Students at UHCS participated in the annual Jump Rope for Heart and Field Day activities in 2012. | File photo/The Daily Cougar

Sitting on the edge of the UH campus is a public charter school that admitted around 135 students from kindergarten to fifth grade.

The UH Charter School, which has been a part of the University for 16 years, works to provide a well-rounded education to young students.

“As a charter school, UHCS was established to increase innovation in public education,” said UHCS Principal Carolyn Black.

Each spring, UHCS takes in about 30 kindergarteners to fifth grade siblings and lottery applicants to build its enrollment of about 135. Its six classes, which are held from 8 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Friday are taught by lead and assistant teachers.

“The specific mission of UHCS is to implement a constructivist model of elementary education based on the research of Jean Piaget and the program developed by John Dewey,” Black said

The school focuses on empowering students, parents and faculty in the Houston community while also giving those students the technological and intellectual skills as well as leadership abilities that will help them succeed.

Black said building a community within the charter school and extending that to a larger community is also a focus.

“We promote the development of the whole child. We enjoy family events including those where we celebrate our student writers, mathematicians and scientists at Authors Night, Family Math Night and Science Fair,” Black said.

Camp Construct is an after school program provided by the UHCS. Math investigations, art, music, science, technology, engineering, handwriting without tears and daily physical education are just some of the many activities that the program includes.

In its larger community, the school participates in the March of Dimes, which is a citywide fundraiser that raises money for premature babies and their mothers. This year’s event will take place at 8 a.m. Sunday at UH. The school also participates by collecting money for other nonprofit organizations such as the Leukemia Lymphoma Society.

“We also promote health at our Wellness Fair, Jump Rope for Heart and Field Day. We celebrate our diversity at our World Bazaar,” Black said.

“Parents join us as we trek to San Antonio for the fourth grade Texas history trip and then further west for the fifth grade geological expedition. Parents are active in supporting all aspects of the school.”

For UH students, the charter school gives them a chance to earn educational experience with the help from its family and community.

“We want to get everyone involved,” said school secretary Glenn Carosella.

“This means from the students, teachers and the principal. We want everyone to be involved in the development of our students during these crucial years.”

news@thedailycougar.com

The College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences recently appointed an artistic director at DiverseWorks as the director of the newly created Center for Arts Leadership, an inaugural program of the UH Arts initiative.

Appointed by CLASS Dean John Roberts, Sixto Wagan has nearly 20 years of experience as a performing arts curator, educator and public art administrator. He has worked with DiverseWorks — the nonprofit art center in Houston that commissions and presents contemporary visual, performing and literary art — since 2002 and has served as performing arts director, co-executive director, performing arts curator and artistic director since 2011.

“I am delighted that someone with Mr. Wagan’s experience and vision has accepted the challenge of developing this new center,” Roberts said. “Mr. Wagan will be a key player in making UH Arts a national model for community collaboration around the arts.”

During his tenure at DiverseWorks, Wagan organized more than 100 projects and developed a reputation for collaborating with performers whose works tackle prescient cultural, social and political issues. With his new appointment, Wagan will direct the center’s activities outside the classroom to encourage innovation within the classrooms.

“The center will explore how leadership, especially in the arts, can be responsive and reflective of the changing demographics in Houston and nationally,” Wagan said. “Through annual symposia and strategic partnerships between university and community entities, the center will investigate, create and test leadership practices.”

The center will also promote collaborations and joint investigations across the departments in CLASS, capitalizing on artistic successes and investigations by the University’s students and faculty.

“With recent surveys highlighting how the demographics of Houston reflect the future of America, the center has the opportunity to inform the national conversation on how art, artists and creative communities can take leadership roles in our society,” Wagan said.

For the past several years, Wagan worked as a community collaborator with the School of the Arts, Moores School of Music, the Blaffer Museum and the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts and said he is excited to continue his partnership as a colleague within the University.

“I’m definitely honored to launch the Center for Arts Leadership,” Wagan said. “I’m excited to be part of a University that recognizes how important art and community are to its growth. With the Center for Arts Leadership, we have an opportunity to develop a national model for community collaboration in the arts.”

As the director for the Center for Arts Leadership, Wagan will be working with the director of the Master’s Program for Arts Leadership to build a program that looks at community collaboration and effective leadership practices.

