over, ‘When are you going to build that
Special Events Center so we can have
graduations there?’” West said.
West said she was delighted to see
the System award the contract and take
the first substantial step for the con
struction of the center, which the stu
dents fully support.
“I wouldn’t have voted for this unless
the students wanted it,” West said.
Mark LeVoy, chief executive officer
of Huber, Hunter & Nichols, Inc., the
construction company that will begin
building the 230,000-square-foot center,
said his firm was proud to be selected
for the project.
“Obviously, we’re very excited about
being part of such a special and historic
event here,” LeVoy said.
Huber, Hunter & Nichols, Inc. is a
nationally-known construction firm that
has been involved in the construction of
several high-profile sports facilities.
During the last three years, the firm
has served as construction manager for
the 65,000-seat Alamodome in San An
tonio, Jacobs Field in Cleveland and
United Center in Chicago, each costing
more than $100 million.
The smaller budget of the Special
Events Center was never a drawback,
LeVoy said, and the company takes on
projects with budgets from $7 million to
$600 million.
John Lindsey, regent and chairman
of the Board’s facilities and planning
committee, said Huber, Hunter &
Nichols is an “excellent contractor.”
The Special Events Center will seat
12.500 fans for basketball games and
11.500 for concerts. It will hold 10,500
guests and 1,500 graduates for com
mencement exercises.
The center will be built at the comer
of Olsen Road and Joe Routt Boulevard,
across from the soon-to-be opened
Recreational Sports Center. Construc
tion of the Special Events Center is ex
pected to be finished by May 1997.
A/a/7s
Magazine
□ Campus squirrels draw much at
tention from A&M students and
employees.
By Michael Simmons
The Battalion
n
A squirrel runs across the grass in front of the
Academic Building to join a group of squirrels al
ready being fed seeds and nuts by two Texas
A&M staff members.
This scenario is a common one at A&M, as
many students and University employees spend
breaks between classes and work feeding the
squirrels on campus.
Elizabeth Aldredge, accounting assistant for
the Fiscal Department, feeds the squirrels that
reside in the trees behind the Coke Building .
“We started feeding the squirrels 10 years ago,”
Aldredge said. “At first we did it just to see if the
squirrels would come.”
The trial was a success, so Aldredge and oth
er personnel who work in the Coke Building now
spend their breaks feeding the squirrels.
“If the squirrels recognize you when you come
outside, they will climb up onto the bench with
you,” Aldredge said.
David Rideout, a technical guidance biologist
with the Texas Parks and Recreation Depart
ment, said squirrels adapt easily to people.
“It is not uncommon for squirrels to become
tame,” Rideout said. “But everyone has to remem
ber that a squirrel is a wild animal and should be
treated like one.”
Aldredge said that although squirrels some
times climb on the person feeding them, she has
never been hurt by any of the squirrels.
“They don’t do anything to you as long as you
don’t try to pet them,” she said.
Jean Longhofer, an accounting assistant with
the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Science,
feeds the squirrels every day from her office win
dow on the second floor office of Nagle Hall and
said this has become routine.
“Every morning when you come in, it’s auto
matic,” Longhofer said. “You come in, make the
coffee and feed the squirrels.”
The squirrels try to get the attention of the of
fice workers by scratching on the windows, she
said. The rubber has even been chewed around
one of the window sills where a squirrel once tried
to get to the food in the office.
The construction in progress on Nagle Hall has
not kept the squirrels away from Longhofer and
co-Workers. .
“Even with the construction going on, the
squirrels come back every morning,” she said.
Every office should keep sunflower seeds
handy specifically for feeding the squirrels,
Longbofer said.
Kim Allen, a senior English major, said she
was surprised by a squirrel while studying on a
bench outside the Academic Building.
“I just sat down to study when the squirrel
started climbing on my backpack,” Allen said. “So
I got out some peanut butter crackers and started
feeding it. I can’t believe how tame they are.”
Allen said she has always seen people trying to
feed the squirrels on campus and was impressed
with how bold the squirrels are.
Rideout said the squirrels have adapted well to
living on campus. In the wild, squirrels usually nest
in old, hollowed trees, but the trees on the A&M
campus are young and do not provide natural hol
lows for the squirrels. The squirrels have adapted
by making their nests out of leaves, he said.
Although the squirrel survival rate on campus
is unknown. Rideout said, the squirrels are chal
lenged by a limited food supply.
