The Neal Weaver Radio Forum: What UT System Legislation Means for SFA

A New Era for SFA: What UT System Legislation Means for Stephen F. Austin State University

"Yo, what it is, you know what it is? It's your man King Musa. Welcome to The Neal Weaver Radio Forum, the special platform where we engage directly with university leadership about topics that matter the most for SFA and the SFA community." In this highly anticipated episode, King Musa dives into a monumental topic: the University of Texas System legislation and its profound implications for the future of Stephen F. Austin State University. We are honored to be joined by the man at the helm, Dr. Neal Weaver, the President of SFA.

With SFA now officially part of the prestigious University of Texas System, Dr. Weaver is here to provide crucial clarity and break down what this significant transition means for future students, faculty, and the enduring legacy of our beloved institution. From navigating legislative funding to embracing new opportunities for growth and collaboration, Dr. Weaver offers an exclusive look at the path ahead. Tune in as Dr. Weaver discusses the strategic vision for SFA, exciting campus developments including a massive master plan and projected enrollment growth, and how this new partnership will enhance resources, research opportunities, and the overall student experience. Discover how SFA is poised for a vibrant future within the UT System, all while maintaining its unique culture and commitment to student success.

Getting to Know Dr. Weaver

King Musa: "Hey, Musa, what's happening? How are you?"

Dr. Weaver: "Glad to be here."

KM: "Now, it is June. It's raining all the time. Before we jump into all the fancy stuff, what's up with the rain in June in Texas? It's supposed to be drought season. Holy cow, every day it rains! And it tells you it's not going to rain, and then it rains again. I feel like we're in Florida. If you could travel anywhere else during this summertime and you wanted to avoid the rain, where would you go?"

Dr. Weaver: "Well, my son lives up in Illinois, about an hour west of Chicago, in St. Charles, Illinois. That is a really spectacular place to be in the summer. It's a little cooler, it's beautiful, everything's green, 85 degrees, no humidity. It's really nice. I enjoy being up there with him. Anywhere in the Upper Midwest at this time of the year is really, really nice. Go to a baseball game, go to a Cubs game at this time of the year, it's spectacular, right? The sun's out, it's not too hot, you can have a really nice time. There are some places to go: North Carolina, Virginia, along the East Coast. I think there are some really nice historical towns and communities to go to if you like beachside. I like to find good golf courses and I like to go play good golf courses."

UT System Legislation: What It Means for SFA

Let's go ahead and dive into today's interview. University of Texas legislation. There are a lot of great changes going on on campus. I'm excited for this new year coming up. So being able to dive into this conversation with you today is exciting. Tell us what's going on with the legislation and what that means for SFA.

Dr. Weaver: "There was a legislative session that just ended. There was a lot of talk, but at the end of the day, we ended up about where we started. Our funding as an institution went down a little bit, but that was the result of enrollment declines from the previous biennium. In Texas, we get funding every two years, so they look at your enrollment, what happened over the last two years, and then they fund you based on that. Since we had a decline, we took a cut of about $2.5 million per year for the next two years, so a $5 million cut over the biennium. We were anticipating that, and we got all of our other funding back, so generally speaking, we're in a pretty good place."

Dr. Weaver: "There was a lot of talk and a bill filed about faculty tenures and about curriculum construction and who oversees curriculum and who hires administrative leaders. The bill passed, but it really got kind of watered down. Some of what we would have called the more egregious language and concerns were, I think, really tempered through the process, which is good. The University of Texas System will be taking up this legislation at their board meeting in August and giving us direction institutionally about how the Board of Regents will interpret and implement the legislation. Now that we're a part of the system, we’re one of eight academic institutions. There will be some continuity across all eight institutions about how it's done, but there's also room for each individual institution, personality-wise and culture-wise, to interpret it and do what's best for their institution. So we're kind of waiting for August to roll around to get a little bit more clarity. But anybody that was worried about the legislation, I think, can rest assured that the underlying elements of higher education were not disturbed. The underlying responsibility of a faculty member was not disturbed. It just provided the Board of Regents a little more responsibility and oversight in making sure that we're not continuing to go down a path that is not producing results. At the end of the day, I think that's a good thing for us institutionally because we want to be more efficient. We want to be able to take our resources and reallocate them to growing and exciting new options, things that are on the cutting edge of the workforce and what our students need. This will give us a little bit of opportunity to do that a little faster than we have in the past without damaging what we believe are the core elements of a great liberal arts-based education."

