i
Page 3
Monday • September 23, 1996
The
Gardens
OF
By John LeBas
The Battalion
T exas A&M is nestled in the heart of the state’s south
eastern plains, its landscaping a tribute to the tree-
spotted blanket of grasses that covers the region.
Members of Texas Aggie Master Gardeners, a new
collegiate affiliate of the Texas Association of Master
Gardeners, envision a campus with more color and vi-
brance, where the familiar grass and trees create relax
ing gardens.
Dr. Joe Novak, adviser to the volunteer group and a
senior lecturer in horticulture, said Aggie Master Gar
deners aims to develop gardens to support campus
beautification. The organization, in its first semester at
A&M, is pursuing several proposed gardening projects
around the University.
“Our purpose is to bring the development of gardens
on the A&M campus to benefit the students, faculty and
staff and the people of this region,” Novak said.
He said gardens relieve stress and students benefit
from lounging and studying among plants.
“Where else is there more tension than on a college
campus?” Novak said.
He said the group must get approval from Physical
Plant or Campus Landscaping before working any pro
ject, though several ideas are being considered.
Aggie Master Gardeners hopes to raise food for the
needy in an on-campus “food bank” vegetable garden.
It will also pursue possible development of the medi
tation garden at the west side of the Memorial Student
Center, Novak said.
The group also wants to support an arboretum and
gardens project here, he said.
Leigh Anne Massey, Aggie Master Gardeners trea
surer and a senior botany and horticulture major, said
she wants to work on the MSG.
She said Master Gardeners could help improve
many spots on campus, but such highly visible gar
dens might be the first projects.
“Then we can move to smaller gardens,” she said,
“after people know we’re here.”
Novak said this Master Gardeners branch will try to
show the beauty and appeal of gardens through its
projects at A&M.
“Many Master Gardeners chapters get interested in
stimulating gardening," Novak said. “Our group will
try to do demonstration gardening.”
Master gardeners share their know-how with others
through demonstration and teaching, Novak said.
They are certified by state chapters as gardening experts.
Group members must complete 50 hours of garden
ing training and volunteer work with the club to be cer
tified as master gardeners. A&M students can meet the
training requirement by completing HORT 301 and 302,
which are the horticulture techniques lecture and lab.
Novak said members are called “master gardener
interns” until their volunteer work is finished.
He said members do not have to pursue certifica
tion, though. “Garden volunteers,” entry level mem
bers who do not have the volunteer hours and training
required of master gardeners, can still participate in
all club activities.
Dan Houchard, Aggie Master Gardeners secretary
and a junior landscape architecture major, said he
wants to be certified but primarily joined the club to
do his part to beautify campus.
"When my girlfriend and I visited campus,”
Houchard said, “I was kind of disappointed. I heard
about the club, and it kind of seemed like my outlet.”
Houchard said he wants to get A&M’s students, fac
ulty and staff involved in Master Gardeners projects.
He said community cooperation and support of gar
dening will make the campus look “awesome.”
Houchard, a longtime gardener, said he yearns for per
sonal accomplishment through improving the campus.
See Gardeners, Page 4
rofessor exhibits history of A&M through pictures, stories
Highs Slows
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By Aaron Meier
The Battalion
Ihe history of Texas A&M University teems with
anecdotes and facts. For example, a piece of leg
islation introduced by the University of Texas
posed that A&M be closed down and the facilities
ased as an insane asylum. The state legislature
:d to pass the proposal by one vote.
)r, Henry C. Dethloff, a history professor at A&M,
compiled such stories for the second edition of
Ibook,“Texas A&M University: A Pictorial History.”
petWoff came to A&M in 1969, and he said his first
ignmentposed a serious challenge for a new facul-
nembei and UT graduate. The University asked
hloff to write a two-volume history celebrating the
>n courtesy of TAMSfpennial anniversary of the University. After com
ing the initial assignment in 1973, the idea for a
orial history came about and both books were re-
SALE • SAUledin 1976.
his past year the University Press asked Dethloff
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M pdate the pictorial history.
