$124 million coming with SFA affiliation deal; How will it be spent?

“As goes SFA, so goes Nacogdoches,” Himes said Wednesday as he introduced interim university president Dr. Steve Westbrook to Rotary Club of Nacogdoches, where people eagerly awaited news on the hottest topic in town.

The University of Texas System’s financial incentive was the largest of any of the four suitors, and it was almost four times bigger than the closest offer. Legislators are expected to formally approve the affiliation during next year’s session.

“It’s not that there’s a Brinks truck driving down Vista Drive and unloading money in front of the Austin building,” Westbrook said. “There have to be right uses for (the Permanent University Fund) but there is a source of funding now for capital projects that we just didn’t have available to us before.”

Among other expenses, the system said it will infuse $5.5 million a year for four years for salary increases. A large part of that $22 million will flow into the community as faculty and staff begin spending their larger paychecks, Westbrook said.

The upcoming pay increase has received a warm welcome from faculty and staff, who say they haven’t seen a raise in four years.

Salaries at SFA are lower than at other state universities, and compensation at Texas universities lags behind other parts the country, said Dr. Gary Wurtz, Dean of the Micky Elliott College of Fine Arts.

“This boost of resources will give us a chance to rectify some gross problems,” Wurtz said.

Fine arts instructors “tend to be more accepting of lower offering” and make less than other professors, said Wurtz, who was a freelance musician before joining the SFA faculty.

“I couldn’t believe I was going to have insurance or a retirement plan,” he said.

The system also pledged to pump millions into SFA’s forestry program. University of Texas System officials say they’ll spend $35 million on forestry including $15 million for a new building.

Huge staff shortages in the engineering and technology workers in agriculture fields across the nation are driving the need for upgrading program resources, said Dr. Hans Williams, dean of the Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture.

“Getting those facilities up to modern standards will allow SFA to serve that need,” he said.

Coursework in the forestry college is very hands-on, he said.

“It’s important for our students to get real world experience, and our lab building has just outlasted its usefulness here. It used to be a storage shed decades ago.”

Forestry students must learn about a variety of topics including plants, animals and soil.

“Handling these materials requires special equipment to make sure that we’re using the latest technology and using the latest processes. Our students have to have experience with that,” Williams said.

Forestry labs also function as research centers to develop future forestry management processes.

The current forestry building was built in 1969 and has had little renovation. The agriculture building on Wilson Drive was built in 1976. It is barely large enough to hold the faculty and is in dire need of renovation, Williams said.

Faculty members will be involved in those early planning steps.

Other capital improvements will follow those desperately needed projects, Westbrook said.

“We’re going to continue tearing things up and building things,” Westbrook said.

Tuition shouldn’t change much, Westbrook said, but students will have more access to financial aid.

SFA’s current program for students from families earning $30,000 or less — known as Purple Promise — aids about 300 students. The revenue infusion will allow the upper income limit to increase to $80,000, enough for about 1,250 students, Westbrook said.

The tuition assistance could be available as soon as next fall.

“It will be more enticing for (students) to come to SFA,” he said.

Joining a system will allow local administrators to give more attention to “campus operations and the strategic direction of this institution” Westbrook said.

It will also vastly increase the university’s voice in intergovernmental relations.

“We have one governmental relations person in Austin, Dr. Charlotte Sullivan. We’re about to pick up a whole lot more governmental relationship people to help us carry our legislation now,” he said.

SFA will also benefit from access to federal resources through the University of Texas System, Westbrook said.

“I think we have an opportunity to access some federal funding there that we just don’t have. We don’t have any feet on the ground in DC to do that — we just can’t afford to do that,” Westbrook said.