Exciting Future for SFA

That's exciting. I understand in August, we'll have a lot more clarity and things like that. But I'm sure this whole time there's a lot of things you're looking forward to. Is there anything you're kind of excited that possibly you're looking to see?

"We've got a lot of things going on here at the university that we're excited about. We're finishing up our campus master plan, which is really talking about what the campus will look like 10, 15 years from now: what buildings need to be renovated, what buildings need to be demolished, what buildings need to be built, and how our infrastructure will fit into this new look and feel. I anticipate the master plan will have a price tag somewhere in the billion-dollar range, obviously over a 10 to 15-year period. But a billion dollars can really change the way this campus looks and feels and operates. We've also got a new strategic plan that we're wrapping up that I think is very positive and focused on students and making sure the institution is challenging itself to become better. We've had broad-based input across all academic and staff positions, and I'm excited to get that not just wrapped up, but to implement what it's telling us we want to do."

"Our enrollment looks really, really positive. I can't wait for the students to come back. I think we're going to have one of the largest, if not the largest, freshman class in the history of the institution. The funding decrease we got for the last biennium, I’m already looking ahead to the next legislative session when they’re going to have to give us all that money back, plus some. We're going to grow really fast and we're going to outpace the declines that we've seen over the last decade. I've been really excited about the way that people have approached what we've asked them to do. The enthusiasm for Stephen F. Austin is really high. We've tried to distribute authority and responsibility throughout the organization, and people have really received it and stepped up to the plate, and what we're seeing in the numbers and in the activity is really, really positive. So there's a lot to look forward to. I think the welcome week schedule is looking really great; they're going to have two weeks of really fun kick-off time for all the students. I think our football team's going to be good, our volleyball team's going to be amazing, and our soccer team won the conference. Man, we're going to have a lot of fun."

Transitioning to the UT System

Before all this transition begins, what were some things that needed to take place in preparation?

"Anytime you're integrating a 100-year-old institution into a system that has also been around for 100 years, there's a lot. Our computer system, the equipment we use, the routers, all of that infrastructure needs to align with the system's IT infrastructure so we get the best prices and can offload some of our usage to them. Our entire financial reporting structure had to be completely changed, not only in what we do and how we do it, but also in calculations like depreciation. It takes two or three years for our calculations to be done their way, and they're using a completely different software package for financial planning. So we have to adapt to a new financial system."

"Campus police, construction projects—we used to run our own construction projects, but now the system runs them. We manage them locally, but they fund them and have an entire real estate construction group that works with the architects to make sure we're getting what we want. There are a lot of operational, behind-the-scenes things happening as we transition. When we joined, we were under the impression it would take about four years to really get everything cycled through. This is the end of year two, and we've made good progress, but we still have some things to do. They're looking at our campus now and saying, 'How much deferred maintenance do you have?' because they want to address our issues and make sure we're doing this right."

"They also come to the table and say, 'Hey, you're doing some things better than we are. You're doing some things that we want to copy and use at other institutions.' The Purple Promise is an incredible example of how the system has come and said, 'Hey, we want to help you grow your enrollment. Here's $5 million in scholarship money, go find you some students.' We joined the Coordinated Admissions Program (CAP), so anybody that applied to the University of Texas that didn't get in for whatever reason, we were able to recruit. I think that's going to get us an additional 150-180 students in our freshman class. Some of the growth we're seeing is really a direct result of the system saying, 'We want you to grow, and we're willing to help you get there.' So there's been a lot of work. It’s a lot of positivity, but it's like grinding. You've got to come in every day and figure out how this new software package works, and sometimes you've been doing it the same old way for the last 20 years and you don't understand why they want it this way. It's a process. Everybody goes through change, and the change process mentally is difficult, but I'm really excited to see all the folks here at the university really embracing what the system can do for us and how, if we get in alignment with them, it's really beneficial to us."

