Watch the video of the State of the University address

Chancellor Heather Norris

Welcome, everyone! I’m glad to see many of you here in person, and thanks to those of you who are joining via the livestream.

To those of you who are new to Appalachian State University, I extend a special welcome! You’ve joined an incredible community of supportive and engaged colleagues who are dedicated to our founding mission of providing students with access to a high-quality education and ensuring their success. My name is Heather Norris, and I’m serving as chancellor here at Appalachian State University. 

To those of you who are returning — welcome as well to a new academic year. As I noted in the video message I shared with you all on Monday, the first day of a new academic year holds special promise. I always love the energy that returns to this campus in August, and the anticipation of new beginnings. It always feels especially inspirational.

As we look ahead to a new academic year, we also recognize that our industry is facing significant challenges. We all read the headlines, so I don’t need to repeat the litany of issues higher education is facing. I will say that in a challenging market environment, Appalachian State University is operating from a position of strength, largely because of who we are as a community — individually and collectively — and bolstered by our shared university culture and history.

Today,  I’ll share what I share with others when telling our story of strength, and I’ll also share a glimpse into the future — one that we’ll build together, to remain a strong and vibrant institution of higher education and a community that is a jewel in the crown of the best public higher education system in the country.

You’ll also hear today updates from:

• Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Neva J. Specht;

• Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice Chancellor J.J. Brown;

• Interim Chief Financial Officer Greg Lovins;

• Director of Athletics Doug Gillin; and 

• Vice Chancellor of University Advancement Will Sears.

I’ll begin with a quick overview of the recent organizational changes I’ve made since spring. Academic Affairs and Student Affairs are now combined into a division led by Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Neva Specht, and several operational departments have been streamlined into a division led by Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice Chancellor J.J. Brown, with the ultimate goal of maximizing our ability to support student success, reducing redundancies across divisions and enhancing efficiency overall. They are working tirelessly on behalf of all of us, and I deepy appreciate their work. 

You’ll hear more details about the areas reporting to Neva and J.J. shortly. And I’m confident that, as these changes progress, faculty and students will notice fewer barriers and quicker, more effective support, and staff will notice greater clarity in their roles and responsibilities.

My Chancellor’s Cabinet includes a strong group of leaders who support the entire university and who are committed to ensuring the success of our students, faculty and staff.

You may be aware, because you helped make it happen, that App State was recently recognized for our achievements in teaching and research by the American Council on Education, which elevated our institution to the Research 2 designation.

This designation places us among the nation's doctoral universities with high research activity, affirming that App State has grown into a dynamic research institution while maintaining our student-centered approach to education.

More importantly, as we take a glimpse into the future, it offers us even more opportunities to lead with innovation and research and make direct and lasting positive impact in our local communities. 

As an example — one none of us will forget — as Western North Carolina continues its recovery from Hurricane Helene, App State is providing leadership in ongoing recovery efforts. We are bringing together community leaders, state and federal officials, nongovernmental organizations, civic and philanthropic organizations and educators to develop and implement research and community partnerships that will help our region build back stronger and more resilient to prepare for future events.

Also speaking to our strength — North Carolina holds impressive national rankings, being ranked No. 1 in the nation in CNBC’s “Top States for Business” rankings and No. 7 for “Best Economy” by U.S. News & World Report. The economic health of Western North Carolina is key to the health of our state’s economy, and App State is a huge economic driver for the region. 

Our last economic impact study, which measured the 2021–22 fiscal year, estimated that App State generated $573 million in added income for the five-county regional economy through operations, construction, visitor and student spending, volunteerism and the increased earnings and productivity of alumni!. Statewide, our economic impact was estimated to be $2.2 billion. As our region continues its recovery after Hurricane Helene, the significance of the university on the local economy has come into sharper focus.

We’re also a driver for innovation with significant impacts here in the High Country and far beyond — with technological innovations, rural health care initiatives, educational leadership, creative endeavors and explorations that connect our past to our future. Our students are working directly alongside dedicated faculty mentors, making breakthrough discoveries and developing innovations that address real-world challenges. 

To add value to these significant accomplishments, we’re commercializing intellectual property developed at App State that generates economic value for the State of North Carolina and enhances our research profile. This ensures that discoveries made by our faculty, staff and students translate into tangible benefits for our state's economy — while also creating opportunities for our students and graduates.

Our community impact extends to families across the region, serving them in multiple ways.

Through our GEAR UP program, we’re preparing more than 11,000 middle and high school students in rural areas throughout the region to go to college and succeed. The wide range of services we’re providing to these students — and their families and teachers — has measurable positive outcomes. These students have higher math test scores, higher high school graduation rates and enrollment in college at higher rates than those who did not participate in the program. By investing in their futures, we are investing in the future of our entire region.

Each academic year, approximately 2,000 new transfer students join App State, representing nearly 140 community colleges across the nation. Transfer students make up one-fourth of the total undergraduate student population, with 70% of new transfer students coming to the university from community colleges. 

Through our Aspire Appalachian program, we have formal partnerships with nearly 60% of North Carolina’s community colleges, and we’ve been recognized statewide, as well as nationally, for our support of transfer students. Thanks to Nate Weigl and the Transfer Admissions and Engagement team, we were recently recognized as a leader for our Aspire Appalachian program, which focuses on high-demand fields, significantly boosting degree completion rates, surpassing the national average by over 22%.

