SFA University

August 31, 2020 - Among 338 universities researched, Stephen F. Austin State University ranked No. 32 nationally and No. 3 in Texas for social media engagement — a metric of growing importance in an increasingly virtually connected world.

“I’m proud to see University Marketing Communications’ social media team recognized for its exceptional work,” said Dr. Scott Gordon, SFA president. “Social media engagement has been growing in importance throughout the past decade and has been particularly valuable during the global pandemic. As plans continue to evolve at a rapid pace around the world, it will remain a front-line tool for sharing those changes.”

Rival IQ, a social media analytics company, conducted the higher education social media engagement study by surveying content posted between June 1, 2019, and May 31, 2020, on three main platforms: Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

“SFA is ranked in the top 10% among universities for overall consistent, steadily engaging accounts encompassing all social media platforms,” said Dr. Shirley Luna, SFA’s executive director of University Marketing Communications. “It’s imperative SFA keeps its audience engaged because it is one of our main forms of communication with current and prospective students, alumni, and the SFA and Nacogdoches communities.”

Using survey data and a weighted formula, Rival IQ generated an overall engagement ranking for each school that blends total engagement with engagement rates, according to its report. Rather than simply comparing total clicks, likes or shares, this type of weighted formula reveals true engagement percentages so that a larger university’s sheer number of followers doesn’t bury smaller universities with a naturally lower follower base.

“Engagement rate evens the playing field between accounts with varying audience sizes,” said Kerry Whitsett, SFA University Marketing Communications social media specialist. “Obviously, an account with 100,000 followers will have more comments on any given post than an account with 20,000. So, rather than comparing total number of comments on a post, it compares the number as a percentage in relation to the number of the account’s followers.”

SFA’s ranking far surpassed other Texas universities of similar size: Texas State University ranked No. 105, Sam Houston State University ranked No. 151, and Lamar University ranked No. 267.

“One of the reasons SFA is ranked so high is because the marketing team communicates with its followers — and our communication is not one way,” Whitsett said. “We like and make comments on posts, we answer questions, and we congratulate people when they post about being accepted to SFA and upon graduation. We tell people visiting our campus, ‘We hope you enjoyed your day at SFA!’ We want our audience to know SFA is actively engaged with them.”

Of the three individual platforms, SFA’s performance on Twitter was the best ranked, landing the No. 12 position nationally.

As of August 2020, SFA has 20,800 followers on Twitter, 18,800 on Instagram, and more than 75,000 on Facebook with each platform comprising its own unique audience.

Rival IQ, a social media analytics company, ranked Stephen F. Austin State University No. 32 among 338 universities nationally and No. 3 in Texas for social media engagement — a metric of growing importance in an increasingly virtually connected world. Pictured here are snapshots of one high-performing post from each of SFA’s main platforms.

August 25, 2020 - One Stephen F. Austin State University student doesn’t have to worry about paying for the review courses and registration fees associated with the four-part Uniform CPA Examination she’ll take next year.

Nicole Phifer, a graduate student in accountancy at the Rusche College of Business, recently received an important windfall – a $10,000 scholarship from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, a nonprofit established through the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 to oversee the audits of public companies.

Nicole Phifer, a graduate student in the Schlief School of Accountancy, won a $10,000 scholarship from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. Phifer is on schedule to finish the five-year Bachelor of Business Administration/Master of Professional Accountancy program in four years and has an internship lined up for spring semester.

The agency’s scholarships are funded through fines assessed on accounting firms across the world. For Phifer, a 21-year-old graduate student from Rusk, the scholarship means she can focus on maintaining her 4.0 GPA, finishing out her coursework, and ramping up her CPA prep this spring. Considering that the CPA cycle can cost in excess of $3,000 ­– in addition to fall and spring tuition – the scholarship is not just an accolade, but an essential, enabling element of Phifer’s five-year Bachelor of Business Administration/Master of Professional Accountancy program at SFA.

“I didn’t think I was going to get it,” said Phifer, one of 234 students nationwide who received the honor.

Phifer was nominated for the award by Dr. Kelly Noe, director of SFA’s Schlief School of Accountancy.

“She saw potential in me,” Phifer said. “She sees potential in students that they might not see in themselves.”

