University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 74, No. 1, Ed. 1 Wednesday, August 27, 1997 Page: 1 of 8
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•*‘News
Sports
Have a happy and safe Labor Day!
‘Phi Kappa Phi honors new inductees and histo-
Former Pittsburgh associate athletic director
ry professor.
joins Lamar.
Page 4
Page 5
. University Press
Wednesday, August 27,1997 Serving Lamar University and the community for 74 years Vol. 74, No. 1
SUMMER MEMOS
Fluth takes helm as TALH director
LUIT names Lack
Helen Lack, former admission advisor
at Lamar University-Port Arthur, has
been named coordinator of services for
students with disabilities at Lamar
Institute of Technology.
Music gets Dance
The Texas State University System
Board of Regents in June approved
Lamar University Department of Music
and Theatre to add the dance to its
department.
Dance was formerly a part of the
Department of Health,. Kinesiology and
Dance within the College of Education
and Human Development.
The Lamar-based Texas Academy
for Leadership in the Humanities
program is under new direction with
John Fluth as director, replacing for-
mer director Dorothy Sisk. Michael
Verde will serve as student services
coordinator and Loyce Sinegal will
act as director for residence life.
Jean LaGrone, former TALH
assistant director, is no longer with
the academy program.
The new staff was one of many
changes initiated by the university
after Texas State University System
regents ordered a reorganization of
the program following the on-campus
suicide of 17-year-old TALH student
Gabriel Kelley of McKinney and the
accidental drownings of 17-year-old
Mike Torres Jr. of Houston and 18-
year-old John Hodges of Beaumont
in April.
Fluth is a veteran educator who
has served as a specialist for the
Region V Education Service Center
since 1986.
Fluth, who has coordinated tech-
nology and life skills for 29 school
districts in Region V, earned his doc-
toral degree in educational adminis-
tration, curriculum and instruction
from Texas A&M University. He
earned a master’s degree in educa-
tion with a major in special education
from Texas A&I and a bachelor’s
degree in psychology from Corpus
Christi State University.
He also researched administrator
preparation and autonomy in United
Kingdom schools, including Latymer
School at Edmonton, Trinity School
at Henley-on-Thames and Carter-
hatch School in London.
Verde, a former Lamar lecturer in
English, serves on the faculties of
Lamar’s Minority Scholars Institute
and the Texas Governor’s Honors
Program. He earned Teacher-of-the-
Year honors for 1996-97 and is listed
in Who’s Who of American
Teachers. Verde graduated from the
University of Texas at Austin with
honors. He earned his master’s
degree in literary studies from the
University of Iowa.
Sinegal, who has served 16 years
as counselor and director of Lamar
Student Support Services, brings
experience in academic advising,
tutoring, peer mentoring and person-
al counseling to the prograrii. ■ She
graduated magna cum laude firom
Xavier University in New Orleans,
earning her masters degree in
administration and supervision and a
bachelor’s degree in secondary edu-
cation.
William Cale, executive vice presi-
dent for academic affairs at Lamar,
said he is excited about the new
directors and the academy’s future.
“There are no bounds limiting the
excellence we will achieve under the
leadership of Dr. Fluth and his staff,”
Cale said. ,
Aside from the new program
directors, the TALH program has
also seen a number of other changes,
See FLUTH, page 2
Mouton joins LU staff
Camille Mouton has joined the LU
division of Institutional Advancement as
director of development.
Prior to coming to Lamar, Mouton
served 11 years as director of develop-
ment and alumni affairs at Kelly High
School.
A longtime resident of Beaumont,
Mouton was graduated magna cum laude
from the University of Southwestern
Louisiana where she earned a bachelor’s
degree in business education. She is a
native of Lafayette, La.
Green heads Montagne
Barry Green has been named director
of the Montagne Center. He is responsible
for scheduling events in the Center, in
Vincent-Beck Stadium and in Cardinal
Stadium.
Wallace leases bookstore
The Lamar Bookstore, which was for-
merly leased to Barnes and Noble, has
been leased to the Wallace bookstore
chain. The bookstore will now be referred
to as Wallace’s Bookstore.
Parking lot AWOL for good reasons
Work crews are completely repaving the Senior Parking Lot at the Setzer Student Center. The construction,
which began July 7, should be completed by Oct. 4, school officials said. The work has displaced approximately
one-half of the seniors who parked in the lot, causing overflows in other lots on campus. School officials point
out that there is sufficient parking on campus although one may have to change lots. Even though the con-
struction is an inconvenience now, students have been wanting the lot repaved for years.
LUIT
TSUS allots funds for new building
Desiree Bryant
UP staff writer
The first building project
since the 1970s will begin to
take shape on the campus of
Lamar University Institute of
Technology. Gov. George
Bush has signed into law a bill
which will authorize the Texas
State University System to
issue $2 million in bonds for
construction of a new building
at LUIT.
The funds will be used to
erect a 25,000 square foot
classroom and laboratory
building to house the
Institute’s process operating,
instrumentation and law
enforcement programs.
The Texas Legislature
passed House Bill 1235 on May
26, authorizing the board to
issue bonds to be used for cam-
pus improvement.