About one-third of our students are the first in their families to graduate from college, and not all of them are coming to us straight from high school. With fewer high school students in the country who will be going to college, North Carolina has a statewide goal, set in 2019, of educating 2 million more adult learners by 2030, with college degrees or credentials. That’s 18% of our current statewide population, and App State is an enthusiastic partner in meeting this goal. For the northwest region of the state, we’ve achieved just over 70% of that goal, with all counties in our region and in the Hickory region showing steady improvement.

This is the time of year when we get lots of questions about our enrollment numbers. And of course, while we won’t have our official enrollment figures until after Census Day — which is Aug. 29 — our preliminary data show strong performance.

As we are increasing the number of students we serve, we’re intentional about managing this growth. It’s important to note that for the last five years, we’ve held Boone enrollment steady, and we’ll continue to do that, while — as we glimpse into the future — focusing on growth on our Hickory campus and with our App State Online programs, including our new Flight Path programs, tailored for adult learners.

Supported by the Project Kitty Hawk partnership with the UNC System, we’ve launched new online undergraduate programs in supply chain management, criminal justice, health care management, accounting, and organizational leadership and learning, and we are launching an online marketing degree in the coming year. 

Enrollment in these programs already accounts for nearly one-third of our online growth in the last year and makes up nearly 7% of our total enrollment of online students.

And for those who ask whether a college degree is a good investment, at Appalachian State University, the answer is clear: An App State education continues to be a pathway to a better life for North Carolinians, paving the way for higher wages and greater opportunities.

App State ranks fourth in the state for lowest average student debt among North Carolina’s nearly 80 four-year public and private higher education institutions. Per borrower, our students’ average federal student loan debt is more than 20% below state and national averages.

App State academic programs also yield positive ROI for resident undergraduate and graduate students, whether they’re studying business, health professions or any of our other outstanding programs, many of which are tailored to meet growing market demand.

Taking all of what I’ve just shared with you together, the path from our founding as a teacher's college with a simple yet bold vision to our current status as an R2 research institution has been guided by a singular purpose: Preparing students to make meaningful impacts in service to their communities.

So as we glimpse into the future, building upon our many strengths, that purpose will continue to drive us. There are incredible opportunities for us to further advance App State’s mission to serve our region and the people of North Carolina by:

• providing access to a high-quality education — with even more opportunities for experiential learning, applied research and community engagement;

• adding value to our students’ experiences, inside and beyond our classrooms, studios and labs; 

• enriching experiences in the arts and athletics; and

• using our collective talents and expertise to partner with — and serve — our communities.

We’ll also lean into the work of many groups, including our AI Task Force and its component parts, looking at teaching, learning, research, business processes and the many ways we can use this emerging and rapidly evolving technology to enhance and support our work.

And as we look ahead to who we will become as a university in the next two, five, 10 years and beyond, the vision will be shaped by input from you.

In the coming year, we will begin developing our next universitywide strategic plan. This process will be collaborative, collective and iterative — and it will include you, as well as external partners from the communities we serve.

I look forward to working with you to build on our rich legacy while embracing the exciting possibilities that lie ahead.

With that, I’d like to invite my colleagues who have joined me to help share important information with you today to bring their reports, which are integrally tied to our mission.  We’ll begin with Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Neva J. Specht.

Thank you!

Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Neva J. Specht

Thank you, Chancellor Norris, and good afternoon, everyone! Today I will discuss the following topics:

• the Academic Affairs division and its units;

• student success;

• continued growth and development of the Hickory Campus; and

• Aspire Appalachian.

First, I would like to begin with a huge thank you to the Academic Affairs leadership team. Throughout the university’s restructuring process, they have navigated complex changes while ensuring continuity for our students and our faculty, and I really appreciate their help. 

In my early conversations with Chancellor Norris about restructuring Academic Affairs, she shared a vision of student success that spans the full journey — from the first interaction with a prospective student to the day they earn their degree. With that in mind, the Division of Academic Affairs is now organized to comprise four key units:

• Academic Affairs

• Student Affairs

• Enrollment Management

• Arts Engagement and Cultural Resources

These areas are essential to every stage of a student’s journey — from recruitment and academic growth to fostering well-being and providing enriching experiences through the arts.

Across each of these areas, leadership runs deep, with seasoned professionals guiding the collaborative work to ensure our students thrive in a supportive learning environment and graduate on time.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the leadership in each of these areas, who have been working diligently during the time of transition to maintain continuity in operations while also managing new roles and responsibilities:

• The Student Affairs team is so dedicated to the success of our students. I appreciate them and their passion and commitment to our students.

• The Enrollment Management team is doing an incredible job. You heard Chancellor Norris forecasting that we expect to see a great year for enrollment, which has massive implications for our institution at large. Thank you to this team.

• The Arts Engagement and Cultural Resources team, led by Elizabeth Auer, pulled off another wonderful season of An Appalachian Summer, and the lineup for the fall season for performing and visual arts events is really tremendous. Check it out, because some events have already sold out.