With Phifer, the potential was not hard to find. She took an accounting course during the fall semester of her first year in 2017 and never looked back. Along with the 4.0 GPA, Phifer worked at University Finance and Administration ​as a student assistant, is president of accounting honors group Beta Alpha Psi, is a member of business honors society Beta Gamma Sigma, and is a graduate assistant at the business college.

Phifer already has an internship lined up at Henry & Peters in Tyler, a blue-chip regional accounting firm founded in 1929. And if the firm makes an offer for permanent employment, Phifer, who has yet to decide on whether her focus will be on tax or audit, will oblige.

“People talk about going to Dallas or Houston, but Tyler is big enough for me,” she said, noting that her family would be just 40 miles down the road.

According to PCAOB, since 2011 the organization has issued $13.7 million in scholarships to 1,370 students at 473 institutions. The nonprofit reports that women and minority recipients have been on the rise since 2017.

In some instances, the fines that pay for the scholarships are enormous, as was the case last year when a Mexico-based firm and its associates were assessed $530,000. While many settlements involve US companies, plenty include registered firms based in places like Canada, Colombia, Hong Kong, India and South Korea. If the proceeds from an auditing penalty out of Seoul can end up in a place like Nacogdoches, then that’s something Phifer can accept.

“Whoever came up with that idea knew what they were doing,” she said.

By Richard Massey, senior marketing communications specialist at Stephen F. Austin State University

August 25, 2020 - Based on forecasts that indicate Hurricane Laura will be a Category 3 storm at landfall and will impact our area with high winds and rain beginning late Wednesday night, the following operational changes are now in effect at Stephen F. Austin State University:

  • Beginning noon Wednesday, Aug. 26, all classes are canceled for the remainder of the week. Classes are expected to resume as scheduled Monday, Aug. 31.
  • Beginning at 3 p.m. Wednesday, university offices will be closed for the remainder of the week. Non-essential university employees are released from duties at that time and will be granted emergency leave for work time missed.
  • SFA’s Early Childhood Laboratory and Charter School will operate as normally scheduled on Wednesday, but will be closed Thursday and Friday.
  • Campus housing and dining will remain open, and students are welcome to remain on campus. Dining hours may be modified based on weather conditions.
  • A call center will open at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 26, and will remain open as needed. The number is (936) 468-3401.
  • All Lumberjacks are encouraged to remain aware of weather conditions and to put safety first when making travel decisions.

Updates will be posted at SFA’s University Police Department emergency management page –  sfasu.edu/upd/emergency-management/jackalert – and on the university's social media account.

Stephen F. Austin State University Professor of Military Science James Attaway was recently promoted to lieutenant colonel. Attaway is a 2004 SFA graduate and began his Army career in 1998. He has served with numerous units across the world before becoming SFA’s chair of military science in 2018.August 24, 2020 — In setting the example of “being the best,” Stephen F. Austin State University Professor of Military Science James Attaway recently was promoted from the rank of major to lieutenant colonel.

“Being promoted to lieutenant colonel means a lot to me,” Attaway said. “I started in the Army as a private more than 20 years ago and plan to retire in a few years with my final rank as a lieutenant colonel. It is incredible to think back on all I have experienced.”

Attaway, who graduated from SFA in 2004 with a Bachelor of Science in kinesiology, began his Army career in 1998 when he enlisted as an infantryman. He has since completed training at Ranger, Airborne, and Air Assault schools and more. He has served with numerous units across the world, including Kosovo, Iraq, Korea and Afghanistan.

Attaway was selected as SFA’s chair of military science in 2018. Since then, he has overseen a successful 50-year anniversary for the department, helped establish the 1st Lt. Kile G. West 5K and 10K Memorial Race, and aided the ROTC Ranger Team in winning first place in the Task Force Ranger Challenge for the first time in SFA’s history.

He said he is happy to be “stationed” in Nacogdoches, where he and his family plan to remain after his retirement.

“After 17 years of marriage and 10 moves, it feels really good to be putting down roots,” Attaway said.

Even though his rank has changed, Attaway is still committed to training future Army officers for commissioning.

Despite the challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, the faculty and staff under Attaway’s leadership have continued to train cadets. Due to safety restrictions, the department is preparing for course modality changes and physical distancing regulations.

