Everything Nac

Stephen F. Austin State University communication students will host a discussion regarding a proposed community peace and conflict resolution center from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, May 1, in the Baker Pattillo Student Center Movie Theater on campus. Interested residents of Nacogdoches and surrounding communities are invited to attend.
The students’ vision for the center is to provide conflict-resolution alternatives such as mediation for community members; offer awareness training on key issues impacting the community and its citizens; educate citizens on strategies to resolve conflict and seek reconciliation; and function as an outreach for bridging divergent groups in the city.
The town hall meeting will include a presentation by faculty members and students and a time for public dialogue. Organizational representatives from local social justice organizations, churches, synagogues and community assistance organizations are welcome and encouraged to attend, along with governmental officials, local business leaders, faculty members from area schools and colleges, and students.
For more information, contact Dr. R. Ty Spradley at rspradley@sfasu.edu or (936) 468-1381.

The Stephen F. Austin State University College of Fine Arts and School of Music will present the A Cappella Choir, Choral Union and Women’s Choir performing their annual end-of-the-year celebration in the Choral Masterworks Concert at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 2, in W.M. Turner Auditorium on the SFA campus.

The performance will showcase the brass section of the SFA Wind Ensemble with Jeremy Bruns on organ. The concert will feature only two works – both for brass choir and organ – including “Apparebit Repentia Dies” by Paul Hindemith and “Missa Octava” by György Orbán.

“The program is quite diverse with a wide variety,” said Dr. Tim King, director of choral activities at SFA. “On the one hand you have Hindemith, a naturalized (1940) U.S. citizen born in Germany, who used a complex musical system of both extremely consonant and dissonant music. On the other hand, you have Orbán, a Hungarian composer of Romanian birth whose choral compositions mix traditional renaissance and baroque counterpoint with jazz harmonies.”

Both were educators – Hindemith at Yale and Orbán at Cluj-Napoca Academy of Music.

King explains that the text for “Apparebit Repentia Dies” is taken from an anonymous sacred text that is set in four movements.

“The first movement warns of the dire consequences of the Day of Judgment, the second is a dialogue of the righteous and unrighteous, the third portrays the unrighteous being swept away, and the fourth a tribute to J.S. Bach in a harmonized hymn,” King said.

The text for “Missa Octava” is taken from the traditional Mass ordinary set in five movements.

Tickets are $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and $3 for students and youth. For tickets or more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit www.finearts.sfasu.edu.

A new four-year engineering degree program to be offered by Stephen F. Austin State University’s College of Sciences and Mathematics was approved by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Thursday.

Beginning this fall, students will be able to pursue a bachelor’s degree in engineering physics with an emphasis in mechanical or electrical engineering at SFA. Graduates will be prepared to enter such diverse areas as mechanical controls, digital and analog electronics, instrumentation, robotics, and manufacturing process control.

“With opportunities for a student to major in any of the sciences, technology (computer science) and/or mathematics, the SFA College of Sciences and Mathematics now adds to that list the opportunity for a student to major in engineering. Thus, SFA now offers degree opportunities in all of the STEM disciplines,” said Dr. Kimberly Childs, dean of the College of Sciences and Mathematics.

“The educational objective at SFA is to address the needs of students as they prepare for diverse careers in the workforce,” she said. “For those students who have an interest in the physical sciences, engineering and mathematics and who are seeking innovative careers in high-tech areas where multiple engineering disciplines merge, this new engineering program is designed for them.”

For decades, students in the pre-engineering program have expressed interest in remaining at SFA to complete their engineering degree, said Dr. Baker Pattillo, SFA president.

“We are pleased to now have a program in place that will allow us to keep our pre-engineering students here at SFA to complete their four-year engineering degree,” he said. “This is something we have worked toward for many years, and we are excited about the opportunity it provides us to recruit and retain more STEM majors for the university.”

Local business and industry representatives have long expressed the need for such a program at SFA, as well.

“I am excited about the possibility of a local option for engineering education,” said Chad Robertson, president of the Piney Woods Chapter of the Texas Society of Professional Engineers. “Currently, it can be a challenge to recruit and retain engineering graduates in the relatively rural East Texas area when many of the candidates are from and are accustomed to large metropolitan locations. I think SFA offering this degree program will have a positive impact on local industry. Engineering and technical professionals are in high demand.”

Scott Thompson, manufacturing engineering manager for Lockheed Martin in Lufkin, agreed, saying the availability of a four-year engineering degree will benefit the region’s economy.

“Engineers are generally the driving force behind innovations and improved productivity in industries,” he said. “The need for engineers is increasing in all industries as the complexity of computer and automation technology rises. Having a local source for engineering graduates or being able to send existing employees to improve their education would be an improvement over our current situation.”

The new program will be housed in SFA’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, chaired by Dr. Harry Downing. Dr. Dan Bruton will continue to serve as the department’s engineering adviser. A new electrical engineer and a mechanical engineer will be added to the department’s faculty soon, and this fall, six new engineering courses will be added to those currently taught at SFA. The department will seek accreditation for the new degree from the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology.

“The new engineering degree is the result of years of work by our faculty in the College of Sciences and Mathematics, and we are pleased to have reached the point where we can begin accepting students into this exciting program,” said Dr. Richard Berry, SFA provost and vice president for academic affairs. “With the decades-long success of the university’s pre-engineering program, the college is extremely well prepared to offer a degree program of the highest quality beginning in the very first semester of its offering.”

The new engineering degree further solidifies the university’s commitment to STEM education to help meet a critical need in Texas and the nation to prepare more college graduates in the high-demand fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, Childs said.

“A vibrant STEM workforce is vital to America’s innovative capacity and global competiveness. As America launches a national campaign to widen the STEM pipeline, institutions of higher education must find ways to recruit, retain and graduate STEM majors who are academically prepared to enter STEM careers. Stephen F. Austin State University is leading this charge across the East Texas region.”

For more information about SFA’s new engineering program, visit www.engineering.sfasu.edu.