Sul Ross State University will host the inaugural Borderlands Open Access Symposium on Friday, April 24, from 10 a.m. to noon.
The virtual event will bring together educators, researchers and practitioners to advance conversations on equitable access to knowledge, open educational resources (OER) and innovative teaching and research practices in the Borderlands region and beyond.
Organized in coordination with the Office of the Provost, the Bryan Wildenthal Memorial Library, the Archives of the Big Bend and the Open Access Vision Team, this initiative is made possible through the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s (THECB) OER Fellowship Program. The symposium is designed as a collaborative space for sharing ideas, experiences and strategies that expand access to scholarly work and improve student success.
The two-hour program will feature a structured series of sessions highlighting open access work across campus. The symposium will begin at 10 a.m. with welcome remarks and an overview of open access initiatives at Sul Ross, followed by presentations on open educational resources and student success strategies. Midway through the program, attendees will hear lightning-style talks focused on faculty research, digital scholarship and increasing access to academic work.
Additional sessions will explore institutional data, interdisciplinary applications of open access and community-engaged research in the borderlands, showcasing how open practices are being implemented across disciplines at SRSU.
The closing keynote “From Vision to Practice: The Path to Open,” by Megan Zara, OER Librarian, University of Texas at Arlington, will be held from 11:30 to noon.
The symposium planning and presentation team includes representatives from across the university. From the College of Education: Dr. Jennifer Miller-Ray, Dr. Diana Rodriguez, Dr. Shelley Landreth and Dr. Jennifer Haan; from the Rio Grande College of Business: Dr. Philamer Torio, Dr. James Cho and Dr. Prabakaran Sellamuthu; from the College of Health Sciences: Dr. Minerva Gonzales, Dr. Doug Renshaw, Dr. Hugh Morrissey and Dr. Rachel Johnson; from the Case College of Literature, Arts, and Social Sciences: Dr. Rosemary Briseño and Dr. Rachel Sangster Garza; from the College of Agriculture, Life, and Physical Sciences: Dr. Clifton Albrecht and Dr. Bushra Sajid; from the College of Humanities and Sciences: Dr. Veronica Méndez and Dr. Xinyuan Qiu; along with Betsy Helesic Evans from the SRSU Library, Ajay Vaidya from Institutional Research, Dr. Devin Pettigrew from the Center for Big Bend Studies, Bobby Greeson from the Office of University Communications, Dr. John Klingemann from the Office of Development and Advancement, and Alma Diaz, a graduate student.
The Borderlands Open Access Symposium is free and open to the public, with registration online at https://sulross.libcal.com/event/16609742.