Everything Nac

Stephen F. Austin State University’s Office of Multicultural Affairs will host its Brave Space Series at 4 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 12, in the Baker Pattillo Student Center Multimedia Room. The discussion will focus on consent.

“The Office of Multicultural Affairs’ open dialogue series invites participants to discuss society’s meaning of consent versus its actual definition,” said La-Meria Seriale, OMA student ambassador. “In this discussion, we will learn how to properly ask for consent and how to apply it in today’s society.”

Each month, OMA’s Brave Space Series provides a forum for open and honest discussion concerning difficult topics.

“We will be covering consent regarding relationships and sexual partnerships as far as what consent is, how to properly ask for consent, and how to prevent sexual coercion and sexual assault from happening,” said Star Jackson, OMA graduate assistant.

The discussion is free and open to the SFA and Nacogdoches communities. Due to physical distancing guidelines, the meeting also will be available on Zoom. A link to the meeting is available on OMA’s website, www.sfasu.edu/oma.

For more information about the Brave Space Series or to request accommodations, visit sfasu.edu/multicultural/480.asp, email oma@sfasu.edu or call (936) 468-1073.

By Emily Brown, marketing communications specialist at Stephen F. Austin State University.

When the Stephen F. Austin State University School of Theatre presents the play “Rideshare/Overshare,” audiences will see each cast member playing multiple characters that the theatre students have thoughtfully and carefully created.

Each of these characters has a unique personality and an equally unique costume specifically designed to fit the wacky persona developed by the imaginative student actors.

School of Theatre Professor Angela Bacarisse directs the play, which she describes as “just a nice story with some quirky folks inhabiting it.” The play will be presented at 7:30 nightly Tuesday through Saturday, Nov. 10 through 14, in Kennedy Auditorium on the SFA campus. It will also be livestreamed.

By Ian McWethy and Carrie McCrossen, “Rideshare/Overshare” is a play about Mike and Elaine, a young couple heading out to meet each other on a blind date. They each decide independently to take an UBER to get there, and then they find themselves paired with the weirdest drivers on the road.

Glenn Heights freshman Kennedy Jordan plays seven different roles, including understudy roles.

“I created my characters by giving them back stories, their own personalities, and by making them as close to a real human as possible,” she said. “A distinct difference they have is their voices. Although some may have the same dialect, a slight change in tone or volume makes them a completely different person.”

Alexis Hargy, a junior from Katy, plays five different characters, including her understudy role for main character Elaine. Hargy used her own life knowledge as a source to bring her characters to life.

“I took my real life experiences and applied those thoughts, feelings and emotions to the characters on stage,” she said, adding she also determined her characters’ relationships with other characters in the play to help her further develop how she portrayed each role. “Some characters have accents and some don’t, which can really make certain characters more distinct than others.”

With so many characters moving around in the actors’ heads, how do the students remember who they are currently playing on stage?

“I keep them apart on stage by having different mannerism for each character,” Jordan said. “It can sometimes be a challenge to remember which character does what, and to hide my own mannerisms. With all of that being said, I love being able to play so many different characters in one show.”

Hargy said her solution to keeping characters apart on stage is to “focus on getting my next character ready once I’m done with the one before it.”

“Sometimes it can become challenging if you aren’t fully paying attention to each scene,” she said.

Including understudy roles, Wylie senior Drake St. Pierre plays eight different characters.

“I think the best characters are just extensions of yourself,” he said, “so with each character I’m just exaggerating some part of me. That sounds dumb, but it’s the only way I can think of how to go about it.”

Costume changes help the actors remember who they are on stage. Baytown senior designer Jordyn Averitte has put her creative ideas in overdrive to make each costume and character stand out. Including the cast’s understudy roles, there are about 45 costumes needed for the play. Bacarisse provided character information for Averitte to help her brainstorm designs, and Averitte attended rehearsals to see how each actor performed their characters differently so she could adjust the costumes accordingly.