“As both Army officers and noncommissioned officers, part of our job is to adapt, overcome and complete missions,” Attaway said. “While COVID-19 has changed how we teach, it hasn’t caused us to stop teaching and mentoring the next generation of Army officers.”


Rehearsals are underway for SFA’s Lumberjack Marching Band color guard and drum line, and band rehearsals get underway when fall classes begin.

August 21, 2020 - As schools and universities carefully crafted their reopening plans amid the coronavirus pandemic, questions about health and safety for students and faculty were at the forefront. Right along with those were questions about sporting events and extracurricular activities.

Although Stephen F. Austin State University currently does not have any home football games scheduled following the Southland Conference’s decision to postpone conference competition for the fall, the athletic department is working to amend that. SFA Athletics Director Ryan Ivey said in a recent press release that SFA will explore avenues for fall competition against other institutions looking to compete.

The Lumberjack Marching Band will be ready if and when that happens.

SFA band directors worked throughout the summer on more than designing marching routines; they are fine tuning plans to keep their student musicians safe. Directors opted to split the university band into two separate groups of equal instrumentation to better accommodate social distancing guidelines on the field and in the stands, according to Dr. Tamey Anglley, associate director of bands at SFA and director of the Lumberjack Marching Band.

“We are requiring students to wear face masks anytime they aren’t playing their instruments and brass players to have bell covers for their instruments to help lower the aerosol emission from their bells,” Anglley said.

Additionally, all drills on the field will be at six-step intervals, which means students will be 11.25 feet apart while performing.

As the far-reaching effects of the pandemic began to become more apparent last spring, SFA band directors started researching best COVID-era practices for band instruction and performance. In May, the directors attended a virtual athletic band symposium sponsored by the College Band Directors National Association. The symposium featured presentations from the scientists who were leading the aerosol studies out of University of Colorado and Colorado State University and also clinics from various marching band directors around the country, Anglley explained.

“At that time, no one knew football could or would be canceled or moved to the spring semester,” she said, “so we were mostly discussing the safety measures we needed to take for our students and the many details to think about with social distance protocols. Since then, I have been in communication with our regional CBDNA and Southland Conference athletic band directors where we discuss how everyone is planning this season.”

As a result, fall rehearsal days, performances and game day times for the LMB will be alternated as needed, Anglley explained. If home football games can be scheduled, the band plans to perform, albeit in a limited fashion.

“We went into this season knowing that we wouldn’t be performing at pregame or halftime, but we are still discussing with athletics the possibility of a postgame performance once all football personnel have vacated the field,” Anglley said.

Color guard and drum line camps were conducted this week; leadership camp is Aug. 22; and split-band rehearsals are scheduled during regular class time once the fall semester starts.

For many, performing in the Lumberjack Marching Band is a highlight of the SFA university experience – one that builds memories and fosters friendships that last a lifetime. The 2020 fall LMB season will be like none other before it, and directors are committed to making it memorable and safe.

“The health and safety of the students is our utmost priority at SFA and in the Lumberjack Marching Band,” Anglley said. “We have and will continue to work diligently to provide a safe rehearsal and game day space for our students to have a fulfilling musical experience.”

August 21, 2020 - The Stephen F. Austin State University Rusche College of Business is offering an entrepreneurship major beginning this semester. In response to high demand and the growing need to prepare students with versatile skills that are transferable across many industries, the goal of the program is to equip students with learning tools they can use during times of economic success or in times of uncertainty. 
 
While the entrepreneurship major is a new program, a minor in entrepreneurship has been available and is offered to all SFA students. Dr. Matthew Lindsey, chair of the marketing and management department, believes the entrepreneurship major will be an excellent opportunity for students who have been seeking that degree, while the existing entrepreneurship minor will appeal to a variety of academic disciplines. 
 
“For the past several years, students interested in management and marketing have inquired about two subjects, sports business and entrepreneurship,” Lindsey said. “We are looking forward to fulfilling that demand. I also think the minor is a valuable asset for non-business students across campus who are studying something they love, like music, and want to incorporate that passion into a business. It will equip them with the ability to think through the fundamental business elements needed to produce a viable venture.”
 
Two new faculty members were hired to help establish the entrepreneurship program: Dr. Raymond Jones, who began in fall 2019, holds a Ph.D. in management with an emphasis on strategy and entrepreneurship; and Dr. Brian Nagy, who earned his Ph.D. in management strategy. He started this semester.
 
