Everything Nac

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 accounts

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.

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

Raised roaming the halls of Stephen F. Austin State University’s buildings, Megan Weatherly, interim director for SFA’s Center for Teaching and Learning, finds it particularly touching to have been named one of the 2020 President’s Award recipients.

“There’s a large print above my desk that states ‘Work Hard and Be Nice to People,’” Weatherly said. “That’s what I try to do each day. To have those efforts recognized by colleagues and administration is very, very humbling.”

Weatherly was born and raised in Nacogdoches. Her father was a small business owner, and her mom, Pat Sharp, retired in May 2019 after 40 years teaching in SFA’s Department of Geology.

“I like to joke that I grew up on the third floor of the Miller Science Building, but it’s a pretty true statement,” Weatherly said. “I didn’t realize how unique that experience was at the time: I’d get to peek in Bill Gibson’s entomology lab almost daily. I played with the physics demos in the halls of Miller. When I was young, my parents took us to viewings at the observatory, shows in the planetarium, exhibits in the Turner Gallery, plays in Griffith Auditorium, each year’s Christmas tree lighting ceremony, and almost every Homecoming parade and duck dash.”

Weatherly received her bachelor’s degree from SFA before heading to the University of Nevada at Las Vegas and completing her master’s degree in history. She returned to SFA as an adjunct in 2010 before being hired full time in 2014 as an instructional designer in the CTL.

“I used to roam the Steen Library stacks for hours,” she said. “This is particularly poignant for me, since my office is now just steps from where the children’s stacks used to be. SFA was a critical part of my personal and intellectual growth. Now it’s a critical part of my professional growth, as well.”

Weatherly was named CTL interim director in May 2019 and will be the full-time director beginning Sept. 1.

“I’m responsible for collaborating with administrators, faculty and staff to advance institutional teaching, learning, technology, educator development and distance-education initiatives,” Weatherly explained. “I’m also responsible for departmental strategic planning, budget planning and oversight, and management of staff.”

This sounds, and often is, highly technical, but her favorite part of the position is a bit simpler: “I get to spend my days thinking about, talking about and working with others who value my two favorite subjects: teaching and learning,” Weatherly said.

The CTL was an integral part in the university’s response to the global pandemic, helping transition many classes to online and distance modalities in a matter of weeks. CTL staff members also worked around the clock to provide faculty and staff with training on the various course modalities and new instructional technology.

“Pre-COVID-19, our days were full, but not nearly as full and fast paced as they are now,” Weatherly said. “Every day brings new challenges and new opportunities. I think the largest change COVID-19 has wrought is that it has increased our agility. We anticipate needs farther in advance, and we’ve learned to respond with personalized solutions and in ways that are scalable.”

Weatherly has high hopes for the future of both her professional role and the role of the CTL.

“When CTL staff members developed a new strategic plan several years ago, we decided that our vision for the future would be to ‘serve as collaborators and catalysts in a community that advances teaching and learning,’” she said. “We’ve worked very hard to build stronger relationships with faculty members, to diversify our educator development offerings, to create a community of educators and to align our work with institutional objectives. We’re seeing the fruits of those labors. We want to be change agents on this campus, and we’re making good progress toward that end.”

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

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.”

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