The Pine Log

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TODAY
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Volume 91
Issue 23
Next Publication:
Monday, January 30, 2012
Visit us online at
www.thepinelog.com
The Pine Log’s Sudoku
Look for this
addictive number
game on page 3
every Monday
and Thursday
next semester
Inside
Community gets
a closer look at
creepy crawlers
Page 3
The Crime Log
Page 3
Womens
Basketball is
7-0 with a win
Saturday
Page 8
Mens Basketball
E-Tech
Lumberjack
Classic this
weekend
Page 8
Opinions
Page 4
Columns
Stephanie
Slabaugh says
goodbye to SFA
Alyssa Tenorio
looks back over
her glory years
at SFA
Entertainment
Page 5
Echo runway
show dedicated
to disaster relief
WEDNESDAY
38
The true
meaning
of Dead
Week
Page 4
Ladyjack
Basketball
on a winning
streak
Page 6
Monday, December 5, 2011 PINE LOG
The
The Independent Voice of Stephen F. Austin State University
Class Period Exam Time
Monday
9 a.m. MWF 8 ‐ 10 a.m.
11 a.m. MWF 10:30 a.m. ‐ 12:30 p.m.
1 p.m. MW or MWF 1 ‐ 3 p.m.
4 p.m. M 4‐6 p.m.
6:45 p.m. M 6:45‐ 8:45 p.m.
Tuesday
9:30 a.m. TR 8 ‐ 10 a.m.
12:30 p.m. TR 10:30 a.m. ‐ 12:30 p.m.
3:30 p.m. TR 1 ‐ 3 p.m.
4 p.m. T 4‐6 p.m.
6:45 p.m. T 6:45‐ 8:45 p.m.
Wednesday
8 a.m. MWF 8 ‐ 10 a.m.
10 a.m. MWF 10:30 a.m. ‐ 12:30 p.m.
Noon MWF 1 ‐ 3 p.m.
4 p.m. W 4‐6 p.m.
6:45 p.m. W 6:45‐ 8:45 p.m.
Thursday
8 a.m. TR 8 ‐ 10 a.m.
11 a.m. TR 10:30 a.m. ‐ 12:30 p.m.
2 p.m. TR 1 ‐ 3 p.m.
4 p.m. R 4‐6 p.m.
6:45 p.m. R
Friday
2 p.m. MWF 8 ‐ 10 a.m.
2:30 p.m. MW or
3p.m. MWF
10:30 a.m. ‐ 12:30 p.m.
4 p.m. F 4‐6 p.m.
6:45 p.m. F 6:45‐ 8:45 p.m.
Conflicts 1 ‐ 3 p.m.
BY ANDREYA STEPHENSON
MANAGING EDITOR
As you may have already heard,
SFA has a new system for University
refunds.
Students have received sever-al
emails informing them of the
change, and students should receive
a letter in a bright green envelope in
the mail soon to get them started
with this new system. These are not
scams or junk mail.
In the past, SFA refunds have been
in the form of difference checks or
direct deposit. These options are
still available to students, but in a
different way.
“It’s very time consuming and
quite the expense for SFA to issue
cards for them to clear the account
and so forth, all things that are in-volved,”
said Linda Yeiser of SFA’s
controller’s office.
To help with that, SFA has part-nered
with a financial services com-pany
called Higher One. With this
new system, SFA will transfer all of
the money for refunds in one sum
to Higher One. Higher One will dis-tribute
the refunds to students.
Higher One has mailed SFA Cards
to every student. Students should
have received an email notification
that the card was on its way and to
what address it was being sent.
“If you don’t get your card, look at
that email, and verify that the ad-dress
to which the card was sent is
valid, and if it’s not, then contact the
Business Office, and let us get an-other
card. In that case there would
be no fee,” Yeiser said.
These cards are necessary for
students to log on to the Higher One
website and select their preferred
method of refund. There is a num-ber
on the card that students need
to access the site. There are three
options.
1) Students can choose to open a
OneAccount through Higher One.
This is an FDIC-insured check-ing
account with no monthly fees,
where your SFA card will act as
a debit card with the MasterCard
brand. This account has many fea-tures
for students, such as text alerts
when changes are made to the ac-count,
no minimum balance and
online bill paying.
A new ATM has been installed in
the BPSC for free transactions with
the SFA Card. With this method,
students will receive their refunds
the quickest. Refunds will credit the
student’s account the same day that
SFA transfers money to Higher One.
2) Students can still choose to
have their refund credited to them
through direct deposit. Direct de-posit
refunds will be credited to
students two to three business days
after SFA transfers the funds to
Higher One. Even if students cur-rently
have refunds to be directly
deposited, it is still necessary to reg-ister
online and select direct deposit
with Higher One.
3) Students can still opt to have
a difference check mailed to them.
This is the slowest method of refund.
Students should receive checks five
to seven business days after SFA has
transferred the funds.
“You have three choices of how to
get it, and the choice is yours, and
the university doesn’t have a prefer-ence
what you do,” Yeiser said.
If a student makes no selection,
a check of their difference amount
will still be mailed to them 21 days
after SFA transfers the funds to
Higher One.
