Skidmore, Childress and Oliphant co-presented “Leading First-Generation College Students to Success” at the 2023 Annual Texas Academic Advising Network Conference Feb. 23 in College Station. The presentation identified challenges and barriers faced by first-generation students and provided strategies and best practices that can be applied when working with students who are the first in their family to go to college.

SFA academic advisors attended and presented at the annual Texas Academic Advising Network Conference last week in College Station. Trina Menefee was presented the Outstanding Academic Advisor Award; Chris Strong was selected as East Region chair; Molly Moody was selected as East Region chair-elect; and Kate Childress was selected as vice president of programs. Presenters at the conference included Childress, Menefee, Jessica Boone, Raquel Skidmore and Dr. Emmerentie Oliphant, professor of social work.

SFA’s Faculty Senate will hold elections in March to fill any open tenured-/tenure track and non-tenure track seats for terms beginning in April. Nominations from and for full-time instructors must be emailed to Dr. Raj Mishra, senate elections chair, by today, at mishrar@sfasu.edu. Self-nominations also will be accepted.

A solicitation note requesting nominations for the open seats has been emailed to administrative personnel in each affected college unit. The list below shows colleges with open seats along with the number and type of seat.

For more information on the nomination process or election, contact Mishra at the email address above or (936) 468-1580.

Rusche College of Business: No tenured/tenure track or non-tenure track seats

James I. Perkins College of Education: one tenured/tenure track seat

Micky Elliott College of Fine Arts: two tenured/tenure track seats and one non-tenure track seat

Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture: one tenured/tenure track seat

College of Liberal and Applied Arts: two tenured/tenure track seats and one non-tenure track seat

College of Sciences and Mathematics: two tenured/tenure track seats

Steen Library: one tenured/tenure track seat

The Faculty Senate will meet at 2:30 p.m. tomorrow in the McGee Business Building, Room 133.

This session will feature discussions about the state system and budget, including the goals and objectives for the annual budget cycle this spring, with Dr. Steve Westbrook, SFA president, and Dr. Lorenzo Smith, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. It also will include a discussion led by Andrew Dies, assistant vice president of student affairs and dean of students, about academic integrity changes linked to the upcoming University of Texas System afiiliation.

Members of the SFA community are welcome to attend the public portion of the session either in person or via Zoom. However, per senate rules, only invited speakers and senate members are permitted to speak during the session. Questions can be forwarded in advance to faculty senators for consideration. For more information, email Dr. Christopher McKenna, chair of the Faculty Senate, at mckennacj@sfasu.edu.

The Center for Teaching and Learning will host its ninth annual Teaching Showcase today on the second floor of Steen Library and via Zoom.

This event highlights innovative, creative and effective teaching strategies across campus. Ten presenters will have five minutes to present a quick teaching idea or innovation in this fun, fast-paced event. For more information, visit the Teaching Showcase webpage.

The Office of Multicultural Affairs is holding its sixth annual Women's Empowerment Summit March 17. OMA is opening a call for proposals to any faculty, staff or students interested in presenting at the conference. Conference attendees include students, professional staff, community members and faculty from various institutions across Texas.

The summit focuses on empowering women from various backgrounds, so sessions that discuss empowerment on various levels such as professional development, education, etiquette, health and body image are requested. Submit proposals using this form by Friday, March 3.

SFA’s The Big Event brings student volunteers together for one big day of service to express the university's gratitude for the support of the Nacogdoches community. Small teams of students will fan out across Nacogdoches County March 25 to complete projects for local residents and tell them “thank you.” Projects include painting, yardwork, cleaning, trash collecting, window washing and more.

Local residents are encouraged to request a service project for The Big Event each year. This event is for everyone — projects are not accepted based on need or socioeconomic status. Absolutely anyone in Nacogdoches County can apply for a project to be completed by student volunteers. The deadline for requests is March 20.

Nacogdoches community members and SFA faculty, staff and students are invited to the seventh annual International Women’s Day Teach-in from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 15 in the McGee Business Building, Room 133, and via Zoom.

SFA’s Organization for Women’s Leadership and Equity is hosting the event. Because the university will be closed for spring break on the official International Women’s Day set for March 8, OWLE members are hosting the teach-in one week later.

The teach-in was established as a local alternative to the nationwide A Day Without a Woman strike in 2017, which was held on International Women’s Day. Akin to a sit-in, the teach-in allows a time to address anything about women and gender.

SFA's Department of History, in coordination with the Association for Gravestone Studies, recently hosted a three-day study and research tour of 18 East Texas cemeteries.

