} Stephen F. Austin State University (SFA) is a

public university A public university or public college is a university or college that is in state ownership, owned by the state or receives significant government spending, public funds through a national or subnational government, as opposed to a private unive ...

Nacogdoches, Texas Nacogdoches ( ) is a small city in East Texas and the county seat of Nacogdoches County, Texas, United States. The 2020 U.S. census recorded the city's population at 32,147. Nacogdoches is a sister city of the smaller, similarly named Natchito ...

. It was founded as a teachers' college in 1923 and subsequennly renamed after one of Texas's founding fathers,

Stephen F. Austin Stephen Fuller Austin (November 3, 1793 – December 27, 1836) was an American-born empresario. Known as the "Father of Texas" and the founder of Anglo Texas,Hatch (1999), p. 43. he led the second and, ultimately, the successful colonization ...

. Its campus resides on part of the homestead of

Thomas Jefferson Rusk Thomas Jefferson Rusk (December 5, 1803July 29, 1857) was an early political and military leader of the Republic of Texas, serving as its first Secretary of War as well as a general at the Battle of San Jacinto. He was later a US politician and ...

. Stephen F. Austin is one of two independent public universities in Texas (i.e., those not affiliated with one of Texas's seven university systems). On November 29, 2022, the Board of Regents accepted an invitation to join the

University of Texas System The University of Texas System (UT System) is an American government entity of the state of Texas that includes 13 higher educational institutions throughout the state including eight universities and five independent health institutions. The UT& ...

, pending approval from the Texas Legislature. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees. Though the university is located in the rural

East Texas East Texas is a broadly defined cultural, geographic, and ecological region in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Texas that comprises most of 41 counties. It is primarily divided into Northeast and Southeast Texas. Most of the region cons ...

college town of

Nacogdoches Nacogdoches ( ) is a small city in East Texas and the county seat of Nacogdoches County, Texas, United States. The 2020 U.S. census recorded the city's population at 32,147. Nacogdoches is a sister city of the smaller, similarly named Natchitoch ...

, the vast majority of SFA students come from

Greater Houston Greater Houston, designated by the United States Office of Management and Budget as Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land, is the fifth-most populous metropolitan statistical area in the United States, encompassing nine counties along the Gulf Co ...

, the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, and other cities throughout Texas. SFA has also served students from 46 states outside Texas and 42 countries outside the United States. The Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks are members of the

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Washington, and Texas. Due to mos ...

and compete in Division I for all varsity sports. The Lumberjacks football team competes in the

NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision The NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA, is the second-highest level of college football in the United States, after the Football Bowl Subdivision. Sponsored by the National Collegiate Athleti ...

. The Lumberjacks basketball team has made five appearances in the NCAA Division I Tournament, with two upset first-round wins in 2014 and 2016.

Academics

Stephen F. Austin offers more than 120 areas of study, including more than 80

undergraduate Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, in the United States, an entry-le ...

majors, nearly 60 graduate degrees, and four doctoral programs. Stephen F. Austin offers classes through six colleges and one independent school. The Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture is nationally recognized, and houses one of only two schools of forestry in the State of Texas (and the only forestry college in the timber-producing

region). It was responsible for recovering debris from Space Shuttle Columbia that fell on its premises in 2003. During the 2021-2022 academic year, there were 2,792 degrees awarded. Of those degrees, 2,230 (79%) were undergraduate, 552 were post-graduate (20%), and 10 (1%) were doctoral. Since 2007, Stephen F. Austin has served as the headquarters of the Association for Business Communication. It is also the home of the ''National Center for Pharmaceutical Crops'', which in 2011 discovered a potential cancer-fighting agent from the extract of giant salvinia, one of the world's most notorious invasive species.

Colleges and schools

*Nelson Rusche College of Business **Gerald W. Schlief School of Accountancy *James I. Perkins College of Education *Micky Elliott College of Fine Arts **School of Art **School of Music **School of Theatre *Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture *College of Liberal and Applied Arts **School of Social Work *College of Sciences and Mathematics **Richard and Lucille DeWitt School of Nursing *School of Honors *The Graduate School

Campus

In addition to the main campus which encompasses 430 acres, the university maintains a agricultural research center for beef, poultry, and swine production and an equine center; an observatory for astronomy research, a 2,650-acre experimental forest in southwestern Nacogdoches County and a forestry field station on the

Sam Rayburn Reservoir Sam Rayburn Reservoir is a reservoir in the United States in Deep East Texas, north of Beaumont. The reservoir is fed by the Angelina River, the major tributary of the Neches River. The Reservoir is upstream of the Big Thicket National Preserve. ...

. SFA has purple lights visible on top of one of the tallest buildings on campus, Steen Hall. A purple light also is illuminated in the Student Center clock tower.

Athletics

In tribute to the forestry industry, which is a major component of the area's economy, the men's athletic teams are called Lumberjacks, and women's teams are known as Ladyjacks. ''Lumberjacks'' name was chosen in 1923, when T. E. Ferguson, a professor of English at SFA, submitted name to the students and faculty assembly. The choice was made given the university's location in the Piney Woods, where forestry and timber products are a major part of the area's economy. All of SFA's athletic teams participate in the

which hosts teams from the states of

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

, and

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...

