June 2018 AppDate Alumni Newsletter message

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

AppDate, the June 2018 Alumni Newsletter
Tuesday, June 13, 2018

Chancellor Sheri Everts’ message to alumni

1968 was a remarkable year for our nation — and, for Appalachian as we transitioned from a teachers college to a multidisciplinary, regional university. Enrollment was close to 5,000 and full-time faculty had grown to more than 300.

Over the course of this year, we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Fine and Applied Arts, the Reich College of Education, the Hayes School of Music Cannon Music Camp and women’s Athletics.

Many campus expansion and improvement projects are underway, including Sanford Hall, which first opened in 1968 — with no major renovation or upgrades since. As this building is one in which every student has at least one class, I’m sure you have Sanford memories of your own.

Additionally, we have many projects underway to improve and enhance life on Appalachian’s campus:

  • Seven residence halls — Bowie, Coltrane, Eggers, Gardner, Winkler, Justice and East — are being renovated or replaced. We will be adding 400 new beds for a total of 2,200. And, we are committed to building sustainable, efficient buildings, first, because that is the right thing to do, and to help contain housing costs for our students.
  • The Leon Levine Hall of Health Sciences — the first completed Connect NC Bond project — is on target to open in August.
  • The north end zone project at Kidd Brewer Stadium is in the design phase. Our intent is to accommodate various athletics and academic uses, including athletic training and nutrition science research, as well as conference and continuing education training space, an orthopedic clinic, dining facilities, a team store, hydrotherapy, more than 1,000 club seats, and offices for coaches and athletics staff.
  • We are fundraising — and have just surpassed the $100,000 goal — for the plots and garden designated as a gathering space for the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC), the governing council for nine historically black fraternities and sororities, seven of which are currently represented at Appalachian. The funds are dedicated not only for construction but to leadership development scholarships as well.
  • Several millennial campus projects are in the works. The site for a biology research facility and conservatory connected to a nature preserve at the old Broyhill Inn and Conference Center will be dedicated next month during the 2018 Appalachian Energy Summit.

Walker College of Business alumni will be pleased to hear the college has been re-accredited for a standard, five-year extension by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) International. Less than 5 percent of business schools worldwide have earned this distinction. You have good reason to be proud of your degree.

Our fall calendar is filling quickly. I hope to see you on campus for some, if not all of the following:

  • Our Founders Day Plaza dedication Wednesday, Sept. 5. As a tribute to our founders — B.B. and D.D. Dougherty and Lillie Shull Dougherty — a new plaza, located in the area behind the Appalachian sign off Hardin Street, will provide a more prominent home for the university’s sculpture of B.B. Dougherty, and will provide a new outdoor space for studying, small gatherings and scheduled campus events. Construction will take place over the summer. A new Founders Day tradition will be celebrated each fall to honor our founders and the first day of classes in 1899.
  • The opening and ribbon-cutting for Levine Hall, the new Beaver College of Health Sciences building, on Friday, Sept. 21.
  • And homecoming September 28-29! The festivities will include a celebration at our new NPHC Plots and Garden and many other traditions and festivities before we beat the South Alabama Jaguars on the gridiron!