SFA students voted March 2-3 to approve a student-led referendum designed to enhance and expand the university’s student experience. The measure passed with 68% support and over 2,600 students participating, reflecting strong student engagement across campus.

The approved initiative establishes a dedicated funding structure that will return more than $1 million annually to support student-focused priorities, including organizations, recreation sports, research opportunities, travel, conferences and campus life programs. The model also aligns SFA with peer institutions across The University of Texas System. For more information, visit SFA's Student Government Association webpage.

SFA is modernizing procurement with a digital purchasing platform called JacksBuy to provide faster purchases, transparency in processing and a reduction in manual processes. The platform goes live March 17.

JacksBuy provides an all-encompassing platform to manage purchasing, receiving, invoicing and contracting. All SFA employees have access to shop from preapproved catalogs.

Guides, role-based trainings and in-person workshops will be provided at launch.

Staff Council will hold a meeting at 10 a.m. March 17 in McGee Business Building, Room 133, and via Zoom.

Allison Huffman, compliance program coordinator, will discuss SFA HOP 05-503 Youth Protection, and Kevin Burnette, Human Resources training development specialist, will present on the NEOED Learn training platform.

The meeting agenda will be available on the meeting information webpage.

The next SFA Faculty Forum and Ale in Favor? Faculty Discussion Group meetings will be held March 25. The forum will meet from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. in the McGee Business Building, Room 133, and Ale in Favor? from 4 to 5 p.m. at the Fredonia Brewery. Both also will be available via Zoom. There will be no meetings March 11 due to spring break. The remaining meeting dates for this semester are April 8, April 22 and May 6.

Meeting ID: 925 4007 1340

Passcode: FORUM

National Fire Protection Association standards require certain events with large numbers of attendees to have trained crowd managers to help promote life safety and assist with emergency procedures. Qualifying events must provide at least one trained crowd manager for every 250 attendees. Event organizers and sponsoring departments are responsible for ensuring this requirement is met during event planning.

To access the training, select “Crowd Manager Training” on the Environmental Health, Safety and Risk Management Department webpage. If you are not already logged in, you will be directed to the SFA Central Authentication Service login page before accessing the training form.

External organizations: Contact the Safety Department directly to arrange training.

For more information regarding applicability or event requirements, contact the Safety Department at safety@sfasu.edu or ext. 4514.

Summer and fall 2026 registration opens March 25, and faculty and staff are encouraged to help students prepare by sharing available resources.

The Office of the Registrar will host live, 30-minute online tutorials designed to walk students through the registration process. Sessions will be offered at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m., with tutorials for current students scheduled March 16 through 18 and sessions for incoming students scheduled March 19 through 20. Students may sign up for a live session on this webpage. Recorded tutorials are also available for viewing at any time on the student registration knowledge base page, and registration schedules are posted on the registrar’s office website.

For more information, contact the registrar’s office at registrar@sfasu.edu.

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

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

SFA's Arnold Center for Entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurship academic program in the Nelson Rusche College of Business were collectively named the top emerging entrepreneurship program in the country by the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

Old North Baptist Church records dating back to Texas Republic days were recently donated to the East Texas Research Center at SFA by the Summers and Middlebrook families of Nacogdoches.

The call for proposals for the 2026 Lifelong Learning Conference is open until March 21.

This conference provides a collaborative platform for local educators and SFA alumni to engage in a dynamic learning community centered on innovative teaching practices and emerging research. Organizers encourage submissions from diverse perspectives, including educators, practitioners and leaders, with preference given to presentations that highlight effective teaching strategies for diverse learners. The conference aims to inspire and empower educators and communities to embrace lifelong learning as an essential part of their professional journey and thrive in a rapidly changing world.

For more information, visit the conference webpage.

SFA Today will not distribute Wednesday, March 11, during spring break. We’ll resume publication March 18. We wish everyone a restful and enjoyable spring break.

Dr. Jessica Gordon, assistant professor of sociology; Dr. Roslyn Fraser, associate professor of sociology; Dr. Amber Wagnon, associate professor of education studies; and Drs. Chrissy Cross and Lauren Burrow, professors of education studies, were selected to present multiple papers representing their individual and collaborative research works at the European Congress of Qualitative Inquiry in Athens, Greece.

ECQI was created by and for qualitative, creative and mixed-methods researchers or sympathizing stakeholders, and is a sister event of the International Congress Qualitative Inquiry.

Antoniazzi; Dr. Gabriel Andrade-Ponce, postdoctoral research associate; Ethan Menzel, former graduate student; Devin Stage and Kyle Hughes, undergraduate students; and Karen Velasquez, external collaborator, have documented southern flying squirrels and other mammals at the Tucker Woods and in a backyard of Colonial Hills, demonstrating that these urban green spaces support native arboreal mammals.

By placing camera traps in the tree canopy, the team improved detection of species often missed in ground surveys. The study, "Climbing the urban canopy: Camera trap insights into mammal activity and habitat use," was published in the Wildlife Society Bulletin.