“With the new Master of Arts in Arts Leadership program welcoming its first class this fall, we are well on our way to establishing the University of Houston as the destination for students and arts professionals interested in arts leadership,” Roberts said.

The Center for Arts Leadership brings academic investigation into conversation. Some of the initial points of investigation are how arts leadership translates beyond the arts community, how theory informs practice and how real-world success can spawn new theories.

“This is a critical time for us to discover how institutions can utilize arts and creative leadership to respond to a culture that continues to change radically with technology and the new demographics. I hope the Center is that place for a community of learners to further develop the difficult questions to ask, the ideas to test and measurements for success,” Roberts said.

news@thedailycougar.com

The impending end to the semester brings finals stress, summer excitement and, for many graduating seniors, the pressure of finding a job.

A handful of students will be finishing their undergraduate education with an upper hand in the graduate school and career-finding markets through a program called the Senior Honors Thesis, a year-long curriculum that allows students to conduct research and write comprehensive theses within their major and area of choice.

Students participating in the Honors Thesis program put their hard work on display during this month’s Spring Academic Showcase. | File photo/The Daily Cougar

“It hones your writing, cultivates your research abilities and you can work one-on-one with a professor for an entire year,” said Karen Weber, director of the Office of Undergraduate Research.

“Especially for those students going to graduate school, it models that of a Master’s thesis or a dissertation, so they’re actually defending their project before a committee, getting them used to talking about, researching and writing about their findings and working with faculty within and outside their field.”

The program takes place during a student’s senior year of school and provides them with six credit hours and a particular honors designation at graduation, Weber said.

Although English, biology and psychology are the most dominant fields, there are many departments that get involved each year with the program, allowing students across campus to participate with ample flexibility.

“The best part of the program is the personal latitude,” said architecture and environmental design senior Ian Spencer.

“You are free to define your research direction any way you like, according to your passions and analyses of the subject. We are able to select everything, from the location of the project to its typology and formal characteristics.”

Over the course of the year, seniors can put in anywhere from 250 to 300 hours into their thesis, but the benefits of the program can be seen even before graduation.

“I am hoping that my thesis demonstrates to graduate schools and future employers that I am dedicated to research as an integral part of architectural design,” said Spencer, whose thesis explores the development of a resilient coastal plan for the Houston Ship Channel.

“In fact, it has already helped in my admission to the master of architecture post-professional degree program at Yale University.”

The Senior Honors Thesis program is a tool the University offers students to excel in their personal growth and academic development.

“I would absolutely recommend the thesis program to other students who have a particular interest in a certain discipline,” said political science and philosophy senior Safa Ansarai-Bayegan. “Not only is it a worthwhile endeavor for students who plan to go to graduate school, it is also very rewarding on a personal level.

“Writing a thesis is not for everyone. It can be very stressful and requires a lot of work and diligence, but it’s a perfect example of the challenging opportunities the University of Houston offers its students.”

news@thedailycougar.com

The human immune system works to keep the body healthy if it is working properly, but for an astronaut, that system of fighting viruses can be compromised by traveling into outer space.

Simpson

The UH Department of Health and Human Performance has partnered with NASA to help understand why this happens in a 14-month program that will analyze the effects of long duration space flight on astronauts aboard the International Space Station.

“It is important to determine whether or not long-duration spaceflight impairs immunity before exploration class spaceflight missions — i.e., to Mars or an asteroid — can be considered,” said Rickie Simpson, principle investigator for the program and UH assistant professor in exercise and immunology.

To do this, Simpson said that the team will collect blood, urine and saliva samples from the astronauts before they travel to space, while they are on the ISS and for about six months when they return.

“The samples collected on the space station will be returned to Earth via the Soyuz space vehicle so that we may analyze the samples in our lab at UH,” Simpson said.

Simpson said he and his team will be using the samples to measure antimicrobial proteins that are crucial for the body’s defense against microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses and fungi. He also said they will be measuring and assessing the role of specific immune cells in the blood.

“We are particularly interested in Natural Killer Cells, which are important cells of the immune system in the identification and destruction of virally infected and cancerous cells,” Simpson said.

The goal is for the team to measure how spaceflight affects the facility of these cells to do their job within the immune response.

“We anticipate that long-duration spaceflight will cause alterations to the immune system but whether or not these will manifest as an increased clinical risk among crewmembers remains to be determined,” Simpson said.

