Thank you, Chair Ricks, and good morning, everyone! It’s so nice to have you here on this lovely spring day in Boone.

This morning, I’ll share updates on three key strategic initiatives we are working on, in order to place App State in the best possible position for success as we enter a new chapter in our history.

We’re making great progress on the planning phases for:

• our Strategic Plan — which will guide our direction for who we will become as a university in the next two, five, 10 years and beyond;

• our Master Plan — which will be a living guide for the university’s long-term physical infrastructure development in ways that support the strategic goals of the institution; and

• our Comprehensive Fundraising Campaign — through which we will secure private funding to support the initiatives we identify as priorities during our planning processes. 

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank this board for your engagement in these interrelated projects. 

We’re also including students, faculty, staff, alumni, parents and community leaders from the High Country and Catawba Valley — as well as our Foundation Board and Board of Visitors — in the processes for each of these enterprisewide plans.

As shared during lunch yesterday, the strategic planning process is underway, and I’m very pleased with our progress thus far. 

We’ve conducted a series of interviews, as well as focus group sessions — to which all faculty and staff were invited. Undergraduate and graduate students from both the Boone and Hickory campuses — as well as online students — have also been engaged, and additional groups, including community leaders and others, are scheduled in the coming days. Following these sessions, we’ll be sending a comprehensive survey to a wide group of constituents to gather additional input.

Once all focus groups and surveys are complete, representative committees — to include board participation — will compile the data and develop initial plan pillars and goals, on which we will seek your feedback, before scheduling a final vote of this board later this year. I appreciate the broad participation we’ve had so far, and I hope you, like I, will find the process to be insightful and engaging. 

I look forward to our continued progress, and I am excited about developing a strong and bold vision for the future of our institution together with you!

Our university Master Plan, which will be a living guide for the university’s long-term development in ways that support our strategic goals, is also moving forward steadily.

We’ve conducted a series of interviews and workshops, as well as a comprehensive survey that was sent to a wide group of constituents, to gather additional input.
Following the interviews, focus groups and surveys, we will compile the data and develop initial plan goals and objectives for feedback, before scheduling a final vote of this board later this year.   

Of course, the Strategic Plan and accompanying Master Plan will inform our Comprehensive Fundraising Campaign. 

It’s been more than a decade since our last comprehensive fundraising campaign, and I’m excited to begin this process. We’re actively engaged in the feasibility study now and we're learning a great deal.

As part of the process, we’re engaging university leaders — including division leaders, deans and department chairs — about their strategic priorities,
in alignment with the strategic planning and master planning process, as well as through our annual strategic budget review, which is coming up next month.

We’re also engaging donors, Foundation Board and Board of Trustees members and we truly appreciate your involvement, guidance and support as we endeavor to advance our university in significantly meaningful ways. We look forward to sharing with you the results of the feasibility study as they become available, and, of course, we will continue to keep you informed about all of these major initiatives as they continue to develop.

We have incredible engagement in place from alumni and supporters from across the country, and as we know, that engagement can — and is — evolving into significant support with incredible impact.

Vice Chancellor of University Advancement Will Sears and his team are having a successful year! With four months left in the fiscal year in sight, they’re on track to achieve the second-best fundraising year in university history.

Two particular points of pride I’ll point out:

• Scholarship fundraising is at an all-time high, with just under $12 million raised — the most ever at this point in the fiscal year. As we know, this has a direct and meaningful impact on student access and success. I’m so appreciative of all of you who have made this a priority.
  
  
• Since March of 2024, the university’s endowment has grown from just over $163 million to nearly $240 million. This is a 47% increase, a record level for the university and an important indicator of long-term financial strength.

We continue to have strong momentum in philanthropy, and we are grateful for the continued generosity of our donors. With just under a week before our upcoming Appalachian State Giving Day, we’re looking forward to continuing that momentum!

As I’ve shared before, private dollars work in concert with the generous public funding we receive from our state legislature, as well as from federal grants, to ensure our success. 

We’re well diversified across our funding sources, and fortunate to be in a state that is third in state funding per student among the top ten most populous states in the nation. 

We also appreciate strong support from our Board of Governors, which is paired with an expectation for pragmatic, administrative cost-cutting measures. Thank you, Gov. Byers, for that support!

