SFA University
J.R. Florez, an employee with Stephen F. Austin State University’s Residence Life Department, mists a room in Steen Hall with a hypochlorous acid, a disinfecting compound the custodial staff says is safer and more effective than bleach. All residence hall rooms have been treated with the disinfectant and will have been treated twice when students return to campus in the fall.
July 3, 2020 Nacogdoches — Residence halls at Stephen F. Austin State University will open to students for the fall 2020 semester but with a sea change of new safety measures that will be continually evaluated as the global pandemic evolves.
Residence Life Department staff members have implemented extreme alterations to traditional housing upkeep in an effort to provide the safest possible college residential experience for returning students this August. These alterations include a wide array of increased sanitation measures at the 11 housing facilities available to students for the fall.
Housing also continues to be offered during the summer term, which has allowed SFA employees to evaluate and update sanitization effectiveness and communication best practices. Residence Life is currently taking applications for summer II housing.
“We are excited to welcome our students back home,” said Shea Roll, assistant director of SFA’s Residence Life. “We are connecting with students through virtual programming and social distancing events. Last week, we had an event with water balloons filled with soap, water and washable paint that the students who are on campus this summer loved! More than ever, community and connection is important to us in our halls.”
Key highlights of the new safety measurements include:
- Each residence hall will have its own full-time custodial staff members who will clean common restrooms and other high-traffic common areas during the day and at night Monday through Friday. A limited number of full-time custodians will disinfect common restrooms and high-traffic areas and clean where needed on weekends.
- A full-time staff member is available seven days a week from 4 p.m. to midnight to provide assistance when requested through the University Police Department.
- Seating will be reduced in all Residence Hall common spaces, and use of community areas like kitchens will be limited.
- Residence halls are not open to the public. Visitation privileges have been amended to allow no more than two additional people in a room or suite at any given time. In addition, both roommates have to agree to this visitation policy before guests may visit.
- All student and professional staff members are required to wear masks. Hand sanitizer stations will be set up, and staff member desks have plastic protectors so they may safely answer resident questions.
- Each hall has a unique 24/7 phone number residents may call if they need anything, from accidentally locking themselves out of their room to reporting signs of illness. They will always have access to a student and professional staff member on call.
- Roommate agreements are amended to include questions about physical distancing in the rooms, sharing items, visitors and wearing masks. Residence Life staff members want to ensure students are communicating their needs to each other on day one, so these agreements help set the tone for expectations within their shared space.
- The university also will offer single bedrooms as they become available to those currently on a waitlist for these rooms.
- A plan also has been formed for students who might become sick, with an immediate protocol for isolation, testing and contact tracing.
Residence Hall sanitization has increased in frequency and potency. Staff members use a GenEon cleaning and disinfecting system containing a hypochlorous solution, a powerhouse cleaning system SFA makes on site at the rate of five gallons per hour.
“This solution, unlike bleach and harsh disinfectants, is safe and a non-irritant. If it gets on your skin or in your eyes, it does not burn,” explained Frank Ronzello, SFA custodial supervisor III. “Even if it is accidently ingested, it is completely harmless. It requires no PPE. It is 70 to 80 times more efficient at killing microbial pathogens than bleach.”
Hypochlorous acid also is used on food and in food service sanitation, as well as in wound care and eye care products, he added.
“We purchased the hypochlorous acid system two years ago to treat buildings if there was a flu outbreak or any other type of airborne illnesses and to treat areas with mold or mildew issues,” Roll said. “The ability to produce hypochlorous acid is something completely unique to SFA and really shows our commitment to safety. While other universities were busy purchasing hypochlorous acid, we were already producing our own.”
Custodial staff members have been using the cleaning compound in all housing facilities since the outbreak of COVID-19 to treat all high-touch-point areas before and after students come to campus.
“We also have treated every vacant room prior to our custodial employees entering the rooms to perform their summer cleaning and disinfecting,” Roll said. “We also will treat rooms after any camps and summer school and use it to treat all high-point-touch areas when students return in the fall.”
The university also announced it would be lifting the on-campus living requirement that stated incoming freshman or underclassmen with less than 60 credit hours must live in campus residence halls.
Additionally, the contract cancellation deadline was extended to midnight July 12. Any cancellations received by that time will be refunded.