Mark Clarke, Thomas Lowder and Dan O’Connor will assist Simpson in heading the research. Post-doctoral scientist Guillaume Spielmann and doctoral candidates Hawley Kunz and Austin Bigley are also involved in the project.

The research team is completed by Brian Crucian, an immunologist at NASA Johnson Space Center, and Duane Pierson and Satish Mehta, microbiologists at NASA Johnson Space Center.

“I am very excited to be involved in this project,” Kunz said. “It is almost surreal to be able to be a part of the process of exploring space and its effects on humans and to be able to analyze samples that have been in space.”

Crucian says NASA expects the study to be a valuable tool in making changes for future missions.

“We are excited about Dr. Simpsons flight study onboard ISS, as it will provide novel information regarding human physiology during spaceflight,” Crucian said. “Currently NASA is trying to determine any and all medical risks for exploration-class missions.”

“The information from the UH study will provide new information to help NASA assess crew risk related to the function of the immune system. Countermeasures for immunity may be as simple as nutritional supplementation or as complicated as pharmacological intervention.”

Simpson said that their findings could lead to many changes for the future of spaceflight and he hopes that they will ultimately lower the health risks for crew members.

“If the integrity of the immune system is compromised during spaceflight then it is likely that an adverse clinical event may occur,” Simpson said.

“This would have an immediate impact on the mission and may jeopardize the health of the crew and the likelihood of mission success. If we find that there is a risk to the health of the crew due to altered immunity then it would allow us to develop countermeasures that help mitigate these risks.”

news@thedailycougar.com

The following is a partial report of campus crime between April 15 and Sunday. All information is selected from the files of the UH Department of Public Safety. Information or questions regarding the cases below should be directed to UHDPS at (713) 743-3333.

Sexual Assault: At 12:04 a.m. April 15 at Cougar Village, a student reported he or she was sexually assaulted by a known unaffiliated individual. The case is active.

Criminal Mischief: At 7:27 a.m. April 15 at the Blaffer Art Museum, a staff member reported damage to an exhibit door in the gallery. The case is inactive.

Burglary of a Motor Vehicle: At 10:38 a.m. April 15 in Lot 16I, a student reported the burglary of his secured and unattended motor vehicle. The case is inactive.

Aggravated Robbery: At 10:55 a.m. April 15 in Lot 20C, a student reported he was robbed at gunpoint at an off-campus location. The case is active.

Traffic Offense: At 11:41 a.m. April 15 in Lot 9C, a student reported her parked vehicle was struck by an unknown driver who failed to leave the information required by law. The case is inactive.

Burglary of a Motor Vehicle: At 12:29 p.m. April 15 at the Cullen Oaks Apartments garage, a student reported his unattended and secured vehicle was broken into. The case is active.

Aggravated Robbery: At 10:55 p.m. April 15 in Lot 20C, a student reported he was robbed at gunpoint at an off-campus location. The case is active.

Theft: At 11:01 p.m. April 15 at the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center, two students reported a theft of their unattended and secured items. The case is inactive.

Theft: At 1 p.m. Tuesday at the Teaching Unit 2 Building, a student reported the theft of his unattended and unsecured electronic tablet. The case is inactive.

Criminal Mischief: At 2:49 p.m. Wednesday at the Lamar Fleming Jr. building, a staff member reported damage to ceiling tiles and a conference table. The case is inactive.

Assault: At 6:11 p.m. Wednesday at Cougar Village, two students were assaulted by several unknown women. The case is active.

Theft: At 6:56 p.m. Wednesday at Calhoun Lofts, a student reported that her unsecured and unattended laptop was stolen. The case is inactive.

Traffic Offense: At 7:44 p.m. Wednesday in Lot 20C, a student reported that his unattended vehicle was struck and damaged, and the striking driver failed to leave the information required by law. The case is inactive.

Theft: At 8:25 p.m. Wednesday at Calhoun Lofts, a student reported her clothing was stolen from the laundry room. The incident occurred between 3:45 and 8 p.m. Wednesday. The case is inactive.

Burglary of a Motor Vehicle: At 10:42 p.m. Thursday in Lot 20A, a student reported that someone entered her unattended and secured vehicle without her permission. The case is inactive.

Theft: At 10:20 p.m. Thursday at the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center, a student reported that he placed his wallet in a non-working locker and when he returned he discovered the wallet was gone.

