Dr. Jessie Sams, associate professor of linguistics, was recently named the spring 2020 recipient of the Academic Assistance and Resource Center's Bravo Award for outstanding support of SFA's AARC.

Sams is a strong advocate for AARC services and for student learning. She regularly refers students both to the center's writing walk-in table and to be tutors. She teaches growth mindset and identifies future tutors who embody growth mindset.

Dr. Marc Guidry, SFA associate provost, recently detailed how SFA's 2020-21 academic year will be a Momentum Year — an academic year in which a first-time, full-time freshman achieves four benchmarks.

The benchmarks include taking at least 15 hours in the fall and 15 hours in the spring; completing the freshman composition requirement; completing the core math for the student’s major; and completing nine or more hours in the major and/or college foundation requirements.

If you advise incoming freshmen, click here for information to help guide students.

SFA departments, programs and organizations are invited to advertise in The Pine Log's upcoming 2020 welcome edition.

This special issue of the student newspaper will be given to every incoming first-year student attending Jack Camp Orientation in August. This is an excellent opportunity to share important information with this specific group of students and their parents.

For information about ad rates and deadlines, click here, or email clarkr1@sfasu.edu.

The safety and security of its members and their sensitive information is a paramount concern for the Texas Retirement System.

With an uptick in scams, TRS encourages you to take extra precautions before responding to requests for personal information. Members may have received an email or phone call from someone claiming to be a TRS representative to schedule an appointment; however, TRS does not contact members to schedule appointments.

To learn about how to keep your personal information secure, click here.

Blueberry fans are invited to join the Blueberry Color Splash coloring event, which launched today.

“The coloring event is a fun opportunity for our blueberry fans to celebrate the spirit of the Texas Blueberry Festival,” said festival chairman Grace Handler. “Anyone can participate anywhere, with paint, markers, coloring crayons, pastels or pencils. It’s up to each blueberry artist to decide how to create a personal Blueberry Color Splash.”

Hard copies of the Blueberry Color Splash coloring page are available at the Nacogdoches County Chamber of Commerce, the Charles Bright Visitor Center, Tipton Ford or online at TexasBlueberryFestival.com.

For more information about the Texas Blueberry Festival, click here.

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s Division of Academic Quality and Workforce is accepting applications to the Open Educational Resources grant program, which provides support for faculty members at Texas public institutions of higher education to adopt, modify, redesign or develop courses that use only open educational resources.

The THECB expects to award grants to faculty or teams of faculty in two categories: development grants, which award a maximum of $25,000 for the development of new or substantially improved existing OER for one or more high-enrollment Texas core curriculum course; and implementation grants, which award a maximum of $5,000 to support the substantial redesign of one or more Texas core curriculum course to incorporate OER resources.

Application forms for the grant competition are available online and must be submitted electronically to OERGP@thecb.state.tx.us by 11:59 p.m. CDT June 15, 2020.

Information regarding applicant eligibility, maximum number of submissions per applicant, and courses eligible for consideration also can be found on the OER website. Email questions about the grant competition to Kylah Torre, OER program director, at OERGP@thecb.state.tx.us.

Grant awards are anticipated to be announced in September 2020.

Did you know?

University departments are required to use a printed and/or electronic letterhead as designated by the president and produced by University Printing Services. Any deviation from the university letterhead design must be approved by Dr. Scott Gordon, SFA president.

Requests to deviate from the standard letterhead design should be directed, in writing, to Dr. Shirley Luna, executive director of University Marketing Communications, at sluna@sfasu.edu.