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SHSU Update For Week Of Aug. 15
- Gibson, Others Discuss Campus Effects Of New Charges
- Press Gets ‘Feisty’ Recognition By Huffington Post
- Program To WASH Up In New Facility
- ROTC Commissions Six During Summer Ceremony
- Grant To Bring Digital Veteran Collection To SHSU
- Criminal Justice Hosts National Conference
- Koeninger To Present At ‘Exaggerated’ Conference
- Today@Sam Seeks Fall Calendar Info
- Send Update Items Here
Gibson, Others Discuss Campus Effects Of New Charges
The changes in payment options that went into effect Aug. 1 will have several implications for members of the Bearkat community.
Visa credit cards will no longer be accepted for student accounts-receivable payments—for things such as tuition payments and fees such as parking tickets—and a 2.75 percent convenience fee will be charged to those who pay by Master Card or American Express.
Students, their parents or benefactors still have multiple options for making payments without a convenience fee being assessed. Those include online via ACH (e-check), or through the Bursars Office via paper check, cash, money order, or pin debit card. Credit card transactions will no longer be accepted at the Bursar Office but must be done online.
The decision to begin charging a convenience fee was largely budgetary, as the burden of the merchant service fees has topped $800,000 annually in recent years, according to Vice President for Finance and Operations Dana Gibson.
“This fee is common to most universities as only the student (or parent) who uses a credit card pays for the costs associated with a credit card,” she said. “Otherwise, the university pays all the fees so the costs are built into the budget and everyone pays whether they use a credit card or not.
“We estimate this change will save us from eliminating seven to eight positions due to the state's budget cuts to higher education,” she said.
Likewise, Visa will no longer be accepted because the company does not allow convenience fees to be charged, Gibson said.
Company partner-operated venues such as Barnes and Noble University Bookstore and ARAMARK dining and food operations will accept credit cards based on their company terms for the type of card and are not planning to charge a convenience fee at this time, and a few university venues will not charge the convenience fee to the consumer at this time, but will absorb the consumer fee in the department, according to Gibson. These few exceptions will be reviewed upon the implementation of TouchNet in the spring.
David Kapalko, assistant director for Parking and Transportation, said the Parking Garage will not charge the convenience fee for hourly parking, as payments can only be made by credit card.
Beginning in March, SHSU will contract with TouchNet, a third-party vendor, which will accept student accounts-receivable credit card payments on behalf of the university. The convenience charge will still be assessed, but those paying will have a third option, Discover Card.
For more information, contact the Bursars Office at 936.294.1083.
Press Gets ‘Feisty’ Recognition By Huffington Post
Sam Houston State University’s Texas Review Press was recently named one of 15 “Feisty Small Presses” that “exemplify the best qualities of this publishing tradition” by the Huffington Post.
The article, “Independence Day: 15 Feisty Small Presses And The Books You're Going To Want From Them,” was published on the Huffington Post Web site on July 2.
“They say the book is dead in America, our fiction and poetry lack innovation, there is no future for print,” writer Anis Shivani said. “In every respect, from encouraging writers at crucial early moments to designing books with loving attention, these presses give the lie to the myth.
“The book may well be approaching rigor mortis for the conglomerate publishers—because they won't take risks—but these presses don't believe that for a second,” Shivani wrote.
In the slideshow that accompanies the story, Shivani points out that the Texas Review Press publishes 14 books a year, pointing out that “with SMU (Southern Methodist University) and TCU (Texas Christian University) Presses facing closure, they become the focal point of Texas literature” and directing its audience to the press-published novel Degenerate, by George Williams, as one of the books to purchase from it.
"After the demise of literary fiction in New York, we are able to land manuscripts that in years past would have been major national releases. I am particularly excited about Richard Burgin's new novel, Rivers Last Longer," said press founder and Texas State University System Regents’ Professor Paul Ruffin.
Ruffin hopes to "shake up the state's literary establishment, which has fragmented into little groups of mediocre writers laboring in the shadows of McMurtry, McCarthy, and Kelton," Shivani wrote.