“We recognize that in this time, students may be more comfortable not living in a residence hall environment, so we want to be as considerate and as flexible as possible,” Roll said.
While prevention and regular cleaning are key, SFA employees have established staunch protocols should a case of COVID-19 be reported on campus.
“We have worked closely with SFA’s Health Services and have a plan for students who might become sick, with an immediate protocol for isolation, testing and contact tracing. We also would deliver meals to their door. A Residence Life staff member would personally call them twice daily to check on how they are doing, and the Health Clinic would hold Zoom appointments,” Roll said. “We offer Zoom counseling services to these students as well, because at no point do we want them to feel disconnected from their SFA community during isolation. The rooms we have set aside have goody bags with Gatorade, snacks and get well notes along with campus resource numbers. Our goal is to make them as comfortable as possible.”
The current move-in calendar for the fall semester is Aug. 13 through 23. Students must sign up for a two-hour move-in slot and are allowed to bring two individuals to help them with the move.
Students can access the move-in sign up through my mySFA Residence Life tab. Move-in sign up will open at noon July 9 and will remain open through Aug. 23. Students must have two emergency contacts listed in Banner prior to signing up, which can be completed through mySFA by selecting “Update Emergency Contact” on the Home tab.
“They also can change their move-in time up to 24 hours before it occurs to allow as much flexibility as possible; however, we are limiting the number of students allowed to sign up per hall, per shift to allow for social distancing,” Roll said. “When they arrive, they will receive a check-in packet with their key, student ID, helpful tips on how to stay safe on campus and instructions on how to complete an online inspection of their room so we can address any concerns they have right away.
“This one-stop move in will allow for flexibility and social distancing beginning as soon as they walk in the door,” she added. “They also will meet their community assistant, who is an upperclassmen mentor living on their floor to help them with whatever they need and to connect them with the SFA community.”
First-year students attending Jack Camp Orientation, which will be held on campus Aug. 16 through 19, will be given priority to pick move-in shifts.
Currently, approximately 3,500 students have committed to living on campus in the fall.
July 3, 2020 - Mirroring state and national trends to streamline admission procedures in the wake of the ongoing pandemic, Stephen F. Austin State University’s Office of Admissions has announced it will begin test-optional admissions for all 2021 terms.
This decision was prompted by the cancellation of SAT and ACT exam administration as testing centers across the state struggle to accommodate test participants due to required social distancing standards.
“High school seniors continue to experience significant restrictions regarding in-person testing opportunities and challenges with virtual testing,” said Erma Nieto Brecht, SFA’s executive director of enrollment management. “Because of this, students hoping to enter SFA in 2021 will not have to worry about having a standardized test score to apply for admission.”
While the test score requirement is lifted for the admission process, students who were able to take the SAT or ACT are encouraged to submit those scores with their ApplyTexas application as they may be needed in the scholarship review process.
“Submission of tests scores will not create any unfair advantage or disadvantage during the admission review for those students who provide them,” Nieto Brecht said. “We still want to encourage students to take an upcoming ACT/SAT test, if possible, or submit an existing test score, as the ACT/SAT may be required and utilized for scholarship review.”
For more information, visit sfasu.edu/freshman.
June 30, 2020 - The Wildlife Society, an international professional organization of leaders in wildlife science, named the Stephen F. Austin State University student chapter as its national 2020 Student Chapter of the Year.
The annual award recognizes exceptional achievements by student chapters in the promotion of professional standards, outreach and education, as well as advocacy for conservation policy decisions.
“To be recognized across the nation is a huge compliment to our officers and students,” said Jake Hill, forest wildlife management major and president of the SFA student chapter of The Wildlife Society. “It’s a testament to the quality of our college, our forest wildlife program and the university itself.”
Earlier this year the chapter received statewide recognition when it was named Student Chapter of the Year by the Texas Chapter of The Wildlife Society.
Hill said during the past year the student chapter focused on developing its student membership as active wildlife professionals.
One of the chapter’s most public initiatives was the development of a policy program to advocate for the bipartisan Recovering America’s Wildlife Act, which would make supplemental funds available to states for the management of wildlife most in need of conservation. These efforts included writing letters and conducting education campaigns, communicating with state representatives and partnering with other conservation organizations to advance the bill.