Robert Krienke, LUIT
president, said the next step
will be to develop a campus
master plan which will decide
the location and size of the
building. Lockwood, Andrews
and Newman of Dallas, an
architectural firm, has been
contracted to develop the mas-
ter plan.
Though the money may not
become available until
October 1998, plans for the
building will progress as soon
as Lockwood, Andrews and
Newman develops the master
plan.
The Institute of Technology
asked the legislature for the
funds to relieve crowded con-
ditions in its facilities which
house the process operating
and instrumentation technolo-
See LUIT, page 2
Cardinal Daze welcomes
students back to campus
Michelle Simmons
UP staff writer .... — .. •
“A Whirlwind of Fun Is About to Hit Ya” is the fall
semester theme of Lamar Alive’s Cardinal Daze, Shaye
McDonald of Lamar Alive, said.
Cardinal Daze, which concludes Thursday, will be
filled with new and creative ideas, she said. However,
Lamar Alive will keep the traditional events — with a
new twist.
McDonald said student input is what they are really
looking for.
“We want to find out what the students want for enter-
tainment. Lamar Alive will be asking student organiza-
tions, holding surveys in the Setzer Student Center and
hearing via word of mouth.
See CARDINAL DAZE, page 7
Parents file suit
against university
saying harassment
helped lead to suicide
Todd Sonnier
UP news editor
The parents of a Lamar University
Academy studeuLwho committed suicide on
campus in April filed a lawsuit in July
against the university and two former
administrators of the Texas Academy for
Leadership in the Humanities, claiming that
harassment by school officials and academy
employees contributed to the teen’s suicide.
Mark and Carol Kelley, parents of 17-
year-old Gabriel Kelley, a second-year
academy student from McKinney, filed the
lawsuit on July 10 against Lamar University,
former TALH director Dorothy Sisk and
assistant director Jean LaGrone.
Kelley was found on April 29 after he
apparently hanged himself from a light post
in an atrium at Brooks-Shivers Hall.
The lawsuit contends that Lamar officials
and academy supervisors were aware of
problems and policy violations in the TALH
program as early as Dec. 1996.
A study of the academy program by
Lamar Student Government Association
members in December cited several areas of
concern, including monitoring student
behavior, student dismissal policy, securi-
ty/safety/In Loco Parentis issues and disci-
pline procedures. The report stated that “if
the program is allowed to continue on its
current path, we foresee great difficulties
with maintaining its size and its quality, and
we see terrible potential for liabilities
springing from current practices.”
Gabriel Kelley created a website which
was critical of the academy program’s lack
of discipline. The website pointed out what
he believed to be a division among different
groups of the academy students.
Mark and Carol Kelley claim in the suit
that academy supervisors created false disci-
plinary notices against their son and threat-
ened to send them to his parents.
Lamar regents and the administration
have made changes to address problems in
the program.
Cottle announces year’s plans at annual convocation
Tonya Andris
UP editor
- “A year of civility” is
what Lamar president Rex
Cottle stressed to faculty,
staff and administration
Aug. 20 at the annual
University Convocation in
the University Theatre.
Cottle said that all faculty
and staff members should
try to help each other create
“a more caring environ-
ment” at Lamar,
i
“We need to improve
communication among fac-
ulty, staff and students. We
need to promote a more car-
ing environment. It is very
important that we look to
each other to help solve
problems that each other
has.”
The event recognized
new staff and faculty mem-
bers and various appoint-
ments made for the new
school year.
In addition, Cottle
recapped the past year’s
happenings and future goals
for the university.
Cottle said that, over a
four-year period, deficits
have been reduced or elimi-
nated.
“A series of our deficits
have been reduced, includ-
ing the auxiliary deficit
reduced by $1.8 million and
the athletic deficit $1.3 mil-
lion out of the hole.”
He noted that many
deficits have been eliminat-
ed over the years, but two
deficits that remain are the
housing and Montagne
Center budgets.
“In the housing area, we
have had an increase in the
dorm occupancy each of the
last three years, so we have
been able to nip away at the
housing deficit,” Cottle said.
Cottle hopes that the
addition of Barry Green as
director of the Montagne
will help in eliminating the
deficit. <t
“We are looking at differ-
ent options and will contin-
ue to do so to overcome that
deficit,” he said. “The new
leadership will help achieve
our goal.”
New funding, via the
tuition revenue bond pro-
gram, will be used to
improve the infrastructure
of Lamar, Cottle said. With
those funds, totaling $8 mil-
lion, Lamar will redo the
heating and chilling system
of the university.
Cottle, in his future goals,
said that once renovations
are completed on the senior
parking lot, work will begin
on improving the Montagne
Center parking lot.
Other issues addressed at
the convocation include
additional funding for the
Texas Academy for
Leadership in the
Humanities, expanding the
distance learning program
and continuing campus
beautification project.
“This year will be a
year of civility.”
— Rex Cottle
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Andris, Tonya. University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 74, No. 1, Ed. 1 Wednesday, August 27, 1997, newspaper, August 27, 1997; Beaumont, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth501016/m1/1/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 10, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Lamar University.