Page 6

Mayo Hall added to National Register

Venerable old Mayo Hall has made the cut. University Archivist James Conrad learned recently that Mayo is now on the National Register of Historic Places, making it the second such recognized structure on campus. The Heritage House (presidents’ old home) received its National Register designation in 2001.

Undergraduate enrollment up

Undergraduate student numbers at A&M-Commerce are up 5.3 percent this fall with overall enrollment holding steady at 8,359. “Task forces on campus have been focusing on student recruitment and retention, particularly at the undergraduate level, President Keith McFarland said. “Because of the hard work of many, we are having success in recruiting undergraduate students and keeping them in school.”

New chancellor for University System

Benton Cocanougher became the interim chancellor of The A&M System in September following the resignation of Howard D. Graves due to his declining health. The system includes seven state agencies, a health science center, and nine universities —including A&M-Commerce. As interim chancellor, Cocanougher oversees more than 23,000 faculty and staff and an annual budget of more than $2 billon.

One hot squad The design for the University Police Department’s squad car placed third in Law and Order magazine’s 2003 Police Vehicle Design Contest. The design was entered in the state/federal category with firstplace winner Suffolk University and East Carolina University, which
was ranked second. Jason Bone, crime information officer for the A&M-Commerce department, said that the decision was made to enter the vehicle in the competition after the squad car’s design continued to garner attention. The design has been used on the cars for two years.

A&M-Commerce to host hobbits

A&M-Commerce has been chosen as the sole site for a special summer institute and has been awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The grant is for $138,506 and will be used to host a five week institute for teachers. The institute will bring J.R.R. Tolkien experts to campus this summer, when selected secondary-level history and English teachers from throughout the country will come to A&M Commerce and study Tolkien’s epic, The Lord of the Rings. Of the three NEH grants awarded to Texas universities, A&M-Commerce received the largest and will host the only NEH Summer Institute for School Teachers in the state.

CC students offered new degree of education from A&M-C

Community college graduates with an associate of applied arts and sciences degree will be interested in a new bachelor’s degree at A&M - Commerce. The bachelor of applied arts and sciences allows students with an applied associate’s degree to use coursework completed at a community or junior college that normally would not transfer to a bachelor’s degree, said Dr. Hal Langford, dean of the College of Business and Technology. Graduates with the B.A.A.S. degree can then pursue a master’s in management offered by the department of marketing and management. The new program also helps A&M-Commerce fulfill state initiatives to put a degree within reach of more citizens, Dr. Langford said.

Signed and delivered Through the fall, workers installed new signage campuswide. The bright blue-and-gold signs direct visitors to buildings and identify parking lots.

From practical skill to passion for its culture, Spanish speaks to radiologist

Dr. Michael Stannard (MA ’01) is an Englishman who got the best Spanish advice of his life while sitting at a French café in the Lone Star State.

The advice came from one table over, where sat Dr. Maria dos Santos, a Spanish professor who obviously thinks A&M-Commerce has one of the finest programs around and isn’t shy about saying so.

The chance meeting of Michael and Dr. dos Santos was a lucky break for Michael. He had been working as a radiologist at Children’s Medical Center in Dallas for 15 years. In that time, he’d come across an increasing number of parents who spoke very little or no English.

“They were caught in an Englishspeaking labyrinth without any idea where to go next,” he says. “They often wandered down to radiology, worried stiff because they didn’t understand what was going on.”

The need for more medical practitioners who spoke Spanish was clear to Michael, and he started taking some classes and studying the language on his own.

“It was very satisfying to be able to say in Spanish that their child’s examination was normal,” he says. “They often were touchingly grateful to know all was well.”

His motivation may have been practical, but his response was perhaps a little more over the top. Besides taking classes, he joined a Spanish organization in Dallas and spent his vacations taking language courses and travelling to Spanish-speaking locations.

Today his professor explains it simply. “He’s in love with Spanish,” says Dr. dos Santos. “It’s a calling.”

Before meeting the professor, however, Michael had run out of options for furthering his skills in the language he loved. He was sitting at La Madeleine’s with friends, lamenting aloud the lack of advanced programs in Spanish when Dr. Maria dos Santos spoke up from across the way. “You need to take one of my classes,” she said.

And for three-and-a-half years that’s what he did. And while he continued to practice at Children’s Medical Center, he also continued to practice his Spanish.

“It has to be admitted that I sometimes spoke to Spanish speaking patients longer than strictly necessary,” he says. One day an Hispanic mother brought her child for Michael to examine, accompanied by the rest of her rather large brood. Michael’s examination showed the child had a congenital kidney deformation. Because the condition ran in families, Michael used his Spanish to ask if he could look at the other children. Sure enough, several others also were afflicted. “I then asked the good lady if she’d mind getting up on the table,” he remembers. “She had it too.”

That kind of practical application may have initiated Michael’s pursuit of the language, but it’s his passion for it that drives him these days. In fact, Michael has since retired from Children’s Medical Center and is travelling in Spain with wife Becky.

“It’s about where the language takes you,” Michael says. “Spanish is an introduction to the culture and the history of the culture.”

Not to mention an introduction to A&M - Commerce Spanish professors who use French cafés as recruiting stations.

Past master’s Students earning their master’s in Spanish —one of the University’s most successful graduate programs—gathered recently for a reunion. From the left on the back row are: Dr. Maria Duke dos Santos, coordinator of the graduate

Spanish program; Maripaz Gallud, guest; Dr. Gerald Duchovnay, department chair; Becky Stannard, guest; Norma Murray (MA ’01), who hosted the reunion; Dr. Mike Stannard (MA ‘’01), Jane McCurdy (MA ’01), and Paula Grier (MA ’00). On the front row are Annie Murdock, guest; Arthur Douglass, guest; Karen Casey, current student in the Spanish master’s program; and Rebecca Garcia (MA ’02). A&MCommerce’s master’s program in Spanish produces more graduates than many of those at very large universities.

HEAD SNOW MAN

What turned out to be one of Hallmark’s hottest seasonal sellers was designed by Alumnus Gary Head (BS ‘80). Gary created a line of carolling snowmen and snow-women that by Thanksgiving was selling out at Hallmark stores worldwide. He told reporters he himself was having trouble getting one and might have to resort to his Hallmark connections to find one. Gary
works at Hallmark’s corporate offices in Kansas City and, after 23 years with the company, is considered one of its top artists.

His mother, Billie June Head, may be able to help Gary get that snowman sample. She bought two during a visit to her local Hallmark because they looked like something her son would design. She later learned she’d gotten it right on the carrot nose.