Thank you, Chair Ricks.

I’d like to begin by thanking Trustee Schaefer for hosting us for a fabulous reception last night. It was a lovely evening with wonderful people in a magical setting. A great way to end a semester and begin a holiday season! 

My report today will focus on App State’s enduring resilience, as evidenced by our Mountain Strong recovery from Hurricane Helene, as well as our successes in teaching, research, fundraising and athletics.

Six days following our last meeting, we found ourselves situated in the path of a storm of historic proportions. 

On Sept. 27 and in the days that followed, the devastation included loss of homes, businesses and lives as it swept through the region, with disastrous impacts from Boone to Asheville and beyond. 

The impacts of Hurricane Helene will be forever etched in our memories, not only for the tragic and devastating events that took place throughout Western North Carolina, but also for the amazing acts of kindness and humanity we witnessed.

On the day the storm hit, Friday, Sept. 27, we saw significant flooding on the Boone campus. Thankfully, we lost power and internet communications for only a few hours — both were restored that very day. We maintained water, and for a brief period of time, were able to provide water to the town of Boone. All residence halls sustained minimal issues and remained structurally sound, and thankfully, we had no fatalities and were able to maintain the status of having no active reports of missing students, faculty or staff.

While our Hickory campus was not impacted by the storm, our Boone campus sustained a number of damages. Several academic buildings experienced significant water damage from flooding, including Walker Hall, the Rankin Science Building, Varsity Gym and the academic areas of Holmes Convocation Center.

It became quickly apparent that we would have to close the university, and with assistance from President Hans and the UNC System, we moved into an operational status that allowed us to ensure faculty and staff, and importantly, temporary and student staff, would not lose wages during this time.

It also became quickly apparent that we needed to help our community. Our location and self-contained systems meant that we had critical resources we could offer, and within hours the Red Cross had a shelter set up in the Holmes Center, we were offering meals at no charge to anyone who needed them, and had a disaster relief fund established to assist those in need.

Even as they were cut off physically and had little to no communication with their families, our staff immediately began working to minimize and repair the damages and assist students, faculty, staff and community members in need.

During the time we were officially closed, more than 1,000 students and a core group of employees remained safely on campus. Many more returned as soon as they could. Students who remained in Boone had access to hot meals, health services, fitness centers, showers, laundry services, Wi-Fi and IT support — with many of these services also available to faculty, staff and anyone in the community who needed them. Students who went home to other areas of North Carolina were offered library, fitness, health and counseling services by our sister  institutions in the UNC System across the state.

Staff, faculty and students quickly organized resources to help our students, faculty and staff, standing up a Disaster Relief Hub supported by App State employees and volunteers — many of whom were facing their own challenges. It served more than 5,000 members of our Mountaineer Community, providing access to short-term bridge funds, as well as other critical resources, including:

• counseling services;
• academic assistance and support;
• housing assistance and support;
• legal assistance for students;
• financial aid assistance;
• counseling services; and
• insurance consultations.

Thousands of individuals reached out to support Mountaineers. The App State Disaster Relief Fund raised and distributed over $4 million in bridge funding for thousands of students, faculty and staff at Appalachian State University as they navigated significant losses and challenges from the storm.

More than 5,100 people across the state, nation and world contributed to the relief fund, representing 48 states and seven countries. A generous outpouring of support came not only from App State alumni and supporters across the region, but also from faculty, staff and fans at universities across the nation, as well as many other individuals, including 1,700 who had no prior affiliation with the university.

Hundreds of staff, students and faculty answered the call. Emergency management, police, communications, medics, lineworkers, campus dining, housing, facilities, landscape services, building maintenance, counselors, financial aid advisors, accountants, payroll, purchasing, health care providers, academic advisors, case managers, library staff, legal advisors, administrative support staff, parking and traffic, gift processors, deans, department chairs, faculty members, coaches, student employees and volunteers, and so many others kept our university running while also managing the turmoil caused in their personal lives.

Lineworkers at App State New River Light and Power were in the field before, during and after Hurricane Helene, working around the clock amid dangerous conditions. New River, which serves nearly 9,000 residential and commercial customers in the Boone town limits, including the university’s Boone campus, restored power to 6,300 customers within a week, with support from Wilson Energy, Washington Electric Utilities and Lexington Utilities. Our lineworkers then assisted Blue Ridge Energy in its efforts to restore power to more than 29,000 customers in Watauga County.

