Sul Ross State University
A Member of the Texas State University System

News Release for Sept. 15, 2009

CONSTITUTION DAY OBSERVANCE SEPT. 17 AT SUL ROSS

Sul Ross State University faculty members Matt Walter, instructor of History; and Dr. Ray Kessler, professor of Criminal Justice, will be featured speakers at Constitution Day activities Thursday, Sept. 17.

Walter will address "Flags of the Founding Fathers" and Kessler will speak on the Second Amendment. The program will be held from 11 a.m.-12:15 p.m. in Morelock Academic Building, Room 302.

There is no admission charge and the public is invited to attend.

For more information, contact Ann Johnson, (432) 837-8667 or ajohnson@sulross.edu.

SUL ROSS TO CELEBRATE NATIONAL GEAR UP DAY SEPT. 18

Sul Ross State University will join the national observance of GEAR UP Day Friday, Sept. 18.

An open house will be held from 2-5 p.m. in the Sul Ross GEAR UP office, Morelock Academic Building, Room 104.

Since 1999, GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs), federally-funded by the U.S. Department of Education, has helped thousands of students in 48 states, the District of Columbia and five territories prepare for college.

Since 2005, Sul Ross State University's GEAR UP program has served over 620 students of the Class of 2011 from 14 school districts and nine West Texas counties. Sul Ross GEAR UP serves: Alpine, Balmorhea, Fort Stockton, Grandfalls, Imperial, Marathon, Marfa, Pecos, Presidio, Sanderson, Sierra Blanca, Terlingua, Valentine and Van Horn.

Beginning as seventh-graders in 2005, students from participating schools have enjoyed educational and recreational field trips, learning workshops, classes and on-campus experiences to gain a head start on college. GEAR UP also provides training tools for teachers, workshops and supplies.

Aster Trevino serves as GEAR UP director. GEAR UP Outreach Coordinators are: Rockland Owens, serving Fort Stockton, Marathon and Sanderson; Nancy Borrego, Van Horn, Sierra Blanca, Marfa and Valentine; Patrick Clingman, Alpine, Presidio and Terlingua; and Lali Rivera, Pecos, Balmorhea, Imperial, Grandfalls.

Estella Vega is in charge of professional development and Pam Pipes serves as records administrator.

For more information, contact: Trevino, (432) 837-8807 or atrevino@sulross.edu.

RIO GRANDE PHOTO EXHIBITION OPENS AT MUSEUM OF THE BIG BEND

Jon Michael Smith's panoramic photographs of the Rio Grande drew the "Bravo!" from the exhibit's title at Friday night's (Sept. 11) Museum of the Big Bend.

Smith, Odessa, has displayed his 30 x 90-inch and 20 x 60-inch color views of the Rio Grande in museums in Midland, Hobbs, N.M., and San Angelo prior to the Museum of the Big Bend. The "Rio Grande Bravo!" exhibition will be on display at least through December.

"The beautiful thing about this exhibit is that it is the tie that binds for communities all along the Rio Grande," said Smith, a jury consultant whose panoramic photography is an avocation.

He spent two years photographing the Rio Grande from points in Colorado, New Mexico and Texas, using a rectilinear camera with a negative size of 2.25 inches by 6.75 inches. His exhibition opened in February 2008 at Midland's Permian Basin Petroleum Museum.

"Making big pictures tells a different story from what we see when photographs are usually exhibited," Smith said. "When the photos are enlarged to this level you tend to see objects you never see at the time you are photographing them."

Scenes on exhibition range from Creede, Colo., to Elephant Butte Lake near Truth or Consequences, N.M.; to Santa Elena Canyon in Big Bend National Park.

"This (exhibition) was ideal for the Museum of the Big Bend," Smith said. "People have seen the Big Bend, but perhaps have not seen the region tied in with the rest of the Rio Grande."

"We are hosting this important exhibit at the Museum of the Big Bend because too often those of us who live here and visit think the Rio Grande is just the border crossing at Presidio and Santa Elena Canyon," said Larry Francell, Museum of the Big Bend director.

Museum hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and 1-5 p.m. Sundays. There is no admission charge.

For more information, contact Francell, (432) 837-8145 or francell@sulross.edu.