• And a huge thanks to the Academic Affairs team. Amy Wood, associate vice provost for academics and community outreach, is helping establish and sustain important academic and community partnerships in Hickory. So thank you, Amy.

• I also would like to extend my sincere gratitude to Dr. James Douthit, who has stepped down after eight years of exceptional service as dean of the Hayes School of Music, and, over the past year, has been acting and interim dean of the College of Fine and Applied Arts. I’m happy to share that James will return to the Hayes School of Music faculty, where he will continue to share his passion for music and piano instruction. And be assured that the leadership and collaboration between the College of Fine and Applied Arts and the Hayes School of Music will remain solid and strong.

I am grateful for their commitment to App State and to our students.

Student success is central to all we do at App State, and we each play a vital role in it. We teach and lead in different ways, just as our students learn in different ways — in classrooms, online and through experiences that blend the two. 

But whatever the setting, one thing remains constant: Every interaction with a student has the potential to make a difference — not only in that moment, but in ways that shape their path for years to come. That’s what’s at stake in the work we do together.

Students who come to App State are not looking for shortcuts — they’re seeking challenges and opportunities. But no student makes the journey alone. Sometimes support comes in the form of encouragement. Other times, it requires candor. A graduate student once told me how a calculus professor delivered the difficult truth that a career in engineering might not be the right path. That honesty redirected the student toward a different field — one where they ultimately thrived — and the student remained grateful for the professor’s guidance.

With this in mind, two priorities guide the Academic Affairs Division this year: 

First, we will focus on leveraging the collective experience and expertise across our campuses — Boone, Hickory, and online. By working more intentionally across disciplines, colleges and locations, we can create new opportunities for collaboration, share best practices and raise the standard of excellence in teaching and student support.

And second, we will align our efforts. I will be working closely with faculty and college leaders to identify barriers that limit our effectiveness and to develop solutions that remove them. The goal is to increase efficiency, reduce unnecessary obstacles and open wider pathways for students to achieve their goals.

I encourage you to stay engaged with your faculty and staff leaders and representatives to assist and support these developing efforts.

We continue to develop and refine the educational opportunities available at our Hickory campus.

At last year’s State of the University and spring faculty/staff meetings, I mentioned that we were working to refine how our Hickory campus aligns with the overall university mission, so that we can better serve not only the Hickory community but all of those who work on that campus.

Through the efforts of a great team of leaders, we have focused the educational offerings to 13 programs that align with our Academic Affairs strategic plan and the needs of the Hickory area market. We will continue to offer opportunities to complete general education and business core courses at App State Hickory, and we are actively developing additional innovative and creative ways to expand educational access and opportunities in the Catawba Valley.

We are grateful to our hardworking Facilities Management staff for the continued progress on the building renovations, with new classrooms, labs and amazing student spaces coming online over the past year. While we won’t have official enrollment numbers until after Census day, our Hickory enrollment numbers continue to show potential for steady growth.

In closing, I want to join Chancellor Norris in congratulating the Admissions team on the growth and success of the Aspire Appalachian program. Most recently, the College of the Albemarle joined the program, bringing the total to 33 community college partners across the state.

Aspire Appalachian was designed to make the transfer process to App State more seamless, and its impact has been recognized statewide. myFutureNC named it a Champion for Attainment for advancing access and completion for transfer students, and its innovative work has earned App State a place on the Phi Theta Kappa Transfer Honor Roll for nine consecutive years.

This program is a strong example of removing barriers and providing solutions that help students succeed at our university. Congratulations to the Aspire Appalachian team, and best wishes for continued success.

Thank you, again, Chancellor Norris, for this opportunity, and thank you to our faculty and staff for all that you do every day for our students and our institution.

Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice Chancellor J.J. Brown

Good afternoon. I know many of you, but for those whom I don’t know, I am J. J. Brown. As the chancellor referenced earlier, I am serving in a new role on the operations side as the chief operating officer and one of the executive vice chancellors. 

I am grateful to be with you this afternoon as we start this year together. I am going to share some updates about University Operations — a new division that we are working to create as part of this new organizational structure. 

As you can see on the slide before you, our team is vast and wide. We represent the public safety functions, Emergency Management, Campus Dining, Campus Store, Parking and Transportation, University Communications, Planning, Design and Construction, and the amazing Facilities team that completes approximately 1,300 work orders each month, ensuring we have heat and water, as well as our team at New River Light and Power who literally power our community and campus. In this new role, I am grateful to learn from them and be a part of our team. 

I have a core leadership team that you see before you. And I have heard several questions over the last few months about where things have landed and to whom to reach out to. This is our core group; it does not include a vacancy for the associate vice chancellor for facilities operations position, previously held by Nick Katers. Those duties have been split with Matt Dull and me. You can see Matt’s portfolio, and I also work directly with Facilities team, New River Light and Power, Sustainability and Energy Management and the business functions within Facilities Operations as well. 

I would like to use some time to talk about some campus projects and provide some updates. This has been a busy summer of transition, but also for campus projects and some disruption. Thank you for your patience, and we have a few items to celebrate today.

