Megaphone (Georgetown, Tex.), Vol. 93, No. 08, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 5, 1998 Page: 3 of 8
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Megaphone
FEATURES
November 5,1998
Boiler Plant employee shares wisdom
3
Michael Wiedora
Opinions Editor
Brett Myers
Megaphone Reporter
When we tracked down Mr. Jim Green
at the Boiler Plant, he had just finished some
work under the swimming pool in the
Robertson Center.
He was wearing his trademark blue
jacket with his name stitched on a patch. His
blue cap had an American Flag pinned in the
center of it.
Mr. Green made time for a few of our
questions on one of his breaks. We sat down
next to a window in the corner.
There were three chairs arranged in a
circle around a wooden stool. We had three
cups of hot tea that we set on the stool; we
sipped some hot tea together.
Mr. Green has worked at the Boiler
Plant for roughly twenty years now, and had
much to say about his work here over the past
two decades.
Mike: Could you tell us about what the
Boiler Plant does on campus?
Ms. Giecis. We lake care of ihc boiiers
and the chillers of the University. We don’t
necessarily do maintenance on them but we
keep a check on them and keep them running.
We do minor repairs and adjustments to
these boilers. Something major, we don’t do
that We got technicians on campus to do that.
We also take care of the fountains, the swim-
ming pools and the mechanical rooms around
campus.
Jim Green tests a sample of fountain water.
Photo By Gabriela Aguilar
The boilers to the buildings are now in
the buildings. They used to be inside the boiler
plant We used to have two big steam boiiers
but we’ve done away with them. We have to
go around and check those.
And we just do little odds and ends. If
we see trash on campus, we will pick it up
from time to time. We just go around every-
where and keep on the lookout for different
things. Sometimes we help the campus police
out with fire alarms and things like that.
or are other chemicals involved?
Mr. Green: These boilers now on cam-
pus, they’re kind of like an oversized water
heater. In other words, all they do is heat the
water. We don’t have any more steam boilers.
Well, we do have one over at the science build-
ing for autoclave and where they sterilize their
instruments.
We’ve still got a steam boiler over there.
But the rest of them are hot water boilers. In
other words, the hot water from the boilers
goes through the pipes. Then it goes through
the coils and a fan blows over the coils and
blows the hot air out.
Brett: And what new challenges will the
boiler plant be facing this year?
Mr. Green: Well, the main thing is hav-
ing everything ready for this heating season
'"'tjiat’s coming up, for the winter. We’ve still
got a couple of boilers that are not ready to
go.
We’ve just got a new chiller system back
here, a coolant tower, new windows and all
this new landscaping around here. And I think
they’re going to put a new chemical shed out
for us. They’re gonna tear the old one down
Mike What role will the boilei pUuii
play in SU's plan to reshape undergraduate
education ?
Mr. Green: Well, the heating and cool-
ing, where it comes from is this plant. And
there’s the boilers, fountains and swimming
pools...we’ve got to take care of all that. We
also have to test all the water softeners on cam-
pus.
should know about the boiler plant, something
they can do to help out?
Mr. Green: Actually, they’re pretty good
about letting us know when the temperature
varies inside their rooms. If I was a student
out here, I would want a comfortable tempera-
ture in my room
1 mean, they pay good money to come
to school here And I’ll say this, it’s a whole
lot better to work here today. We got things
upgraded now and it’s a whole lot better. When
1 first started out here all this equipment was
in real bad shape.
They’ve upgraded it and of course,
we’ve got new buildings coming along. And
that makes it real nice. ***
We closed the conversation with some
other questions Mr Green told us he goes
home for a meal when he gets his break. He
lives about five minutes from the school, and
likes living here; that way he doesn’t have to
put up with the traffic going to Austin.
He told us about when the wages were
upped. When a man by the name of Charlie
Ray was hired, he said that the working con-
ditions had to be improved Mr Ray came from
ihc physical plain at die University of Hous
ton.
