Wednesday, December 31, 1997
Not a lot of people found on campus these days
By LORETTA FULTON Senior Staff Writer
Basketball players, bookstore workers and development officers
hoping for an end-of-the-year bonanza are about the only people
to be found on Abilene's college campuses during the semester
break.
Toss in a handful of security guards, postal workers and librarians,
and that's all you can hope to find until classes resume Jan.
12.
Abilene is definitely a quieter place from mid-December through
mid-January each year as college students head home for the long
holiday.
No doubt the busiest place on all three campuses, except for
the gymnasiums, is the bookstore where employees are busy restocking
shelves with textbooks for the spring semester.
A few who remained in town are getting a head start on textbook
buying.
"The ones that have the money," said Sharon Eisenbach,
bookkeeper and clerk at the McMurry University bookstore.
Across town at Hardin-Simmons University, nine employees were
busy Tuesday unboxing books, checking the paperwork and stocking
the shelves. Surprisingly, the HSU bookstore did good business
last week, remaining open on Christmas Eve.
Some students bought "mom and dad" sweatshirts before
leaving town for the holidays. Those are always popular, "especially
when they can charge it to their student account and mom and dad
pay for it," said HSU bookstore manager J.T. Box.
Students weren't the only ones taking advantage of on-campus
shopping, though.
"We had staff trying to grab sweaters for their wives,"
said Calvin Dodson, an employee.
The scene was much the same at Abilene Christian University.
Several offices, the bookstore and library remain open during
the break. The development office, like that at other universities,
remains open in case a major donor decides to drop in just before
the end of the year.
"This is a pretty busy time for them," said Malissa
Endsley, director of media relations for ACU.
ACU will offer a one-week short course in the College of Biblical
Studies next week. The course attracts graduate students, mainly
ministers, who live elsewhere and return to ACU for the short
course.
Otherwise, no classes are being held until Jan. 12. And, except
for athletes and student employees, the campuses are devoid of
students. Even the food services are shut down.
"There's crackers in the book store," Endsley said.
At McMurry, the men and women basketball players are given
money to buy their own food until the food services reopen. No
one's complaining.
"They get to eat at Taco Bell four times a day,"
said Gary Ellison, director of media relations at McMurry.
With most students going home for the holidays, most of the
dorms are closed. Two dorms are open at McMurry for athletes and
at ACU two dorms are open for international students and those
staying in town to work. Also, off-campus apartments for graduate
students remain open year-round at ACU.
Even with no classes, facilities at McMurry are being kept
fairly busy during this winter break. On Friday night a Boy Scout
group is having a lock-in at McMurry's activities center.
On Jan. 2 a gospel concert will be held in Radford Auditorium
and on Jan. 9 the Abilene Independent School District will hold
a workshop on the McMurry campus.
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Copyright ©1997,
Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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