Study Tips: Get Out

Get Up! Get Out! Do Something!

By Texas State SLAC

Get out there and get involved with the Texas State community.

College is all about balance! Just like you can’t have all play and no work, you can’t have all work and no play. So get involved. As a Texas State Bobcat, this is your Lair—and you have to make it your home.

Happenings: Kelsey Timmerman

Common Experience author to visit Texas State, give talks Sept. 27

Kelsey Timmerman

By Andrew Osegi

As part of the Texas State University 2012-2013 Common Experience theme, A Global Odyssey: Exploring Our Connections to the Changing World, author and journalist Kelsey Timmerman will speak to the Texas State community on Thursday, Sept. 27, 2012, in Strahan Coliseum.

Study Tips: Plan Your Semester

It’s never too late to start
planning a great semester

The key to college success is good planning!

By Texas State SLAC

There’s so much pressure in getting an education: parents wanting the best for you, employers looking for top-of-the-line students, and your own expectations for excellence and success. It’s okay to want to make parents proud, find a good job, and be successful, but the grades that allow these things depend to a large extent on how you plan. Bring the following tips into your routine and seize control of your semester.

Faculty: Steven Furney

Long-time faculty member honored for excellence in teaching

Dr. Steven Furney is the 19th faculty member at Texas State to be named a Piper Professor.

By Audrey Webb

Steven Furney, university distinguished professor in the Department of Health and Human Performance, has an office tucked in a corner on the first floor of the Jowers Center. The walls of his workspace there are covered with frames displaying some of the highlights of his life. Pictures of family – he’s a father to three and grandfather to five – share space with his numerous awards and his multiple diplomas, one of which he says he got unintentionally.

Around Campus: Common Experience 2012

Common Experience cultivates conversation on global connections

This map of Facebook friendships helped inspire the 2012 Common Experience theme “A Global Odyssey.”

By Callie Gordon ’12

In 2004, President Denise M. Trauth implemented a unique program to foster a campus-wide intellectual discussion. Eight years later, the Common Experience has become a unifying affair for Texas State students, staff, faculty and friends. This yearlong series of events, conferences, speakers and screenings is an opportunity for students to become more active in their educational experience.

“Early on, the vision was to connect entering students to a shared conversation,” Trauth writes on the Common Experience website, “but it quickly grew to include upper-level classes, student support services, campus activities, performing arts and the San Marcos schools and community.”

This year, the Common Experience addresses an increasingly relevant issue: globalization. The 2012-2012 Common Experience theme — A Global Odyssey: Exploring Our Connections to the Changing World — was created to foster the community’s examination of the many international relationships that affect our daily lives.

Happenings: Black and Latino Playwrights Conference

Annual conference a staging ground for black and Latino playwrights

By Audrey Webb

Douglas Turner Ward, a pioneer of African-American theatre, will be honored during the Black and Latino Playwrights Conference. Picture from Running Wild Films, http://www.vimeo.com/43872540

In 2011, Dallas playwright Jonathon Norton was one of hundreds of playwrights who submitted a script to be considered for Texas State’s Black and Latino Playwrights Conference, an annual event that pairs playwrights with guest directors and actors to help them develop and polish their writing. With space enough for only two playwrights to have their scripts workshopped, however, artistic director Eugene Lee (Texas State alum, ’74) had to make some difficult choices. Unfortunately, Norton’s script was not selected.

Shortly after Norton received the disappointing news, however, the conference received a $15,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts; for the first time since its inception in 2002, sufficient resources were available to serve three playwrights and their new works. Norton was offered the third slot. Attending the conference made a dramatic difference to him and his first full-length script, “My Tidy List of Terrors.”

Happenings: Rally on the Square

Local businesses promote Bobcat football fanfare with ‘Rally’

Rally on the Square invites Bobcats and Red Raiders to enjoy San Marcos before the big football game.

By Amber Kahla

Local business are inviting the Texas State University community, Bobcat fans and our Red Raider guests to the first annual Rally on the Square, an evening of fanfare and fun before the big game.

In honor of the Texas State football team’s first home game on Sept. 8, Bobcat and Red Raider fans will gather for a common purpose before their respective teams face-off on the gridiron. The game will mark the first time the Bobcats play in the newly expanded Bobcat Stadium and the first game of the Western Athletic Conference.