Orientation and Transition Programs staff members earned the 2023 Region IV Innovation in Orientation Programs Award from NODA – Association for Orientation, Transition and Retention in Higher Education for the online Destination SFA: Sibling Orientation program.

The Innovative Program Award highlights good administrative practices that meet the changing needs of an institution and its students. These innovative programs help generate new knowledge and best practices within the field of orientation, transition and retention.

Jumper received the New Achiever Award at the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences Texas Affiliate conference March 24.

The New Achiever Award was introduced as part of the association’s 75th anniversary observance in 1984. The program was developed to recognize emerging professionals who have exhibited the potential to make significant contributions to family and consumer sciences.

Hubbard, professor of mathematics and statistics, and Singh, assistant professor of computer science, co-authored three poster presentations with students that were presented at the Southwest Data Science Conference March 24 at Baylor University.

One of the three posters, "Imputing Missing Data vs. Multiple-Model Prediction in Predicting University Student Risk of Academic Failure,” earned the Best Poster Award.

Part of Moulton’s manuscript, “Caribbean Blood Pacts: The Guatemalan Revolution and the Origins of the Caribbean Basin’s Cold War, 1944-1954,” was published as a first look in Diplomatic History.

The article, “Anti-Communist Bananas: The United Fruit Company versus the Guatemalan Revolution,” explores how a public relations campaign by the Boston-based United Fruit Company shaped the Central Intelligence Agency’s 1954 coup in Guatemala.

Eleven faculty members and six students from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics attended the Texas Section meeting of the Mathematical Association of America March 23-25 at Tarleton State University.

Dr. Jane Long, professor, served on the Texas NEXT professional development panel, "Changing Research Areas"; Dr. Brittney Falahola, assistant professor, is a nominee for chair-elect of the Texas Section; and Dr. Brian Beavers, associate professor, is serving on the executive committee as webmaster and has been nominated for secretary/treasurer.

All SFA faculty and staff are invited to attend diversity certification workshops, which are part of the Office of Multicultural Affairs' Diversity and Inclusion Certification Program.

The final four spring 2023 workshops are free and scheduled as follows.

Today

1-3 p.m. – Understanding the B in LGBTQ+, Human Services Building, Room 322

6:30-8:30 p.m. – Stacey Allen's The Fairytale Project, Baker Pattillo Student Center Grand Ballroom

Monday, April 3

11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. – Building a More Inclusive Syllabus: Welcoming Students' Identities Before Classes Even Start, BPSC Commons

Thursday, April 13

Noon-1 p.m. – True Colors, SFA Campus Recreation Meeting Room

SFA faculty and staff may take these workshops to earn a certificate or attend individual workshops based on professional interests or needs. To earn the certificate, participants must attend the core course, Diversity and Inclusion at SFA: Foundations.

For more information, including registration and workshop listings, visit OMA's Diversity and Inclusion Certification Program webpage.

Join the Office of International Programs in celebrating SFA's international students as they share information about their home countries during Global Gateway presentations throughout the semester.

Today's presentation on Colombia is at 3 p.m. in Ferguson Building, Room 377.

Faculty, staff and community members have an opportunity to participate in a SpringFest ticket giveaway by following the directions posted on SFA’s flagship social media accounts yesterday.

The deadline for giveaway entries is 11:59 p.m. tomorrow and winners will be announced Wednesday, April 5. The first-place prize is eight free tickets, second place is four free tickets, and third place is two free tickets. Additionally, 20 other giveaway participants will receive $5 off their ticket purchase.

Tickets for faculty and staff are $15 for concourse-level seating or $20 for pit-level seating. For community members, tickets are $20 for concourse seats and $25 for pit-level seating. Tickets can be purchased at gosfa.com/springfest23. To buy a block of seats, contact the SFA Athletics Ticket Office at (936) 468-5225.

SFA’s Department of Computer Science is hosting the annual conference for the Consortium for Computing Sciences in College, South Central Region, from 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. tomorrow in the Cole STEM Building.

The consortium’s focus is to promote teaching pedagogies in the computer science discipline. During the conference, guests will be able to attend faculty paper presentations, undergraduate poster presentations and a seminar by keynote speaker, Paul Gault, director of learning and leadership development for tech firm Provalus.

Advise students to visit the Consortium for Computing Sciences in College event page for more information.

SFA Gardens will host its annual Garden Gala Day Plant Sale from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, April 1 and 2, at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center, located at 2900 Raguet St.

The sale will feature more than 300 varieties of hard-to-find, “Texas-tough” plants, including Texas natives, edibles, tropicals, perennials, shrubs and trees, with an emphasis on pollinator-friendly selections, as well as exclusive SFA introductions. The featured plants are produced by SFA Gardens staff members and volunteers, and a full list of available plants is posted on the SFA Gardens website.

The Organization for Women’s Leadership and Equity Achievement and Advancement Committee will present “Quick Tips for Raising Your Professional Profile to Award-Worthy Levels.” During the session, several SFA female faculty members will share examples of how to transform work successes and scholarly accomplishments into awards and other high-profile recognitions and opportunities.

Join in person from 12:30 to 1:45 p.m. tomorrow in the Steen Library Wyatt Room or via Zoom. "Quick talk" topics will include securing grants, earning faculty leave, applying for external fellowships and more. For more information, contact Dr. Lauren Burrow, associate professor of education studies, at burrowle@sfasu.edu.

