BLINN BOARD MEMBERS SWORN IN TUESDAY

  

Three members of the Blinn College Board of Trustees were sworn in Tuesday evening.  Stacey Holle Aschenbeck, Richard Powell and Teddy Boehm were sworn in by District Judge Carson Campbell.  Aschenbeck defeated Debbie Goss in the May 9th election for Position 4 on the Board.  Richard Powell, who was appointed to fill the Precinct 1 seat vacated by Norwood Lange last year, defeated David Reynolds in the election.  Teddy Boehm was unopposed for the Position 3 seat.

The Blinn Board also elected new officers.  David Sommer will become the new President of the board.  Douglas Borchardt will move to Vice-President, and Atwood Kenjura will serve as board secretary.

In other action, the board authorized two new degree programs at Blinn.  Blinn will offer beginning in the fall, an Associate Degree in Engineering and in Construction Science.  These programs will allow students to easily transfer into 4 year schools in those fields.

The board also began the process of building the new Blinn campus in west Bryan by naming HDR Engineering to complete a traffic study of the Leonard Road and FM 2818 location.  They also assigned Kieksey Architecture to develop the Master Plan for the new campus.  Blinn Director of Facilities Richard O’Malley reminded the board that all of the architecture firms that Blinn reviewed said that having the campus student ready by the fall of 2017 would be difficult but not impossible.

The board also approved Boettcher and Associates Architects to design an indoor batting cage complex to be located next to Dreyer Field.  The new complex was the result of a $500,000. donation to the college and will be used by both the baseball and softball teams.

In other action, the board voted to add additional beds to some of the larger rooms in the Residence Halls in Brenham to increase the total student housing occupancy available.  They also approved adding two full-time advisors to the Bryan campus to help with the increased enrollment there.