App State’s Mountaineer Medics, who are App State students with Emergency Medical Technician credentials, provided free health care services and emergency medical coverage 24 hours per day for shelter clients and campus community members, helping free up resources for broader community response.

Our Campus Dining team provided over 80,000 hot meals in our Central Dining Hall, free of charge, to our students, staff, community members and volunteers working in the area — even as some of our dining staff were staying in hotels, unable to return to their homes. 

App State’s ROTC students who serve in the North Carolina National Guard were activated to help communities throughout Western North Carolina.

More than 900 volunteer members of the Appalachian Medical Reserve Corps, a branch of the Public Health AmeriCorps program at App State, assisted with hurricane response and recovery efforts across Western North Carolina. Nearly 300 of these volunteers are App State students, faculty and staff.

From the start, my leadership team and I engaged in regular conversations with local leaders from Watauga County, the Town of Boone and the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce to assess and respond to the needs of our community, and we are committed to sustaining this partnership as we continue to move forward with recovery efforts. These candid conversations informed our decisions on when to resume classes as well as university events, including our, at the time, three remaining home football games.

We reopened campus with reduced operations on Friday, Oct. 11, and resumed classes after fall break on Wednesday, Oct. 16 — 19 days after Hurricane Helene hit. Twenty-eight days later, we were able to return to normal operations.

Our facilities team, along with private contractors, made incredible progress cleaning up and repairing damages, and all but one academic building — Rankin West — were ready for students when classes resumed. Rankin West sustained damage to electrical panels and the HVAC system, which we are still working to repair and rebalance. Several areas across campus have partnered together to provide alternative classroom spaces for the classes that were in that building.

Missing two weeks of a semester meant our faculty and students lost 15% of their instructional hours this semester. Our deans, department chairs and Academic Affairs staff provided faculty with guidance for adapting syllabi and assignments to ensure that students could meet their learning outcomes while staying on track toward graduation.

Many of our students, faculty and staff volunteered in the community during the immediate days after the storm, contributing their time, energy and expertise to help their neighbors. The Saturday after classes resumed, our students worked with 15 local agencies, contributing more than 500 service hours toward local recovery efforts. 

In our first home football game held after Helene — the original Homecoming game date was on Oct. 26 — we used that opportunity to rally our fans around the theme of “HomeGIVING.” This effort raised thousands of dollars for the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce Foundation and Quiet Givers. These organizations are supporting local small businesses, child care services and providing gap services for those whose needs aren’t being met through existing funds or programs.

Third-party sales of “Mountain Strong” T-shirts have contributed over $35,000 to the App State Disaster Relief Fund, Boone Area Chamber of Commerce Foundation and Samaritan’s Purse.

We are thankful for our town, county and chamber leadership, our elected officials, and federal, state and nongovernmental agencies who partnered with us from the very first hours. We are so grateful for the support from our state and federal leaders, including the General Assembly and UNC System, who authorized relief funding to support our students and university with the recovery. We appreciate the visits to our campus by U.S. Sen. Ted Budd, Gov. Roy Cooper and N.C. Representatives Destin Hall and Ray Pickett, among others, to assess conditions following the storm.

Approximately 75% percent of our incurred and anticipated expenses are eligible for FEMA and/or insurance reimbursement. We also anticipate receiving additional relief funding from the state in the upcoming fiscal year, which would be allocated to any expenses for which federal or insurance reimbursement is not received.

We’re still supporting our students, faculty and staff, some of whom may be feeling impacts for quite some time.

The North Carolina General Assembly has recently approved SB 743, which will provide $800,000 to App State for emergency grants for postsecondary students, intended to cover needs such as tuition, fees, living expenses and other disaster-related expenses.

Universities receiving these benefits have been provided guidelines for eligibility criteria, the application process, as well as awarding and reporting requirements. We also expect Next NC funding through a legislative provision, as well through UNC System secured funding, for additional need-based scholarships, again with specific criteria for eligibility, awarding and reporting.

It’s unclear at this time if these funds will be sufficient to cover our losses. Revenue lost due to canceled events and other missed opportunities is still being calculated. We will have more to share in the coming months and at the end of the fiscal year.