The 14 other “feisty small presses” include: the University of Rochester’s Open Letter, Black Widow Press, Coffee House Press, Milkweed Editions, Raw Dog Screaming Press, New York University Press, Cleveland State University Poetry Center, Archipelago Books, The New Press, Copper Canyon Press, New Issues Poetry and Prose, C&R Press and New Directions.
To read the entire article, visit http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anis-shivani/independence-day-15-feist_b_631929.html#s109188.
Program To WASH Up In New Facility
The SHSU art department will celebrate the opening of its newest building, the Workshop in Art Studio and History Facility, on Aug. 26.
The grand opening for the 6,000 square foot building will be held from 5-7 p.m. at its new location, 2220 Avenue M, south of 22nd street.
In its third year, the WASH program is comprised of nine hours of foundational classes, including six hours of studio art and three hours of lecture, that art majors and minors take as a block.
“We think of it as a boot camp for artists, to kind of get them used to what we’re looking for,” said Tony Shipp, art department chair. “It’s kind of an induction into what contemporary art is. That’s what it’s all about, contemporary art; it’s not historical, and it’s not media-based, although they do cover a lot of different media. It’s really about learning how to take risks and learning what art is.”
The new facility will provide a work space for beginning art students with open floor space, moveable tables, a library and a kitchen, necessitated by the out-of-class work art projects require, Shipp said.
“They’re expected to come in and spend a lot of time after hours working on their projects,” he said. “They can keep things in the refrigerator, we have vending machines, we have a kitchen with a microwave and a sink; they can eat there, they can stay there late at night, and work on their projects. We’re trying to develop an environment where they can stay and work.”
The growth of the program, along with the photography program moving to the art buildings, has also created the need for a separate facility. The WASH program was previously housed in a rented building on Highway 75.
“We’ve grown so much we don’t have room to teach these kids, and these are huge classes,” Shipp said. “Right now we’re running 50 per class, so we need a huge amount of space for these kids to work. They’re not just sitting down at a table painting, they’re making sculpture; they’re doing installation work.
The opening celebration is open to the public. The event will include a live band, food and drinks.
“The art department hasn’t had new facilities for a long time, so to get a new building is a big deal to us,” Shipp said. “It’s a metal building, but it’s really quite nice. It has huge ceilings and is really industrial looking with the open air conditioning systems. I really like it.
“We’re pretty excited about it,” he said. “It’s unique, especially in Texas.”
ROTC Commissions Six During Summer Ceremony
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| Bearkat Battalion members who were commissioned as second lieutenants on Aug. 6 include (from left): Casey Anderson; Arthur Tovar Jr.; Dustin A. Bransom; Joseph Barone; Thomas Johnson; and Michael Broughton. |
Six cadets who demonstrated the Army values of loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity and personal courage were awarded their bars as second lieutenants during the Bearkat Battalion’s summer Commissioning Ceremony on Aug. 6.
They include Casey Anderson, Joseph Barone, Dustin Bransom, Michael Broughton, Thomas Johnson and Author Tovar, Jr.
A Paradise native, Anderson served six years in the Texas Army National Guard, which included a deployment to Balad, Iraq from 2006-2007 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
He joined the SHSU ROTC program in August 2008 and served as a Simultaneous Membership Program cadet with the Army National Guard Detachment 1 headquartered with the 536th Company Signal Division in Austin.
Anderson graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in criminal justice with a minor in military science. He received a reserve duty commission and will serve as an ordnance corps officer in the U.S. Army Reserves. His first duty assignment will be with the 1/158th Aviation Regiment in Conroe.
A Denton native, Barone entered the SHSU ROTC program in the fall 2006 and served as an SMP cadet in the Texas Army National Guard headquartered with 1/112th Company Cavalry Regiment in Bryan.