The Purple Promise and Student Life

The Purple Promise is one of the things coming for incoming students. Give us a little insight into that and then some other stuff for our current students, because that Purple Promise, I tell y’all, I wish I could be applying to this school right now.

"The Purple Promise is a really interesting program. It's a scholarship program for students who want to go to college and come from families that make less than $100,000 a year. If they're in that category, the institution pays all of their tuition and their fees. Obviously, we use their Pell Grant and other grants and aid, and we package that all together. The system has provided us with about $5 million to close the gap between what financial aid they get and what their total tuition and fee bill will be. The exciting thing for the rest of the students is that we used to use all of our money to do that. Now that the system has put $5 million into it, we're able to free up dollars that are available in other scholarships and other programs to go to returning students and to students who don't qualify for the Purple Promise. So it's not that the money is just added on; that $5 million basically replaced everything the university was doing, and now we're able to shift those dollars into other areas. We're really excited to be able to offer additional scholarships and find ways to make sure that more students not only have access but can still stay in the institution."

"Students who came in under Purple Promise but didn't complete 30 credit hours were told they lost Purple Promise. Well, we're going back and saying, 'No, if you get back on track, you can get back into the program,' because we have the resources available now. We have a lot of students who get towards the end of their senior year, their second semester senior year, and they've used up all their financial aid. Well, now we have a pot that we can go to and say, 'We're going to get you across the finish line.' We want to make sure that you don't have to stop out right now when you have your last 13 hours. So there's a lot of things that we're doing to try to make sure that all students have access to more resources, and the system has been helpful in that. They give us the flexibility to really change the way we do things."

A big add to the student body would be amazing. I definitely think we may need more student participation. We have more rooms to fill up. My question is, residence halls. How is this transition going to help those people who are just like, 'Hey, I don't see that happening'?

"This is one of the things about being a college student. We're building a brand new forestry and agriculture building. For many of our students, by the time it opens, they'll be gone. The same is true with our residence halls. I think in the November board meeting, we'll get approval to start construction on a new residence hall. Our newest residence halls were built in 2011, so they're closing in on 15 years old. Our next newest ones are over 20 years old. And then we have some that were built in the 1960s. Wisely Hall is about 95 years old and we're still using it. So we know that residence halls are a critical part of what we're trying to put together here. I think we're going to start the process before the end of this calendar year, but it'll still take two years to get one built. It's a $60-70 million project, so it takes a while."

"What do we do in the meantime? We have to be aware that students come to us from very different financial backgrounds. You don't want to separate your student body based on the haves and the have-nots. So making sure that there are options at different price points, but that those options are not 'really good' and 'really bad.' I love those residence halls like North and South; I know they're older and they have community bathrooms, but I've been in there, and the rooms are bigger. In some cases, we allow you to have the room by yourself, so you get a big room by yourself. It was very comfortable. I think there are options for people and for students to really decide what they want and how they want to live. Our job is to make sure that every different option is as nice as we can make it, as comfortable as we can make it, and that students from all financial positions might choose what they want the most. And some of the buildings, you know, we had to shut down, like 20 last year. It was tough, but that building is not safe. It's not in good shape; it has mold and mildew. So it was important that we get people out of there, and that building has to come down and we need to replace it. Anything we have open, I think, is a pretty good building. It comes down to style, what you like. A lot of people like the towers. I don't know that I would want to live in the towers; I get dizzy. When you're in freshman mode, you have energy to run around. People, there's something for everybody. And what we want to do is make sure that there's not only something for everybody, but there's something for everybody at a price point that they are comfortable with. And we don't want it to be the price point as the only factor because then you end up separating your students based on financial ability, and that's not the way we want to do it."