Criminal Mischief: At 12:16 p.m. Friday at East Parking Garage a UH student reported his unattended legally parked vehicle was damaged. The case is inactive.

Burglary of a Motor Vehicle: At 9:41 a.m. Sunday at Lot 15I, a staff member reported that another staff member’s vehicle was burglarized. The case is inactive.

Theft: At 6:49 p.m. Sunday at the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center, a visitor reported that his unsecured and unattended cell phone, and money was stolen. The case is inactive.

news@thedailycougar.com

The UH Law Center student body has selected professor Sapna Kumar as “Faculty of the Year.”

“I pride myself as a teacher, and I hoped that I would one day be recognized, but it came as a surprise for me to win the award before I was tenured,” Kumar said.

Kumar

“I taught fewer classes this year than usual, so not as many students had taken one of my classes. Several of my property students said they had lobbied on my behalf, so I felt deeply honored.”

Kumar joined the UHLC faculty in 2009, teaching property, patent and administrative law. Prior to beginning her career at the Law Center, she clerked for Judge Kenneth F. Ripple of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; conducted research as a faculty fellow at the Duke University School of Law and practiced with two law firms.

“Professor Kumar was one of the best professors I had in law school,” said Tamecia Glover-Harris, former student of Professor Kumar’s property’s class.” I liked her no-nonsense approach to teaching.”

Glover-Harris said Kumar begins the semester with helpful information including job and internship advice, news and tips. She then teaches the course and leaves the students with “Kumar’s Takeaways” — a summary of what the students are supposed to learn, Harris said.

The summaries help first year students to distinguish what they understood and what they needed more assistance understanding. Kumar is always available during office hours and willing to schedule outside her traditional office hours to accommodate students.

“Students learn in all sorts of ways. Some do best listening to a lecture multiple times, some listen by working problems, and others need charts and diagrams. I try to accommodate a variety of learning styles,” Kumar said.

“I want my first-year students to remember my poor singing skills. I try to sing a property-related song each class.”

She said she believes exams should be a learning opportunity, allowing students to request a copy of their graded exam for review during office hours. The exam can then be used as study material for the next year’s classes.

“For all of my exams, after the grades are turned in, I will send an email to the class with a copy of the essay questions, an exam memo, and two to three top answers,” she said.

What stands out about professor Kumar is her desire to see her students succeed, said Marcella Burke, former student and research assistant for Kumar.

“One of the most pressing needs for law students in an increasingly-comparative legal market is mentorship. Fortunately, professors like Kumar are eager to take the time to advise, and in many cases, promote her students in the greater legal community.”

Kumar makes an effort to support her students not only in the classroom setting, but outside the classroom as well, Harris said.

“She would attend student events to mingle. This gave us a chance to see her as a person, not just our professor,” Harris said.

Kumar helps students with the Student Bar Association, class schedule planning and by providing tips for students to maintain success throughout law school.

“I want students to remember that I am invested not just in their success in my class, but in their legal career,” Kumar said. “I hope that my students know they can always come to me for legal advice.”

Kumar said she enjoys having a job where she gets paid to do what she loves and hopes that the law schools will come to recognize the importance of both teaching and research.

“Professor Kumar is a tireless advocate for the success of her students,” Burke said. “She is both a friend and a mentor; someone whom I very much admire. She is not only an excellent teacher, but she has also been a pillar beneath my success in law school.”

news@thedailycougar.com

UH undergraduate students received third place out of 35 teams Saturday in the first Oil and Gas Investment Banking Case Competition and Conference hosted by the Investment Banking Scholars Club of the C.T. Bauer College of Business.

Devin Wold, Patrick Mikkelsen and David Spilkin took third for at the first Oil and Gas Investment Banking Case Competition, which was hosted by the Investment Banking Scholars Club at the C.T. Bauer College of Business. | Manuella Libardi/The Daily Cougar

The ISBC is a highly selective club started last summer that requires applying students to go through an interviewing process and to have a minimum GPA of 3.5 to be considered, IBSC President Robert Dozortsev said. Of about 400 students who applied in the last year, only 38 were accepted, and the average member GPA is 3.7.

“UH is not a really strong investment banking school,” Dozortsev said. “The organization will allow for a level of networking and specialization that the University of Houston does not currently offer.”

