The LBJ Student Center

A guide to LBJ Student Center, some college tips, DIYs, and anything else to help students. TEXAS STATE UNIVERSITY - 109 STUDENT CENTER DR. SAN MARCOS, TX 78666 EAT 'EM UP CATS!

[alkeklibrary]

It’s today! 

Event Details:

Film starts at 2pm, with an introduction by Dr. Louie Valencia from the History Department.

Dr. Valencia will lead a discussion following the film

PRIZES will be given away in a social media contest, thanks to Kanopy Streamingdatabase! Details to enter giveaway will be given out at the event.

[lbjsc]

It’s Bobcat Graduation Season!

So you’ve made it to the finish line, Bobcats. You spent hours studying in Alkek, you ate through the multitude of options on Jones’ dining menu and you participated in a plethora of campus activities. A question still remains though; how are you going to stand out from the crowd at graduation? Through decorated caps, of course! 

Gain inspiration by checking out these fun and crafty caps.

1. Show your Texas State pride.

Both caps can be found on Texas State University commencement web page.

2. Or maybe you want something reminiscent of childhood?

Found here on Pinterest.

Found here on Pinterest.

3. Throw in some funny pop culture references if you want to.

Found here on Pinterest.

Found here on Pinterest.

4. You could thank the people who helped you the most through your college years.

Found here on Etsy.

Found here on Pinterest.

5. Or, if none of those have put you in the graduating spirit, find your favorite quote that sums up your time at the greatest school in Texas.

Found here on Instagram.

Found here on Pinterest.

However you choose to decorate your cap, we know that you will go on to do great things. Through the years, you will always have Texas State to call home. Good luck out there and Eat Em’ Up, Cats!

[alkeklibrary]

Finals hours start today! We are open starting today (Monday) at 7am till Friday at 5pm!

Don’t forget, Therapy Dogs visit tomorrow and Wednesday from 1-3pm in the Open Theater & SLAC.

[lbjsc]

George’s

      In 2004, George’s officially opened as a premier entertainment space providing pool, ping pong, board games and video games for students. Originally called “The Game Room” and located in The Basement of LBJ student center, George’s has always been a hub for student interaction. Now, it provides students a location to relax, eat and watch their favorite shows.

Strait is seen playing at Cheatham Street Warehouse.

      The name originated from one of our most notable alumni, George Strait and his backup band Ace in the Hole. While attending Texas State University (then Southwest Texas State University), the band made a name for themselves as they performed across campus and at San Marcos’ own Cheatham Street Warehouse. Strait graduated in 1979 with a bachelor of science degree in agriculture and then became one of the most successful country singers in the world.

Photo by Blake Kotrla 

Photo by Blake Kotrla

     Strait was unable to attend the 2004 grand opening of George’s, but the rest of his band mates attended and donated much of the memorabilia found in the space today. This includes a George Strait jacket, tickets to shows, old band posters, guitar picks and framed autographs.

 Photo of Salsa Night from LBJSC Archives

     The space has evolved along with its ever-changing group of students. In the first two years, George’s and the music fraternity Phi Mu Alpha hosted a Salsa Night every Friday. The space was packed with students dancing to the tunes played by Salsa Del Rio. Since that time, George’s has hosted magicians, comedians and the annual Battle of the Bands. A recent reoccurring theme has included watch parties for football games, fight nights and elections. During the recent 2016 election, George’s provided moderators and multi-screen coverage with different outlets streaming predicted outcomes and updates. George’s is also the only space on campus where alcohol is served (ID necessary) on weekends.

Photo from opening of George’s from LBJSC Archives

     This semester, George’s will host salsa nights, comedy open mic nights and movie showings. For more information and to keep up-to-date with news and events, head on over to their website. In your free time, go check out this cool space, learn about one of Texas State's most notable alumnus and try some delicious food and beverages.

[alkeklibrary]

Alkek Library will be closed during Spring Break so that the transformers that power the building can be replaced. #txst #alkek (at Albert B. Alkek Library, Texas State University)

[oupacademic]

The evolution of Mardi Gras

Today we celebrate Mardi Gras! This raucous celebration has a rich history, and the holiday has evolved much in the two hundred plus years it’s existed in New Orleans. Did you know these seven facts about Mardi Gras?

Mardi Gras in Louisiana owes its origins to the region’s French, Spanish, and Afro-Caribbean population.

Informal parades and festive masquerades date to the early nineteenth century.

The modern Mardi Gras began in 1857 with the establishment of the city’s first exclusive Carnival organization, the “Mystick Krewe of Comus.”

All-white “krewes” like Rex, Momus, and Proteus soon arose after 1857 and quickly became social networks for the city’s Anglo and Creole elites.