“Since many of the characters appear only briefly, the actors may have different ways of performing that character between casts and therefore require a completely different costume, which is something I have not encountered before, but I do enjoy the variety,” Averitte said.

Roles will be switched for the Wednesday and Thursday performances, allowing the actors to play some of the understudy roles they have worked so hard to prepare for, according to Bacarisse.

“With the worry about COVID, we made sure that if anyone in the cast had to quarantine, that the ‘show would go on,'” she said. “Two actors at different times missed rehearsals for two weeks due to being in quarantine. I thought that since they put so much effort into the understudy roles, they should get a chance to perform as those characters.” Tuesday, Friday and Saturday performances will be presented as cast.

Because of social distancing requirements, seating in Kennedy Auditorium will be limited for each performance. Patrons are required to wear face coverings. Actors on stage will wear masks during live performances.

General ticket prices are: adult, $15; senior (62+), $10; non-SFA student, $10; SFA faculty/staff, $7.50; youth, $7.50; SFA student, $5; virtual access, $15. Live virtual access is available for all performances. Purchase tickets/access at boxoffice.sfasu.edu or call (936) 468-6407. For questions about the play, contact the School of Theatre at (936) 468-4003.

Whether it means spending hours paddling a canoe down a river or wading into it herself, Jessie Johnson, a graduate student in Stephen F. Austin State University’s Department of Biology, is doing what she can to study and protect a threatened species of snake.

Working under a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Conservation License Plate Grant, Johnson is studying the Brazos River watersnake and its habitat, assisting in providing an updated understanding of the snake’s occurrence and demography.

“In such cases, monitoring and management are critical to detecting declines in already small populations and anticipating the need for appropriate intervention that minimizes the chance of local extirpation,” said Dr. Stephen Mullin, author of the grant.

The snake has one of the most restrictive distributions of semiaquatic species of snakes that occur across North America, found in only 11 Texas counties, and is one of three endemic snake species in Texas. Preferring shallow, fast-moving water and large, flat rocks to bask on, the snakes occupy roughly 300 kilometers of the Brazos River. Because of a continued decline in its population over the past four decades, the species has been listed as threatened by Texas Parks and Wildlife. In addition to providing updated information on the snakes’ population status, the study will help update estimates of its survivorship and detectability and will note the effects of habitat alteration on the species.

Using geographic information systems and satellite imagery, participants in the study have identified portions of the Brazos River watershed offering a suitable habitat for the snake and established transects along the Brazos River that will be surveyed by canoe or wading four times per year.

“We also document the environment in which we find them,” Johnson said. “Was it swimming? Was it basking in the sun? What was the weather like that day? It’s a lot of Gatorade and sunscreen, but it’s a really fun time.”

Johnson started conducting fieldwork in May and will continue through October 2021.

While the study means long days outside full of hard work, Johnson finds the process rewarding.

“The most challenging part is just the fact that you can put in hours and hours of work and may not actually see a single snake, but I don’t really see it as too discouraging because that is very common with reptiles,” Johnson said. “I see this whole thing as an adventure.”

Learn more about SFA’s Department of Biology at sfasu.edu/biology.

By Joanna Armstrong, marketing communications specialist for Stephen F. Austin State University.

Registration for spring 2021 at Stephen F. Austin State University will begin Monday, Nov. 9, as campus faculty, staff and administrators gear up to offer another safe and highly flexible academic semester.

The spring 2021 semester at SFA is expected to operate much like fall 2020, according to Dr. Scott Gordon, SFA president.

“If we continue to do the right things, we will be able to operate as close to normal as possible in the spring,” he said. “Our campus community has been very resilient in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, but we can’t let our guard down now. We will need to continue to pay attention to the three Ws — watching our distance, wearing our masks and washing our hands.”

Spring classes start Friday, Jan. 8. The university decided to begin the spring semester earlier than normal to accommodate for its newer, flexible eight-week sessions. These shortened terms allow students to earn the same number of credit hours for one class in half the amount of weeks as a regular semester.