He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in criminal justice with a minor in military science. He has been selected for active duty service with a branch assignment to the transportation corps and will serve his first duty assignment with the First Maneuver Enhancement Brigade at Fort Polk, La.
A La Feria native, Bransom enrolled at SHSU in the fall 2006 and received a four-year Army ROTC scholarship.
Bransom graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial agriculture engineering and a military science minor. He received a reserve duty commission and will serve in the Texas Army National Guard as an armor officer with the Alpha Troop, 1/112th Cavalry Regiment in Taylor.
A Normal, Ill., native, Broughton enlisted in the Illinois National Guard in April 2003 and served for seven years, including a deployment to Camp Liberty, Baghdad, and Al Taqaddum, Habbaniyah, Iraq, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom from May 2005 to April 2006.
Broughton transferred to SHSU in January 2008, joining the ROTC program and serving as a SMP cadet with the 72nd Brigade Special Troops Battalion in Huntsville.
He graduates with a Bachelor of Science degree in criminal justice and a military science minor. He requested and received an active duty commission as a transportation corps officer and will receive his first duty assignment later this year.
A Montgomery native, Johnson enrolled at SHSU in the fall 2006, joining the ROTC program in spring 2007 and serving as a SMP cadet in the Texas Army National Guard with the 72nd Brigade Special Troops Battalion in Huntsville.
He graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in general business, with minors in both management and military science. He received a reserve duty commission and will serve in the Texas Army National Guard and will serve his first duty assignment with the 636th Military Intelligence Battalion in Austin.
A San Antonio native, Arthur Tovar, Jr., enrolled at SHSU in the fall 2006 and served as a SMP cadet in the Texas Army National Guard with the 3/144th Infantry Regiment in Kilgore.
Tovar graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in criminal justice and a minor in military science. He received a reserve duty commission and will serve in the Texas Army National Guard as a signal corps officer, with his first duty assignment with Charlie Company, 72nd Brigade Special Troops Battalion in Houston.
Grant To Bring Digital Veteran Collection To SHSU
The Newton Gresham Library will digitize more than 63 hours of video oral histories by military veterans who were born, grew up, or currently live in the state of Texas thanks to an $8,000 TexTreasures grant from the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
The collection, created in collaboration with the HEARTS Veterans Museum of Texas and the Library of Congress Veterans History Project, will include such veterans as Col. M. B. Etheredge, one of the most decorated individuals of World War II, having been awarded three Silver Stars, two Bronze Stars, and two Purple Hearts; John Fuchs, who was captured after his aircraft was shot down and spent more than eight months as a World War II prisoner of war; John Cheadle, who delivered the daily morning intelligence brief to Gen. George Patton; Kenneth Takehara, who was part of one of the most highly decorated units of World War II; and Samuel Collier, a B-24 navigator who logged 328 combat hours and completed 50 missions.
“The goal of the project is to highlight and document the remarkable lives of Texas military veterans through a video chronicling of their stories and memories,” said Tyler Manolovitz, NGL digital resources coordinator. “These singular stories provide unique insight and information relevant to those interested in Texas and/or military history, and will ensure that the memories and lives of these important individuals are preserved and shared with the world.”
The collection will represent cities and regions such as Amarillo, Beaumont, Coldspring, Cooper, El Paso, Galveston, Houston, Huntsville, Kerrville, Livingston, Mansfield, San Antonio and Waco.
The NGL also will use the grant funding to acquire transcriptions of the videos to allow online searching and accessibility, Manolovitz said.
By the end of the fiscal year 2011, the full videos and accompanying transcriptions will be hosted freely online on Newton Gresham Library’s Digital Collections Web site at http://digital.library.shsu.edu.
For more information, contact Manolovitz at tyler@shsu.edu.
Criminal Justice Hosts National Conference
During the week of July 19 the College of Criminal Justice hosted the National Conference for the Partnership for Careers in Law, Public Safety, Corrections, and Security.
