Frequently Asked Questions

Our facilities are available to Texas State University faculty/staff/students as well as external users who have established a relationship with a Texas State University Principal Investigator (PI). There are different policies required for access into the ARSC, NRSC, and ERSS spaces. 

SRO facilities are located in the Roy F. Mitte and Jerome C. Supple buildings on the San Marcos campus. 

On the SRO Website, under SRO Facilities. 

For additional questions, contact us. 

SRO facilities are accessible 24/7 except for closures for maintenance or emergency.

Our team of technical staff manage several specialized laboratories where we offer affordable and efficient access to standard and advanced instrumentation for users from any discipline or level of experience. We provide: user equipment and protocol training, standard operating procedures, shared equipment support, equipment stewardship, and an amazing, efficient, and diverse education and research environment.

Unfortunately, SRO is not set up to do this at this time. If you need a single sample analyzed quickly, please contact us, and we may be able to help you find a collaborator.

If the project is new to SRO, then fill out the form titled “SRO_RSC-Facility-Use-Request-Form” found at sro.txstate.edu, under the forms tab.

If Project X is an existing project to SRO, then log into FOM, select ‘click here to add project name, select your supervisor from the drop-down menu. Then select the project you are working on from the second menu. Press submit.

Login to Facility Online Manager (FOM), select the equipment you would like to get trained on, click ‘request training’, indicate your training availability, and the trainer will get back to you regarding the training schedule. How to request a training in FOM.

Training durations are dependent on the complexity of the equipment and the trainee’s competency/experience. Our technical staff will train you on how to safely and effectively use the equipment.  Please remember to wear full-profile shoes and long pants.

Depending on the piece of equipment, we will schedule a shortened  “re-certification” training. The purpose of the recertification is two-fold: (1) to make sure the user is aware of any revisions to the SOP since they last used the tool, and (2) to ensure that the user accurately recalls the standard operating procedure.

Facility Online Manager (FOM) is a web-based portal (there is no app) that SRO utilizes for equipment and user management. Go to FOM, there are two ways to reserve equipment time: reserving the session in advance and express login.

Please contact us. 

Access to SRO facilities is controlled by Access Services who manage access rights via RFID card (your Bobcat ID). Please note that requests for access can take up to 1 week to process after all documentation has been submitted. The SRO maintains strict access controls primarily to ensure anyone with 24/7 access to one of our facilities has completed the required safety training.

Once you become an SRO User, you will have access to the SRO Canvas site. The SRO Canvas site contains SOPs for all the equipment under SRO stewardship, as well as training videos and links to helpful websites and resources.

For a new project to SRO, fill out the form titled “SRO-Facility-Use-Request-Form” found here at SRO Forms. Either scan/email this form to us or turn in a hard copy to an SRO mailbox located outside the MSEC office RFM 3205.

If the person has never used FOM, then please advise them go to Facility Online Manager (FOM), login using their Texas State University Net Id and password, and fill the registration form before proceeding. After that:

• User should go to the "My Projects" page in FOM. User should select you as the supervisor from the drop down menu, then selects the project(s) he/she should be added to from the list and submits. You will then receive an email with a link to confirm or reject his access to that project.
• Alternatively, You can add users to the projects yourself. Log into FOM and go to the "supervisor home" tab. Type his/her name in input field under the project that you want to use and click "add user".

Projects are billed on a monthly basis (billing cycle = first day of month to last day of the month) and fees consist of equipment time (down to the minute).  Equipment hourly rates are based on a tiers with more expensive equipment costing more per hour such that our cost recovery facility recoups enough funds to pay for the higher associated maintenance costs of complex equipment.  A request for IDT (if paying from a TxState account) or invoice (if paying by check) typically arrives in the middle of the month to reflect the previous month’s project fees. 

 Each lab space provides gloves, solvents, tweezers, etc. for general use. Depending on the instrument, you may be required to pay an additional fee for the usage of items such as deposition materials, FIB time, etc. We also have items such as AFM probes, TEM grids, etc. available for purchase. Please consult your trainer for more information regarding consumable usage.

List of equipment tier and average training cost can be found at SRO Rates.

This is in place for principal investigators/users to maximize their time/equipment usage in the facility at a fixed low cost (excluding consumables).

There are many costs associated with running a facility including: cleaning/maintenance supplies, gloves, kim wipes, tools, hourly student worker salary, and many other necessary supplies for the facility to run efficiently and have all the necessary tools for users to successfully work in our facility.

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