In addition, the chapter amplified partnerships with other conservation organizations, such as the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the National Wild Turkey Federation and other smaller nongovernmental organizations.
This spring, the chapter completed a wetland restoration project with Conservation Equity Partners, a local SFA alumni-owned environmental consulting firm. Through this partnership, the chapter planted more than 5,000 trees and gave away approximately 10,000 trees to the public.
“The students involved with the SFA student chapter of The Wildlife Society are outstanding ambassadors for SFA and are well known for their willingness to serve the profession and the community,” said Dr. Hans Williams, dean of SFA’s Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture.
The SFA chapter also donated a portion of its annual fundraising proceeds to assist a newly formed student chapter of The Wildlife Society at another Texas university.
“This award recognizes the hard work of the highly motivated and professional students we have in our program,” said Dr. Daniel Scognamillo, associate professor of forest wildlife management and faculty advisor for the SFA student chapter of The Wildlife Society.
Winning chapters receive a plaque, as well as a $1,000 travel grant to attend the annual Wildlife Society Conference. The name of the chapter also will be added to a permanent plaque on display at The Wildlife Society’s headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland. The SFA student chapter will be recognized at the national conference held virtually in September.
To learn more about the SFA student chapter of The Wildlife Society, its mission and current initiatives, email sfasuthewildlifesociety@gmail.com.
Story by Sarah Fuller, outreach coordinator for Stephen F. Austin State University’s Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture. Contact information: (936) 468-1185 or fullersa@sfasu.edu.
The Wildlife Society, an international professional organization of leaders in wildlife science, named the Stephen F. Austin State University student chapter of The Wildlife Society as its national 2020 Student Chapter of the Year. The annual award recognizes exceptional achievements by student chapters in the promotion of professional standards, outreach and education, as well as advocacy for conservation policy decisions. Pictured is the SFA student chapter at the statewide Texas Chapter of The Wildlife Society meeting held earlier this year in Corpus Christi. The SFA student chapter also was named Student Chapter of the Year by the Texas Chapter of The Wildlife Society.
June 26, 2020 - Sounds of chirping frogs filled the air, but it wasn’t coming from the pond students in Stephen F. Austin State University’s STEM Academy sat near. Sarah Riley and Kennedy Tinajero listened intently on a laptop to breeding frog calls they recorded, counting the number of frogs and seeking to identify the different types of calls for a project examining the factors that influence frog behavior.
Entering their senior year at Lufkin High School, Tinajero and Riley have been a part of SFA’s STEM Academy since their freshman year, exploring science, technology, engineering and mathematics. While most of their learning has taken place in a classroom setting in the past, they now have the opportunity to conduct research in the field with the help of SFA faculty members.
“Every year we get to learn something new and discover what we’re most passionate about,” Riley said. “This year we got to go off on our own, do research, and meet with professors and learn what they do, so this has been a really special experience for us.”
Riley and Tinajero are using a Song Meter borrowed from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service Southern Research Station to collect data from a pond inside the Lufkin city limits, as well as utilizing data collected by the Forest Service from a pond in a local national forest. The Song Meter records sounds for a minute every hour from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m., giving the students six minutes of data per site to analyze.
“We’re trying to see what factors play into the calls, learn about the different types of calls and see how many frogs there are,” Tinajero said. “It’s really interesting, and I’m happy that we’re doing it.”
Because there is an increase in breeding frog call activity during the summer months, the students will be able to record several species of frogs to determine species richness, said Dr. Erin Childress, lecturer in SFA’s Department of Biology. Childress assisted the students with initially sorting through the data, pointing out the different frog calls.
“My vision as a mentor is for these students to think about the entire scope of a research project from beginning to end,” Childress said. “This includes thinking about broad questions they have about nature, narrowing down what specific questions they are curious about, and considering what methods are most appropriate for analyzing the data, what knowledge is gained from the results of the data, how this information adds to the broader scope of knowledge, and what limitations they faced in this study that could have influenced the conclusions they make.”
Students in SFA’s STEM Academy begin high school with a cohort of students and progress through elective courses with them. The students are encouraged and expected to enroll in dual credit and advanced mathematics and science courses, said Dr. Jana Redfield, assistant director of the STEM Research and Learning Center.