You can see a new image of Peacock Hall that has been updated to reflect the addition of a fourth floor, thanks to Dean Vannoy’s work, the support of our many donors and our legislature for their additional funds in HB 74. 

First, I would like to say thank you to the many individuals who helped finalize Wey Hall. We appreciate your patience, especially the faculty in the art department, and I want to thank Jeff Pierce with Planning, Design and Construction; Randy Jones, who is the project manager; Amy Johnson, who is our art department chair, our team in IT; and Facilities, just to name a few — thank you. We will have a formal ribbon-cutting in a few weeks, but we are grateful classes have been taking place this week. 

This past weekend, the first building of the Innovation Ridge faculty/staff housing project opened. This is a project managed by Capstone On-Campus Management and Radnor Property Group, who reported to us that several employees moved in this weekend and that additional buildings will be completed over this fall semester. Innovation Ridge is one of several options and resources available through Human Resources' Office of Relocation and Dual Career Assistance. I appreciate Pilar Fotta and all the work she has done to assist our relocating faculty and staff, especially this summer.

We are grateful for the state's continued support of the Hickory campus. We received the beneficial occupancy for the second floor of the Hickory campus on Friday. You can see some before and after pictures of the transformation of this space. Hickory remains an important part of our mission to provide access to education, and we appreciate that we are able to offer this new, expanded space. 

At our App 105 property, we’ve seen some incredible progress. Some of you will remember that this is the site of the former Watauga High School property, located off Highway 105 in Boone, which the university acquired in September 2017. 

This property now features university-level, competition-grade venues for track, softball and tennis. Construction is also underway for the third phase of the Appalachian 105 Sports Complex, which consists of an indoor tennis courts facility to feature six courts.

As we continue developing that property, we’re excited to have a new student housing option on the horizon, which will increase inventory by approximately 850 beds, in apartment-style units.

Through a public-private partnership model, the university’s real estate development corporation is working with a developer to build and lease much-needed housing for sophomores, juniors and seniors. We are well on our way, breaking ground back in May, and these will be open for our students in August of 2027. 

Campus Dining continues to lean into providing additional food options for our campus community. As some of you are aware, a full-menu Chick-fil-A opened last week on campus. Many individuals are excited about milkshakes, chicken minis and spicy sandwiches, which are new to our community. 

That team has been working on a dining master plan, and we will be renovating the second-floor space in the Student Union. If you have been here for a while, you may hear it referred to as the old McAlister’s space, which closed down during COVID. We hope to revitalize that space this year, as well as add a market to the basement of Thunder Hill residence hall across from Trivette. 

This summer, we launched the Mobile AppCard for your phones. All new students will be utilizing the Mobile AppCard, and we already have over 1,000 employees who are also using it. I personally love it, as it functions with a tap to enter my building, and I can tap to pay for lunch in the dining hall.

This time of year, we do get a few questions about voter ID cards, so I wanted to take this opportunity to share that the university provides a state-election-board-approved voter ID — free of charge — to any student, faculty or staff member who needs one.

We’ve shared this information — including how to acquire one — in the new student orientation process over the summer, and we have it posted on the AppCard website as well. In the coming weeks, we’ll also share a campuswide message that shares comprehensive guidance on how individuals may acquire an ID card for voting purposes, free of charge.

With this reorganization Chancellor Norris referenced, comes some positions that need to be filled. We currently have three key vacancies in our division: associate vice chancellor and chief human resource officer, director of university communications and associate vice chancellor for facilities operations. Searches will commence this year for each of these positions.  

Chancellor Norris talked earlier about an upcoming strategic planning process, and I’d like to take just a moment to talk about our Master Plan, which is a guide for the university’s long-term development in ways that support the strategic goals of the institution and communities we serve.

The process to develop a new Master Plan for the university began last academic year, and I’d like to thank everyone who has participated to date.

We paused our process this past spring, and this year we will expand efforts for broad participation in the Master Plan, just as Chancellor Norris has shared we will have broad participation in the university’s strategic plan. The Master Plan will tie into the strategic plan, and we will share more information about that with campus and the community later this year.

Lastly, the Campus Dining team will also be hosting another community dinner as a part of our reflection next month of the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Helene. The dining hall was such a key asset and gathering space, and they look forward to welcoming you, your family and anyone in our community for a free meal on Sept. 30.

To conclude my remarks today, I want to reemphasize the importance of collegial collaboration. When we come together as a community, whether we are facing a crisis like a hurricane or planning for our future, I believe when we work together toward a common goal, that is where we are at our very best. 

I look forward to working with each of you this year.

Thank you. 

Interim Chief Financial Officer Greg Lovins

Hey, good afternoon, everybody. I'm Greg and I'm the interim chief financial officer. It's good to see you all. And I want to give an overview, this afternoon, a brief one, of the Finance Division and talk about that for a minute, and some of my colleagues there, and some of the things we're doing. And then also give you an update on the fiscal year 2026 budget and that process and the status there. So this is the Finance Division mission. You know, I'll just summarize that just briefly: Our goal is to be the very best stewards of the university's financial resources — period.