Fundraising is more important now than ever, especially for students in need. Halfway through the fiscal year, our outlook is quite promising. Since July 1, new pledges and outright gifts total more than $38 million, nearly one and a half times where we were at this time last year. And, outright gifts and pledge payments are up 35% from this time last year, totaling more than $14 million. This level of successful fundraising requires the support and collaboration of all of us. I would especially like to thank this board and my leadership team, including Will Sears and Doug Gillin, for their strategic and proactive work.

Private funding, as well as grant funding, is critical to support and sustain the research and creative endeavors of our faculty as well. As we selectively expand our research and creative endeavors enterprise, informed by our academic strategic plan and our research strategic plan, we are bringing in research dollars and engaging in innovative academic work that has long set us apart from other institutions similar to our size and classification.

Last fiscal year, the university brought in a record $25.8 million in awards in support of the innovative research our faculty are conducting, in many cases with our students directly participating. Over the last five years, App State’s funded research has increased by nearly 75%. 

We've been steadily increasing our research dollars because of the dedication, involvement and success of faculty in innovative and meaningful research. As a long-standing teaching institution, our research provides critical opportunities for learning and the applied nature of much of this research serves as a conduit for innovative solutions and economic development. 

The great ideas being developed by our faculty and staff span a range of strengths and areas of expertise, including educational and training innovations, laboratory devices, and clean energy and agricultural technology concepts, just to name a few. The Walker College of Business’ Department of Economics is ranked in the top 10% worldwide for its specialty areas of applied research. Moving forward, our research strengths will help the university, our community and region with recovery and preparedness. 

We will continue to evolve with the interests of our faculty and the needs of our region. We are dedicated to the exploration of additional graduate degrees in support of areas where App State strategically leads and where the market shows demand. One example of this is our newly approved Doctor of Nursing Practice degree, which will become part of our academic offerings in fall 2026. 

This program will educate family practice nurse practitioners, helping meet the need for additional health care providers, particularly in rural areas of our state. This will make the third doctoral program for our university — adding to our education and psychology doctoral programs, but more importantly, it will allow us to help meet the incredible demand for rural health care professionals in North Carolina.

The Office of Research and Innovation team, led by Vice Provost of Research and Innovation Dr. Christine Ogilvie Hendren, is also focusing on the work of connecting and coaching faculty on their paths to protecting and commercializing intellectual property that has the potential to generate value and financial impact for the state of North Carolina. Additionally, to further support innovative work beyond the startup phase, the Chancellor’s Innovation Scholars Program is increasing funding for big ideas that will have a lasting impact and become part of the fabric of the institution with an emphasis on ensuring faculty can develop self-sustaining funding models so their work and the associated funding will last beyond the startup phase.

As we end several conference seasons, I want to acknowledge the transitions the Mountaineer football program is experiencing. I’d like to thank Doug Gillin for his leadership and his work to quickly hire a new head football coach. 

I also want to acknowledge the success of:

• men’s basketball, which has shown a strong start to their season;
• both cross-country teams, men’s and women’s, which won their conference championships;
• field hockey, which won their regular season conference championship;
• representing the App State tennis program, digital journalism major Savannah Dada-Mascoll and exercise science major Isabella Romanichen, both juniors, became the women’s tennis program’s first ever nationally ranked doubles team; and
• the East-division champion App State volleyball team, which is playing a postseason game against Northern Colorado this afternoon (at 3 p.m.).

The support of this board is so important to the success of our student-athletes, and all of our students, in their respective sports as well as in the classroom, and I cannot thank you enough for your sustained support of these student-athletes and their programs. Thank you all so much.

It’s hard to believe that we are only one week from Fall Commencement. This will be an especially meaningful event. For some, this will be their first formal, in-person commencement ceremony, as their high school graduations were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. They faced adversity again just before their college graduations, when our region experienced one of the most significant natural disasters in our 125-year history. This ceremony is not just a celebration of academic success but also of the resilience and perseverance we’ve collectively shown in the face of unprecedented challenges.

Our 5 p.m. Beaver College of Health Sciences ceremony will also be marked by a very special occasion, as our beloved John Blackburn, former trustee and longtime supporter and friend of the university, will be awarded an honorary doctorate degree.

I’ll conclude my remarks today with a video that exemplifies the Mountain Strong theme.

Chair Ricks, this concludes my remarks.