Nine final teams of undergraduate and graduate students representing UH, Texas A&M University, Rice University, Southern Methodist University, Texas Christian University and University of North Texas pitched to a group of judges at the event.

Jason Starnes, Chris Mersinger and Jissin Sanny from Rice and Marshall Robinson, Perry Reed and Durrel Hunter from TCU got first and second place respectively.

Dozortsev’s idea was to start a collaborative effort with Rice since it is a strong school that attracts a lot of investment banking recruiters.

“We were already doing a bi-weekly finance journal,” Dozortsev said. “My idea was, well, why don’t we get guys from Rice to write with us? So, we started the Bauer Jones Finance Journal, which is one of the cornerstones of the club along with this conference.”

Participating students were required to evaluate a hypothetical company, G&G, by looking at its financial statements, mostly assets, and then to compare the data to other companies’ through modules called comparables, IBSC member Adil Rajabali said. They also had to present future prospects and deliver values to shareholders of the fictional company, finance and accounting senior Patrick Mikkelsen said.

The event also featured keynote speakers executive professor Christopher Ross, who discussed value creation in a cylindrical industry, and SMU adjunct professor Jeffrey Noland, who discussed synergy, accretion-dilution and mergers and acquisitions. Lunch and dinner were provided to encourage networking between students, which Dozortsev believes is the strongest form of networking that can lead to future professional relationships.

“I think that IBSC is a great step forward in realizing the potential of UH and Bauer specifically,” Mikkelsen said. “Houston is the energy capital of the world, and a club like IBSC will really show the energy companies in Houston that Bauer has a great program and that they don’t have to go to UT, A&M or Tech to find great recruits.”

news@thedailycougar.com

Three arrests were announced to have been made in connection with two unrelated crimes today.

The Cambridge Oaks robbery, which occurred Saturday night, saw another arrest.

Police said Wednesday they arrested Christopher David Nettles, 18, and Joshua Layton Gammage, 18, in Pearland. Both were charged with aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon, UH Police Chief Ceaser Moore said. They were taken to Harris County Jail, and bail was set at $30,000 each.

Joshua Layton Gammage (left) and Christopher David Nettles (right) were arrested on Wednesday in connection with the armed robbery at Cambridge Oaks apartments on Saturday evening. | Courtesy of UHPD

Gunman James Manns, arrested Tuesday, has been charged with aggravated robbery with a pending additional aggravated robbery charge, Moore said Tuesday, but at the time of Manns’ arrest, police were still looking for three accomplices.

Manns and three accomplices had robbed two roommates of Samy Gharbaoui, Police said. Gharbaoui, who was also arrested Tuesday, had sold Manns drugs earlier in the day, and Manns had later gone to Gharbaoui’s apartment in search of more, Police said.

“This crime was not a stranger-on-stranger crime,” Moore said. “He was going back to get more drugs. … Other students on campus are not at risk of being victimized by other people invading their residences.”

Investigators found LSD, Adderall, ecstasy and marijuana in Gharbaoui’s apartment, and discovered that Manns was already on bail for possession of marijuana, Moore said.

Also on Wednesday, a man was arrested in connection with a sexual assault case that took place at Cougar Village on Sunday.

Keon Mark Edward Whitehead, 19, was arrested at Texas Southern University after being detained by campus police. Whitehead was identified as an acquaintance, said police, and was charged with sexual assault. He was transported to Harris County Jail and his bail was set at $30,000.

“UHPD has worked diligently on these cases,” said Moore. “Our number one priority is to provide a safe campus.  I hope the campus community is reassured by the progress we have made in identifying and arresting the perpetrators of these crimes.”

Additional reporting by Joshua Mann.

news@thedailycougar.com

No rain nor bad weather could stop students from the Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship at the C. T. Bauer College of Business from competing at the Wolffest.

Wolffest, formerly BurgerFest, debuted at the University in 2002 and has become a capstone course in completing a BBA in entrepreneurship. | Nichole Taylor/The Daily Cougar

The three-day battle of pop-up restaurant businesses that went from Tuesday through Thursday in Butler Plaza is a spring tradition at WCE that started in 2002 under the name BurgerFest. The project was started by entrepreneurship students with the intention to provide juniors and seniors with real-world experience of what it takes to start a business.