GUGGENHEIM FELLOW TO DELIVER 21ST MARSHALL LECTURE SEPT. 24 AT SUL ROSS

Jay Dusard, Guggenheim Fellow in Photography, will deliver the 21 st Mary Thomas Marshall Lecture Thursday, Sept. 24 at Sul Ross State University.

Dusard will address "La Frontera and the West" at 7:30 p.m. in the Becky Espino Ramos Conference Center of the Vic and Mary Jane Morgan University Center. There is no admission charge and the public is invited.

Dusard has made a name for himself as a photographer of the American West. His large-format black and white photographs of cowboys, border subjects and abstractions have received several awards and many gallery showings. He will be a featured presenter at the "Shooting the West" Photography Symposium, Sept. 25-27 at Sul Ross.

Dusard was born in St. Louis, grew up on a farm in southern Illinois and studied architecture at the University of Florida. During a stint in the army, he was stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, and began cowboying, a career he pursued in Arizona after the army.

In 1965, while living in Tucson, Ariz., and working in architecture and cartography, Dusard started photographing. A year later in Flagstaff he was working in publishing and using his large-format cameras to take landscape photographs. He met photographer Frederick Sommer, who became his mentor and paved the way for him to teach photography for seven years at Prescott College.

When he received a 1981 Guggenheim Fellowship, Dusard photographed working cowboys. The photographs were published in his classic and widely-acclaimed work, The North American Cowboy: A Portrait (1983). His second book, La Frontera: The United States Border with Mexico, with text by Alan Weisman, was published in 1986.

In 1992 he was nominated for the Kodak World Image Award for Fine Art Photography. In 1994 his book, Open Country, was awarded third place in the Photographic Book of the Year competition. His most recent book, Horses, was a 2005 collaboration with writer Thomas McGuane. A limited edition portfolio of 12 digital prints, The California Vaquero, was published by Cattle Track Press (2005). Dusard has established himself not only as a creator of beautiful images, but one of the greatest black & white printmakers. Starting in 2006, monumental-size archival pigment prints as large as 4 by 8 feet have been made in collaboration with Carlos Mandelaveitia of TruRes (Scottsdale).

Jay Dusard: Keeping the West Western, a documentary by Michael Markee, was premiered at the Sedona International Film Festival in 2006. Among numerous venues, his work has been exhibited at the Phoenix Art Museum, Glenbow Museum (Calgary), Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Consejo Mexicano de Fotografia (Mexico City), Art Museum of South Texas, International Photography Hall of Fame (Oklahoma City), Cattle Track Gallery (Scottsdale), Booth Museum of Western Art (Cartersville, Ga.), Schenck Southwest Gallery (Santa Fe), and currently at the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. Most recently, his abstractions were featured in LensWork #78.

He lives with his wife, Kathie, near Douglas, Ariz., where, between trips to photograph and teach workshops, he raises quarter horses, punches cows and plays jazz cornet.

The Sul Ross State University Lecture Series was renamed in 1985 to honor Mary Thomas Marshall, a good friend of the University. On Feb. 21, 1992, the Board of Regents, of the Texas State University System approved renaming the Main Auditorium of Sul Ross State University to the Marshall Auditorium in recognition of her many contributions to the University.

Photo: Jay Dusard at the Trailside Gallery in Jackson Hole, Wyo., with two of his prints. Dusard, a Guggenheim Fellow, will deliver the 21st Mary Thomas Marshall Lecture Sept.24.

FUNERAL ARRANGEMENTS PENDING FOR JOYCE SESTERS, SUL ROSS STAFF MEMBER

Services are pending for Joyce Sesters, director of Career Services at Sul Ross State University.

Sesters died Monday, Sept. 7, at Midland Memorial Hospital of cancer.

Funeral arrangements are with Brookehill Funeral Home, 711 S.E. Military Drive, San Antonio, (210) 923-7523. A memorial service at Sul Ross will be held later this month..

Sesters began work at Sul Ross in January 2002. She received a B.S. degree from Southwest Texas State University (now Texas State University, San Marcos) and a M.A. in Clinical Psychology from Trinity University, San Antonio. She also earned a M.A. in History from Sul Ross in 2007. She previously worked in the psychological health field in both private and public settings.

SUL ROSS WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT STUDENTS RECEIVE HSC SCHOLARSHIPS

Six Sul Ross State University wildlife management students recently received prestigious scholarships from the Houston Safari Club.