“The students in the cohort work in SFA laboratories on college-level experiments guided by university faculty members and lab assistants,” Redfield said. “They sharpen their cooperative learning skills during these laboratory sessions. They are also challenged to think and problem-solve and are given the opportunity to conduct independent research.”
To learn more about STEM Academy and the STEM Research and Learning Center, visit sfasu.edu/STEM.
Lufkin High School seniors Sarah Riley, left, and Kennedy Tinajero examine data from a Song Meter
while working on a project for Stephen F. Austin State University’s STEM Academy.
Using the Song Meter, Riley and Tinajero are collecting recordings
of breeding frog calls to examine the factors that influence frog behavior.
June 25,2020 - Like all universities and public and private school systems across the globe, Stephen F. Austin State University found itself in mid-March suddenly shifting from delivering all in-person classroom instruction to online.
Some courses adapt to remote instruction easier than others. Scott Shattuck, associate dean of the SFA College of Fine Arts, was especially curious to learn how faculty members in the schools of art, music and theatre would teach performance skills and studio art technique courses through remote delivery.
“I heard a couple of especially interesting accounts from students and colleagues who had unexpectedly found themselves in this experimental mode,” Shattuck said, “and it made me think: ‘I’ll bet others would be just as fascinated as I am to learn about the creativity our faculty employed to meet these challenges.”’
Shattuck, along with media specialist Michael Tubbs, initiated a series of videos, “The Creative Challenge,” that features fine arts instructors who have developed some unique virtual teaching strategies to try and ensure that students continue to learn and pursue their work as artists. These can be viewed at finearts.sfasu.edu/creative.
In addition to making these creative teaching ideas available for other educators to incorporate in their virtual classrooms, Shattuck hopes the podcast shows students, prospective students and their families “just how brilliant our College of Fine Arts teachers really are,” he said.
“And, if members of our alumni who are now teaching art, music or theatre, or other faculty members around the country, can take advantage of some of the wonderful ideas described in the podcast interviews, that’s an additional benefit to emerging artists everywhere,” he added. “I hope these interviews make it vividly clear that there’s no stopping creativity. Teaching, learning, and creating art were practically uninterrupted when the pandemic turned our world upside down.”
On social media platforms, the College of Fine Arts has been using the hashtag #ArtsKeepUsGoing, “because everyone has been sustained over the past few months by the songs, movies, books and other creative expressions that keep us connected in such important ways even when we’re physically distanced from one another,” Shattuck said. “We’ve also asserted that #ArtsWillLeadUsBack, because it’s creativity that will fuel the research, the economic revival and the community spirit we’ll need to restore the health and vitality of our society.”
As an educator, Shattuck said he is both humbled and inspired by the resourcefulness and resilience that he’s been fortunate to witness in SFA fine arts faculty.
“The only course I was teaching in the spring was already online and, honestly, I don’t know what I’d have done to keep the teaching, learning and creating going if I’d been teaching a face-to-face technique class,” he said. “These colleagues have given me ideas but, more importantly, they’ve given me hope.”
June 25, 2020 — The Counseling Clinic at Stephen F. Austin State University will be hosting a free weekly tension, stress management and relaxation group starting at 3 p.m. July 1 via Zoom.
All are welcome to join the one-hour, open discussions and learn new relaxation techniques to better manage stress.
Research has shown that prolonged stress can cause or exacerbate many serious health problems, including:
- mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety and personality disorders
- cardiovascular disease, including heart disease, high blood pressure, abnormal heart rhythms, heart attacks and stroke
- obesity and other eating disorders
- sexual dysfunction, such as impotence and premature ejaculation in men and loss of sexual desire in both men and women
- skin and hair problems, such as acne, psoriasis, eczema and permanent hair loss
- and gastrointestinal problems, such as gastroesophageal reflux disease, gastritis, ulcerative colitis and irritable colon.
Two counselors in training, Mai Lee Eskelund and Breuna Timmons, will facilitate the Zoom sessions. They designed the stress management group to teach participants skills for reducing and managing stress and creating opportunities that enhance self-care.
In addition to the free group, the clinic continues to accept new clients and waive fees during the pandemic.
