Regents Approve New Residence Hall, Renovations to Dining Facilities The University of Houston System Board of Regents recently approved a new undergraduate residence hall and a major renovation to Moody Towers’ dining hall. The new co-ed residence hall will be located along Wheeler Avenue between Moody Towers and the Quadrangle. The 284,964-square-foot facility will house 1,085 students and feature tutoring rooms, classrooms, social spaces, and a small grocery store. The project is budgeted at $50 million and will be funded through student rental fees. Construction of the new dorm will begin in July and is expected be completed in time for the fall 2010 semester. The renovation for Moody Towers will begin this April and is scheduled to be complete in August. The entire dining concept will be revamped, allowing students to watch their meals being prepared. Proposed stations will include a pizza oven, Mongolian grill, bakery, sandwich shop, and home-style grill. The dining hall also will offer expanded vegetarian and vegan options. The renovation will cost $10 million. Rent collected from Aramark, the university’s food service provider, will fund this project. “These are significant projects that will contribute greatly to student success,” said David Irvin, associate vice president of plant operations. “They also are among the many planned projects that will help the university continue to look and feel like a top-tier institution.”
New Branch Campus, New Campus Name Mark Changes for UH System Two important changes within the University of Houston System are expected for 2010. First, residents of Pearland, Greater Houston’s fastest growing suburb, can expect a University of Houston satellite branch within their city limits very soon. The UH-Pearland campus will be on the east side of the city at Pearland Parkway and McHard Road. The city of Pearland has donated the land and will build the facility. UH will cover the expense of staffing and maintenance. The project is expected to cost the city about $11 million to construct and has a projected completion date of summer 2010. Second, the much talked about name change for the University of Houston–Downtown (UHD) has been put on hold. Board of Regents members were entertaining both Houston Metropolitan University and the University of South Texas as viable options, but neither name garnered enough support to warrant a vote of confidence from board members. The board is expected to resume the discussion in 2010. Meanwhile, UH-D’s Division of Public Affairs has launched a new color palette of blue and orange as the official school colors. The new color orange replaces the red and white that were previously established under the larger UH marketing and branding umbrella.
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The number of students from local high schools who participated in the Blaffer Gallery’s six-week Young Artist Apprenticeship Program.
20
Astronaut Rex Walheim (MS ’89) was the 20th and final interview by Jim Rome, sports media icon, during the Jim Rome Show’s “Rex Streak.”
200
The 2009 Greater Texas PeaceJam Youth Conference, held this past March, drew 200 college students from across the state to the UH campus as they culminated their year-long leadership train ing program. Menchu Tum, winner of the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize, was the special guest.
2,000
It took approximately 2,000 individually-painted aluminum modules to complete Venezuelan artist Carlos Cruz-Diez’s most recent sculpture, now permanently staged in front of the UH Welcome Center. Come to campus to check it out for yourself.
7,628
The distance in miles between the University and Houston and the University Agostinho Neto in Angola. The two universities recently signed a memorandum of understanding for faculty and student exchanges related to the oil and gas industry.
100,000,000,000 The number of neurons in the average human brain that Mikio Kubota, Mayako Inouchi, and George Zouridakis (MS ’90, PhD ’94)—researchers at the UH Biomedical Imaging Lab—are mapping with their non-invasive laser diode technology.
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Spring 2009
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