Campus
2B Section B Thursday, Aug. 26, 2010
CAMPUS
AUG. 26, 2010
WWW.DAILYTOREADOR.COM
The ride of a lifetime
Building for the future Construction projects making progress By EDMUND ROSTRAN NEWS EDITOR
PHOTOS BY BRAD TOLLEFSON/The Daily Toreador
THE EAST-SIDE expansion to Jones AT&T Stadium is nearly completed and is among the construction projects underway on the Texas Tech campus.
Construction on campus continues as the new eastside building of Jones AT&T Stadium nears completion and the new Business Administration Building takes on an entirely new look. Debbie Cox, project manager for the Jones AT&T Stadium Construction, said the project should be completely finished by Oct. 1, but will be ready to hold fans in time for the season opener Sept. 5. Cox said the east side of the stadium has many advantages when compared to its taller, wider westside counterpart. “The seats up here are about 10 feet closer to the field than the other side,” she said. “A lot of people like this side because you can see the whole campus from over here and you can’t from the west side.” The first floor of the east-side building will house the Double T Zone, Texas Tech’s official retail store, along with concessions for fans and new entry gates.
PHOTO BY SAM GRENADIER/The Daily Toreador
ZOE FRANKS, A participant in the Texas Tech Therapeutic Riding Program, lets Buffy the horse smell a flower that she picked after a short riding session Thursday at the Texas Tech Equestrian Center.
Cox said the second and third floors are currently shelf space but will be made into office spaces in the future. She said the fourth floor, or club level, will house the Red Raider Club and restaurant along with a bar area and multiple suites. “On the club level, we originally designed four large sweets,” Cox said. “One of them sold and then from a marketing standpoint we divided the other three in half so we got 6 small and one large down there.” She said the club-level restaurant will be open during the week but will have a different feel on game days. “It will look like a restaurant, but on game day they won’t have their tables and chairs in there, there will be sparse tables and chairs for people to eat the buffet but it won’t be like restaurant seating.” Guy Bailey, president of Tech, said he thinks Jones AT&T Stadium is one of the most beautiful stadiums he has ever been in. He said the beauty of the stadium makes it a huge attraction. BUILDING continued on Page 2 ➤➤
PHOTO BY SAM GRENADIER/The Daily Toreador
LIAM COLEMAN, A participant in the Texas Tech Therapeutic Riding Program, rides Buffy the horse while being lead by volunteers Kyle Thomas, a junior exercise sports sciences major from Grapevine; Tangi Arant, an animal sciences graduate student from Leveland; and Dana Cunningham, a student at South Plains College, during a short riding session Aug. 19 at the Texas Tech Equestrian Center.
Therapeutic riding center inspires, helps children By SOPHIA HALBROOK STAFF WRITER
After five years of construction, the Texas Tech Therapeutic Riding Center finally gets to see a new indoor arena built for their riding program. Heather Hernandez, the therapeutic riding program director, said the new arena will allow the riding center to expand the number of sessions they offer, and it’s big enough to
house two consecutive riding classes at one time. “The purpose of the new building is solely for our riders with accessibility in mind,” she said, “and to be an all-weather facility they can use.” Hernandez said the program helps with different kinds of therapy for people with disabilities. She said hippotherapy utilizes the movement of a horse as a treatment modality, and riders sit in different positions on the horse to get different types
of input into the rider. “Hippotherapy is physical, occupational or speech therapy on horse back,” Hernandez said. “You actually have a therapist present.” The program is accredited through the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association, and Tech’s therapeutic riding center is the only NARHA accredited facility in the panhandle, which makes Tech’s program stand out, Hernandez said.
