Published: July 08, 2009 08:50 pm      

Gaertner outlines SHSU’s 10-year plan

Sam Houston State University President Jim Gaertner outlined the university’s 10-year master plan to the Huntsville Rotary Club during its weekly meeting Wednesday at West Hill Mall.

Gaertner, who is in his eighth year as SHSU president, said the plan was completed a year ago and it took a year or two to develop it.

The plan goes from 2009 to 2020.

Gaertner said numerous groups took part in the planning process, including SHSU officials, City of Huntsville, Walker County, Huntsville Independent School District and Huntsville-Walker County Chamber of Commerce officials.

“We worked hard to make it an inclusive project,” Gaertner said. “We didn’t just a few of us get up in a room and decide what we were going to do. We had broad university involvement. Students, faculty, staff, administrators and regents.

“We did have community involvement as well on the project. We had eight focus group from all over the campus. It’s only a plan. We had a very inclusive process so we will see how it develops.

“I cannot tell you how important we thought it was to have an open process ... to not in any way be accused of having a closed process. It was too important. It had to be done that way.”

Gaertner said the planning team brought three distinct plans of what the campus would look like in 2020.

“We took those plans, we refined them, we came out with a final plan,” he said. “This is a strategic plan for the Huntsville campus.”

He covered classroom space — current and what is needed — housing, parking — current and what is needed — and athletics and intramurals, where an additional 10 acres are needed.

He said a 500-space area was built four years ago while a 1,200-space area will be built in the next three years.

He said the plan is also designed to keep students within walking distance to classes, taking 5 to 10 minutes, by keeping the academic buildings concentrated in a core area of the campus.

“People who planned the campus planned it well so we have that tight academic core,” he said. “We don’t have to create it now.”

Gaertner said nothing in particular stands out about the plan, which covers the entire campus and includes a new student center, replacing the Lowman Student Center.

“If anything would stand out, it would be the South Quad area that has all the new academic buildings and creates a new academic quadrangle on campus,” he said. “The whole plan is important.

“There’s a lot of exciting parts to it but I guess the South Quad is the most exciting.”

Gaertner said SHSU is looking at 2 percent growth per year as far as student enrollment, going from 16,234 in 2008 to 21,000 in 2020.

“We have been achieving a little more than that in recent years.” he said. “We are confident that we will be able to do 2 percent over the next several years.”

Gaertner said the LSC was built in the early 1960s and “it has gotten to the point where it’s getting outdated and needs to come down. It was renovated about eight or nine years ago.

“We won’t tear it down until three or four years from now. It will come down. It needs to. We will build a new student center right there in the same place in the middle of the campus.”

Gaertner said the plan also calls for the demolition of some of the smaller housing projects on campus.

“They’re wonderful, but they’re getting old,” he said. “The maintenance is just eating us up and they’re not space efficient so they will come down over the next 10 to 15 years.”

Some of the housing buildings scheduled to be demolished include Smith-Kirkley, Recital Hall, White Hall, Allen House, Vick House, Sorority Hill, Art Complex, Thomason Building and Barrett House.

New buildings scheduled to be constructed on the SHSU campus include agriculture, forensic science, college of business, biology and allied health, integrated engineering and criminal justice expansion.

“We hope to build a couple of residential halls,” he said.

They are included in a six-year plan along with intramural fields which would be moved to where the agriculture center is now located off Interstate 45. All ag center facilities would be moved to the location off state Highway 75 North.

Gaertner said the campus will take on a new look in upcoming years, but “it has changed a lot. It has changed from when I was a student. Over the past 10 years it has changed some and the next 10 years it will change again.

“Now if we don’t grow at 2 percent we will slow down. We won’t do all of these things. And we have to have cooperation from the regents, from the legislators and so on with the funding and final approval. This isn’t something we know is going to happen but the regents did approve the master plan.”

Gaertner said his eight years as SHSU president have been fun.

“I just enjoy seeing the buildings go up,” he said. “I think the Performing Arts Center is probably one of the highlights. That and the capital campaign are probably two of the bigger things and they will both be finished this year.

“The capital campaign is a big fundraising campaign. We initiated a $50 million fundraising campaign. We’re in the high $40s now so we have just about accomplished it.”