Jones has already taken an active role in the local business community by serving on several panel discussions with the Nacogdoches Economic Development Corporation. He is utilizing those connections to help establish relationships between the university and local businesses.
 
“The intention of the entrepreneurship program is two-fold: It will prepare our students with a strong skill-set for life after college while serving as a resource for local businesses and start-ups in the community,” Jones said. “Collaboration is important. We are also looking forward to identifying sponsorship opportunities to allow for entrepreneurial competitions on campus.”
 
Lindsey is optimistic about the program and believes it will be an asset to many students. 
 
“We have a thriving sports business program that was just recently established, and we are excited to be able to launch and grow the entrepreneurship program as well,” he said.
 
For more information about the Rusche College of Business entrepreneurship minor, contact Dr. Mathew Lindsey at lindseymd@sfasu.edu or (936) 468-1858.

By Richard Massey, senior marketing communications specialist at Stephen F. Austin State University

August 20, 2020 - In celebration of the passage of the 19th Amendment, the bells of Griffith Fine Arts Building on the Stephen F. Austin State University campus will ring 19 times shortly after noon on Wednesday, Aug. 26, to commemorate the U.S. Constitution article that guaranteed women the right to vote.

The 19th Amendment states the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. It was passed by Congress on June 4, 1919, ratified on Aug. 18 then certified on Aug. 26 of 1920, formally adding it to the U.S. Constitution and providing suffrage to all citizens.

Starting in fall 2018, a group of local interested people – Nineteenth Amendment Celebration, or NAC –  began meeting to plan events for 2020 to commemorate the passage of the amendment, according to Dr. Dana Cooper, professor of history at SFA. The onset of COVID-19 changed those plans.

“The Nineteenth Amendment Celebration group had such good intentions for 2020,” Cooper said. Among the events were readings, symposiums, exhibitions, living histories and more.

According to Cooper, the fight for the right to vote was a long struggle that officially began in 1848 with the Seneca Falls convention, which was attended by some 300 men and women. During the conference, Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote the Declaration of Sentiments, which outlined the rationale for women's suffrage and was based upon the Declaration of Independence. Stanton's document was signed by 100 people, including 68 women and 32 men. 

“This is typically considered the formal beginning of the fight for suffrage in the United States,” Cooper said.

Numerous battles ensued in the courts and at the state level, and many women attained suffrage in specific states before the amendment was ratified at the federal level. Texas voted to ratify the 19th Amendment on June 28, 1919, making it the first southern state to do so.

“As one of the original events planned by NAC to commemorate this moment in history, the ringing of the bells on Aug. 26 will honor the long fight – by so many and for so long,” Cooper said. “Different people of different backgrounds, perspectives and races fought for decades to provide equality at the polls and the opportunity to partake in democracy, a process that is arguably more important than ever.”

Plans are underway to move some of the planned commemoration events to Zoom so that the celebration can continue on campus and within the community, regardless of the restrictions imposed by social distancing, according to Dr. Linda Levitt, professor of communication studies at SFA.

“We want to find ways to continue our celebration despite the need to change our context,” she said.


Stephen F. Austin State University juniors Garrett Plumlee of Longview, Valentina Stinchfield of Tyler and Breanna Lemons of Hawkins practice meditation at a fitness conference before the COVID-19 pandemic. They are enrolled in the inaugural year of a new academic pathway that helps students in Tyler Junior College’s wellness and exercise program complete a four-year Bachelor of Science in kinesiology with a concentration in exercise science at SFA. Photo courtesy of Anne Provencher

August 13, 2020 - Students enrolled in Tyler Junior College’s wellness and exercise program now have a way to complete a four-year Bachelor of Science in kinesiology with a concentration in exercise science at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches.

The new pathway helps TJC students transfer their credits based on the Workforce Education Course Manual to SFA, which recently switched to the Texas Common Course Numbering System.

“This allows more classes to be transferred into SFA, so that reduces the students’ time to graduation and it reduces their cost because we’ve already agreed that those certain courses are going to transfer in,” said Dr. Jay Thornton, chair of SFA’s Department of Kinesiology and Health Science. “Some of those transfer in as junior- and senior-level courses.”

Anne Provencher, chair of TJC’s Department of Wellness and Exercise Science, said there’s another benefit to the pathway.