She said a horse can help someone in many different ways. “I’ve seen a child say his first words, ‘walk on,’ because of a horse,” Hernandez said. “That was an amazing moment to be a part of in somebody’s life. A milestone.” According to the center’s website, the therapeutic riding program is a non-profit organization founded by Texas Tech and the University Medical Center. Jessica Jones is a NARHA in-
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“The fact that we’ve sold all of our suites shows that we met demand,” Bailey said. The stadium isn’t the only building on campus being worked on. The new Business Administration Building continues to change in hopes of having it ready to house faculty and staff by December.
structor and the volunteer coordinator for the program. Jones said anyone who is 14 or older can come and volunteer. She said no experience with horses is necessary, and the program provides proper training for the volunteers. Jones said the center could always use more people willing to come out and help. “Almost all of our volunteers will say they get as much out of volunteering as the clients get,” she said. “They get to give back to their community and get involved. Plus, it’s a great way to meet new people.” Kaitlyn Ballow is an 11-year-old Lubbock resident, and a volunteer for the program. “I love volunteering,” she said. “I get to meet the adults and the kids. They are awesome. Even though they have disabilities, they are still people,” Hernandez said whatever treatment goal the client has in mind can be incorporated into riding. She said whether it is speech, occupational or physical therapy, different methods can be used to aid in treatment for the clients. Dara Coleman is the mother of three-year-old Liam Coleman. She said Liam has been coming to training sessions for less than six months. “When he was two and a half he had no functional language,” she said. “He couldn’t sign and he couldn’t speak at all. He’d never even said ‘Momma,’.”
Coleman said her son is now able to communicate what he wants. She said he uses two-word phrases and has a thirty-word vocabulary, mainly made up of nouns to communicate his needs. She said his vocabulary continues to grow and he is not as shy as he used to be. “He says, ‘go go,’ to the horses,” she said with a smile. Julie Franks is a Lubbock resident and mother to Zoe Franks. She said she has been bringing her daughter to the riding program for three years, and said the horses have greatly aided her daughter in speech therapy. Franks said she notices a difference in Zoe when there are not enough volunteers for her to ride a horse, or if there is a break between sessions. She said Zoe lulls in her speech and always misses the horses. “Her speech has just blossomed,” Franks said. “Coming out here is the highlight of her week,” she said as Zoe pointed toward her favorite horse, Buffy. Hernandez said the riding program offers three 12-week sessions a year. She said the center also offers a Special Olympics equestrian competition every spring. She said the program has great benefits for its participants. “Say one of our riders uses a wheel chair,” Hernandez said. “When they are on a horse, they walk like everyone else.”
Hugh Cronin, a contracted project manager for the Business Administration building construction, said the team is on schedule to complete the building by December. “We broke ground the 9th of September, last year, 2009 so we are 11 months into construction and we are still scheduled to complete late fall of 2011 which is on schedule,” Cronin said. He said there are many new and unique features in the build-
ing including upgraded technology that is much more advanced than what is in the existing building. “Another feature is the intergraded student spaces outside the classroom,” Cronin said. “The current building doesn’t allow for much room for students to sit down between classes.” Cronin said there are many challenges that come about when doing building construction. “One of the big challenges is that you have to make sure that the clients needs, which can be very specific, are met, and in this case we are fortunate that the client is so close and they have weekly if not daily interacting in the development of the plans,” he said. The existing Business Administration Building is also undergoing a facelift. Cronin said the team has already started on phase one, a project that included some exterior site work to make the building handicapped accessible. “We did some work, started actually in December last year, did some modifications to the site and now as a continuation of phase one we have moved into the first floor of the class room building which is that three story square building,” Cronin said. He said the focus of the renovation is in three parts. The first is to bring the building to current life-safety code and a big part of that includes adding a fire suppression and sprinkler system. The second phase is to make sure the building meets ADA and TASS requirements and the third phase is to improve the technology throughout the building and to update the finishes in the building. Cronin said he believes the new building will be very popular among students and faculty. “We think that students will really want to stay at the building,” Cronin said. “They’ll stay at the facility in-between classes, they’ll spend a lot more time at this building than they would have at the last because it offers more for them to do and a reason not to leave.”
➤➤sophia.halbrook@ttu.edu
➤➤edmund.rostran@ttu.edu