Students can take both eight-week and traditional 16-week courses at the same time, making it easier for students to fulfill SFA’s “15 to Finish” initiative, which encourages students to take 15 credit hours per semester. This allows students to graduate in less time than the national average and can save a student thousands of dollars during the course of four years.

Delivery methods for spring classes will remain just as flexible as they were in the fall. Classes will continue to be offered in face-to-face, online, livestream, hybrid or hyflex formats, and distance-learning opportunities continue to expand.

Faculty members choose the modality of their courses, and students are able to select the course delivery types that best fit their needs.

“The spring and fall 2020 semesters were a true test of SFA’s ability to evolve on the spot, and our faculty, staff and administrators met that challenge with strength, transitioning thousands of courses to remote learning formats in a matter of weeks,” said Dr. Steve Bullard, SFA provost. “However, we understand students are still dealing with a lot of change and uncertainty, so we continued to expand those offerings throughout the fall and are excited to have versatile course options again in the spring.”

At present, the breakdown of available spring course modalities, including both undergraduate- and graduate-level courses, is 41% hybrid, 31% face-to-face, 21% fully online and 6% livestream.

SFA also will continue to offer test-optional admissions for all 2021 semesters — a decision prompted by the cancellation of SAT and ACT exam administration at testing centers across the state that are struggling to accommodate test participants due to required physical distancing standards.

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.

Administrators feel positive about the success of the fall semester, despite steep state-level budget cuts across a number of sectors.

Fall 2020 enrollment numbers were much better than many educational forecasts predicted based on impacts of the pandemic. Fall enrollment at SFA totaled 12,620 students, a decrease of 349 students, or 2.7%. However, there was a 10.7% increase in SFA’s graduate enrollment, from 1,475 students in fall 2019 to 1,633 students in fall 2020.

SFA administrators were especially pleased with fall retention rates, which indicate a potential 7% increase, from 70% in fall 2019 to 77% this fall.

The university will continue to support students and employees in the spring through use of on-campus signage promoting physical distancing guidelines and ways to safely interact with others.

Safety measures implemented in the fall that will continue in the spring include:

· regular sanitizing of high-touch-point areas in all campus buildings

· reduced seating capacity in classrooms to help ensure proper physical distancing based on the room’s square footage

· available use of hand-sanitizing stations in buildings across campus

· touchless service in all dining halls

· and physically distanced workout equipment in the Student Recreation Center to help ensure Lumberjacks continue to have an outlet for mental and physical health.

For more information, visit our Spring 2021 Guide at sfasu.edu/spring2021.

By Christine Broussard, marketing communications coordinator at Stephen F. Austin State University.

Dr. David Creech, Stephen F. Austin State University professor emeritus of agriculture and director of SFA Gardens, received the Southern Region of the International Plant Propagators’ Society Fellow Award during a virtual conference held in October.

The award honors individuals for ongoing contributions to the nursery industry and plant propagation in the Southern region.

Creech has been a member of the International Plant Propagators’ Society form more than 30 years and previously received the Sidney B. Meadows Award, which is the highest honor bestowed by the organization.

“While I’m a member of several societies, there is no doubt the International Plant Propagators’ Society is my favorite, simply because it is a blend of academics and industry,” Creech said.

According to Creech, the organization has long served SFA students through professional development and employment opportunities offered during the organization’s annual conference.

“Many students have made great contacts and found jobs with some of the most progressive nurseries and landscape firms across the Gulf South,” Creech said. “Because of our students, we put SFA on the map, and the friendships I made in the organization have lasted for decades.”

The International Plant Propagators’ Society is a global network of plant production professionals that aims to improve the knowledge, skills and professionalism of its members through educational conferences, field days, seminars and a vast library of horticultural knowledge.

Story by Sarah Fuller, outreach coordinator for Stephen F. Austin State University’s Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture. Contact information: fullersa@sfasu.edu or (936) 568-1185.