On a light note, Pineywoods Dining Hall is opening up. Can we get a sneak peek of what's there?

"I haven't been in there. I know there's a pizza oven. I think you're going to be able to do pizzas like at My Pie or something, where you go in and you just pick the toppings, and they put it in and pull it out and give you the whole box. I think we're going to see some of that. There's a really nice, it's got a weird name, chicken something, but it's going to be a walk-up window. So when the cafeteria closes at night, we're going to keep the walk-up window open late. So you're going to be able to walk up and get a rotisserie chicken and some other things, even late at night. That should be really nice because I know you guys all like to eat late and you stay up late. You're being very studious! I think it'll be nice, and you'll still be able to use your meal plan. Inside, it looks like it's going to be amazing. Everybody that I've talked to who has been in there says it's fantastic and really nice. So I can't wait to get everybody in there. The food's going to be great, and the folks that run it are excited about it. When they're excited, they’re going to put out a good product, and the students, I think, will really like it. This will be a lot of fun. This will be really nice. I can't wait to get it open."

Impact on Faculty and Defining Success

Another group that really matters in this whole change and application for them, and who actually probably cares a lot about this whole interview, is faculty. What does it mean and how are these changes impacting them in terms of policies, funding, collaborations with the UT System?

The good news is, from a system perspective, they're going to let us run our institution pretty much the way that we want to. Faculty governance is really driven by the faculty. There's a lot of conversation right now about a workload policy, and I'm excited to get to some finish line on that. Institutionally, as a part of the system, they want us to be more engaged in research and generating more research dollars here at the university. I think the workload policy will have a lot to do with freeing up faculty to be much more engaged in that kind of research and research funding. So that'll be a real positive. The things that we teach and the manner in which we teach them are still controlled at the department and the college level. So I don't really anticipate any change there. What I hope and what I think the system is asking us to do, and what the state legislature is asking us to do, is to really evaluate our academic offerings and modernize them. That doesn't mean that things we've taught for 100 years shouldn't be taught anymore; they should be taught in a modern way, and they should connect to the local economy and to the local workforce. We all need these things; they're foundational elements of a quality education for a reason, but that doesn't mean that they can't be modernized and that some of our degree programs can't be modernized to include some of the new technology and some of the new opportunities that exist out there. I think that really falls to the faculty. The more they take charge of that, the less other people will tell them what to do. Our faculty are very good and they are very progressive. Institutionally, we need to meet them and be willing to work with them to create the environment that we want. I'm excited that we have a new provost on campus. Dr. Jordan Barkley is here, and one of the reasons that I was most excited to get him to join us was because of his understanding and approach, not only with faculty but also with how to bring the institution forward in a way that honors what the faculty do and what they're good at, and encourages them to be really aggressive in reimagining how their discipline fits into the world today."

Modernizing campus is such an amazing thing. We just hit 100 years. One thing I really dislike is 'you can't teach an old dog new tricks.' I guess we're not an old dog, but how do you encourage those who are nervous for a new birth? How do you bring in that 'you're not being replaced; it's getting involved'? What is the sense of inviting a person into change, into a new beginning? It's like when computers were added to schools, that changed libraries. Now we're adding AI and all these different softwares and things. What is your go-to attitude to let everybody know, 'It's okay'?

"It is somewhat scary and somewhat frightening. The internet changed the way academic courses were taught, and what was acceptable from a student perspective. Now AI is doing that again to us. And some of us have been through both of those transitions. The most important thing for me is always understanding that you have control over what happens to you. And if you're unwilling to take control, somebody else will. If you are fearful of what might happen to you, if you wait long enough, it will happen to you because somebody will decide. But the best way to defend against that is for you to take control of what's happening to you. Be progressive. Think forward, get involved, take the authority that you have, and use it. Organizationally, we're trying to distribute authority and decision-making throughout the organization. What you find is that some people like not to have the responsibility so that nothing can go wrong from their perspective. You have to make mistakes, fail, and learn. Be criticized, be critiqued. That's fine-tuning; that's progress. You can be somebody who believes that other people are in control of your life, or you can believe that you are in control of your life. If you're in control of your life, then make the decisions that need to be made and go forward. You'll find out in some period of time how good or bad the decision was, and then you make another one and you just keep on going. But I promise you, if you do nothing, somebody will make the decision for you, and you may not like the outcome. So I always try to encourage people just to take charge of yourself, take charge of your life, take charge of your world, and make the decisions that need to be made and don't wait."