Though in-person appointments aren’t possible because of COVID-19 concerns, the clinic is helping clients via Zoom from 11am to 9pm Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and from 11am to 5pm Wednesdays. Appointments on Fridays can be made by calling (936) 468-1041.
Once the pandemic is over, the clinic will return to its usual fee system. Costs for community members are determined using a variable fee scale based on gross family income and family size ($5 minimum to $20 maximum per service). SFA students pay $5 per service.
The Counseling Clinic is part of the Department of Human Services and Educational Leadership in the James I. Perkins College of Education at SFA. It assists SFA students and community members while training graduate students who are in the practicum and internship portion of their education. These graduate students provide counseling services to clients under the supervision of licensed counselor education faculty members.
For more information or to sign up for the stress management group, contact the clinic at (936) 468-1041 or sfacounselingclinic@sfasu.edu.
June 25, 2020 - Stephen F. Austin State University’s Office of Research and Graduate Studies (ORGS) has announced the recipients of its annual Research and Creative Activity grants. The RCA grant program was created to help support the initial research efforts of SFA faculty members and to help prepare them and their research for submission to national grant programs.
ORGS and the Division of Academic Affairs conduct a university-wide call for proposals, and the deadline for submissions is typically the end of October. The University Research Council conducts a blind peer review of all applications. Grant awardees are notified early in the spring semester, and projects are funded through the remainder of the fiscal year.
This year, ORGS received 13 applications, and the council selected six recipients. Monies awarded totals slightly over $130,000.
2020 Research and Creative Activity Grants
Dr. Carmen Montaña-Schalk - Department of Biology, College of Sciences and Mathematics
Examining the Effects of Predators on Energy and Nutrient Exports across Aquatic-Terrestrial Boundaries
Montaña-Schalk’s study will investigate how aquatic predators (e.g., fish and invertebrates) in permanent ponds influence biomass and transport of nutrient subsidies from water to terrestrial boundaries (e.g., ponds to forest) via amphibian migrations.
Dr. Bidisha Sengupta - Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, College of Sciences and Mathematics
Unraveling the Pathway of Aggregation of Amyloin beta-peptides with the Intention of Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease using Neurotransmitters and Phytochemicals
The aim of Sengupta’s project is to understand the mechanism of the onset of Alzheimer’s disease at the molecular level by studying the unfolding process of amyloid B-peptide (AB). Furthermore, Sengupta will investigate the role of naturally occurring chemicals, including Tryptamine-based sleep regulatory neurotransmitters melatonin and serotonin, and plant flavonols (mono/polyhydroxyflavonoid), against aggregation of AB, which is the key factor for Alzheimer’s disease. This naturopathic noninvasive way to prevent Alzheimer’s disease is likely to create a connection between sleep regulation, healthy diet and dementia.
Dr. Yuhui Weng – Forestry and Spatial Science, Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture.
Effects of Thinning on Needle Decomposition in Loblolly Pine Plantations in the West Gulf Coastal Plain
Thinning is widely used in managing loblolly pine plantations in the West Gulf Coastal Plain region to improve timber productivity and economic benefits. This study focuses on investigating how thinning affects decomposition of needles on the ground and needle nutrient release of loblolly pine — an important issue of plantation ecological environments. The results will provide important messages for managing loblolly pine plantations in the region.
Dr. Jessica Sams - Department of Languages, Cultures and Communication; College of Liberal and Applied Arts
Unreliable Narrators: Dangers of Eyewitness Testimony
Research has demonstrated humans are unreliable narrators because of the fallibility of cognition and memory, yet eyewitness testimony has remained a cornerstone in U.S. court cases. The dangers of eyewitness testimony, especially given by a witness perceived as an expert or authority figure, include the following:
- narrators are subjective and, therefore, fallible
- memories are inaccurate, and details shift to create a cohesive narrative
- original intent or thought is inaccessible and irrecoverable
- testimony is highly mediated yet presented as natural conversation
- and identities being performed skew the importance of details and thus affect aspects of memory-making and event-reporting.
This project will address these issues by weaving together findings from research in the fields of cognitive science (e.g., psychology and behavioral neuroscience), linguistics (e.g., conversation analysis, corpus studies and semantics), and the law and will provide original analyses of eyewitness accounts and testimonies with collaboration from Assistant Federal Defender Angela Halim.
