Message from Interim Chancellor Heather Norris
With snow blanketing the Boone campus this morning, it’s a picturesque, if cold, day. Earlier this week, students were on Sanford Mall in short sleeves engaging in Homecoming activities, and today, our Sanford Mall webcam shows them enjoying the first real snow of the season.
This last week has been full of fun activities, many of which were rescheduled from October. The energy around them has been one of fun and a sense of added appreciation for the ability to hold them.
- On Saturday, more than 400 participants joined the 14th annual Spooky Duke 5K/10K race to support local families who have children with special needs. This fun, annual event is presented by the university’s Parent to Parent outreach program through the Beaver College of Health Sciences. This year’s event raised $30,000, which will directly benefit our local community. Thank you to everyone who participated in the race, and to the 92 student, faculty, staff and community volunteers, including App State Police and cadets, who staffed the race and made it a fun day for everyone.
- On Tuesday, we hosted more than 6,100 community members in our Central Dining Hall for a community meal — a wonderful opportunity for students, faculty, staff and community members to continue making meaningful connections over a seasonal meal, and for the university to give back to our community.
- On Wednesday, I had the opportunity, along with Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs J.J. Brown and Student Body President Kathryn Long, to thank the many individuals who staffed App State’s Disaster Relief Hub during the initial days in which we were responding to the effects of Hurricane Helene. Those who were on-site staffing the resource hub, and those who were behind the scenes ensuring the support services were able to meet demand, helped establish an immediate lifeline that assisted many App State students, university friends and colleagues with getting started on the road to recovery — even as many hub staff members were facing their own significant challenges. Thank you to this great team! You recognized the tremendous amount of need in our community, and the work of our dedicated staff and volunteers allowed more than 5,000 members of the App State Community to receive a broad range of care and support.
- Last night, we enjoyed a Gold Room “pop-up” event, hosted by Campus Dining. This brief reappearance of the popular dining facility provided a fun evening for alumni to reminisce about the steaks, french fries with gravy, and hot fudge cakes they shared with friends and dates on special occasions. The evening and its many extraordinary details were brought to life by the Alumni Affairs team, and the event was made even more special because 1966 graduate Lynda Spencer Stanbery, who opened the original Gold Room and ran it for many years, joined the festivities.
- Tonight, App State Wrestling hosts 19th ranked West Virginia in Varsity Gym, where they will unveil a new look for Varsity Gym with new seating, a new competition mat and a new video board.
- We are excited to host the James Madison Dukes at Kidd Brewer Stadium tomorrow afternoon, in one of our biggest games of the season. James Madison, along with other Sun Belt Conference schools — including Coastal Carolina, Louisiana, Marshall and South Alabama — showed App State and this area of the state tremendous support in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. These schools and their students and alumni organized fundraisers and donations in support of the App State Disaster Relief Fund and helped raise awareness of the impacts to our region. We are so appreciative of their support and their camaraderie — on and off the field.
During halftime of tomorrow’s football game, we will crown the Top of the Rock from the Homecoming Court finalists. App State’s Top of the Rock recipients are nominated by their peers and are recognized for their outstanding achievements, as well as their contributions to the success of others.
We will also recognize UNC System Board of Governors member and 1985 App State graduate C. Philip Byers, who will be joined on the field by the dean of App State's Reich College of Education, Dr. Melba Spooner. We appreciate Governor Byers’ establishment and continued support of a tutoring program for students at App State's laboratory school, the Academy at Middle Fork — just one example of his long-standing dedication to student success initiatives at App State and beyond.
- The Hayes School of Music’s 32nd annual Holiday Scholarship Concert — a hugely popular event that also serves as a signature fundraising event — has been rescheduled from tonight to Monday, Dec. 2. Thanks to a generous donation, we are able to invite campus and community members to attend this event — at the Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts or via livestream — free of charge. It’s a wonderful way to kick off the holiday season and support scholarships for our Hayes School of Music students and we hope you can join us.