How does this partnership expand opportunities for research, scholarships, and more student resources?

"Being a part of a huge system, including the University of Texas, opens the door to an incredible number of partnerships and collaborations that our faculty and staff have access to that they never had before. So just from a collaborative, across-the-system perspective, there's so much more opportunity for us. A great example is the Archer Fellows program. Our students now can participate in the Archer Fellows program, which we were never a part of before, and they can go serve in Washington, D.C., at the Capitol. The expansion of our opportunities at the State Capitol for students to be interns and to work with our state legislators is expanded because of our relationship. That's just one small example of how being a part of a larger system has opened doors for our students. The number of research projects, and all the computer science people in the system getting together to talk about what they're doing, it's a great opportunity for us to see things from somebody else's perspective. So there's really a lot of great opportunity that comes from being a part of a larger system. Our job is to maintain our own unique personality and culture while taking advantage of the great new partnerships that are open to us. It's like being a little brother; you have an older sibling, and you're just like, 'I'm still me, just learning what y'all are doing.'"

The concept of college being vocational happened to be a misconception that people have. It's, 'I come to college and get a job and everything else like that,' when college was truly meant for you yourself to become a better person, completely—mind, body, mental skills, everything—and then everything else will fall in place. The job is provided with you getting better. How do you debunk the mindset of 'coming to college is vocational'?

"First of all, I've been doing this job, and before I was a president, I was in advancement, worked with alumni associations. I can tell you that over the course of my career, I've met thousands of alumni, and I would say 70-75% of the people I meet are not working in the area that they got their degree in. I got a degree in speech communications; I'm a university president. Over your life, things happen. If you want to move up into management, if you want to become a manager or CEO, you have to give up that particular skill that got you your first job. You don't do that anymore. Our job from an academic standpoint is to get you prepared for that first job and to get you into something you like and something you will enjoy. The most interesting thing about what we do here and what people dismiss too often is that there's so much other personal development that happens here that you don't pay attention to. That's the majority; it's set up that way. From a student perspective, if you say, 'I was on the basketball team,' or 'I was in the band,' or 'I was on the cheerleading team,' or 'I was on the Model UN team,' that's fine. I'm glad you told me that was what you did, but that's of no value to me if I'm going to hire you. This is what I want to know: Will you show up on time? Will you come to work prepared to do the job that I've asked you to do? Will you be able to get along with the other people that you work with? Will you be able to adjust your behavior and your work when things aren't really going your way? If I need to hold you accountable, can you handle it? And can you hold your fellow workers and me accountable for our actions? Those are valuable skills."