Reagan Gage, Jarrell; Dustin Hollowell, Borger; Renee Keleher, Houston; Paula Scrobarzyk, Corpus Christi; Kendall Smith, Johnson City; and Mark Tyson, Iola, each received a $4,000 HSC award during ceremonies in Houston. HSC, established in 1972, is a volunteer non-profit conservation, education, and sporting rights advocacy organization based in Houston, Texas. With a large and influential membership, Houston Safari Club works diligently to preserve the sporting heritage, support wildlife conservation, and promote education both locally and throughout the world.

Since 1997, HSC has awarded over $500,000 to the top wildlife students in Texas, including 18 at Sul Ross. HSC has also sponsored Sul Ross' Borderlands Research Institute, various BRI workshops, mule deer research and the desert bighorn sheep project.

Previous Sul Ross scholarship recipients include: Justin Foster, Bill Adams, Dustin Windsor, Misty Sumner, Keith St. Clair, Abel Guevara, Poncho Ortega, Katie Ballard, Clay Shoot, Shawn Locke, Ryan Walser, Shawn Whitely, Brendan Witt and Chris Amthor. Four are current Texas Parks and Wildlife Department biologists; two are National Resource Conservation Service range ecologists; one serves as a Wildlife Services biologist; one is a Bureau of Land Management biologist; one is an Arizona Game and Fish Department biologist, one has a doctorate in Wildlife Science and works as Extension Specialist at Texas A&M; one recipient is working on doctorate in wildlife; another is a fire ecologist with the Texas Forestry Service; and one is a TPWD game warden.

For more information, contact Louis Harveson, (432) 837-8098 or harveson@sulross.edu.

Photo: Sul Ross Wildlife Management students (from left): Paula Scrobarzyk, Renee Keleher, Dustin Hollowell, Reagan Gage, Mark Tyson and Kendall Smith received Houston Safari Club scholarships. Photo courtesy Louis Harveson.

LOCAL, SUL ROSS PHOTOGRAPHERS FEATURED AT SEPT. 24-27 SYMPOSIUM

Three local photographers, Rocky McBride, Alpine, and Sul Ross State University staff members Dennie Miller and Jason Hennington, will be among featured presenters at the "Shooting the West" Photography Symposium, Sept. 24-27 at the Vic and Mary Jane Morgan University Center.

McBride is a wildlife biologist and Sul Ross graduate, has been involved with the capture of large cats with hounds worldwide. He has captured jaguars in Mexico, Belize, French Guiana, Venezuela, and Paraguay; snow leopards in Mongolia and Kazakhstan; Siberian lynx in Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and the Soviet Far East; Siberian tigers in Soviet Far East.

He has captured pumas and jaguars for telemetry studies in Carlsbad Caverns National Park, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Big Bend National Park, the Florida Everglades National Park, Big Cypress National Preserve, Paraguay, and Venezuela. McBride has compiled puma population estimates for Corps of Engineers, Texas Tech University, and Texas Parks and Wildlife.

Today he is the owner of Faro Moro Ranch in Chaco, Paraguay and director of Faro Moro EcoResearch. He will show photographs of the large cats and explain how he obtains the photos.

"Rocky has a conflicting capture contract in Paraguay," said his wife, Monica Hernandez, "but he hopes to be back. If not, I will present his program."

Miller will be showing photos from local movie sets. In the spring of 2005, Miller, photographer and editor for The Desert-Mountain Times, produced a four-part photographic series, "Chasing Hollywood," in which he documented remnants of the props and locations of 20 feature films produced in Brewster, Jeff Davis and Presidio counties prior to the year 2000. Miller will present photos taken for that project and discuss aspects of his research, as well as logistics and composition that took place in preparation for the series.

"The project was fascinating throughout and was one that combined my interest in local history with my skills as a photo journalist," Miller said." I am eager to share this experience."

Miller operates Dennie Miller Digital Photography in Alpine and is the Training Specialist for the Big Bend Region Minority and Small Business Development Center at SRSU.

Hennington, news writer and photographer for Sul Ross News and Publications, will present a collection of his outstanding action sports photographs. He began working as a student photographer at Sul Ross in 2001and has since honed his photographic skills at hundreds of athletic events including Lobo athletics, arena football, and semi-pro hockey. He will explain his motives, preparations, and what he looks for in an outstanding sports photo.