Dr. William Nieberding - School of Art, College of Fine Arts
East Texas: A Portrait in Wet-Plate Collodion
East Texas: A Portrait in Wet-Plate Collodion is a photographic project in which portraits and landscapes made with tin, collodion and light create a unique picture of time in East Texas. Nieberding is researching and experimenting with these materials using historical and contemporary chemical formulas to fine combinations that work best for creating expressive tintypes in the heat and humidity of East Texas. A gallery exhibition of the original tintypes and large-scale inkjet prints created through this research will conclude the project.
Dr. Tingting Xu - Department of Education Studies, James I. Perkins College of Education
Redefine Engineering in Early Childhood Education through Professional Development
Xu’s project intends to examine the impact of a summer intensive professional development on kindergarten and first grade classroom teachers’ content and pedagogical knowledge of engineering, as well as their attitudes and efficacy towards teaching engineering. With a time-series research design using mixed methodological approach, it is expected to discover a significant increase in teachers’ content and pedagogical knowledge of engineering, as well as improved attitudes after the professional development.
A traveling exhibition of local photographer Richard Orton’s images of the Upshaw family of Nacogdoches County will be on display July 7 through Aug. 15 at The Cole Art Center at The Old Opera House in downtown Nacogdoches.
June 19, 2020 – The Cole Art Center at The Old Opera House, Stephen F. Austin State University’s historic downtown gallery, will reopen to the public Tuesday, July 7, with a traveling exhibition of local photographer Richard Orton’s images of the Upshaw family of Nacogdoches County on display.
The photographs, which have been featured in an exhibition that’s been traveling across Texas for the past three years, are the focus of Orton’s book, “The Upshaws of County Line: An American Family,” which is a documentation of the County Line community’s history through photographs and oral histories of the families who lived there. Orton became acquainted with the Upshaw family, which had lived for decades in the northwest Nacogdoches County community of County Line, in the late 1980s and began taking photographs for this project, which evolved into a book that was published by the University of North Texas Press in 2014 after 25 years of preparation.
John Handley, director of art galleries at SFA, and Chris Talbot, director of the SFA School of Art, began discussing the possibility of turning Orton's photo project into a traveling exhibition in 2016. After a number of art venues, including universities, expressed interest, the show was printed, framed and prepared for touring. It has been seen in venues at Southwestern University, the Institute of Texan Cultures, Angelina College, Denton UNT Gallery on the Square and the Museum of Big Bend at Sul Ross State University, among others. It last closed in Midland at Midland College at the end of February this year.
Following its display in Cole Art Center next month, the exhibition will become permanently located in a city facility, according to Orton.
“Our plan is to give the exhibit to the City of Nacogdoches as part of its soon-to-be-created collection at the restored Zion Hill Baptist Church,” Orton said. “The city has assured us that the exhibit will continue to be made available to other venues, and that a marketing plan will be made toward that end.”
Three brothers, Guss, Felix and Jim Upshaw, and their families established County Line in the 1870s. What stimulated Orton's curiosity about County Line was how quickly emancipated slaves were able to own their own land, and, as a result, had the opportunity to live relatively autonomous, self-sufficient lives while raising their families in the time of Jim Crow.
"That is why I wanted to make photographs there and collect their oral history," Orton explained. "I was most fortunate to be allowed to do that.
“Though my early visits to County Line were motivated primarily by curiosity and surprise that such places existed (nothing about them in history class), I was drawn in by the warmth of the people who lived there, beginning with Edward Monel and Leota Freeman Upshaw,” he said. “After 25 years, I felt obligated to do something to express my gratitude. That’s when the book started taking shape, and then John Handley made the exhibit possible.
“The Upshaw family has changed my life for the better, and this exhibit is my attempt to say, ‘Thank you,’” he added.
Seven of the nine venues in which the show was exhibited had an opening event that Orton attended. An Upshaw family member attended three of those to talk about the photo project.
“Something I noticed at several of these openings was the way that white people responded to it and the way black people responded,” Orton said. “White folks seemed taken by a history and reality that they did not know about before, and the black folks would say something like ‘that looks like my family.’”