“In the wild, squirrels eat a variety of berries and
nuts,” Rideout said, “but the squirrels on campus
are limited to tree buds and live oak acorns.”
Squirrels on campus are not threatened by the
same predators they encounter in the wild. Rideout
said he believes the only animals that pose a threat
to the squirrels on campus are hawks and owls.
Senior English major Kim Allen shares a seat and a snack
the Academic Building Wednesday afternoon.
Nick Rodnicki, The Battalion
with one of Aggieland's squirrels by
T STUDIO
[Waiting process for Aggie
icense plates cut short
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from 135, M
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lr. Gatti’s-
$88
auhe comer° l;
TxDOT pre-stocks the
dates as part of a six month
>ilot program.
ly Jill Saunders
'he Battalion
Texas A&M
:ollegiate li-
;ense plates
low are avail-
ible at the time
vehicle’s reg
istration is re-
rewed because
>f a pilot pro-
;ram run by
;he Texas De-
»artment of
transportation and the Brazos County
tax Office.
Gerald Winn, Brazos County tax asses-
sor-coXlector, said the tax office wanted to
{provide convenience to its customers.
The program, which began July 3, will
m for six months before a decision is
lade to permanently pre-stock the plates.
Collegiate plates of 34 schools are be
! T TEXAS '
T- aggies
• TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY •
ing stocked in 13 counties. The Brazos
County TxDOT office currently stocks
plates for A&M and the University of
Texas at Austin.
Bob Tanner, chief of headquarters oper
ation for TxDOT’s Vehicle Titles and Reg
istration Division, said the plates avail
able were chosen by each county.
“We went to
each participat
ing county and
had them iden
tify the particu
lar plates they
wanted to stock
in their particu
lar county,”
Tanner said.
“For example,
Lubbock County
■ ----n- ■ ' mm 4 might not want
to have the
plates for a small college far from them.”
Tanner said that although the license
plates are available to everyone in the
community, he expects the majority will
be sold to college students and alumni.
The new program for obtaining colle
giate license plates is faster and more con-
See Plates, Page 6
Technical writing class available
to students on World Wide Web
□ By taking classes on the
Internet, students can ac
cess class information 24
hours a day from the loca
tion most convenient for
them.
By Jill Saunders
The Battalion
Texas A&M students can take a
technical writing class for credit over
the World Wide Web in Fall 1995,
thanks to the implementation of educa
tional programs utilizing the Internet.
Bill Ambrose, systems analyst
and head of A&M’s electronic infor
mation access team, said the Web al
lows for computer exchanges among
various users.
“The Web is a mechanism for
communicating information from
any number of computers across a
network,” Ambrose said. “It has
links that go from one document to
another document.”
Dr. Elizabeth Tebeaux, professor
of English who teaches technical
writing over the Web, said the class
is a modern approach to teaching.
“I don’t have to sit in front of a
class three days a week for students
to learn,” she said. “There should be
alternate platforms from which stu
dents can pick the delivery they
want.”
Twenty students completed the
class when Teabeaux first taught
it during Fall 1994, and 40 stu
dents completed the class during
Spring 1995.
The section for Fall 1995 is full,
but the class most likely will be of
fered Spring 1996.
Although the class has not been
advertised, Teabeaux said, enroll
ment has been high.
“We’ve had no trouble getting stu
dents,” she said. “Most students found
out about it through word of mouth.
Also, in Spring 1995 I sent memos to
the deans of engineering and business
to tell them about the class.”
The course curriculum and grad
ing policies differ from those of tradi
tional classes, she said, because the
only test is the final exam. The class
also requires students to complete 10
assignments, she said.
Last semester, Tebeaux conducted
two tutorials in order to personally
interact with her students.
The class provides an alternative
for students who live off campus and
have a difficult time getting to class
es, Tebeaux said.
“I’ve been arguing and saying we
need alternate delivery of classes so
that students don’t have to fight
their way to campus and deal with
the problems of parking and traffic,”
she said.
John J. Dinkel, associate provost
for Computing and Information Ser
vices, said the class provides the stu
dents with new opportunities.
“The technical writing class
taught using the Internet provides
the students with opportunities to
access the course at their own pace
and from where ever they choose to
access it,” Dinkel said. “As a result,
this provides an entire level of flexi
bility that has not been available in
the past.”
Ambrose agreed that the class is
more convenient for students.
“Students have access to all the
information around the clock,” Am
brose said. “It is easy to refine and
update information that is discov
ered in a particular field.”