"I'm excited to be a part of this symposium," he said. "I want to learn as much as I can from the other photographers, and hopefully impress them with some of my work."

The event will also feature Jay Dusard, former Guggenheim Photography Fellow; David Stoecklein, a Canon "Explorer of Light," author of numerous photography books, and stock photographer; Gary and Kathy Adams Clark, stock photographer and author of several books on Texas wildlife; Earl Nottingham, chief photographer for Texas Parks & Wildlife Magazine; Dr. Terry Nathan, landscape and cloud photographer as well as Professor and Vice Chair of the Atmospheric Science Program at the University of California, Davis ; Keith Bowden, author of The Tecate Journals; and Dr. Diana Doan-Crider, Mexico black bear scientist.

Tickets for the two-day symposium are $100 per person and available on line or through LeAndra Ramirez in the Sul Ross Cashier's Office (837-8047).

For more information, see www.shootingwesttexas.com.

THREE GENERATIONS OF EL PASO FAMILY ENJOY SUL ROSS ENVIRONMENT

by Jason Hennington, News Writer

An El Paso family that studies together stays together -- all three generations -- at Sul Ross State University.

Grandmother Cathy Rainer has attended Sul Ross for three years, and this fall semester was joined by her daughter, Texas Temple, and granddaughter, Micaela Marvin, who is Temple's niece. All are El Paso residents.

Temple and Marvin enrolled in the Licensed Vocational Nursing (LVN) program. Rainer encouraged them to return to school and earn their degrees.

"We saw my mom was having too much fun and that's why we came," Temple said.

After researching nursing programs at other universities, both Temple and Marvin chose Sul Ross.

"They had the best program," Temple said. "We did a lot of investigating on the nursing program and asked mom if she didn't mind us joining her here."

Rainer was happy to have her family at Sul Ross, and spoke highly of the university and its nursing program.

"I was very excited. I told them this was the best university in the country," she said. "They have a wonderful nursing program."

Marvin was happy to be returning to school, but became even more excited knowing she would be accompanied by her aunt and grandmother. While some students might have second thoughts about attending school with older family members, Marvin believes this is a memorable opportunity.

"I just came to school, and it was exciting to come to school with my grandmother," Marvin said. "I love it. We are a very close family so we spend a lot of time together."

Since Marvin and Temple have the same major, they also have the same classes. A friendly family competition persists.

"She gets to see if she is really smarter than us," Temple laughed. "The pressure is really on her."

Rainer, a General Studies major, does not have any classes related to her daughter's and granddaughter's, but still offers advice to them occasionally.

"I offer advice whether they ask for it or not," she laughed. "And sometimes I ask for their advice, too."

Temple said that she is still getting back into the routine of college life.

"After 25 years it still takes me a little time to acclimate getting up and getting to class," Temple said. "It's not my first turn at college, just my first trip at this college."

Although each has had an attempt at college, they all believe Sul Ross was the best choice because of its friendliness towards students. Marvin attended Central Arizona College and sees a difference in how the university caters to students' needs.

"Here the instructors are more willing to help you," she said. "Here they care more about students."

According to Temple, the instructors are more patient with students. This was one of the strong points Rainer used to get Temple and Marvin to consider Sul Ross.

"I told them all about it," she said. "I assured them they would like it here."

All plan to graduate in December 2010, and future plans include more education. Marvin and Temple are considering the RN (Registered Nursing) program at Sul Ross, while Rainer is planning to return to school for more education.

"My ambition is to be an inspiration to all my kids, my 14 grandkids, and my great-grandchild, thanks to Micaela. It's never too late to go back to school. If I can do it, then so can they," said Rainer, who graduated from high school in 1962. "My whole family is extremely proud of me and that was the intention."

Marvin is happy to have this experience of being in college with her aunt and grandmother.

"It's pretty cool to go to school with your grandma," she said. "How many people can say they went to school with Grandma?"

For Temple, this is a chance to be close to home and be surrounded by family.

"This is home," she said. "I have family here. Intermediate family and inherited a big family."

Rainer has four children, three daughters and a son, while Temple is married with four children of her own, and Marvin is the mother of one girl.

Photo: Cathy Rainer (top left), Texas Temple (top right), and Micaela Marvin (center) represent three generations of family as Sul Ross students.  Photo by Jason Hennington.