“This is organized by the students,” said entrepreneurship senior Ashley Reynal. “We don’t get any help from the program or from the school. We go through all the steps of creating a business on our own from the initial concept to finding sponsors, raising money and marketing.”

Wolffest has become part of the WCE capstone course and is the final step in completing a BBA in entrepreneurship from the center. The project’s primary goal is to teach WCE students how to write and implement an operations plan for business startup.

The competing teams this year were Bauer Bites Enterprises, Bauer Entrepreneurship Group, Big Game Theory, Coog’s House, Fortune 500, Game Changers and Shasta’s Shack (Team Lobos). Some of the sponsors behind the teams include Carrabba’s, Car Toys and Bullritos.

A big part of the project is to teach students how to work in teams, Reynal said. The teams’ CEOs choose the students they will be working with, and they are responsible for keeping their employees motivated and productive.

“It basically teaches seniors how to be CEOs and CFOs,” entrepreneurship junior Jonathan Cohen-Kurzrock said. “Juniors get to help with things like getting the tents and putting the event together in general. We also had some middle and high schoolers volunteer this year.”

Although it is a competition, all the profit goes back to the WCE to help with graduation and to keep the program moving forward, Cohen-Kurzrock said.

“The winning team gets bragging rights,” Reynal said. “The most important thing is what we are getting out of it. This has been the most amazing experience. It was a lot more work than I had imagined, but it has been incredibly rewarding.”

news@thedailycougar.com

Members of the UH community officially opened the new Lynn Eusan Park stage on Wednesday. The ribbon-cutting ceremony, which was orchestrated with custom-engraved silver scissors, was followed by a dance performance on the new stage, which features state-of-the-art equipment. | Mary Dahdouh/The Daily Cougar

Lynn Eusan stood in the middle of the Houston Astrodome frozen. It was 1968 and she had just been named UH Homecoming queen, the first African-American to win the honor.

“This was the first time black students on campus have banded together and really been effective against overwhelming odds,” Lynn Eusan told the Houston Chronicle in 1968.

Tragedy struck a mere three years later. The 23-year-old Eusan was found dead in the back seat of a car that collided with a police cruiser, according to the Houston Chronicle. It was later determined that she died from multiple stab wounds.

In 1976, the Board of Regents paid tribute to this iconic woman by naming the park next to the University Hilton after Eusan, in honor of her outstanding contributions to the university.

On Wednesday Eusan was remembered yet again by the University in a ribbon-cutting ceremony that premiered the new and improved Lynn Eusan Park stage.

The new stage will host a variety of events, from screenings to concerts and plays. The university anticipates that the stage will be a great site for recreation. The design of the stage was implemented with the students in mind, said hotel and restaurant management senior and Student Program Board President Jessica Grono.

“Students have been thought of throughout the whole process from the wide stairs so students can study, to the length and depth of the platform so a variety of performers can sing, dance, step and hold pep rallies,” Grono said.

The stage has been relocated adjacent to Cougar Village and the Conrad N. Hilton School of Hotel and Restaurant Management with it being in the center of the main foot traffic on the south side of campus.

The stage has been updated to come equipped with new lighting and an enhanced sound system for outdoor events.

“I think the positioning of the stage in the corner close to the residential halls gives it easy access and easy viewing for students,” said civil engineering senior Tanzeem Chowdhury. “Students can look out their windows and see what’s going on.”

Lynn Eusan Park, which used to house UH mascot Shasta, has been a major venue for various activities hosted by Student Affairs and University Centers. The relocation and upgrade of the old stage can now be used to showcase a multitude of events and enhance campus life.

The emotion from Lynn Eusan, the first ever African-American UH homecoming queen, percolated throughout the Astrodome. | 1969 Houstonian

“The impact will be profound; student life is important to us,” said corporate communications and management senior and New UC Representative Jared Gogets. “When students have fun at UH, they stay at UH and they ultimately graduate from UH. That’s what we want.”

The addition to the park will bring the campus community closer and allow a place for students to make memories as they attend a variety of events at Lynn Eusan Park, said Student Government Association Vice President Rani Ramchandani.

“The fact that there is history attached to (the stage) … and relating back to when she was on campus, it’s amazing to be here and see our students enjoying a piece of history,” Ramchandani said.

“This is a tier one facility that we needed for a long time, it’s a major upgrade from our old stage.”

Additional reporting by Minh Dam. 

news@thedailycougar.com