There are no fees for selecting
refund methods. Students may
choose to change their preference
at any time. It is important to keep
the SFA Card. Students can use it
throughout their time at SFA, and
if they wish to make any changes,
they will need the card. If the card
is thrown out, there is a fee associ-ated
with getting another one. Even
if students aren’t receiving refunds
right now, it is wise to go ahead and
select a preference in the event of a
dropped class or changes in finan-cial
aid.
“The goal is just to try and make it
really easy for everybody and let ev-erybody
have choices,” Yeiser said.
Final Exam Schedule
New refund system
gives students choice
The upcoming SFA Regents Lecture
by Dr. Hans Williams, associate dean of
the Arthur Temple College of Forestry
and Agriculture, will focus on the life
cycle of trees.
Williams, who earned the Regents
Professor designation from SFA in
2010-11, will deliver this year’s address,
“The Amazing Life Cycle of Trees.”
“I never cease to be amazed at how
trees can begin their life as an embryo,
often no bigger than the head of a pin,
to become one of the largest and lon-gest-
lived organisms,” Williams said.
“I share this wonderment with many.
“Although we understand much
about how trees actually achieve such
a majestic stature, there is much that
remains a mystery to the learned and
the layman.”
The lecture will begin at 5:30 p.m.
Wednesday, Dec. 7, in the Baker Pattillo
Student Center, Regents Suite A, on
the SFA campus. Refreshments will
be served, and there is no admission
charge.
Williams joined the SFA faculty in
1993 as an assistant professor of for-estry
and was promoted to associate
professor and awarded tenure in 1999.
Since 2003, he has held the highest
academic rank of professor, teaching
undergraduate and graduate courses
in forest ecology, tree physiology, envi-ronmental
assessment, urban forestry
and wetlands functional assessment.
Williams’ research emphases in-clude
the physiological response of
planted pine and bottomland hard-wood
seedlings to environmental
stresses, forested wetlands delinea-tion,
and functional assessment and
forested wetlands restoration. He also
serves as the urban forestry student
adviser.
Prior to his service at SFA, Williams
was employed as a wetlands ecologist
for the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers
Waterways Experiment Station in
Vicksburg, Miss., where he conducted
research in woody plant flood toler-ance
and wetland reforestation.
The professor was named a finalist
for the SFA Foundation Achievement
Award in 1996, 1998 and 2006.
Other honors include: the Temple
College of Forestry and Agriculture
Teaching Excellence Award in 1998,
2002 and 2005; the Kenneth Nelson
Distinguished Professorship in 2004;
and three performance commenda-tions
from the Department of the Army
in 1991, 1992 and 1993.
Williams earned his Bachelor of
Science in forestry from Purdue
University in 1980. He later received
a Master of Science in forestry from
Clemson University in 1983 and a
Doctor of Philosophy from Auburn
University in 1989.
This is the sixth in a series of lectures
delivered by SFA Regents Professors.
The series is sponsored by the SFA
Office of the Provost and the University
Lecture Series Committee.
pinelog@thepinelog.com
Regents Lecture set for this week
INE By Paige Miller
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Cancer. It is literally all around us. It finds its
way into every heart in existence in some way. It
does not care if you are a 17-year-old heading to
your senior year, or a 57-year-old trying to watch
your grandkids grow up. It is not concerned
with race, gender or goals in life. Cancer does
not discrimi-nate
to anyone,
anywhere, on
any continent
of our planet.
Everyone has
been affect-ed
by cancer
in some way.
Everyone prays
for a fighter,
supports a sur-vivor
or keeps
someone in
their hearts
who has lost
their battle to
cancer.
Ho w e v e r ,
there is hope.
The amazing
thing about
hope is that it,
too, will not and does not discriminate. Hope is
given to all by the faith we have in each other,
especially those who are searching for a cure.
Expensive research is funded mostly by dona-tions
from several individuals and organiza-tions
across the globe. One such organization is
Dancers Against Cancer (D.A.C.)
D.A.C is a nationwide organization that helps
to raise funds for finding a cure for cancer by
putting on dance performances for their sur-rounding
communities and donating proceeds
to research. SFA’s chapter of D.A.C is in its first
year and held its first ever show on Friday with an
encore performance on Saturday.
The show consisted of five performances
by D.A.C girls, two performances by the Phi
Kappa Psi fraternity and a guest performance by
Amanda Vernon on Saturday. With the help of
and support of SFA students, the community, and
parents of performers, DAC was able to raise over
$400 to donate to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital.
The SFA D.A.C group is working for a “Garden
of Hope” on SFA’s campus that will house stones
with the names of the fighters, survivors and
people we hold dear in our hearts.
Their mission is to raise funding and aware-ness
for all types of cancer. Their passion is to do
it by doing something that they love—dance. The
D.A.C president, Courtney Vernon, said the group
is already planning another show for late spring,
and they’re hoping for an even larger turn out
than for the winter show. She said she would also
like to thank the dancers, Phi Kappa Psi fraternity
and all of the sponsors who donated for helping
this event be a success.
The D.A.Cs will always “dance in honor of the
fighters, survivors and those in our hearts,” she said.
SFA DAC dances to raise money for cancer survivors
COURTESY PHOTO
Dancers against Caner teamed up with Phi Kappa Psi to raise money for cancer survivors.
Dancers seen above plan on doing a show next semester to fight the battle against cancer