“It provides an easy, step-by-step plan with classes sequenced to ensure success at the next level,” she said. “Some students may have to work on the side or may be the first in their family to attend college or may face other issues. They may need a more gradual entry to the university level.”

The TJC program incorporates a lot of hands-on training to help students more easily transition to university-level labs and understand their future job opportunities, Provencher added.

“Students must complete a practicum at TJC, which gives them an opportunity to work with community businesses as interns, get a feel for the industry and network with those who will be hiring when they graduate,” she said. “We want to prepare them for the university level and show them what’s available to them in the industry once they earn their degrees and possibly while they earn their bachelor-level degrees.”

After completing two years of coursework to earn their Associate of Applied Science in wellness and exercise at TJC, students in the pathway transfer to SFA to complete their Bachelor of Science in kinesiology with a concentration in exercise science.

“Our program at TJC aligns with the Workforce Education Course Manual, so we’re coming from the workforce administration side instead of the academic side,” Provencher said. “So, for SFA to be gracious and add our courses to its second or third level is truly unique and greatly appreciated.”

Approved a year ago, the pathway is rolling out this fall despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

“As long as nothing changes, our groups are small enough that we can socially distance and complete the lab portions,” Provencher said. “And we have a hybrid approach for moving online with coursework and meeting in even smaller groups for testing if the pandemic worsens in East Texas.”

The students enrolled in the inaugural year of the program are juniors Breanna Lemons of Hawkins, Garrett Plumlee of Longview and Valentina Stinchfield of Tyler.

Lemons said the streamlined TJC-SFA pathway will keep her on track with courses she really wants to take while preparing her for a wide range of career opportunities.

“I appreciate the focused academic approach,” she said. “I don’t have to take a lot of extra, generalized courses.”

Plumlee developed an affinity for exercise science while playing sports growing up and coaching for Bishop Thomas K. Gorman Catholic School in Tyler for three years. He also was drawn to the program because of the many career opportunities it presents.

“There are several routes I can see myself going after graduation, whether I'm personally training, coaching at a high school or going the graduate assistant strength and conditioning coach path,” he said. “I can see really enjoying myself in any of those.”

Plumlee believes this pathway will open doors for students in the region.

“The TJC-SFA partnership will give students in Deep East Texas options and accessibility to a four-year degree,” he said.

Stinchfield was anxious at first about the transition from a junior college campus to a university with bigger classes, but after talking with her advisors, she’s ready for fall.

“I’m looking forward to the different ways of learning and styles of teaching,” she said.

Stinchfield played soccer from age 4 through her graduation from Whitehouse High School. She then played competitive soccer before earning her Associate of Arts in teaching at TJC.

Now she wants to focus on exercise science so she can be an effective trainer and coach.

“I want to work with people and teach them how to live healthy lives,” Stinchfield said. “I really want to start training kids when they’re young so they can develop safe, lifelong exercise habits.”

Students obtaining this degree move on to careers in exercise physiology, fitness, medicine and rehabilitation, research, and other allied health areas. The upper-level courses in SFA’s exercise science concentration help students specialize in their areas of interest, such as personal training, sports performance, athletic training and clinical exercise physiology.

This kinesiology degree also prepares students for graduate health professional degree programs to become traditional and osteopathic medical doctors, physical and occupational therapists and physician assistants.

“The Bachelor of Science in kinesiology is one of the top undergraduate degrees nationwide that physical and occupational therapists earn to obtain careers in that field,” Thornton said.

In addition to increasing enrollment at TJC and SFA, Provencher hopes the pathway will train more health and fitness professionals who can teach others safe wellness strategies based on proven information.

“These students will have true science behind them,” Provencher said. “They will know what they’re doing based on real health and safety information and not on the beauty of the market.”

For more information on this program, contact Thornton at jthornton@sfasu.edu or Provencher at apro@tjc.edu.

August 12, 2020 - According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, glaciers around the world have lost significant mass since the 1970s, due in part to warming trends in global temperatures. While the concept of massive sheets of ice may seem foreign to Texans, their importance can’t be overstated.

“Glaciers hold 75% of our fresh water, and they cover 11% of the Earth’s land area — they play a lot of different roles,” said Brianna Clark, Stephen F. Austin State University environmental science graduate student in the Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture. “For example, in some countries the glacial meltwater is a source of hydroelectric power. In some alpine communities they are the sole source of drinking water.”