"You know what, if you're on the cheerleading team, you have to be on time. You have to show up ready to go to work. You have to be able to get along with the other people on the team. You have to be able to adjust what you're doing on the fly in the moment if things aren't going well. And when it's over, you have to be able to be held accountable by the coach, and you have to hold your fellow teammates accountable for their actions. So you developed all these skills by participating in cheerleading. What you left college with was a degree in accounting and all these other skills, and you can prove you have those skills because you had to do it every day. That's what the students need to understand and what they need to embrace: the reason I'm working at the food bank is because I'm developing skills that I'm going to need. I'm going to show up on time; I'm going to be ready to go to work; I'm going to get along with everybody. Everything that you do here is education, and it's preparing you with the development and the skills necessary to be successful in life beyond that first job, beyond what's next in your life. I don't know who you're going to meet that's going to say, 'You know, I really like you, I'm going to give you this great opportunity, but it's in a different discipline completely, but I see you doing that.' You need to be able to say, 'All right, I know how to work hard. I know how to show up. I know how to prepare myself. And I'm going to learn to do what you want me to do because you see something in me that I wasn't really sure of, but I'm excited.' That's what's so important. Stephen F. Austin is so good at those things. I just want students to understand, 'I'm not doing this student job to make a few bucks; I have that student job because I'm learning something. I'm figuring out how I'm going to be as a person.' I'm on that team, I'm in that club, I'm in that organization, I do this volunteer work, I'm a tutor, I'm an advisor, whatever it is, you're doing it because it's developing you. If you understand why you're doing it, you say, 'Oh, I'm showing up on time because I'm starting to develop a skill that I show up and I'm supposed to show up.' Because I promise you, you get hired and you don't show up on time the first week, you won't be working there anymore. It doesn't matter how smart you are. It doesn't matter how well you know your discipline. If you can't show up on time, if you can't cooperate with people around you, you're not going to be working there. So everything you want in your life, we're preparing you for here. But it's more than just going to class. It's all the other things that you do; it's getting engaged. That's why 17-year-olds do it. That's why 18-year-olds do it. When you're 30, you don't come here and do the social part; you might take a class because you need the information. But you've already gone through the personal development part of your life. When you leave high school, you leave your family, you leave your home. It's about building yourself. We put you in a little cocoon right here on campus, and we say, 'Okay, we're going to help you grow up.' We're going to teach you these skills that you're going to need for the rest of your life. And that's what we do here better than most. We're in an environment where it's really possible. You can't do this at UT Arlington; Arlington's a giant city. They have 60,000 students. Most of the students drive on campus, drive off campus, have a job working at the window, or whatever it is. They don't have the culture here; they don't have the community that we have. So I think our students leave better prepared for their life than most students. That's why our alumni are so connected and so passionate about this institution. I've never been around an institution where the alumni were so connected, but it's because the experiences you have here are so fundamental to who you are as a person. It's not vocational. It's not 'come here and learn how to do this one skill.' It's 'come here and figure out what kind of a person you're going to be.' And that's what we're trying to do. I think that's why we're seeing enrollment move in the right direction, because more and more people want that experience. And they want it in a quality, safe, cared-for environment. And we have that."

This is the start of year two for you. What's your reaction to it? You know, I know definitely coming into it, it's, 'Hey, I have to learn from everybody and see everything.' Now it seems like you understand it. Now you seem like you're riding the wave.

"You do have to learn the organization; you have to learn the culture. The interesting thing is higher education in Georgia and higher education in Texas and higher education in California are generally the same as far as what we're trying to do and what we're trying to accomplish and the manner in which we try to accomplish it. There are certain things that work with different types of students in different types of institutions. So making sure we know what those are and that we apply them to the best of our ability, we become efficient and we become focused as an institution is really important. My job is to make sure we stay focused on the right things, that people feel empowered to make the decisions that allow us to move the institution in the positive direction as quickly as possible. We often get stuck behind policies, procedures, rules, laws that are outdated. People use that as an excuse. So what we really want to do is turn people loose with the authority and power to make the decisions that they know are right and that they've been frustrated by for a long time. I think that's why we're seeing such positive results so quickly, is that people really have embraced that opportunity. Stephen F. Austin has an incredible brand in the marketplace. We have incredible alumni. Once we got out of our own way, people responded very, very positively. Potential students responded positively. I didn't anticipate that we would see such a response so quickly, but I underestimated the power of the Stephen F. Austin brand. I knew about it, but I didn't know that it was as well-known and as popular and as strong as it was. So I think we're looking forward to this being really the beginning, not the end, but the fact that we're growing, that we're seeing a lot of students choosing to be here, I think, is an indication that if we just keep moving ourselves in the right direction, creating an environment where students get what they want and get the experience that they need, that our brand will keep getting stronger and stronger and will continue to grow. I'm very excited. We've got about a billion dollars worth of construction and renovation that we need to do here. So the fact that I better understand the campus and I know where we need to be going as far as creating the environment that we want is really exciting. I anticipate we're going to have cranes in the air every year for the next five to ten years. We're going to be doing something all the time. It is. It's going to be very exciting. It's going to be great new stuff and exciting new things for everybody on campus. I think it'll really drive some enthusiasm and excitement for what we're doing. Our students and our graduates will benefit because they'll have access to much more opportunity because of who we're connected to and how we're going to reposition the institution."

