The dalmation carved by sculptor James Phillips from one of the many dead oak trees in Galveston. This sculpture, as well as Phillips’ fire hydrant carving, are located next to Galveston’s city hall building.

Christine Crump

The Signal Staff

Hurricane Ike tore through Galveston Sept. 13, 2008, with a storm surge of 15 feet covering the island with petroleum laced salt water. Ultimately, the salt water from the storm’s surge left thousands of trees dead, including the 100-year-old live oaks that lined Broadway Boulevard.

On the city of Galveston’s Web site, there has been an estimated 11,000 trees that have died as a result of Ike. Of those trees, 3,400 have already been removed from public right of ways.

The Galveston Island Tree Conservancy started a committee because they did not want to see the dead trees end up in a landfill. Instead, they are using the wood to recycle, reuse and create works of art. Continue Reading

Debris scatters the yard in the storm’s aftermath.

Courtney Brodbeck

The Signal Staff

The power had gone out and the sounds outside were like the sound track to a bad disaster film. My mother and I, along with three others, hadn’t evacuated very far from our home on the west end of Galveston Island; we were in Santa Fe and about to use every ounce of strength our bodies possessed.

We were all downstairs in our friend’s home when the water started seeping in through the cracks of the French doors. The wind was beating ferociously at the house and it was only a matter of minutes before the doors would blow open, letting the chaos outside rush into the haven we made inside.

We all scurried to find anything to barricade the doors. First was the couch, then the chairs, and finally, as a last resort, we flung our bodies across the furniture to make sure the doors were secure.  It was man versus nature, and for a second it seemed nature would win.

All my mother and I could think about was our little beach hut we called home.

“Please let it be standing, let our neighbors be OK and let our island still be home,” we prayed. Continue Reading

Shelter, by Bethany Quillin (steel, wood).

Mary Ann Wangler

The Signal Staff

The Art Alliance Center at Clear Lake, located at 2000 NASA Parkway, is currently hosting “Flotsam & Jetsam: Artists Respond to Hurricane Ike.”

“To encourage creative interpretation of the theme and to diversify the art and the materials used to make it, we have tilted our August exhibition about Hurricane Ike, Flotsam & Jetsam,” said curator Debra Kendrick.

Flotsam is debris found floating or that has washed ashore, and jetsam is cargo cast overboard to lighten the load. Artists had the choice to use the hurricane as the theme or subject of their work, or they could use the “flotsam churned up by the storm or the jetsam cast off by its victims to create something fresh form all the devastation,” Kendrick stated.

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Gretchen Mueszkowski, professor of literature and women’s studies, and Angela Howard, professor of history.

Nancy Nguyen

The Signal Staff

Gretchen Mieszkowski, professor of literature and women’s studies, will be retiring from UHCL after  35 years.

Dean of Human Sciences and Humanities Bruce Palmer reflected on Mieszkowski and the first year UHCL opened.

“She has been here 35 years and was one of the three senior people hired in HSH that first year,” Palmer said. “She led the program and has also been one of the most dedicated teachers and faculty members the school has ever had.” Continue Reading

Howard Eisner, associate dean for the School of Human Sciences and Humanities.

Savannah Drake

The Signal Staff

After 35 years of dedicated work to the university, Howard Eisner, associate dean for the School of Human Sciences and Humanities, will be retiring this summer. Eisner, who was a member of the founding 40 faculty members that began this university in 1974, has been associate dean of HSH for the past 10 years.

Eisner, who was born and raised in Philadelphia, began his career at UHCL unexpectedly. While at Duke University, he came across an announcement for job openings at a brand new school in Texas, that school being UHCL. He applied for the position not thinking much about it. Later, he received a call from the founding dean of the university. Eisner, having no plans to go to Texas, figured he would be honest and told the dean what he felt philosophically. The dean replied by saying that if Eisner had been able to read his mind, they could not have not been more on the same page.

Eisner has a lot of memories to share about the university and the changes he has seen. At the beginning, the entire faculty was blended together in the small space they had to share. The school did not have traditional degrees; each degree was designed for each individual student. He recalls the majority of the population of the university being adult females who had children and were really excited to return to school. He says that the approximate age of the students was two years older than the average age of the faculty, which was 29 at the time. We have a much wider age range of faculty now. We now also have a very diverse student population, with a much greater age range. Continue Reading

Matt Griesmyer

The Signal Staff

Red, lifeless carapaces alongside empty beer bottles and clean-picked corncobs fill trash can after trash can as the faint smells of smokehouse mesquite and Cajun seasoning waft through the air.  In the distance, the wails and passion of zydeco music cry their unique and pleasant sounds.  It is that time of year again.  The Texas Crawfish and Music Festival has arrived.

Old Town Spring hosts the Southern United States’ largest crawfish festival that has been going on for 23 years, and this year’s was a sight to behold.

Vendors from around the Houston area and beyond came to sell their oh-so-secret recipe crawfish buckets, complete with the standard boiled new potato and cob of corn.  The prevailing flavors immolate the mouth with cayenne and black pepper, overtones of cinnamon and garlic tickle the palate but mingle oh-so-well with a tall, frosty beer.

This festival boasts as much as 50,000 pounds of crawfish being cooked, all to serve a very special purpose.
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Tina Di Vora

The Signal Staff

The University of Houston-Clear Lake hosted the 2009 Visual Art Scholastic Event April 17-18.

VASE is a statewide competition comprised of enrolled high school students grades 9-12 in both private and public school systems. This year, 3,000 students submitted approximately 9,000 pieces of art for judging.

“This venue supports the goal of recognizing the academic and creative achievement of high school students who have excelled in fine arts,” said Sandria Hu, professor of fine arts.

Artworks, which are on display in the Bayou Building, were to be comprised of artwork ranging in different styles from jewelry, sculpture, drawing to print making. Each student was judged on originality, technical expertise, understanding of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, and interpretation of the student’s intentions for his or her piece. Continue Reading