In 1909, members of New Orleans’ black middle class created the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club as a sly critique of white stereotypes of African Americans as savages, and as a protest against the city’s harsh Jim Crow culture.

Beginning in the 1880s, away from the center city, the black “Mardi Gras Indians” masqueraded in highly stylized Plains Indians costumes that played upon white stereotypes of both Indians and African Americans.

By the late 1990s more than seventy krewes paraded in the two weeks leading up to and including Mardi Gras day.

Image credit: New Orleans, Louisiana by David Mark, Public Domain via Pixabay.

[alkeklibrary]

Happy Mardi Gras! (or Pancake day)

[alkeklibrary]

It starts today! Come find literary love in the library!

[lbjsc]

Great photos taken from Mama’s Kitchen event in the LBJSC ballroom! Truly one of the best traditions at Texas State to celebrate Black History Month. Thank you, Multicultural Student Association!

[penamerican]

“Hatred, which could destroy so much, never failed to destroy the man who hated, and this was an immutable law.”

—James Baldwin, whose book THE FIRE NEXT TIME was published on this day in 1963

[lbjsc]

Happy Lunar New Year, Bobcats! 

[alkeklibrary]

agoodmovietowatch finds you great movies you've never heard of but will absolutely love.

Interesting movie recommendation site, in case you have some spare time and don’t know what to watch.

[txstquidditch]

Look at all those happy dedicated quidkids! We’re out in the quad until 3 today! We’ve been spreading the good word of quidditch by telling students about our sorting ceremony tonight at (7pm in Derrick 113) as well as our 5th annual Diamond Cup on Saturday. Now is the time to to ask us your burning quidditch questions, sign up for the informational email, and buy some awesome TXST Quidditch merch! See you there, Bobcats! (at The Quad)

[lbjsc]

Tips for getting back into the school routine

1. Mornings don’t have to be hard

Breaks are fun: getting to stay up all night and sleep in late into the afternoon never seems to get old. Unfortunately, this doesn’t last forever and you will eventually have to get used to waking up for your 9 a.m. class again. For the early birds of the world, this will be an easy transition with only minor adjustments. Are you the kind of person who sleeps through their alarms, or hits it over-and-over until it’s an hour after you initially needed to get up? Then start waking up early a few days before the semester starts. This practice will give your body time to adjust to early wake and sleep times. Another helpful tip would be to invest in an app to help regulate your sleeping routine or get an obnoxiously loud alarm clock and place it on the other side of your room to ensure that you get up when you need to. Starting this routine early will make it easier for you to transition into the semester. Besides, nobody enjoys waking up in a frenzied panic.

2. Plan on!

Set yourself up for success this semester by getting organized early. If your professor sends out a syllabus in advance be sure read it over to get a vision of what your semester is going to look like. Also, setting aside time to write down important test and project dates in your planner can help future you when you’re busy during midterms (On that note, if you do not have a planner you should definitely go buy one). Being able to write out everything you need on paper is an easy way to keep you from forgetting. Check out your university’s academic schedule, as well, so you are aware of breaks, registration days and school holidays.

If you’re anti-planner (even though it’s been proven that writing things down improves memory- look it up) then there are great apps that can help you stay organized. 24me is an iOS and Android app that acts as your personal planner to create a centralized location for your calendar, notes and to-do lists. Google Calendar is another app that can help organize your schedule from the comfort of your own phone. Through this handy iOS and Android app, the user is able to organize tasks and create personal goals to set for each day. You’re on your phone all day anyways, so having these tools can help give you one less thing to worry about.

3. You best prepare yourself

Picking out what you will wear the night before can help decrease morning panic and help you feel comfortable and confident for the day ahead. If you’re the type of person who rolls out of bed 20 minutes before class and walks out the door, try at least picking out a matching pair of socks; this will give you an extra 2 minutes to drowsily browse Instagram. Also, if you bring lunch to school, it is a great time-saver to pack one the night before and stick it in the fridge. That way when you’re rushing out the door with your keys and coffee in hand all you need to do is grab your lunch and put it in your bag.

Once you’ve left home, you have the next challenge of getting to school. For those who live on campus this will be easy-breezy, but, for commuters, the possibility of traffic and trains are a real concern. Be sure to check your university Shuttle Tracker or download an app like Waze that will help you monitor traffic and pick the best route to get to class. Following these steps can help you prepare for the next day and allow you to catch more Z’s (Because let’s be real, we all want to sleep in more).

4. Food, food, food!

In the midst of homework, organizations and school projects it can be easy for us to neglect our health and have one too many cheeseburgers. Reserving Sunday night to prepare healthy meals for the upcoming your week can give you one less thing to stress about when you come home at 8 p.m. from the library. Check out this Lifehack article for helpful meal prep tips. You can take this a step further and offer to go to the grocery store with your roommates or friends to make groceries less expensive and cooking more enjoyable. If you know you have a light workload on Tuesdays, then you could offer to cook dinner that night, while your roomie cooks on Mondays when you have a tight schedule. Planning for the week ahead will help give you the peace of mind to focus on work and school.