^ lethloff said the most evident changes in the book
einthe form of new pictures, a new introduction,
anew concluding chapter. The last chapter of the
titled “Into the Second Century,” recalls the past
ars of the University.
The final chapter) captures the tumult, the
toil and the flavor of the last 20 to 25 years,”
doff said. "It has been chaotic, but it also has
fascinating.”
ethloff said the school has dramatically changed
e27 years he has been a professor at home,
ethloff said his first teaching assignment taught
many things about the University and the culture
:h defines it.
was teaching a History 105 class,” Dethloff said .
“When I walked in, there was only one female stu
dent, and all the men were in uniform. As I recall,
most of them were asleep at 8 a.m.”
The book also shows the dynamic nature of the
school and its traditions.
A tradition such as Bon
fire remains one of the cor
nerstones of A&M culture,
but Dethloff said it has not
always been the organized
engineering feat that at
tracts national attention
every year.
Bonfire used to be a pile
of garbage and wood that
was burned twice a year,
since A&M played UT twice
every season. The frequency
was cut down when the
Southwest Conference was
created in 1914.
Dethloff said Bonfire or
ganized because the resi
dents of the community
complained students were
taking more than scraps of
old wood for Bonfire.
“Cadets began stealing
structures, such as outhous
es, that were still being
used,” Dethloff said.
The Commandant of
the Corps took over the construction of Bonfire
and transformed it into an exercise in military
construction and discipline.
Dethloff said the book also dispels some of the
misunderstandings concerning the more controver
sial moments in A&M’s history.
“Despite the discord over race, minorities, sexual
harassment, political correctness, mulitculturalism
and homosexuality, a widespread sense that ‘We Are
(nonetheless) the Aggies!’
still exists,” Dethloff
wrote in the pictorial.
Coeducation was a
step the school took in
the 1960s and ’70s. How
ever, the school had been
instructing women for 72
years before the Universi
ty instated an official pol
icy accepting women.
The book shows a :J
picture of Sophie and
Mary Hutson, who were
the first women to at
tend A&M. The twins
were the daughters of a
faculty member and
started attending the
school in 1899 as “unof
ficial” students.
The sisters both
wore adaptations of
cadet uniforms with
skirts, and received de
grees from A&M in
1903. Women in the
classrooms at A&M
have existed since the school was first established.
Dethloff said the official 1971 decision to ac
cept women at A&M compares to the Shannon
Faulkner case. Last year, Faulkner made history as
the first woman to attend The Citadel, the all-male
military college .
Dethloff said while researching for the book he
came across a copy of the minutes of a meeting of the
Board of Regents from 1935.
In meeting, Dethloff said a board member casually
made a motion to start accepting women. He said the ,
board considered the idea for several years but dis
missed the notion as the onset of World War II reaf
firmed A&M’s status as a military school.
Dethloff’s book identifies A&M’s primary challenge -
as the assimilation of the rapid growth in student
population and diversity that has brought the Univer
sity into the next century.
Since Dethloff’s arrival, the enrollment has more ■
than tripled.
He said adjusting to this rapid growth remains vital
ly important to maintaining the University’s character.
“There is an Aggie culture that defines this univer
sity,” Dethloff said. “It is always going to change. There -
may be some traditions that fade, but that’s OK.”
The pictorial cites several examples of the chang- -
ing face of the University. Examples such as the ap- I
pearance of sororities and fraternities, the acceptance
of women into the Corps, the physical expansion of .
A&M into West Campus, and the erection of the ;
George Bush Memorial Library show the fast pace at *
which the University tries to change.
Dethloff said he feels confident A&M will deal -
with the changes in a truly Aggie fashion and that "
demonstrates A&M’s ready acceptance of these «
major changes.
Fred McClure, author of the foreword of the book '
and regent to the University System, writes the pur- *
pose of the book is to ensure that “the heritage and '
traditions of the Aggie spirit will be protected and pre
served for the generations of Aggies yet unborn.”
University
A Pictorial History, 1876 1996
Dr. Henry Dethloff’s book, "Texas A&M University:
A Pictorial History," dispels myths about A&M’s
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To find theTarget nearest you, call 1-800-800-8800.
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