NACOGDOCHES, Texas — While guests with fancy hats, pastel dresses, bow ties and suits mingle by the pool, Stephen F. Austin State University hospitality administration students work behind the scenes to make the Kentucky Derby come to life at The Fredonia Hotel.

From the moment guests arrive, event-planning students dressed to the nines greet and escort them to the reception area where catering students serve hors d’oeuvres.

NACOGDOCHES, Texas — Stephen F. Austin State University’s Center for Regional Heritage Research’s “More Than a Riveter” exhibit opened Thursday, April 26, at the Nacogdoches Railroad Depot.
 
Sophia Savage, a counseling graduate student assistant for the CRHR, and Kierstin Smith, a DeWitt School of Nursing student, created the exhibit, which aims to preserve the history of the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps stationed in Nacogdoches during World War II.
 

NACOGDOCHES, Texas — The origins and sincerity of presidential speeches are the focus of a new book written by a Stephen F. Austin State University professor.

Ken Collier, SFA professor of political science, analyzes U.S. presidential speechwriting in his new book, “Speechwriting in the Institutionalized Presidency: Whose Line Is It?”

NACOGDOCHES, Texas — Stephen F. Austin State University's Office of Research and Graduate Studies has announced the recipients of its annual Research and Creative Activity and Research Pilot Study grants.

ORGS and 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 funded through the remainder of the fiscal year.

NACOGDOCHES, Texas — Changes in curriculum recently approved by the Stephen F. Austin State University Board of Regents reflect society’s continuing reliance on data and technology.
 
A new Bachelor of Science in data analytics approved Tuesday is a partnership between the computer science, economics, and mathematics and statistics departments.
 

NACOGDOCHES, Texas — Dr. Pauline Sampson was approved as dean of research and graduate studies by the Stephen F. Austin State University Board of Regents Tuesday.
 
As professor of secondary education and educational leadership and a member of the graduate faculty in the James I. Perkins College of Education, Sampson has served on 83 dissertation committees and chaired 46 dissertations. She has served as chair of SFA's Institutional Review Board since 2011 and has worked with many SFA stakeholders across campus.
 

NACOGDOCHES, Texas – The Stephen F. Austin State University School of Art and SFA Galleries will present “Red Dirt Memories: Storytelling with Jerry Permenter” Saturday and Sunday, May 5 and 6, at The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House in downtown Nacogdoches.

A native of the Swift community in Nacogdoches County, Permenter, who goes by the name Red DirtBoy on Facebook, grew up in rural East Texas, and his memories of those early years laid the groundwork for what is now the Facebook page Red Dirt Memories, which has quickly garnered more than 5,000 followers.

NACOGDOCHES, Texas – The Stephen F. Austin State University School of Art and the Friends of the Visual Arts, in partnership with Austin Heights Baptist Church, will present a free, one-night screening of the documentary “Look & See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry” at 7 p.m. Friday, May 4, in The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House in downtown Nacogdoches.

NACOGDOCHES, Texas – The combined choirs at Stephen F. Austin State University along with the Orchestra of the Pines will perform Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Requiem KV 626 (completed by Franz Xaver Süssmayr) at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 4, in W.M. Turner Auditorium on the SFA campus.

Conducted by Dr. Michael Murphy, this masterwork concert will feature SFA’s A Cappella Choir, Murphy, director; Choral Union and Women’s Choir, Dr. Tod Fish, director; and the Orchestra of the Pines, Dr. Gene H. Moon, director.

NACOGDOCHES, Texas – A concert by the Contemporary Ensemble at Stephen F. Austin State University, originally scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 26, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus, has been canceled.

For more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407.