We're also a customer service organization. And so we're all about finding solutions for your needs while complying with all the laws and regulations that we have to follow along the way. I want to thank my Finance colleagues. I've been back for almost three months, and they have been very patient with me while I have bugged them with a lot of questions in an effort to get caught up. And so, Jennifer Geouque, our budget director, David Jamison, our associate vice chancellor and controller, Chad Hicks, our director of procurement services, they provide amazing leadership to your Finance Division. They have an excellent team of just really, really good professionals who work hard, and they have gotten me caught up, and I'm just very grateful to all of them.

Of course, our Budget Office includes the general funds, which you also will hear referred to as state funds; trust funds, which are, some of the fee-supported accounts, and some contracts and grants; the auxiliary services and some other trust funds there. And then we also have a financial planning and analysis group that we work on all funds, budget and tuition fees process and other, typically ad hoc type reporting that we have to complete. Our comptroller's office, you see the list there … they have a lot of work to do, and they do it very well. We'll talk a little more about some of their deadlines in just a second. And then procurement services, of course, our P-Card program, our YoMart procurement, and contract management, state surplus property and our warehouse operations.

Just a few highlights. Some of you may know that a fall semester has just begun. And so for our group, it's a busy time for us as well, particularly for our student accounts group. They do a lot of their work in advance of students arriving, but it's a busy time for them. We actually have financial statement deadlines that are required by state law. We have to submit financial statements to the Office of the State Controller by Aug. 26. We've never missed one of those deadlines, and we don't plan to. We certainly won't this year. And so our group, led by David Jamison, does a great job with that.

Our lease for our warehouse on the east side of the town of Boone expired this summer. And so we had to relocate our warehouse operations. The new locations are on the east side of the county near the Food Lion, between Boone and Deep Gap. And then we also have a new warehouse in Lenoir. We don't expect any disruption or any service disruption there. We're working on delivery services and our delivery timing, but we expect to deliver quality service despite those changes. The tuition fee process will begin shortly, next month, and stay tuned for that. The budget request process typically occurs in March and April, occurs in the spring, and so stay tuned for that as well.

We have an all funds budget … I think we're in the fourth year of preparing that. It is required by the UNC Board of Governors and the System Office. And so the idea was instead of just budgeting state appropriations, the idea is to budget all your revenue streams. So it includes those trust funds that we mentioned earlier and our other accounts, with the idea that budgeting all those revenue streams would help us make better strategic decisions as a leadership team and as a university.

And then also, the fiscal year 2026 state budget. We do want to talk a little bit about the General Assembly and about that budget process that is legislative. And so, this year is what the General Assembly refers to as a long session. And so they began their session in late January and began the budget process in that way. The governor submits his budget to the legislature this year. It goes to the Senate first and then to the House. The Senate works on their piece of it, then they send it to the House. And then they go into conference, theoretically, to resolve their differences and come up with a budget. The law requires them to have something done by July 1. In all of my years involved with Appalachian, I do remember one year, in the early 2000’s, when they actually finished their budget by June 30, but most years, that just doesn't happen. And so and so they pass a continuing resolution that allows state agencies, including universities like ours, to continue operating. And so that's where we are right now. Also, when you see the part of the slide there that mentions the short session of the General Assembly, they will pass in the long session, they pass what's called a biennial budget, a two-year budget. So it'll go through June 30, 2027. They'll come back in the short session and look at the revenues in the past year and tweak that budget, typically up, and some years it’s down, but most of the time it is up. And they'll tweak the budget a little bit for the revenues that come in on the short session side. So, where are we now with this budget process?

First of all, before I get to that, I want to mention we have a lot of state grads, alumni, who are in the House and the Senate in the General Assembly, and Chancellor Norris and Matthew Dockham, our director of external affairs and community relations, all of our team really work on those relationships really hard. And our friends who are in the legislature work very hard on behalf of our university. And we're so grateful for them. However, there's a big difference this year in the budget proposals between the House and the Senate for this biennial budget. There's also an uncertain forecast — not only for state of North Carolina revenues for those tax collections and for those other revenues, but I'm sure you've read about the federal government uncertainty as well.

And so that's led to some decisions by state leaders, to consider those those budget uncertainties and to try to plan and to be proactive in planning in that way. And and so President Peter Hans of the UNC System, on June 12, 2025, issued a memorandum to the universities, and he gave us some requirements to follow. And one of those was that we have a total permanent salary spending that is capped at April 30, 2025, levels. Likewise, administrative employee headcount is capped at April 30, 2025, levels. Also, he requires approval of any renewal extensions or any new contracts that exceed $100,000. And so all of those contracts have to be reviewed. So what does that mean?

Talking about the salary spending side first … we can make personnel decisions, as long as we don't see exceed that dollar amount that our salary levels were at April 30. And likewise, with those administrative positions, we can make personnel decisions on those administrative positions as long as we don't exceed the number of those positions we had on hand at April 30. And so, the process that the chancellor put in place is the provost and the chief operating officer, the deputy chief operating officer and I meet to review all the requests that come in, both on the personnel side and the contract side. We compile those recommendations. The provost and the chief operating officer meet with the chancellor, and the chancellor reviews every single one of these. She reviews those and determines whether she can approve or not.

