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Volume 93
Issue 3
Next Publication:
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Monday, September 17, 2012
PINE LOG The
The Independent Voice of Stephen F. Austin State University
Page 6
SFA Volleyball team
sweeps the Chilly
Filmore Invitational
over Robert Morris,
Southern Mississippi.
52
By Wendi Kunkel
Special to The Pine Log
With textbooks, school supplies and tu-ition
draining students’ wallets this time
of year, students majoring in the College of
Education as well as secondary education
minors will discover they have yet another
required item to purchase for their courses.
LiveText, a data management system used
by the college for its program improvement
and National Council for Accreditation of
Teacher Education, must be purchased for
$98. Students use the system to submit cer-tain
assignments.
“LiveText is the data management sys-tem
used by the whole Perkins College of
Education for program improvement and
to assess and monitor compliance to na-tional
accreditation standards,” according
to Lynda Martin, director and professor in
the School of Human Sciences.
There are five departments in the College
of Education—elementary education,
human sciences, kinesiology and health
sciences, secondary education and educa-tion
leadership department. Any student
majoring in a field in any of these depart-ments
is required to purchase a subscrip-tion:
•Elementary Education Department
•The School of Human Sciences
•Human Services Department
•Kinesiolog y & Health Science
Department
•Secondary Ed. & Ed. Leadership
Department
•Elementary Education Department
•The School of Human Sciences
•Human Services Department
•Kinesiolog y & Health Science
Department
•Secondary Ed. & Ed. Leadership
Department
“LiveText benefits students by collecting
the data surrounding our program learn-ing
outcomes so we can evaluate how well
or how poorly we are serving our students
and make required adjustments to insure
they are prepared for their future careers,”
Martin said. Amy Doyle, a hospitality se-nior,
believes students in the human scienc-es
department shouldn’t have to purchase a
LiveText subscription.
“I’ve really only used it once in a class,
and I felt like we could have turned in the
same assignment on D2L. If I’ve only used
it once since I bought it and none of my
classes require it this semester, what was
the point in making me buy it?” Doyle said.
Martin believes the subscription, while
pricey at first, will pay for itself over time.
“LiveText is a one time purchase that is
good for five years. This equates to approxi-mately
$20 per year for an undergraduate
student if they use it for five years,” Martin
said. “In my professional opinion, I believe
it is imperative for programs to continually
improve their quality and this is a tool that
will help programs in the college do that.”
Students who are graduating in either
December or May can opt out of purchasing
the standard subscription and instead buy
the one-year subscription for only $45.
By Jacey Gaddy
Special to The Pine Log
It seems as though Wall Street has
some younger competition to
watch out for. Students who have
interest in getting real-world involve-ment
while still in college can make
their way to the Nelson Rusche College
of Business, where SFA students are
getting a chance to put their finan-cial
skills to work in the Mast Student
Investment Roundtable. This program
allows students to work together as a
class to invest real money into stocks
and manage an equity portfolio.
The investment program originally
ran on campus from 1998 until 2006
as part of the business curriculum. It
surfaced again at SFA in 2009 and has
been giving students authentic, first-hand
experience with stocks.
Dr. Todd Brown, associate profes-sor
of finance and the chair of the
Department of Economics and
Finance, has been associated with
the program since 2009 and is cur-rently
the director of the Mast Student
Investment Roundtable.
Each semester the group of students
enrolled in the class takes over the
responsibility of a portfolio contain-ing
35 different stocks within the 10
major sectors that are based off the
macro events going on in the world
( i.e. healthcare, energy, financials).
Their goals are to invest in a way that
beats the S&P 500, which is an index
of the 500 largest stocks in the market
and an indicator of how the market is
doing on average. Brown says the class
tracks the S&P 500 every day and tries
to see how they do relative to it.
“We’re doing active investing,”
Brown said. “We’re trying to find a
way to beat the S&P 500. Just buying
those stocks would be passive invest-ing.
If we’re going to actively try to do
the work, then hopefully we’ll do bet-ter
than it.”