As you know, last month, the Board of Governors voted to approve our request to increase tuition rates — after nearly a decade of keeping resident tuition flat. For returning App State students who are enrolled for up to eight consecutive semesters, tuition will remain fixed under the state’s guaranteed tuition program.

As our Board of Governors Chair, Wendy Murphy, shared in an op-ed last month, this was a deeply considered decision by the board, and Chair Murphy also shared that even with this increase, resident tuition across the UNC System will remain among the lowest in the nation.

Support from our legislature, the Board of Governors and this board allows us to provide our students with a high-quality, cost-effective education and ensure a strong emphasis on student success. It also ensures we have the resources to proactively identify, at just the right time, those students who need support. 

During the joint meeting of the board’s Budget and Finance and External Affairs committees, I was able to share App State’s perspective on how meaningful legislative support is to our university.

We can enhance and coordinate our services, so that all students have the help they need — particularly at critical times — to drive their own success, complete their degrees on time and contribute to the civic and economic health of their communities across the state and region.

North Carolina has been ranked the top state for business for the third year, and this year, our state was also ranked the top state in the nation for workforce development. 

As our state continues to develop and expand goals and strategies that support economic growth, there are significant opportunities for expanding access to a high-quality, cost-effective education that can transform lives — and build the skills and innovations in these communities that are needed for our future. App State is an active and enthusiastic partner in these ambitious goals for our state.

App State’s founding commitment to being active stewards of our state’s financial, cultural, natural and human resources holds true to this day. This is evidenced not only in our student graduation rates and ROI data, but also in our business practices.

My leadership team and I hold as paramount our responsibility to steward the resources provided to us by the taxpayers of our state, and — through engaged scholarship — we transform theory into practice.  

• I’m proud that our university was recently recognized among 25 best-in-class colleges named to Washington Monthly’s “2025 Best Colleges for Your Tuition (and Tax) Dollars” rankings list …
  
  
• I’m proud that we hold top national rankings for our online education programs, across business, education and health sciences disciplines …

• I’m proud that enrollment of our online students has increased for the sixth consecutive year, with App State Online students representing more than 16% of the total student population, thanks in large part to our Project Kitty Hawk-supported Flight Path programs, which are tailored specifically to meet the needs of place-bound adult learners …

• I’m proud that for nine consecutive years, we’ve been recognized nationally for developing dynamic and innovative pathways to support community college transfer students …

• I’m proud that we are among 60 institutions in the nation chosen to join a national network focused on advancing success for first-generation students…

• I’m proud that we are among the top five institutions in the nation for military-affiliated students … 

• I’m proud that we’re the top school in the nation for the 10th consecutive year for having the most alumni who are National Board Certified Teachers …

• I’m proud that we’re one of only 277 higher education institutions in the nation to earn the Community Engagement Classification from the Carnegie Foundation; and  

• I’m proud that we’re recognized for our community engagement at the local level, having just been named Watauga County’s 2025 Large Business of the Year by the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce.

While these are all outstanding points of pride, it’s the human impact that is most meaningful, and I’d like to share an example of that with you now.

Dr. JP Jameson, a professor in the Department of Psychology, is doing incredible, lasting work that is making communities safer throughout our region. 

In response to critical public health issues in our area, he has implemented suicide prevention and rapid-response diversion programs for children and teens, working with local health departments, school districts and community organizations to provide reliable, accessible, critical and crisis care that is available for children and families when they need it the most.

Last month, Dr. Jameson was honored by the Board of Governors for his work with the esteemed James E. Holshouser Jr. Award, which recognizes faculty who exemplify the UNC System’s commitment to service and community engagement. I’d like to thank Gov. Byers for his part in ensuring Dr. Jameson’s work was recognized among our sister institutions and throughout the state.

The UNC System made a video showcasing Dr. Jameson and his critically important work, which was shared at the board meeting, and which I would like to share with you now.

I think we can all agree that it’s faculty, like Dr. Jameson, that reinforce our passion for higher education and our pride in Appalachian State University.

Mr. Chair, this concludes my report, and I’d just like to share a quick reminder to the board members that all of the points of pride and stories I have shared today — and plenty more — are at your fingertips when you log into Board Effect.