Mr. Green also spoke about education.
He said, “Education is the only thing that they
can’t take away from you. Once you have it,
you have it for good.”
He talked about families who came to
work for the campus. One father and mother
he knew worked to put their children through
Mike: So do you boil water exclusively
Brett: Is there anything that students college at SU.
Famous ceramist conducts workshop
Mary Fuller
Special to the Megaphone
Internationally recognized ceramist
John Neely will be conducting a workshop in
the pottery studio on Friday, November 6.
He will be joined by Korean ceramic
sculptor and installation artist Kyung-Hwan
Won, who is currently Artist-in-Residence at
Utah State University.
The day will begin at 9:00 a.m. with an
hour-long slide show and lecture in the ceram-
ics lab by Neely.
Around 10:00 a.m. he will start to form
the attachments to go on the teapots which he
will make later in the afternoon. At this time
he will demonstrate the techniques that pro-
duced the work shown in the slide lecture.
At 1:30 p.m. in the recital hall in the fine
arts building. Won will show slides of his clay
sculpture and installation pieces.
From 2:30 p.m. until about 5:00 p.m.,
Neely will begin to assemble the pots he made
earlier in the day. The entire campus is wel-
come to come to all slide lectures and demon-
strations.
John Neely received his Bachelor of
Fine Aits from Alfred University in New York,
and then spent two years studying in Japan
under fellowships from the Japan Foundation
and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
He received Master of Fine Arts at Ohio
University and attended a two year post-gradu-
ate fellowship at the Kyoto City College of
Fine Arts in Japan. 1
Neely is currently the the ceramics area
head and graduate program chair at Utah State
University.-
Jason Hess, Assistant Professor at
McNeese State University, who was an artist
in residence in Fall 1997 at SU, studied under
Neely, as did SU Professor Patrick Vecrkamp,
who spent the summer with him studying the
reduction cooling method.
Neely’s accomplishments are many He
has exhibited all around the world including
Yugoslavia, as well as hundreds of domestic
exhibitions.
He has written a number of articles about
his techniques which have been printed in pe-
riodicals such as Ceramics: Art and Percep-
tion and Ceramics Monthly.
He is considered an authority on almost
all aspects of ceramic technique. Neely’s abil-
ity as a' teacher has also put him in high de-
triand
Utah State was so enthusiastic about
making him a part of their faculty that they
flew him all the way from Japan for an inter-
Sample of John Neely’s award-winning work.
submitted image
view.
Professor Vecrkamp invited Neely to
SU in order to help his students, though he
himself also professes respect and admiration
for Neely.
“He’s just someone who I want my stu-
dents to want to be like.,’’ says Vecrkamp. “I
hope some of him rubs off on them. I hope
some of him rubs off on ME!"
Neely is fluent in Japanese and began
his career as a self-employed studio potter in
Kisarazu City, Japan He still retains close ties
to that nation, and exhibits there often The
art of ceramics has a much greater following
in Eastern regions where the craft has a longer
tradition.
According to Veerkamp, there arc poi
ters in Japan who are considered living na-
tional treasures.
Such acknowledgment of the art form
is almost unimaginable in the West, hut when
seen in light of the Buddhist and Tabist phi-
losophies which pervade the aesthetics of East-
ern art, it is hardly surprising that the art form
would be given such high praise.
The simple elegance of much Eastern
pottery is a type of physical manifestation of
these ideas. Neely’s art takes many of its cues
from this Eastern aesthetic. Veerkamp de-
scribed Neely’s work as functional, but deli-
cate and elegant at the same time.
Southwestern University is privileged to
have such an accomplished and renowned art-
ist demonstrate his skill and display his work
on campus.
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Megaphone (Georgetown, Tex.), Vol. 93, No. 08, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 5, 1998, newspaper, November 5, 1998; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth634260/m1/3/: accessed July 10, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Southwestern University.