And so it's a very intense process. It's very thorough. Your chancellor is very thorough in reviewing this. And so meanwhile, let's go back to the budget side of things. So, instead of passing a full appropriations budget, like all of us would have preferred, the General Assembly passed what is called a mini budget — House Bill 125 — that was signed into law by Gov. Stein on Aug. 8. And so what does that do? Well, the funded UNC System campuses, at their fiscal year 2025 base budget … so we're operating on our base budget that was in place last fiscal year. It funded some repairs and renovations and some selected capital projects. And so for Appalachian, that meant continuing funding for Peacock Hall and some of the work that we're doing at the Hickory campus, for instance. What doesn't it provide?

Well, it didn't provide enrollment growth funding. It didn't provide performance funding. And there's no legislative salary increases for the UNC campuses. And so, because of all that uncertainty, the chancellor and the leadership team decided that it would be a good idea to have a modest hold back of some fiscal year 2026 non-personnel state budget items. So we're talking about some of your operations spending, like supplies and materials, travel equipment and those type of expenditures. We haven't determined a final amount yet because we're still following the state's guidelines for closing out fiscal year 2025. We want to close that out, hopefully very soon. And then we can push those fiscal year 2026 budgets out to your departments. And so, each division head will work with their leadership teams to identify these holdbacks.

Let me just mention this is a holdback. It's not a reduction and it's not a cut. What our hope is, is that once some of these uncertainties are relieved and we have a better idea of what our budget is going to look like, maybe that will include the legislature passing a full appropriations bill. We hope for that.

But even absent that, once some of those uncertainties are removed, then we're hopeful that we can push the remainder of those holdbacks back to the departments. So, we will communicate very clearly with you on what that process is, how that works, and what to expect for the future.

And so I just want to conclude, if I could, you know, these types of actions are not new to higher education and they're certainly not new to App State. You know, we've dealt with these things before over the years.

And I do want to conclude by thanking Chancellor Norris for the opportunity to come back to Appalachian. You know, it's just been such an honor for me, even just for a few months, to be back at App State, to work with the very best students, faculty and staff around and for a chancellor and a leadership team who truly care for each and every one of you. One thing that I've noticed that hasn't changed over the years is the work ethic of all of you. This is a hard-working group. It's been fun to be back. I just admire your great work ethic. And I especially admire your ability to find solutions no matter what the circumstances. So we'll get through this one again, just like we have all the others. You showed your resolve with how you dealt with Hurricane Helene. That was so admirable and just inspiring, and we'll do it again.

So thank you for the opportunity. Look forward to working, again, with each and every one of you.

Director of Athletics Doug Gillin

It's always hard to follow the budget guy, so I'm going to try. Thank you, Greg. My name is Doug Gillin, and I'm entering my 11th year, 11th school year here, as the athletics director. First and foremost, I want to thank all faculty and staff for your partnership with our student-athletes and our athletics department. I know sometimes we have a few nuances, but you always work with us, and we can't thank you enough for doing that. With that, I'd like to start with our mission.

Despite the significant changes in college athletics, our mission remains the same — to support the educational mission of this great university, protect and promote the health and safety of our student athletes, guide and support our student-athletes in their quest for excellence academically, athletically and socially, and certainly gather and engage a constituent group in different ways than maybe some others.

Just to let everybody know, our athletics leadership team has changed a little bit here over the last year. Certainly some of you might be familiar with Brittany Whiteside. She was here when I first arrived, 11 years ago. She's responsible for our strategy. A lot of the strategy includes this new world in college athletics, which has things like NIL and other, different things that we haven't dealt with before. Also brought on Chris Wood, our senior deputy director of athletics and over all of our revenue. Obviously that becomes more and more prominent, and for all of us, as we try to raise more and more revenue. And then Jonathan Reeder, who's been here as a student-athlete and certainly ever since I came as a deputy athletics director and chief financial officer. That's our leadership team. 

Real quick, as we talk about our core values in the athletics department, first and foremost, we always talk about academic integrity. And our student-athletes are here to get a world-class degree. So we're 26 semesters, 13 straight years over a cumulative 3.0 GPA of all of our student-athletes. We're really, really proud of this. This does not happen at a lot of universities in the country. When talk about often that our first priority is to recruit students that can compete in the classroom first and foremost. And we've done a really good job of that thus far. 

Next, from our social responsibility and how we help portray App State and bring App State to the community with a lot of different activities … if you think about our campus and our community activities, just a few that I've listed here like the women's basketball team at Deerfield Ridge, we're in every parade, for the 4th of July and Fan Fest — for those of you that attended, the thousands of people here on Saturday, young folks, getting autographs here at Fan Fest — Watauga Schools welcome back. Those of you who have young children and have been in the drop-off line this week, you've seen us. We've been at every elementary school throughout the county. I got a really nice text from our superintendent last night thanking us for being there. It actually matters, you know, when the students jump off that bus and there's Yosef there to greet them. So, we're excited to be doing it. 

We have our Bank of America game. This will be another nationally televised game. So you'll see us on ESPN next Friday night playing Charlotte at Bank of America. We sold out all of our football tickets. Family weekend is huge for us. Lindenwood will be a great sold-out crowd here for that weekend. We sold out our season tickets, and then we're super excited to announce, today, if you haven't noticed or senn in the news, that our women's soccer team is already 2–0 and beat the University of Miami already last weekend. 

