Today@Sam Article
SHSU Seeks $3 Million For Bridge Project
April 1, 2016
SHSU Media Contact: Jennifer Gauntt, Tammy Parrett
Sam Houston State University will seek approval from the Texas State University System Board of Regents to build a $3 million structure designed to protect one of the university’s most precious resources—the chickens that live on the Sam Houston Memorial Museum grounds.
Designs for the tentatively named “Cherokee Chicken Crossing” will be presented by Student Regent Spencer Copeland during the regents’ specially called meeting this month.
The 1-foot-wide and 13-foot-tall bridge will connect the museum grounds to campus for the purpose of allowing the chickens safe passage over Sam Houston Avenue.
The idea for the bridge came from the rapid increase in chicken deaths over the past four years, according to museum director Mac Woodward.
“The chickens on the museum grounds are a staple of the ‘Sam Houston Experience,’” Woodward said. “As part of his Cherokee upbringing, Sam Houston was taught to value the lives of animals, and in turn, grew very fond of Huntsville’s native chickens.”
Upon hearing about this, Copeland hatched a plan. He now is working with the campus Chick-fil-A to secure sponsorship funding for the bridge, which, as his tenure with the TSUS Board of Regents draws to an end, would be an egg-cellent achievement for the student regent and for SHSU.
“The chickens have become an unofficial mascot for Sam Houston State students, like Tripod before them,” Copeland said. “We know why the chickens cross the road here—because the Sam Houston campus is the best in Texas. So it’s our duty to keep them from running afoul.”
Copeland said he was faced with the option of working to secure funding for a new parking garage for students or for the bridge, and, with the historical and sentimental value of the SHSU chickens, he’s putting all of his eggs in this basket.
“In creating a structure that will build the economy of Huntsville and sustain some of Huntsville’s oldest bloodlines, I had to ask myself, ‘What Would Sam Do?’” Copeland said. “The vote will boil down to what came first, the chicken or the parking garage?”
Local artist, architect and SHSU alumnus Scott McCarley, who was instrumental in helping Copeland and SHSU administrators champion the proposal, was hand-plucked to design the bridge and agrees that this is the right move.
“It was a no-brainer,” said McCarley. “I’ve already begun renderings for the project, which has the potential to be a monumental achievement; there will be no winging it.”
To see more renderings of the project, click here.
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