Yesterday, we also celebrated Founders Day with a rescheduled Bell Ringers ceremony, followed by a pizza party for students. During our Bell Ringers ceremony, we commemorated our 125th year as an institution, remembering our founders and recognizing those who have contributed to our campus and community’s shared history and accomplishments. I was honored to receive a copy of the proclamation U.S. Sen. Ted Budd ’94 read in the Senate Chamber earlier this fall to mark the university’s anniversary.
We also inducted nine new members into the Bell Ringers Society:
- Dr. Bettie Bond, retired professor emerita of history, representing past, present and future faculty whose teaching, research and service spark the imagination and creativity of our student body.
- Vice Chancellor of External Affairs and Strategic Initiatives Hank Foreman ’95, representing Appalachian State University’s arts programs and the significance of the university’s continuing arts legacy within the community and region.
- Watauga County Sheriff Len Hagaman ’78, ’82, representing the significance of the 125-year partnership between the university and the remarkable Boone community that has been our home.
- Kaaren Hayes ’96, retired program director of Parent to Parent Family Support Network of the High Country, representing all staff — past, present and future — and the strong bond of community outreach at App State.
- Student Body President Kathryn Long, representing App State students and the promise they have to make our university — and our world — better for each incoming generation.
- Ellen Otterbourg, granddaughter of App State founders D.D. and Lillie Shull Dougherty, representing our Founding Family. Her niece and Dougherty family historian Doris Stam rang the bell on her behalf.
- Rosanne Peacock, App State’s First Lady from 2004 to 2014, representing the influential women who have held the significant role of partner, hostess, liaison and prominent citizen; honoring the memory of her husband, Chancellor Kenneth E. Peacock; and representing the Office of the Chancellor.
- Dr. Melba Spooner, Dean of the Reich College of Education, representing the university’s legacy of providing educational access across the region.
- Board of Trustees Vice Chair Tommy Sofield ’76, representing the university’s Board of Trustees and Mountaineer athletics.
We also launched a new university history website, which provides a comprehensive historical timeline and photos tracing the progression of Watauga Academy to Appalachian State University in the present day.
Faculty may recall that, this summer, I shared we would work to provide merit raises to faculty this academic year. This fall, we were able to establish a pool of funds for faculty market and merit increases. Provost Specht has asked the deans in each college to work with department chairs to implement the raise process. Academic Affairs anticipates raises to be complete by the March payroll.
I hope everyone can enjoy a safe and refreshing Thanksgiving Break later next week. When we return from the break, Tuesday, Dec. 3, will be the last day of classes for the fall semester — with exams beginning at the end of the week. I am confident that our students will come back ready to finish the semester strong!
Heather Norris
Interim Chancellor
Our first snowfall of the season brought smiles to faces across App State’s Boone campus, including these three students — twin sisters Brook Settle and Beth Settle, both junior elementary education majors (left and right), and junior biology major John Hensley, center. They took the opportunity to build a snow Mountaineer, complete with App State gear! Thank you to Chase Reynolds in University Communications for braving this blustery winter day for this photo.
Numerous events and activities over the past week added to the fun energy at App State. Clockwise, from top left: Spooky Duke participants show their enthusiasm for the 5K/10K race and for supporting a good cause — App State’s Parent to Parent outreach program, which supports High Country families who have children with special needs; a special guest made an appearance at our Gold Room pop-up event on Wednesday — Class of 1966 graduate Lynda Spencer Stanbery, who opened the original Gold Room and ran it for many years; a Mountaineer displays one of the App State Mountain Strong T-shirts that were handed out during the university’s Tuesday community meal in Central Dining Hall; and several App State students stopped by the Plemmons Student Union to enjoy a celebratory pizza lunch as part of our Founders Day celebration on Nov. 21, including these three, who served smiles in return — Jonathan Linderich, an engineering physics graduate student, left, Aaron Green, a senior finance and banking major, center, and Edd Whynot, a senior graphic communications management major. Thank you to Troy Tuttle, Chase Reynolds and Kyla Willoughby in University Communications for these photos.