The Organization for Women's Leadership and Equity is seeking nominations for its third annual Advocate Award. The award recognizes one faculty member and one staff member who embody OWLE’s mission, specifically as advocates for women staff and/or faculty as showed by peer or self-nomination. 

The mission of OWLE is to empower women and support women’s professional advancement while balancing professional, personal, physical and mental health demands and needs. OWLE advocates for policies that support women staff and faculty by utilizing the unique perspectives of women and their shared experiences. 

Individuals wishing to nominate a staff and/or faculty member for this award should send a one-page letter detailing how the nominated individual embodies OWLE's mission. Include in the letter if the individual is being nominated for the faculty or staff award.

Letters should be sent directly to Dr. Lauren Burrow, associate professor of education studies, at burrowle@sfasu.edu no later than tomorrow. Include “Nomination for OWLE Award” in the email subject line.

Members of OWLE's Achievement and Advancement Committee will review the nomination letters received. Those selected to receive the award will be notified by April 7.

SFA's Department of Agriculture welcomed secondary students from over 200 school districts to compete in the 2023 SFA Invitational Career Development Events Contest March 27. The event allowed competitors to use their skills in 13 contest areas including entomology, floriculture, forestry, livestock and vet science.

The top 15 competitors received prizes, and the top three teams in each contest were awarded banners. Additionally, the competitor who earned the most points in each contest received a belt buckle and $1,000 SFA agriculture scholarship.

Faculty, staff and students in the department assisted with the competition.

For those involved in the interview and hiring process, Human Resources is hosting training sessions for its new toolkit. The session goes through the hiring process from start to finish.

Register for training in mySFA. Go to “Employee,” then “myTraining.” Then, click “Browse for Training” and search for “Hiring Manager Toolkit.”

Training is planned for 3:30 p.m. April 12 and 10 a.m. May 10 in Austin Building, Room 101.

SFA Gardens will host the monthly Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series at 7 p.m. April 13 in the Brundrett Conservation Education Building at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center.

Dawn Stover, a study leader at the East Texas Plant Materials Center within the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, will present "Finding the Ephemeral: Chasing Elusive Botanical Treasures of East Texas.”

Stover joined the conservation service in November 2021. She is currently working on germplasm adaptation trails, conservation plant releases and seeding rate studies to benefit landowners and land managers in East Texas and western Louisiana.

SFA employs more than 1,400 students who play a key role in educational, research and operational excellence. Human Resources encourages faculty and staff to show their appreciation to those students during National Student Employee Appreciation Week, planned for April 10-14.

For ideas on how to show your appreciation, visit the "Ways to Celebrate Student Employees" section on the HR website.

The Organization for Women’s Leadership and Equity will hold its last general membership meeting of the 2022-23 school year from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. April 14 in Steen Library's Wyatt Room and via Zoom.

Email owle@sfasu.edu, Dr. Mary Hawkins or Sheri Grant-Fenton for the Zoom link.

Men's Golf

The Lumberjacks placed seventh at the Big Texan tournament at Riverhill Country Club in Kerrville.

The story of an entrancing and free-spirited girl and the inexorable impact of fate is featured when SFA's School of Music presents Georges Bizet’s opera “Carmen.” Based on a novella by Prosper Mérimée, “Carmen” will run nightly at 7:30 p.m. today through Saturday, April 1, in Cole Concert Hall.

“‘Carmen’ is an opera full of spectacle, love, jealousy, ambition, beautiful music and dramatic conflict,” said Dr. Richard Berry, professor of voice and opera theater director.

The SFA School of Theatre and Dance will present the student-directed, full-length play “Sagittarius Ponderosa" by MJ Kaufman at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow and at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 1, in Regents' Suite A in the Baker Pattillo Student Center.

Connor Molen, a junior theatre major from Denton, is the play’s director. He explains that in “Sagittarius Ponderosa,” character Archer (still Angela to his family) “doesn’t want to move back to his home in eastern Oregon when his father falls ill. But at night, under the oldest Ponderosa Pine, he meets a stranger who knows the history of the forests and the sadness of losing endangered things. As Archer accepts big changes in his family, he discovers the power of names and the histories they make and mask,” according to information at trwplays.com/sagittarius-ponderosa/.

The SFA School of Art and the Friends of the Visual Arts will present a free, one-night screening of “The Bell Affair,” a film by Kwakiutl Dreher, William Thomas III and Michael Burton. The screening is at 7 p.m. Friday, April 7, in The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House.

“The Bell Affair” is an animated feature depicting the overlooked story of courtroom freedom-making in American history. In the film, Daniel and Mary Bell sue for their freedom and then lead one of the largest escape attempts in history. About to be separated, they are forced to make a terrifying choice.

The film will be followed by a question-and-answer session on Zoom with Dreher and Burton.

Author and educator William Underwood Eiland will serve as juror for the 28th Texas National, SFA's acclaimed art competition and exhibition, which opens April 14 and runs through June 30 in The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House.

Art patrons and community members will have an opportunity to participate in a “juror’s chat” session with Eiland, who is director of the Georgia Museum of Art, at 5 p.m. April 14 to be followed by the opening reception of Texas National from 6 to 8 p.m.

Want to stay in daylight saving time forever? Move to Greenland.

The country's parliament, Inatsisartut, voted to stick to daylight saving time year-round Nov. 24 to give Greenlanders another hour of daylight in the afternoons and more time to do business with Europe and farther afield.

Learn more from the Associated Press.