More than 100 high school criminal justice teachers from around the United States were at the college for six days of conference sessions and workshops. Teachers from 19 states received instruction in public safety, careers in corrections, security studies, and forensic science, according to Holly Miller, assistant dean for undergraduate programs in the College of Criminal Justice.
"It was a pleasure to host this conference, and we look forward to continuing to build strong partnerships with high school criminal justice programs from around the nation," she said.
Each fall, SHSU hosts state and regional conferences for teachers of criminal justice. Because of the popularity of the conferences, some of the teachers requested that the College of Criminal Justice host the national conference.
"As more and more school districts are hiring teachers for such specialized courses as those in criminal justice, teachers need to have access to trends and current information in the field," she said.
“The teachers at the national conference participated in workshops and sessions on topics within criminal justice, went on prison tours, and a tour of our Southeast Texas Applied Forensic Science Facility,” she said.
Koeninger To Present At ‘Exaggerated’ Conference
Frieda Koeninger, associate professor of Spanish, will be one of only approximately eight scholars across the country to present at the Noel Collection symposium next May in Shreveport, La.
Koeninger is planning to speak on a poem entitled "The Erudite Ass," published anonymously in Spain in 1782, which follows the conference’s theme of "Exaggeration, Caricature and Other Fervid Forms" because it ridiculed a prominent author and government official, Tomás de Iriarte, according to Koeninger.
“It also illustrates some of the esthetic issues that Spanish intellectuals were fighting over at the time,” she said.
The 2011 conference will be one of only five that the Noel Collection has sponsored since 2001, according to Koeninger.
“Speakers are by invitation only, and only about eight speakers are invited at each conference,” she said. “I was invited because Dr. (Kevin) Cope (Louisiana State University professor) is familiar with my research on broadsides in late 18th Mexico; these were subversive, anonymous poems, making fun of public officials. They were printed on posters and placed in public areas. Also, my work is usually interdisciplinary, combining social history, literature and other art forms.
“My area of research is 18th century, and most of the things in the Noel collection are from the 18th century, even though my area is mostly Mexico and Spain, and the Noel collection is mostly England,” she said.
In addition, revised versions of the presented conference papers are expected to be published as a volume of essays by AMS Press, publisher of many journals and monographs pertinent to 18th century studies.
Housed at Louisiana State University-Shreveport, the James Smith Noel Collection was the largest private collection of antiquarian books in the United States prior to its arrival in 1994. It encompasses approximately 125 different subject areas in such diverse fields as religion, travel literature, philosophy, science, cartography, natural history, moral instruction, curiosities, costumery, and the history of humor.
Today@Sam Seeks Calendar Info
The University Communications Office is now collecting information on campus events for its calendar pages.
Departmental calendars or events can be sent to today@sam.edu or jenniferg@shsu.edu or faxed to 294.1834. Please include the date, location and time of the event, as well as a brief description and a contact person.
Information collected for the Today@Sam calendar pages, at /calendars/, is used by various media outlets, as well as the Communications Office for news stories and releases.
All information, including story ideas and update items for Today@Sam, should be sent a minimum of a week in advance of the event in order to make necessary contacts and write a story.
For more information, call 936.294.1836.
Send Update Items Here
Information for the SHSU Update can be sent to the Office of Communications electronically at Today@Sam.edu or to any of the media contacts listed below.
Please include the date, location and time of the event, as well as a brief description and a contact person.
All information for news stories should be sent to the office at least a week in advance to give the staff ample time to make necessary contacts and write the story.
For electronic access to SHSU news see the Communications Web page Today@Sam.
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SHSU Media Contacts: Bruce Erickson, Julia May, Jennifer Gauntt
Aug. 10, 2010
Please send comments, corrections, news tips to Today@Sam.edu
This page maintained by SHSU's Communications Office
Director: Bruce Erickson
Assistant Director: Julia May
Writer: Jennifer Gauntt
Located in the 115 Administration Building
Telephone: 936.294.1836; Fax: 936.294.1834
Please send comments, corrections, news tips to Today@Sam.edu.