“The Upshaws of County Line: An American Family” is the winner of Ottis Locke Best Coffee Table Book Award from the East Texas Historical Association. The more than 50 duotone photographs and text convey the contemporary experience of growing up in a "freedom colony."
“I must admit that I knew nothing of the history of freedom colonies in the United States prior to moving to Texas in 2012,” Handley said. “This is partly because there simply is not much information about the subject available, and also, I feel that having been born and raised on the West Coast, I had little opportunity to learn about them.”
A few years after working as the director of the SFA art galleries, Handley recognized the opportunity to transform the Upshaws’ story into a traveling exhibition. The book format was expanded into an exhibition (framed photographs and text panels), marketing materials were developed, and the exhibition was made available to a wide range of institutions at a very low cost.
“After nine venues, Richard and I agreed that it was time to ‘retire’ the exhibition, but only in a meaningful way – as a gift to an appropriate institution,” Handley said. “Eventually, working with Jessica Sowell with the historic sites here in Nacogdoches, we agreed to transfer the exhibition to the city where it can be further utilized.”
With the advent of CODID-19, SFA art galleries were closed to the public, and summer exhibitions were canceled. However, Cole Art Center will reopen to the public on July 7.
“Considering the rise in awareness about racism and the political climate in the United States, and after talking with both Richard Orton and Chris Talbot, we felt it only appropriate to offer the full exhibition at the Cole Art Center before transferring it to the city,” Handley said. “We here at the School of Art are very proud of this exhibition and its successful tour. I hope locals take the opportunity to come down and see this show.”
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Cole Art Center patrons will be required to wear a mask, practice social distancing, comply with designated entrance and exit routes and follow all other CDC guidelines, including maximum capacity restrictions. Larger groups can be accommodated by appointment. There will be no reception. The exhibition will show through Aug. 15.
For information, call the art center at (936) 468-6557.
June 18, 2020 - During one of the last cool mornings in May, an aluminum boat filled with four Stephen F. Austin State University researchers navigated a muddy waterway to a hoop net trap located under the drooping limbs of a streamside tree. As forestry graduate student David Rosenbaum balanced on the bow of the boat and hoisted the trap above the water, Dr. Christopher Schalk, assistant professor of forest wildlife management, released a shout of excitement as the wide, spiked, moss-covered shell of an alligator snapping turtle became visible.
While the untrained eye can easily confuse this species with the common snapping turtle, there are distinct characteristics that set the two apart.
“The most obvious difference is size,” Schalk said. “Alligator snapping turtles achieve a much larger size than the common snapping turtle.”
Schalk said the record weight for a wild-caught alligator snapping turtle is 126 pounds, while the weight of a common snapping turtle ranges from 10 to 35 pounds.
Another defining characteristic of the alligator snapping turtle is the appearance of the hard, upper part of the shell known as the carapace.
“The alligator snapping turtle has much stronger serrations on the shell and along its edge compared to common snapping turtles,” Schalk said. “However, those can actually wear down over time due to older turtles rubbing up against root banks.”
Given its sheer size and prehistoric appearance, it’s not hyperbolic to refer to this species as dinosaurs of the turtle world. Evidence suggests ancestors of the alligator snapping turtle began to appear in the fossil record more than five million years ago during the Miocene era. Since then, descendants of that ancient species carved a niche in the waterways of the Southeastern U.S.
However, modern populations of the alligator snapping turtle, the largest freshwater turtle species in North America, have been so drastically reduced that it is now listed as a species of conservation concern by every state within its natural range. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also is considering federal protection of the species under the Endangered Species Act.
Rosenbaum explained that life history traits of the species, along with unregulated harvest and habitat loss, have resulted in a cascading destructive effect that recently led Texas to change the species’ status from threatened to imperiled.
“They take a long time to reach sexual maturity, and their nests have a really high mortality rate,” Rosenbaum said. “If you kill one adult female in a population it has a huge effect down the line because that female could have produced offspring year after year for 50 years.”
Rosenbaum’s research, funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s State Wildlife Grant Program and allocated by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, builds upon previous work conducted by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to determine the species’ distribution and occupancy throughout East Texas.