For Nacogdoches' long-term vision, you mentioned the construction, all the improvements. What is the new life that's coming to SFA? If you can't see past these rain clouds, just have hope for this new life, as far as city-wise.

"I think our city is doing some really interesting things. There are some exciting things happening in Nacogdoches. The highway, Highway 690, has already bypassed Diboll. When that finishes, the amount of traffic coming around Nacogdoches will create a lot of new opportunities. If you haven't been out on the loop, whatever that enormous Amazon distribution center is out there, think about the number of jobs that that will bring. There are some other really big economic development operations coming to Nacogdoches that I've kind of heard about. I know that they're buying land and going to be doing some things. There's a lot of work going on downtown. Elliot Electric is renovating the old Regions Bank building. When they do that, probably another year, year and a half away, they're going to move 200 full-time employees downtown into that building. Think about 200 people every day down there, plus all of their suppliers, all the people that have to come visit them. How many more restaurants are we going to need? How many more entertainment venues are we going to need? Lodging. So when you have people coming to town, our student population grows. If it goes to 13,000, 14,000, 15,000, there's enough reason why an entrepreneur would say, 'I'm going to start a restaurant. I'm going to open a whatever kind of store, clothing store,' because now there's enough people here to support it. So I really think over the next 10 years that we're going to see Nacogdoches really blossom. There are some cool things happening and some good opportunities. Anytime you get a big highway like that and you start to build along the highway, all those pieces of property become really valuable. So I think we'll start to see some industry and some big-value industry. It's going to transform Nacogdoches. I don't think we're ever going to be like Lufkin. They just feel different than us, and I don't think we're ever going to feel like they feel, which is nice because we're going to keep kind of our small-town feel. But I just think there's going to be enough money and employees running around town that there's going to be more businesses opening. I hope that we can see some really exciting things for students to do, entertainment-wise, and to keep everybody in town on weekends and enjoying Nacogdoches and what goes on here at the university, but also having things to do in town that are fun and entertaining and that makes being at a university a lot of fun."

Staying Informed

How can students, faculty, parents, and everybody else stay informed to find out more information?

"Gosh, they just have to listen to this little radio broadcast and they'll get it all! We try to do town halls on campus. We try to have enough meetings and opportunities for people to ask questions and talk about it. We have Faculty Senate, and Staff Senate or Staff Council, and Chair Deans Councils. There are all kinds of groups, and we try to communicate and make sure people know and spread the word. The website, hopefully, will get better over the next year; we're implementing some new strategies on the website that I think will help a lot. Facebook, you know, I don't do social media; we've got a team for that. So, connect and stay involved, and show up. Come to events, come to activities. It's amazing what you can learn just by showing up. If you haven't been to one of our music concerts, man, come! I don't know why you wouldn't. It's so good. They only play for like 45 minutes or an hour, and it's fantastic. It's every Tuesday night and it's awesome, and you can go do whatever else you're going to do on Tuesday night and have had a really nice time. And you get to see your fellow students or your students or community members really do something that they love doing, and it's really fun. So, if they show up, you never know what you're going to learn if you show up."

Outro by King Musa

"Thank you, Dr. Weaver, for sharing your vision and insight into this historical moment for Stephen F. Austin State University. As we move forward with the support from the UT System, it's clear we're stepping into a new era of opportunity and growth. To our listeners, stay informed, stay engaged, and don't be afraid to ask questions about how these changes affect your future here at SFA. You've been listening to The Neal Weaver Radio Forum with your host King Musa. Until next time, ax them, Jax, and keep building towards a better tomorrow. Thank you."