The UT System respects and would support the university’s desire to protect all things Lumberjack, including the name of Stephen F. Austin.

No.

The UT System uses an inclusive process to identify and recruit university presidents. The Chairman of the Board of Regents appoints a presidential search advisory committee composed of current and former regents along with representatives of the university’s faculty, staff, student and alumni and civic communities. The committee engages in an intensive review process, identifies candidates, interviews them, and recommends a slate of top candidates to the regents to interview and select. This longstanding process is prescribed in Regents’ Rules. In the case of a new presidential search at SFA, members of its Board of Regents would be included in the search process, along with the appointment of faculty, student, staff, alumni and local civic representatives.

The UT System Board of Regents will serve as the top administrative body once affiliation becomes effective. The SFA Board of Regents will remain in place until that time.

The Chancellor conducts an annual evaluation of each academic president and reports it each August to the UT System Board of Regents. Each fall, presidents provide the UT System an updated description of strategic goals and priorities for the year and identify the steps they will take to achieve them. Each spring, presidents provide a self-assessment which includes a description of progress made on these goals. This assessment, as well as key performance metrics (including undergraduate and graduate student profiles; persistence, retention, and graduation rates; degree and certificate production; faculty hiring; research expenditures; and financial status and operational efficiency data) are discussed., In areas that will benefit from more attention, the UT System works closely with the campus to provide support to achieve it.

The six colleges of SFA (business; education; fine arts; forestry and agriculture; liberal and applied arts; and science and mathematics), represent a broad array of essential disciplines that enable students to explore many different critical fields. Several include signature programs that no other UT institution currently offers, and we find that very appealing. We appreciate the unique strengths that each UT institution offers. While we see immediate opportunities to expand SFA’s existing computer science, nursing, and education programs, University leadership would make their own assessment on the appropriate mix of academic program offerings to help drive enrollment and respond to workforce needs, and the UT System will provide support to enable the president to achieve those goals. The UT System is especially interested in helping SFA enhance enrollment growth and address the state’s pressing workforce needs.

No SFA operations will be transferred to UT System Administration. The UT System Administration exists to provide support and resources to each of its institutions.

Affiliation with the UT System provides opportunities for strategic funding and access to a deeper pool of funds to match potential private funding sources.

Access to funds mentioned above will allow for a number of improvements, including enhancement of facilities. With the exception of the Naymola Basketball Performance Center, SFA Athletics hasn’t made major facility upgrades or builds since the current Homer Bryce Stadium press box was built in 2006. The field house hasn’t been upgraded since 1988, and the sports medicine and academic center constructed in 2004 is outdated and wasn’t constructed for current operations.

Affiliation with the UT System provides the potential to increase staff salaries across the university, including in the athletics department.

The Purple Lights Fund will not be affected by the affiliation from a day-to-day standpoint.  Since the PLF is not a separate entity, such as the SFA Foundation, it will continue to operate as normal through our current business accounting processes and procedures.

System affiliation does not have any effect on student-athlete scholarships as they are managed within the athletics department operating budget. Affiliating with the UT System does provide athletics access to additional funding sources that could enhance additional scholarship awards to student-athletes based on meeting any stated requirements.

Affiliation will not affect ticket costs. Ticket prices are set and maintained by the athletics department on an annual basis. Ticket prices are researched and analyzed prior to each season based on a variety of factors.

The UT System negotiates and executes systemwide depository agreements allowing UT institutions to utilize any contracted banking partner while benefiting from favorable pricing based on systemwide volumes. The System currently has master depository agreements with Bank of America, Frost Bank, J.P. Morgan Chase, and Wells Fargo. The master depository agreements extend through August 31, 2024 but may be extended until August 31, 2026. UT institutions benefit from aggressive pricing based on systemwide volumes. To the extent there is a need for UT institutions to use other banking institutions, this need is generally accommodated. The Office of Finance within System Administration manages collateral posted by the various banking partners to secure aggregate UT System deposits of public funds within these banks. If SFA were to join the UT System, we would suggest SFA enjoy the benefits of the System’s master banking agreements and related collateral management.

The UT System leverages its scale in IT contracts for the benefit of UT institutions. UT System sponsored software contracts include:

• Oracle Master Agreement, Oracle Database Agreement — paid by UT System $2.75 million for academic institutions.
• Microsoft agreements — paid by UT System - $3 million for academic institutions.
• Recent uplift to Microsoft A5 licensing (from the lower cost A3) — paid by UT System — $3 million for academic institutions.
• Internet 2 — Eduroam (paid by campuses) and Certificates (paid by UT System).
• CleanAddress — paid by campuses that opt in.
• VMware ELA — paid by campuses that opt in.
• Skillsoft — paid by campuses that opt in.

Does the system pay for any system level contracts or does each system institution pay a prorated portion of the contract?

The UT System pays for many of the system level contracts for academic institutions. See above.

Is a member institution required to participate in system level contracts?

Institutions are not required to participate in system level agreements but generally choose to opt in to benefit from the competitive pricing and/or financial support.

IT services offered to UT System institutions include:

• UT Share — ERP and related services (applications that plug into PeopleSoft). Paid by UT System - $28 million annually.
• Shared data center program — Arlington Regional Data Center (ARDC). Paid by UT System - $1.6 million annually.
• Wide area network — Institutions pay for their own connections but the rate is subsidized by $2 million annually from the UT System.
• Network Operation Center (at ARDC) — available to UT institutions at no cost.
• Intrusion Detection System — funded by UT Board of Regents at no cost to institutions - $4 million annually.
• Immutable backup service (currently being implemented) — Paid by UT System - $1 million.

The UT System works with its institutions to ensure a sustainable and manageable rate of enrollment growth consistent with the institution’s aspirations and goals. As a university system, we are committed to meeting the educational needs of the state, which will require each institution to increase both enrollment numbers and degree attainment.

In addition to Promise Plus, we provide additional support by bringing together leaders and staff from across the UT System to discuss their recruitment, enrollment, and retention strategies. Across the entire UT System, we have experienced enrollment increases of more than 6% among undergraduate and graduate/professional students during a time when institutions across the nation experienced enrollment decreases and program closures.