Dr. Perky Beisel, professor in the Department of History and vice president of the AGS, and Dr. George Avery, SFA staff archeologist and cultural heritage coordinator, led a group of 28 participants through historical cemeteries all over the region. These ranged from church and community to public and private cemeteries at stops near Huntsville, Jacksonville and Rusk. They also visited local cemeteries, such as the Sand Hill Cemetery near Chireno, Old North Cemeteries in northern Nacogdoches and Pierce-Chapel Cemetery in Cushing.

With a grant from the Center for Applied Research and Rural Innovation at SFA, the SFA School of Art has developed a new student docent program at The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House. Additionally, the grant support will enable the return of the popular School of Art Friday Night Film series.

Art students at SFA will soon offer guided tours of the exhibitions showing at the Cole Art Center, SFA’s historic downtown art gallery. The program targets K-12 schools and educators in East Texas by offering tours to students. Regularly scheduled weekend tours will also be open to the public.

SFA's Research Advancing Identities and Student Experiences Center recently completed a five-year memorandum of understanding with Convergence Strategies, a nonprofit organization focused on anti-racism and resolving structural inequity as it pertains to religious, secular and spiritual matters.

Through this partnership, the RAISE Center will host a Convergence Strategies faculty research fellow and jointly pursue grant and research projects. The goal of the partnership is to better understand the ways in which college students develop their religious and spiritual identities, as well as their understanding of other religions and faiths.

Humane education advocate Zoe Weil’s presentation “The World Becomes What We Teach: A Solutionary Approach to Humane Education” will take place Thursday, March 2, on Zoom. Weil is co-founder and president of the Institute for Humane Education.

The presentation is made possible by SFA’s Montgomery Professorship for Humane Education. The professorship was awarded to Dr. Sarah Straub, associate professor in the Department of Education Studies, in October 2020. It was established by the late Charlotte Baker Montgomery in memory of her husband, Roger, to encourage and perpetuate the teaching of humane education in elementary and secondary schools, both public and private, through the support of teacher preparation in humane education.

SFA’s JacksTeach program and Center for Applied Research and Rural Innovation are hosting a series of workshops this summer on inquiry science lab solutions for high school teachers. The deadline to apply is tomorrow.

These workshops are designed to help teachers facilitate and prepare true inquiry-based labs, use lab technology and equipment in an inquiry setting, and maintain a safe laboratory environment.

There will be three different topic-focused workshops: biology, June 5-9; physics, June 20-23; and chemistry, June 26-30. All sessions will run from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Men’s Basketball

SFA - 80 vs. California Baptist University - 58

Women’s Basketball

SFA - 71 vs. Sam Houston State University - 56

Softball

SFA - 3 vs. McNeese State University - 4

SFA - 3 vs. University of Mississippi - 1

SFA - 4 vs. McNeese State University - 5

SFA - 1 vs. University of Mississippi - 8

Baseball

SFA - 21 vs. Houston Christian University - 14

SFA - 1 vs. Lamar University - 2

SFA - 5 vs. Northwestern State University - 4

Tennis

SFA - 3 vs. Lamar University - 4

SFA - 5 vs. Nicholls State University - 2

Track and Field

The women scored first overall at the WAC Indoor Championships and the men scored second overall among other personal bests in several categories.

Beach Volleyball

SFA - 1 vs. Stanford University - 4

SFA - 0 vs. University of California Los Angeles - 6

SFA - 0 vs. University of Hawaii - 5

SFA - 2 vs. Saint Mary's College of California - 3

SFA - 2 vs. Saint Mary's College of California - 3

Dr. Deb Scott, professor of trombone and bass trombone, will perform works by living composers in a recital at 7:30 p.m. tonight in Cole Concert Hall.

Works of two prominent women composers, including Ida Gotkovsky and Elizabeth Raum, will be featured along with works by Ben Morris, SFA’s new composition faculty member, and by Canadian composer Michalis Andronikou.

Larry Greer, adjunct faculty instructor of guitar, will present a faculty recital at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 2, in Cole Concert Hall.

The program will feature a mix of classical (Francisco Tárrega and J.S. Bach) and popular (Dan Fogelberg’s Etude #3 for flute and guitar) music, a set of jazz standards and two original compositions. Greer will be joined by his wife Karen Greer, vocalist; and faculty colleagues Dr. Christina Guenther, flute; Dr. Brad Meyer, percussion; Dr. J.D. Salas, bass; and Dr. Ben Morris, piano.

Have you ever wondered what happens if you leave a sticky note or a bookmark in a library book? It might just end up in the librarian's collection of found things. At Oakland Public Library in California, librarian Sharon McKellar collects the found artifacts and posts them on the library's website in a collection titled "Found in a Library Book."

Her collection contains handwritten notes and other glimpses into the anonymous lives of the people who check out and return books. Read more about the collection and take a glimpse into the archive.