During the next two summers, Rosenbaum will survey 23 sites across 20 counties spanning from the Sabine River north to the Red River and southwest to the Navasota River.
“My main goal next summer is to fill in the gaps where records of the alligator snapping turtle are missing,” Rosenbaum said. “There are a few counties that have no records of the species, but the counties surrounding them have documentation and suitable habitat.”
In addition to documenting and marking the turtles, Rosenbaum is collecting tissue to analyze the bioaccumulation of mercury.
“You tend to see mercury biomagnify as you move up the food chain, so with each trophic transfer, you’re becoming heavier in mercury,” Schalk said. “Alligator snapping turtles are major predators, and a lot of the fish they eat are already high up on the food chain to begin with, so they’re going to potentially be heavier in mercury.”
Once prized for its meat, it is illegal to harvest an alligator snapping turtle in Texas, and personal harvest is limited in Louisiana. Despite this, both Schalk and Rosenbaum said illegal poaching still occurs.
“In some cases, people are still consuming them,” Schalk said. “Aside from their threatened status, alligator snapping turtles possess traits that, in my opinion, make them an undesirable source of meat because of the way mercury bioaccumulation occurs.”
Because the species is almost exclusively aquatic, with females emerging only to nest on land, they can be overshadowed by more visible, terrestrial threatened or endangered species, such as the Texas horned lizard or red-cockaded woodpecker. Their lack of visibility, however, does not imply a lack of ecological importance.
“It’s an iconic species here in Texas,” Schalk said. “They’re a good indicator species for a healthy ecosystem — one that’s not overfished and has stable populations that are indicative of low anthropogenic impacts.”
In addition to being a top predator, Schalk also explained that the turtles actually produce a considerable amount of food for other animals, such as raccoons, opossums and larger fish through the predation of nests and juveniles.
“They’re a pretty easy animal to be enthusiastic about just because they’re so large and aggressive looking,” Rosenbaum said. “There’s definitely an air of mystery and lore about them that makes them attention grabbing.”
For more information on this and other research, visit atcofa.sfasu.edu.
Story by Sarah Fuller, outreach coordinator for Stephen F. Austin State University’s Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture. Contact information: (936) 468-1185 or fullersa@sfasu.edu.
The popular Junior Jacks theatre camp at SFA has transitioned online and transformed
into the Junior Jacks Virtual Experience.
June 16, 2020 - Registration is ongoing for the Junior Jacks Virtual Experience at Stephen F. Austin State University. The popular two-week School of Theatre camp is designed for children entering third through ninth grades. This year’s online camp is scheduled for Monday through Friday, July 27 through Aug. 7.
Junior Jacks was designed as a day-camp version of the highly successful High School Summer Theatre Workshop at SFA, according to Carolyn Conn, associate professor of theatre at SFA and the camp’s director. The fun and exciting summer theatre camp, offered in two age groups, is filling quickly, even in its virtual format, and Conn suggested parents register their children early.
Instead of cancelling Junior Jacks this year because of COVID concerns, Conn decided to put the popular summer camp online at the request of parents.
“I decided to go forward because I was encouraged by parents to do so,” she said. “They told me that kids would need these kinds of outlets more than ever if they were still inside (quarantined) in July. I want children to have something active and creative to do while remaining in their safe environments.”
All meetings will be hosted on Zoom, and final performances of the students will be recorded and aired on the School of Theatre YouTube channel.
“There will be full group workshops and breakout sessions for small group shows,” Conn said.
Junior Jacks is a community outreach opportunity designed to not only introduce children to theatre, but it also allows the School of Theatre’s teacher certification students to work with students who are younger than high school age. Junior Jacks campers traditionally play theatre games and rehearse plays that will be performed at the camp’s conclusion. This year, it will all be online, with theatre teacher certification students getting valuable online teaching experience, Conn said.
Meeting times are 10am to 12-noon for third through sixth grades and 1 to 3:30pm for seventh through ninth grades. Performances will be recorded on the final day and aired one time only on Aug. 8 on the School of Theatre YouTube channel.
Registration cost is $60 per student and $40 for each additional sibling within a single family. Needs-based scholarships may be available. More information and a registration form can be found at http://www.theatre.sfasu.edu, or contact Conn at conncs@sfasu.edu.
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