The Department of Economics
and Finance is able to
offer this program with
the help of donations
from the SFA Alumni
Foundation and the SFA
Foundation.
“We had both of those
entities give us money
back in 2009, and that’s
how we had the real
money to invest,” Brown
said. “So we’ve contin-ued
on, and people have
given us money over
time as well.”
The class is now
monitoring more than
$350,000, which fluctu-ates
with the market and
how the students do in
class. The students visit
the Alumni Foundation
every three months and
give them an overview
of how they’re doing
in their portfolio. The
alumni have a choice
to either donate more or
Investment Roundtable brings
Wall Street to SFA finance students
Hardy Meredith/SFA Public Affairs
Members of the Mast family watch as Regent Bob Garrett unveils the newly named Mast Student Investment Roundtable in the McGee Business
Building this summer.
Roundtable, page 2
LiveText adds to education students’ expenses
Despite predic-tions
of lower en-rollment
as a result
of stricter admis-sion
requirements
this fall, SFA has
recorded its high-est
enrollment in
history. Enrollment
for the fall semester
is 12,999, up .7 per-cent
from 12,903 in
Fall 2011.
Although the
number of fresh-men
at SFA is down
5 percent, from 3,747 to 3,558, the number of graduate
students increased 10.8 percent, from 1,535 to 1,701.
Additionally, increases in the number of students were
recorded for other classifications: sophomore numbers
increased from 2,273 to 2,293; juniors grew from 2,395
to 2,475; and seniors rose from 2,953 to 2,972.
“We appreciate the diligent work of faculty and staff
members across campus who have assisted in universi-ty
recruiting efforts and contributed to the educational
environment at SFA that leads to student learning,”
said Dr. Baker Pattillo, SFA president.
“The fact that our overall enrollment increased dur-ing
a year in which we increased admission require-ments
confirms our belief that we should continue
to emphasize faculty involvement with our students,
small class sizes and a variety of campus-involvement
opportunities for our students.”
The number of students transferring from other col-leges
and universities increased 10.5 percent, from 920
last fall to 1,017 this year.
“This is particularly good news for SFA,” said Dr.
Richard Berry, SFA provost and vice president for aca-demic
affairs. “Students who transfer to a university
from another higher education institution tend to have
been successful at their prior institutions and are likely
to have adjusted to the academic rigors of college-level
coursework. Statistically it is more likely that these stu-dents
will persist to graduation.”
Hispanic enrollment at SFA is up 16.9 percent, from
1,323 to 1,547. SFA representatives said this increase
reflects the university’s efforts to meet the goals of the
Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s Closing
the Gaps initiatives. The education plan was adopted
in 2000 with the goal of closing the gaps in student
participation and success, increasing the number of
nationally recognized programs or services at univer-sities
in Texas, and increasing the level of federal sci-ence
and engineering research in Texas.
The enrollment figures at SFA showed promise of
historic highs throughout the first two weeks of classes.
“Over the course of the first couple of weeks of
school, enrollment will vary due to students adding
and dropping courses,” Pattillo said. “At one point last
week, enrollment was as high as 13,007. It just so hap-pened
that on the official census day, with drops and
adds, we landed on 12,999.”
SFA has achieved record high enrollments in three of
the past four years. Enrollment in fall 2009 was 12,845,
and fall 2010 enrollment was 12,954. The university
is discussing plans for another increase in academic
standards for admission to be implemented in 2015.
Milestone
recorded
in SFA
enrollment
Hardy Meredith/SFA Public Affairs
Regent Steve McCarty thanks Mrs. A. T. Mast for her family’s longstanding support of SFA programs and scholarships.
Her husband, the late A. T. Mast, was prominent in the East Texas ranching and timber business.
Enrollment + .7%
Graduate Students +10.3%
Freshmen - 5%
Transfers Students +10.5%
Hispanic Enrollment +16.9%
12,999
Figures reflect Fall 2012 compared
to Fall 2011 statistics.