. Stephen F. Austin's colors are

Purple Purple is any of a variety of colors with hue between red and blue. In the RGB color model used in computer and television screens, purples are produced by mixing red and blue light. In the RYB color model historically used by painters, ...

and

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

. Men's NCAA Sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, indoor & outdoor Track & Field. Women's

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

Sports include basketball, bowling, cross country, golf, indoor & outdoor Track & Field, soccer, softball, tennis, volleyball. Stephen F. Austin sports teams participate in NCAA Division I ( Football Championship Subdivision for football) in the

, joining that league in July 2021 after spending the previous 34 years in the

Southland Conference The Southland Conference, abbreviated as SLC, is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the South Central United States (specifically Texas and Louisiana). It participates in the NCAA's Division I for all sports; for football, it ...

. SFA's football team earned a berth into the FCS playoffs in 2009, which was the first for the university since 1995. The team also earned a playoff berth in 2010, marking the first time in the program's history that the team had reached the playoffs in consecutive seasons. The 2010 season also marked the first time that the school had won an outright conference championship since 1989. Stephen F. Austin's only

bowl A bowl is a typically round dish or container generally used for preparing, serving, or consuming food. The interior of a bowl is characteristically shaped like a spherical cap, with the edges and the bottom forming a seamless curve. This makes ...

appearance was the 1973 Poultry Bowl, in which the team defeated Gardner–Webb 31–10. The men's basketball team reached its first NCAA tournament in 2009 after winning the Southland Conference regular season and tournament. They lost 59–44 to Syracuse. In their second appearance in

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

, they upset VCU in overtime, 77–75. In their third appearance in

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

, they upset 3rd seeded West Virginia 70–56. In the second round against 6th seeded Notre Dame they lost 77–76 on a buzzer beater by Notre Dame's Rex Pflueger. On November 26, 2019, in arguably the biggest upset in

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athletic ...

basketball in 15 years, SFA upset #1-ranked Duke in overtime by a score of 85–83. This was the first home game against a nonconference opponent that Duke had lost in the Blue Devils' past 150 home games. In 2020, the athletics department of Stephen F. Austin were found by the NCAA to have had several administrative errors in reporting the grades of the student athletes from 2013 to 2019, which resulted in the university having academically ineligible players to be on rosters. As a result, the SFA's football, men and women's basketball teams victories from this time span (including the 2016 men's basketball team win over WVU and the Southland Conference titles from 2014 to 2018) had to be vacated. In July 2021, SFA joined the

Notable alumni and faculty

Points of interest and notable campus buildings

* Mast Arboretum * The Stone Fort Museum, built in 1936, is a museum and a replica of the eighteenth century house built by

Antonio Gil Y'Barbo Dón Antonio Gil Ybarbo (1729–1809), also known as ''Gil Ybarbo'', ''Gil Ibarbo'', and many other name variants, was a pioneering settler of Nacogdoches, Texas. Ambiguously described by the National Park Service as a "prolific trader and smuggl ...

, the earliest

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

settler of Nacogdoches. * The Planetarium *The Observatory * SFA Art Galleries ** Griffith Gallery ** The Art Center * Ralph W. Steen Library * The AARC, Academic Assistance and Resource Center, is located on the first floor of the Ralph W. Steen Library, and offers free tutoring to Stephen F. Austin State University students: * The ETRC, East Texas Research Center, is located for public use on the second floor of the Ralph W. Steen Library. * The East Texas Historical Association is based on the Stephen F. Austin campus.

Gallery

File:Ruby M Mize Azalea Garden.jpg, Ruby M Mize Azalea Garden File:Stephen F. Austin State University August 2017 04 (Austin Building).jpg,

Building File:Old Stone Fort in Nacogdoches, Texas.jpg, Stone Fort Museum File:Stephen F. Austin State University August 2017 06 (Rusk Building).jpg, Thomas J. Rusk Building File:Stephen F. Austin State University August 2017 11 (Ralph W. Steen Library).jpg, Ralph W. Steen Library File:Stephen F. Austin State University August 2017 34 (Tom and Peggy Wright Music Building).jpg, Tom and Peggy Wright Music Building File:Turner Auditorium,SFA, Nacogdoches, TX IMG 3347.JPG, Ed & Gwen Cole Concert Hall File:Stephen F. Austin State University August 2017 13 (Gladys E. Steen Hall).jpg, Gladys E. Steen Hall File:Stephen F. Austin State University August 2017 05 (Tracie D. Pearman Alumni Center).jpg, Tracie D. Pearman Alumni Center

Notes

References

External links

*
Stephen F. Austin Athletics website
{{Authority control Universities and colleges accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Educational institutions established in 1923 Education in Nacogdoches County, Texas Buildings and structures in Nacogdoches County, Texas Tourist attractions in Nacogdoches County, Texas Public universities and colleges in Texas 1923 establishments in Texas