And so we continue to have unprecedented interest in App State. For the fourth consecutive season we’ve sold all of our season tickets. Faculty, staff and student ticket discounts — we continue to do that throughout all of our programs. You'll see those as we announce those, when they come up. 10,000 students, that's something really unique. Eleven years ago, we were averaging about 4,000 students who came to our home football games, and now we average over 10,000 students, or 60% of the undergraduate population, approximately, comes to our games. So we're really excited about that. I talked about Bank of America. We outsold our preorder and our opponent, significantly. Baseball ticket revenues for the third straight consecutive year of increasing ticket revenues. And then our spring tour, where we take our show on the road throughout the state, was another huge success with our new head football coach, Dowell Loggains. 

National media exposure. So, when we go to the Sun Belt Conference, when the Chancellor and I go to the Sun Belt Conference every year, they show who leads the conference in national media exposure and App State was by far and away the number one media brand in the Sun Belt Conference. You can see here $17 million worth of adjusted earned media. Football, even though we had the record, we won't want to repeat again at five and six, we still had a tremendously strong brand nationwide, and certainly the number one brand in the conference. It's unmatched against our peers. Our media value is determined using an impression-based methodology that combines the size of the audience, the number of occurrences or exposures to that audience and what would cost to reach 1,000 impressions on that platform. So that's how we get to the methodology. 

We also are continuing to build, like J. J. mentioned. We're building, and like for all of us, if you don't see cranes and bulldozers, then you're not growing. So as an athletics department, we want to be doing the same. We did just break ground on the Sofield Family Indoor Practice Facility. That's an 85,000-square-foot facility, 100-yard artificial turf practice facility, athletic training space and space for new public-private health care collaborations, just like we've done in this building. When we started a collaboration with BreakThrough Physical Therapy and AppOrtho, we started seeing five patients a week up in the Ricks Center, and now we're seeing over 525 patients a week in this building — that really changed rural health care for our communities and it's really worked well. 

We broke ground on that facility. Now we, and as Dowell said last night, we had a corporate sponsor thing … we didn't realize that this was going to turn into a rainforest this season, or this last summer, where we have rain and thunder every weekend, or every day. And so we haven't really been able to practice. So this has become so important for us. We can't wait until next summer to actually have an indoor facility to practice in. Same with the band. The band was out here practicing earlier and they had to go underneath. We had to come out and we had to kind of jockey a little bit.

Also, as J.J. mentioned, 105 has changed the game for us. We're going to be hosting the Sun Belt Conference Track and Field Championship in 2027. We partnered, we got grants with the United States Tennis Association for our outdoor tennis courts. We're in the proposal stage to get another grant for our indoor tennis courts to help grow the game of tennis, not just in Appalachian’s campus community, but also in the community and with the youth of our community. So we're really excited about that. 

Fundraising. You've seen us out and about and a lot of different things that aren't our games or our contests. We're trying to raise money in a lot of different ways. It's a really competitive environment out there. Our Legends event, we started that in 2017. That raises a couple of hundred thousand dollars a year. Our fundraising golf tournaments, our football golf tournament raises over $400,000 a year. We're doing about 1.2 to 1.4 in events every year that have nothing to do with athletics events. We're trying to continue to raise revenue in different ways, and this is just an example of it. Our Women in Motion event last Saturday was a humongous success. We continue to grow that event and celebrate our women athletes. And that event continues to grow and grow and grow. So, we had a great group here last Saturday. 

And then lastly, I just want to talk a little bit about our vision. We always talk about how education changes lives. So the same is true in intercollegiate athletics. How can we use the great education here, coupled with the great athletics opportunities here, to change the lives of our student-athletes? And we continue to focus on that every day with life lessons and experiences for our student-athletes, the affinity and loyalty for students, and the extracurricular experience. As we talked about, we got some drainage work being done on Miller Hill to try to take the slip and slide out of what is a rainy football game. More to come on that, but padding is on the wall, so that's all done. We're done with that, and nobody's going to get hurt.

And then create uplifting experiences through sport and positively impact lives and enhance wellness, resiliency and grit. That really is the definition of Appalachian. So we're excited to continue to assist and partner in any way possible. There are many ways that we can work together. We want to do that. 

And, in closing, I just like to thank Chancellor Norris for allowing me the opportunity to continue to lead the athletics department and thank everybody here for your partnership. 

Vice Chancellor of University Advancement Will Sears

Welcome. Will Sears, vice chancellor for advancement. 

What I hope to do is kind of introduce you to my leadership team. Talk a little bit about what the foundation does, tell you a couple good stories about some gifts that we're really proud of and then tell you where we're going. 

Leadership team. You know, most of these folks — Katie, Stephanie, Clayton and Colleen do great work. They have great teams below them doing outstanding work also. But this is the leadership team of the Advancement group. Here is our mission. The Foundation exists to secure financial resources. So we exist to secure resources, obviously to help the university support their mission and vision here at App State. 

