UNIVERSITY PRESS
The Newspaper of Lamar University
Vol. 92, No. 1 September 10, 2015
Lamar welcomes new provost Lainie Harris UP staff writer If you are walking through the Plummer Administration Building and hear the sounds of Aerosmith coming from behind an office door, it’s probably just James Marquart hard at work. “I can’t work without my music,” Lamar University’s new provost said. While the classic rock music may not fit with his business attire, Marquart should not be judged simply on appearances.
While he is all business when it comes to students and the university, Marquart is a man of many skills. The Illinois native has published seven books about criminal justice and capital punishment, and received two outstanding book awards. “An Appeal to Justice: Litigated Reform of Texas Prisons” won the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Outstanding Book Award in 1991, and “The Rope, the Chair, and the Needle: Capital Punishment in Texas, 1923-1990”
won the American Library Association, Association of College and Research Libraries, Outstanding Book Award in 1995. Marquart enjoys playing golf every opportunity he gets, he said, whether it’s on the local course, at home or during leisure time while traveling with his wife. “I just kind of knock it around at the house,” he said. “I like to do that, and travel around the state.” His wife has a grant with the Texas Department of Transporta-
See Provost, page 8
UP Lainie Harris
Lamar’s new provost, James Marquart poses with one of his seven books in his office in the Plummer Administration Building.
Lamar starts academic year with convocation President Kenneth Evans addressed faculty and staff at the start of the 2015-2016 academic year in his third “state of the university” address in the university’s Montagne Center Arena, Aug. 20. After an opening reception, fanfare by the Cardinal Brass Quintet and introductions, Evans shared an update on the outcomes of the 84th Legislative Session for the university, describing it as especially supportive. “Lamar University fared very well in the 84th Texas Legislature — indeed it can be argued that the session was the university’s best in recent decades as all of the university’s legislative requests received support,” Evans said. “We are very grateful to Lamar’s legislative delegation, as well as to the Regents, Chancellor and staff of the Texas State University System for their extremely effective leadership.” LU’s general state appropriations for the next two years increased more than $21 million — the largest dollar and percentage increase in the Texas State University System, Evans said. The 19 percent increase is the result of enrollment growth, largely in graduate engineering and online education credit hours. A large portion of the increase will go to refill open faculty positions or to hire new faculty in
Year of the Cardinal Lamar art student spends year studying in China Haley Bruyn UP staff writer
See Convocation, page 2
‘The 19 percent increase is the result of enrollment growth.’ — LU president Kenneth Evans on the state appropriation increase
UP William Jones
Imagine you have the opportunity to live and attend school in another country for an entire year. Now, imagine that you have only three weeks to decide to go, apply for a scholarship, get a passport, apply for and get a visa, buy a ticket, pack your bags and say goodbye to everything and everyone you’ve ever known. Johnathan Ross doesn’t have to imagine — the graphic design major lived the scenario. “The opportunity was presented about mid August, last summer,” he said. “I could go to China for a year and attend school there, and I was totally up for it. I’d never left the country, so I really wanted to experience it. “I had my doubts at first — a year is a long time, especially without your family and friends and comforts like that.” With so little time to prepare for the trip, Johnathan looked to his family for help making his decision. “I talked it over with my mom and my grandmother, and they told me to go for it, so I did — I was terrified,” he said. “I remember the last day before I left I was at my parent’s house and all I could think was, ‘Am I making a big mistake?’ I was about to leave my family for a whole year — no Christmas, no Thanksgiving, no birthday.” Johnathan traveled 7,398 miles from his home in Beaumont and moved into the international dorms at Shandong University of Science and Technology.
Johnathan Ross in front of Tian Tan buddha located at Ngong Ping in Hong Kong.
See China, page 3
Faculty art work on display Kara Timberlake UP staff writer
UP Kara Timberlake
Tana Burchinal shows off her music box, on display at the Dishman Art Museum as part of the Faculty Art Exhibition.
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It’s not just students that have art projects due. Lamar University’s faculty also had a “class project” over the summer, the results of which are on display at the Dishman Art Museum through Sept. 18. The 2015 Art Faculty Exhibition features the work of 11 artists, and a closing reception is scheduled for 6:30 p.m., Sept. 18. Museum director Dennis Kiel said that the exhibition gives students and the community a better sense of their teachers.
“Traditionally, students are used to showing their work to the faculty,” he said. “This exhibition allows students to see what the faculty does beyond the classroom. “It’s very diverse. It covers the concentrations that students can elect to take: graphic design, photography, painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture and ceramics.” New faculty member Tana Burchinal, 3D lab technician, is exhibiting the first in a series of works, a music box exploring the concept of the body and its relationship with identity. “I am interested in spaces, contexts and objects that make me feel uncom-
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fortable,” she said. “I like to insert the body back into these things in an unexpected type of way, to subtly challenge the position within and around the objects that make me feel uncomfortable.” Burchinal said she is inspired by the medical reference book “Gray’s Anatomy,” which she first encountered in 2003. “I’m dealing with media at its base level, with the simple wooden box and the sheet of paper I took from ‘Gray’s Anatomy,’” she said. “All of these things have a very heavy context. See Art, page 6
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