Given their global importance, Clark sought to shed light on current trends in glacial coverage within two U.S. national parks by performing area and volume calculations of the landforms using digital remote sensing and geographic information systems.

Clark explained that the study of glaciers, known as glaciology, has been radically expanded thanks to satellites surveying the Earth.

In 2013, NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey launched the Landsat 8 satellite, which orbits the Earth every 99 minutes and captures approximately 740 scenes of the planet each day in nine electromagnetic spectral bands.

Clark said the bands represent different portions of the electromagnetic spectrum and have wavelengths of varying size. Researchers viewing the satellite imagery online are able to add or subtract observable bands to create ratios that improve the visibility of different landforms.

“With my project, I used two ratios — the normalized difference snow index and the normalized difference glacier index,” Clark said. “There have been a lot of studies that used the normalized difference snow index, but not a lot have used the normalized difference glacier index. My project used a combination of both.”

The two parks at the center of her research, Glacier and Mount Rainier National Parks, were chosen based on their representation of two distinct geographic and climactic regions known as the Intermountain Region and the Pacific Northwest.

“Most studies have focused on the plausibility of using satellite remote sensing for measuring specific glacier parameters or measuring one specific region, but there has been a lack of research combining satellite remote sensing and climatic factors to assess the differences in deglaciation among regions,” Clark said.

To do this, Clark used satellite imagery to measure the glacial area of her study sites for the years 1985, 2000 and 2015. She then used contour lines to make digital elevation models in order to calculate the change in volume of the glaciers. In addition to the satellite imagery, Clark also compared climate trends between the two regions by measuring cumulative degrees above zero for each study year, as well as precipitation.

Dr. Daniel Unger, Kenneth Nelson Distinguished Professor of geospatial science and graduate advisor for Clark’s research, said the geospatial technology utilized by Clark is a game changer.

“Remotely sensed data allows a researcher to obtain information over a large geographic area within each image, sometimes from locations that a researcher would not physically be able to get to on the ground,” Unger said. “Given the large synoptic perspective within a Landsat image — approximately 13,200 square miles — obtaining ground information remotely can be cheaper than physically visiting each location. An added benefit is the digital data can be obtained over a series of dates allowing for change detection analysis, as was in the case in Brianna’s research.”

Ultimately, Clark found that within the 30-year period of the study, Glacier National Park lost 27.5% of its glacial coverage, while Mount Rainier lost only 5.7%.

“The differences in these percentages can largely be attributed to the warmer temperatures of the Intermountain Region coupled with lower amounts of snowfall compared to the Pacific Northwest,” Clark said.

She added the Earth undergoes natural cycles between warm and cool temperatures, but this typically takes place over a much longer time scale than currently being experienced.

“Glaciers melting isn’t always something to be alarmed about because it’s something that naturally occurs,” Clark said. “But given the rate at which they are decreasing, we are to some extent contributing to it through anthropogenic climate change.”

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, records of deglaciation in Glacier National Park was observed as early as 1914, corresponding with the Industrial Revolution and the beginning of global warming trends.

“In 2003, two researchers modeled glacial change within the park, simulating increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and a 2-to-3-degree Celsius rise in temperature by 2050,” Clark said. “Based on this simulation, it is predicted that between 2030 and 2080, many of Glacier National Park’s remaining glaciers will disappear.”

As glacial research continues, Clark’s work will provide a valuable record of the state of these glaciers, as well as how geospatial technologies can facilitate similar research in the future.
 

Stephen F. Austin State University environmental science graduate student Brianna Clark utilized satellite imagery and geospatial technology to calculate the change in glacial area within Glacier and Mount Rainier National Parks over a 30 year period. Her research found Glacier National Park lost 27.5%  of its glacial coverage, while Mount Rainier lost only 5.7%. Clark said the variance of glacial loss is largely the result of the difference in temperature and precipitation between the two regions where the parks are located. 

August 6, 2020 - When Fred Poston was a senior at Klein Forest High School in the Houston area, attending Stephen F. Austin State University was a good business decision.

“I had interest in attending a private university, but when I compared the costs, SFA just made sense,” he said.

