AppDate, the August 2018 Alumni Newsletter
Tuesday, August 7, 2018

Chancellor Sheri Everts’ message to alumni

Fall semester 2018 is approaching, I'd like to invite each of you to celebrate Appalachian’s Founders Day and the dedication and ribbon-cutting for Founders Plaza Wednesday, Sept. 5, at 2 p.m.

As a tribute to founders B.B. and D.D. Dougherty and Lillie Shull Dougherty, a new plaza, located in the area around the Appalachian sign off Hardin Street, has been under construction over the summer.

Appalachian was built on our founders’ premise that access to education is key. Over the past 119 years, Appalachian has emerged as North Carolina’s premier, undergraduate public university, with a long history of educating educators. It is appropriate we honor the family that envisioned a future where a quality education was accessible for all.

The plaza, located on the Hardin Street side of Durham Park, will provide a new outdoor setting for studying, small gatherings and scheduled campus events, as well as a prominent home for the university’s sculpture of B.B. Dougherty and a permanent home for the Founders Bell. The stonework and walkways were restored and repaired, and the favored venue for photographs is being made safer by the repairs and extra space.

I hope you will join us for the ceremony and for future Founders Day celebrations held on this day each fall. Sept. 5 was the first day classes were held at Appalachian in 1899. Were those first students with us today, I feel certain they would applaud the Appalachian values that have lasted over time: a life-changing educational experience, an appreciation of our surroundings, preservation of our resources, and the enduring qualities of generosity and mutual respect that bind the Appalachian Community.