5. Get a head start

We all have that one friend that always waits until the very last minute to work on something and then stresses over it the whole night. Don’t be this person. Getting ahead early will help you out in the long run, even if you start with something simple. If your class requires you to read a book or novel, get started on it now before you have too much work and neglect it. If a class requires you to do work before you get to class try doing it at the beginning of the week, with all the hustle and bustle of life you may forget about it and, sadly, remember the morning it’s due.

[alkeklibrary]

Interesting Depression-era photographs of San Marcos.

[alkeklibrary]

Therapy dogs are here in Alkek again this afternoon from 1-3pm in the Open Theater. Come in and pet the puppies!

[lbjsc]

A Closer Look: What they don’t tell you about college

Do you all remember everything the orientation leaders said at orientation? Probably not. One thing you did hear often was, “Get involved! Stay active!” This is sound advice, and very true. Being active and involved provides students with a community while at the same time connecting them with their school. However, nobody ever gives you the real 411 concerning the next four years. You will learn and experience things about yourself that you never even knew existed. Challenges and struggles will pop up unexpectedly, and you may not know how to deal with them. Here’s some real advice to get you through college: Grow.

You will grow in ways that you can’t even imagine. Your taste in clothes may change, your circle of friends may grow or shrink and you may learn more about your gender or sexuality. Exploration occurs often in college which is pretty normal. Take time during these college years to learn about yourself. Educating yourself is important, but realizing who you are as a person is important as well. Essentially, growth comes with change. You’ve opted out on being a nurse or engineer. Instead, you’ve discovered a new major that sparks your interest in a new way. Yeah, about that. Don’t work yourself up if you’ve already changed your major once and you’re thinking about changing it again. You don’t go into college knowing all the answers, you go there to find them; even then, you still may not find them all.  

When you move from adolescence to adulthood, life tends to get a little harder and emotions get stronger. Becoming an adult means you’ll be on your own and you may not have a safety net. If you feel the need to speak to someone, there are counselors waiting to hear your story. If that’s too much, see if your professor has time to speak for a few minutes after class. Tell them why you’ve been struggling in the class lately. They want to help you, so always reach out when you have the chance to talk to someone. Don’t hold onto things that will build up and make you want to explode later.

If that isn’t enough, you may also find yourself facing an identity crisis, constantly asking yourself “Who am I?” College is where you will find yourself or at least take the first teetering steps along the path to self-discovery. Finding yourself can be a lifelong process. Who do you want to be? To get closer to figuring that out, take time to learn what you truly admire and what you’re passionate about. You see those organization flyers all over campus? Take a few. You can’t knock something till you try it. Archery Club? Check. Ski club? You got it. Do you like playing hide and seek? Yep, there’s even a hide and seek club. Online there’s hundreds of organizations to choose from provided by the Student Organizations Council that may interest you.

You’ll have great days and you’ll have terrible days. There will be times when you cry because you’ve had a horrible day, and there will be times that you cry from laughing with your friends. Maybe you failed that test that you studied so hard for, or there are some personal issues going on in your family. If life ever leaves you feeling overwhelmed, slow down and take a deep breath. Remove yourself the problem so you can have some distance and get a new perspective. Remember to just breathe. You will survive this, and you will come out stronger from it.

One of the most important life skills you can learn is how to let go, and the sooner you do it, the better off you will be. Letting go can be one of the worst feelings ever. There are people you’ve had in your life for a long time, and disentangling them from your social network can be both difficult and painful. Let go of toxic relationships and friendships that don’t mean you well. The love of your life goes to Texas State but you’ve been fighting a lot, or you and your best friend forever are drifting further and further apart. Some relations can be fixed indeed, but if it isn’t benefiting you both as a whole, let it go. Delaying the inevitable may seem like it’s putting off the pain of ending things, but it’s really just prolonging your hurt.

Napoleon Hill once said, “Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.” Struggling is a part of life, and there will be many struggles here at Texas State. Just remember to stay true to yourself, recognize your growth and let go of things that are doing you more harm than good. There aren’t any instructions on how to get through college without any challenges or obstacles. You just have to grow through it.

[alkeklibrary]

Therapy Dogs will return to Alkek Library in one week! This semester, we have several dogs visiting for the first time, including our poster boy Zeus the Sharpei. Stop by the library on December 12 & 13 from 1-3pm to relieve some finals stress, and pick up a sticker of your favorite dog to prove you got your woof on. #alkekpuppylove (at Albert B. Alkek Library, Texas State University)