SFA has been awarded a $134,200 grant through the Data-to-Action for Parenting Students Grant program.

The grant is administered by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board in partnership with the Urban Institute, a nonprofit research organization that provides data and evidence to advance upward mobility and improve the well-being of families and communities.

Faculty and staff are invited to participate in the SFA State Employee Charitable Contribution Campaign by donating to one of the program's charities and helping meet the $15,000 goal. The event runs now through Oct. 31, and those interested can join the campaign on Microsoft Teams.

All participating charities and entry codes are listed in the Teams folder, along with a fillable PDF pledge form. You may complete and email the form or request a hard copy from an SECC leader — names and contact details are also in the folder. The form allows you to choose payroll deduction for donations.

To participate in the Nacogdoches Area United Way My Fair Share program, enter code "430751" on the SECC pledge form and follow the flyer’s instructions. Eligible participants will be entered in a car drawing.

Submit completed forms to SECC@sfasu.edu by Oct. 31, or return a hard copy to an SECC leader or Dr. Veronica Beavers, campaign chair, in Baker Pattillo Student Center, Room 3.105.

The seventh annual student-run Fall Plant Fair will take place from 5 to 7 p.m. tomorrow at the SFA Plantery.

Plants available for purchase include a variety of winter annuals, native perennials, houseplants and succulents, all of which thrive in the East Texas area. Pam Penick, gardener, speaker and author, also will give a presentation based on her new book “Gardens of Texas” at 7 p.m.

Faculty, staff, students and community members are invited to the Office of International Programs’ global gateway presentation on Kenya at 3 p.m. tomorrow in Steen Library, Room 103. The event will include a presentation led by an SFA international student from Kenya who will introduce attendees to their country, traditions and lifestyle.

For more information, contact Enrique Venegas at enrique.venegas@sfasu.edu or ext. 6604.

What started as a quarter-acre plot planted by SFA students behind the Agriculture Building in 1985 has blossomed into six themed gardens encompassing 138 acres. To celebrate, SFA Gardens is hosting its 40th Anniversary Celebration from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 25, throughout its gardens.

Faculty and staff are invited to attend the virtual workshop, "Harnessing the Power of AI: An Exploration of AI Tools for the Next Generation of Research" at noon Nov. 5.

The workshop, presented by Avi Staiman, founder and CEO of Academic Language Experts, is intended to help attendees master the transformative power of artificial intelligence in research. This session discusses top AI tools for researchers and highlights practical use cases demonstrating how these tools enhance efficiency, accuracy and novelty in research. It also covers AI-assisted data analysis, simplified literature review, predictive modeling and more.

This workshop is free and includes an annual membership in the Textbook & Academic Authors Association, a nonprofit organization that provides support, knowledge and opportunities for authors. Those interested can register at the TAA website.

SFA’s fall Registration Rally will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Nov. 6 in the Lumberjack Learning Lab on the first floor of Steen Library.

Faculty and staff are encouraged to tell students about the event, which is intended to offer students a one-stop opportunity to clear holds and register for summer and fall 2026 terms.

Representatives from the Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships, Student Business Services, Office of the Registrar, and the Cole Student Success Center, among others, will be ready to offer one-on-one assistance. Snacks and refreshments will be available.

The Office of Admissions is looking for volunteers for the Nov. 1 Showcase. The shift options are 9 a.m. to noon, noon to 3 p.m. or for the entire event. Volunteers also can work the Showcase Tailgate from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. This is an excellent opportunity to be visible to future Lumberjacks, their families and the campus community. Those interested can sign up using the volunteer form.

Faculty and staff are invited to participate in the student affairs and higher education master’s program, which is accepting applications for spring 2026 admission. The program is fully online and incorporates a career-focused curriculum and can be taken on a full- or part-time basis.

Those interested can join a live Q&A session from 5 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 29, via the Zoom link. Attendees will meet faculty members, explore the program and get answers to questions.

The James I. Perkins College of Education's Access and Opportunity Committee recently partnered with Jack Walkers to host a faculty-focused campus tour. The tour was designed to get faculty members out of their offices, explore campus and learn more about the spaces and resources available. Faculty members expressed appreciation for the opportunity to view the campus from a new perspective and strengthen connections in an informal environment.

Montaña-Schalk and co-authors published a paper titled "Resource niche partitioning and overlap among native and non-native lizards in an urban environment" in the Canadian Journal of Zoology.

The research reveals how native lizards on SFA's campus coexist and partition resources such as food and habitat with the invasive lizard, the Mediterranean House Gecko. The house gecko is native to Southern Europe and Northern Africa but has been introduced in many places worldwide. This invasive gecko is common and can be found on surfaces of buildings all over campus, primarily at night, while the three native species of lizards predominantly found on campus are the Little Brown Skink, the Five-lined Skink and the Green Anole.

Hampton presented on his forthcoming book "The Gridiron Gospel: Faith and College Football in 20th-Century America" with the Michigan Center for Early Christian Studies.

His presentation explored how college football and muscular Christianity developed together, shaping American religious, gender and racial ideals. His book examines how many Christian denominations embraced the game to shape and reshape their faith to meet the changing social demands, and to find God's lessons for them. Wins and losses expressed the divine will while the game's popularity offered a way to evangelize nonbelievers. Hampton also investigates the sport's place in providing a stage for fostering Christian manhood, male community, gender dominance and on-the-field displays of heroic savagery that served a higher purpose.

Njororai published the book “East African Football: History, Structure, and Identity."

The book captures the passion that the East African people brought to soccer when introduced to it by the British Colonial settlers, missionaries and administrators in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The book discusses the enthusiasm, history, organization and identity for the sport within the individual countries of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, as well as regionally as a collective entity.

Brandon Stringfield, chief information security officer, and Travis Killen, assistant director of enterprise systems, presented “Security and Operations: Maximizing Impact Through Collaboration” at the UTINFOSEC event.

The presentation discussed how routine security information and event management meetings have evolved into a collaborative forum uniting security and operations teams at SFA. These weekly sessions now drive coordinated efforts in threat hunting, incident response, vulnerability management, access control and disaster recovery. It also highlighted how collaboration between security and operations can drive measurable improvements in both resilience and efficiency, and underscored how cross-team trust, shared visibility and automation can turn traditional silos into a unified response capability.

Marshall Charloff & The Purple xPeRIeNCE, known as the most authentic celebration of Prince in the world, will kick off SFA’s University Series at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 24, at Turner Auditorium in the Griffith Fine Arts Building.

Those who missed the premiere of SFA's episode of Amazon Prime Video's "The College Tour" can view it on the episode's webpage.