Let me talk about the last five years. So we've had an incredible run here the last five years. The fourth quarter of 2024 was the best quarter the university has ever had. That's pretty impressive. And then if you look at 2025 at $65 million, it was the best year we've had on record ever. So we're really excited about what's going on at App State's Foundation. But a lot of that is because of the momentum that everybody in this room has created. 

These are a couple of fun facts about what we do here. So the endowment size, everyone asks me, what's the size of your endowment? Roughly $196 million. For context, five years ago, it was $98 million. So, it's pretty good math. Also, gifts processed … if you look at almost 35,000 gifts, if that's 200 workdays, that's a lot of gifts that our gift processing teams process every single year. That's the last 12 months. Thank-you notes, 1,400 thank you notes that we proofread and made sure that donors get great thank-you notes from our students. And the final two numbers, 15,000 in-person alumni engagements and 31 alumni chapters. Most of the chapters are in North Carolina, but we are expanding them throughout the U.S., and these alumni chapters and the engagement they do in engaging all these folks are incredibly important for our brand, and are just points of pride for what we do now.

I want to transition and talk a little bit about two things that we did in the last year that I think everybody in the room is proud of:  

• The Helene response was incredible. The Foundation, through a lot of hard work, led by a lead gift by Dr. Lee Barnes of $1 million. When the storm was hitting, we thought, what can we do? We created a fund where people could give. And in the course of about 120 days, we brought $4 million in. And that $4 million went out to people who needed it. And if you think about that, many people in this room wrote a check. Many people in this room needed a check. And it's one of those things when you think about when something happens, where do you go? And I think that's one thing that makes Appalachian State so unique. When we needed it, people who could write a check wrote a check. People who needed a check, took a check. And I'm so proud of that $4 million. This was a good job for us. So thank you all. 

• The next story I want to talk about is how we can uncover our “why.” So this is a really good story. This is Ed Rankin and Ed started the Jean Rankin Stuttering Camp. And this happened with a visit in Dallas, Texas, with Carey Mummaw, who did not cover the Beaver College of Health Sciences, as she was talking to Ed on a discovery visit, as we call them. She's like, Ed, tell me about the impact of your life and your Appalachian story and your family. And he said, one of the best things that ever happened was when my daughter, who stuttered, went to a stuttering camp in Washington state. Carrie listened like she does so well, and said let me just investigate that.

She knew we had a good speech pathology program, but she wanted to learn more. She went back and met with the speech pathology folks, which is not in the college that she covered, and found out that we are the only good, one of the best in the country. So she put together a proposal and went back to and said, Ed, here's a proposal to fund this for three years for North Carolina students who are teenagers who struggle with stuttering. And we just had the third annual camp. And I am telling you what, if you see them on the first day and then on the the last day when they make a speech in front of people and they go from probably a one on a scale of 1 to 10 to probably a six or seven, and you see their parents in the audience, and then you see Ed in the audience, Carrie, and I talked with Ed that afternoon and he said — this was my why. This is what I wanted to do.

So from a Foundation standpoint, we try to listen to our donors and listen to our alumni and listen to our faculty and staff and think, what is your why and how can we help you accomplish your why? So we are really proud of this stuttering camp that speech pathology does, and they do an incredible job. And I wanted to share that story, just as a “why” — it's why. And this is a terrible transition, but I am transitioning to some business. 

So, on March 26, we have our iBackApp Day, and last year, the faculty and staff giving to iBackApp increased over 25% from the previous year. So I just ask you to put this date in your calendar and understand that you can give to any fund on this campus. And I would submit to everybody in this room, if there's something on this campus that in a small way is your why — for a lot of people, it might be about AppKIDS, which impacts this community, it may be something going on in your college, it may be athletics — but whatever your “why” is on that day, celebrate it. If you want to give a donation, give a donation, but celebrate it and tell your friends about the iBackApp Day and what Appalachian does to impact your life. So I ask you to put that on your calendar, please.

If you listened to President Hans introduce the chancellor when she was permanent, he mentioned the comprehensive campaign. I want everybody to know that we are in the planning and feasibility study phase of that right now and working extremely hard to create a foundation where we can build on the last 18 months and really take things to the next level. And we're working hard behind the scenes on that. 

On behalf of everybody in University Advancement, I want to thank you all for everything you do for us and appreciate your time today. 

Thank you.

Chancellor Heather Norris

Thank you to Neva, J.J., Greg, Doug and Will for helping share a strong current position and an exciting vision for the future for App State.

We have an enthusiastic group of leaders who are laser focused on student success and supporting all of you as you support our students.

We’re all looking forward to continuing our conversations today and into the future. Let’s begin now! Those of you who have joined in person, please stay for the reception and more conversations. 

As we wrap up today’s meeting, just a quick reminder that, throughout the year, you can find regular updates, and uplifting stories much like the ones Will shared, in the newsletters I share with faculty, staff, students and alumni — nearly every Friday. I try to share a range of university updates, stories that inspire me and significant information about initiatives or events that will or could have an impact on our overall operations.

And, there’s a lot of great information and incredible illustrations of the many ways you continue to exemplify what makes our university — and set us apart — on the appstate.edu website.

Thank you for being here. We’ll conclude our meeting today with a short video created by University Communications, sharing some moments from this first week of the academic year.

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