Poston’s early business acumen paid off – he earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in 1992 and soon departed the state to begin his career in the entertainment industry.

“It wasn’t a career I had been considering,” he said. “In the early ’90s, most of the people I went to school with were getting job offers and lining up jobs before they graduated. Then a recession hit in 1992, and there wasn’t a job waiting for me. So, I asked myself what I might enjoy doing and decided to just give it a shot.”

Poston worked at a coffee factory for a few weeks to make enough money to pay for his transportation to California, and then landed a job in the Dick Clark Productions mail room making $40 a day.

“It didn’t pay all the bills, but it motivated me to work hard and make sure I could support myself,” he recalled.

Poston’s next step involved work with live television shows.

“The company was doing a lot of award shows at that time,” he said. “It was a great way to learn the aspects of production for live television – you only got one chance to get it right, because everybody was watching.”

Poston learned that television production involves very long and intense working hours, so he set his sights on the networks.

“I would see network executives kind of come and go, and I had to figure out what those folks were doing,” he recalled.

Poston got his wish in 1995 when he was hired to be a part of the launch of Warner Brothers’ The WB Television Network.

“It was great ground for learning everything it takes to build a television network, and it gave me the skill set to carry forward to the next network launch, which at the time was Fox Family,” he explained.

Poston had the opportunity to launch Fox Family for the second time when it was bought by Disney and became ABC Family. Much like his earlier work in live television, Poston learned that executive work also was very intense.

“Starting a television network – or a business – is very different than working with an organization that’s already established. You have to build everything from the ground up,” he said. “An advantage for me was coming out of the College of Business at SFA. Even though it was media work, I was a good partner to the people who were creating the product, that product being the creative business of telling stories. My priority was keeping an eye on what it takes to do story-telling as a business, and ultimately getting that product to the viewers.”

More recently, Poston worked with Discovery Communications to launch The Hub, a joint venture with Hasbro, and had a hand in the launch of OWN – the Oprah Winfrey Network. Poston’s work with Discovery Communications in California eventually took him across the country for what was scheduled to be a month-long project in Florida to manage Discovery’s Latin American operations.

“That led to living in Miami for multiple years and working in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, setting up local operations,” Poston said. “I would travel on a regular basis, meeting and hiring people to manage the regional production and operations. Managing people in other countries is an entirely different ballgame, due to the differences in languages and cultures. It definitely tested my skill sets.”

Poston again rose to the occasion when asked to oversee global operations for Discovery’s Asia-Pacific networks based in Singapore, managing operations for more than 80 channels and developing strategy for multi-purposing media.

“I was very fortunate – I was at the right place at the right time, from that first mailroom job to my first network launch,” he said. “And there was a time when my skills were used to provide change management leadership to reorganize or, in some cases, close networks. As interesting opportunities came along, I got involved, and that would lead to the next job. It was a privilege to be given these responsibilities.”

Always motivated and driven, Poston set and met the personal milestones he set for himself: a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, vice president by 30, senior vice president by 40. Now vice president for operations services for the CBS division of the ViacomCBS Corporation, Poston has played a role in the network origination of more than 100 channels in more than 40 countries and in 20 languages. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, he commuted to work each week in Los Angeles from his home in San Marcos.

“It’s been an incredible journey,” he said. “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the things I’ve been involved with and the many talented people and projects I have had the fortune to be a part of, while always making it a priority to make a difference and give back in everything I do.”

This desire to make a difference led Poston to serve for 10 years on the board of directors for the Alliance for Housing and Healing, an organization that provides housing, food and healthcare for individuals in need in Los Angeles County.

Poston said he was honored to be invited to provide the virtual commencement address for SFA in August and will deliver a positive message to the graduation candidates.

“My industry’s business has been about telling stories, and I am fortunate to have this opportunity to share my life story,” he said. “Things have changed for each graduate, but each one should realize and think to themselves, ‘I haven’t changed.’ They’ve completed their college degrees, and regardless of where they did that, they can decide how they will narrate and use that story to write their next chapters. We are definitely living in different, trying times – and we have an opportunity to choose how we will continue.”

The ceremony will be available via the SFA website beginning at 6 p.m. August 14. More than 400 students are candidates for graduation, including five doctoral candidates, 114 master’s degree candidates and 325 bachelor’s candidates. For more information, visit sfasu.edu/commencement.

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