It’s a great day to be a Mountaineer! Thank you to everyone who participated in today’s installation event, and thank you to University Communications for this quick video recap.
Message from Chancellor Heather Norris: October 3, 2025
This morning was one of the most humbling, inspiring and moving moments in my professional career and personal life.
Thank you for helping celebrate this moment in the history of Appalachian State University. I am so fortunate to be a part of this amazing community.
To UNC System President Peter Hans, Board of Governors Chair Wendy Murphy and the full Board of Governors; to our government leaders — from the High Country and Catawba Valley, to Raleigh, to Washington, D.C.; to Board of Trustees Chair Mark Ricks, Vice Chair Tommy Sofield and the entire Board of Trustees; to the members of my leadership team; to the community leaders in the High Country and the Catawba Valley; to the more than 150,000 alumni of App State; to our faculty and staff; and, of course, to our students: Thank you from the bottom of my heart for this opportunity to serve.
How many people get to say — and feel, with full sincerity — that there’s nowhere in the world they’d rather be? My gratitude for that has only grown in my 22 years here. I get to live in a community and work at a place where each person, no matter their role, truly cares about being part of an environment that values excellence and wants to help each and every person succeed. It’s really a dream come true.
No one accomplishes anything by themselves. I am so fortunate to have mentors in my life who show me new ways of approaching things; to have leaders open doors for me; to have students inspire me; to have colleagues offer the advice I needed to hear; to have friends hold out a hand; and, most of all, to have my family — my rock and my touchstone, who remind me of my purpose each and every day.
When I first arrived here as a faculty member, I never imagined doing anything else but being in the classroom with my students — something I’d dreamed of doing since my childhood and something I cherished and loved. Then, a couple of years later, someone saw something in me that I hadn’t yet seen in myself, offering me an opportunity to serve in a new role as an assistant dean. It took me a little time — I didn’t even know what assistant deans did back then — but I finally said yes, and it opened up an unimagined trajectory that’s brought me to where I am today. That opportunity opened my eyes to new ways to support students, with academic advising, scholarships and recruitment of amazing faculty. And it also taught me that saying yes meant I could continue to do more to serve.
With each step in my career, I learned more about the sometimes complicated, challenging, fascinating and incredibly rewarding world of higher education. And nearly every day, I gained more insight into the power of adapting and innovating, with renewed appreciation for the bold, yet simple vision of our founders. Even as we grow, change and adapt, we remain true to our fundamental belief that access to education changes lives and communities for the better, ensuring each generation can gain from — and build upon — what was built before us.
I feel the responsibility of 126 years, the accomplishments of each of the leaders who has served at the helm of this institution before me, the power of the knowledge base of the faculty and staff, the hopes and dreams of the generations of students who have walked through these doors, and the allegiance of more than 150,000 alumni who are currently living in and contributing to communities across the state, nation and world.
As we look to our future, without a doubt, we will have more opportunities than ever to fulfill our mission of academic excellence and student success, all while leading with innovation and research that make a direct and lasting positive impact in our local communities.
It’s our job — our charge as a proudly Appalachian institution — to show our young people, to share with every K-12 school, every community college and community organization across this region that there are good and satisfying careers right here close to home, that there are good and meaningful ways to be of service to your friends and neighbors. That’s what it means to be a rural-serving institution, a public university still deeply attuned to its core mission.
We are putting the words of our mission into action and achieving amazing results. With some of the highest retention and graduation rates in the nation, graduates with less student debt than most in the nation and a positive, resident-student return on investment for every one of our undergraduate and graduate academic programs, we are serving our state and nation by preparing knowledgeable, creative thinkers and problem solvers.
With an eye toward the future — which will include developing a new strategic plan and a comprehensive fundraising campaign — we will look for every opportunity to include as broad a swath of participation: faculty, staff, students, alumni, and members of the Boone and Hickory area communities.
We’ll also lean into the work of many ongoing groups, including our AI task force and its component parts, looking at teaching, learning, research, business practices and processes and the many ways we can use this emerging and rapidly evolving technology to enhance and support our work.
The path from our founding as a teachers 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.
I’m looking forward to traveling this path with each of you, and I am grateful to share it with all of you.
Heather Norris
Chancellor
University emblems, such as the mace, medallion and chain of command, are symbolic objects representing the legal and chartered authority of an institution’s highest office in its most formal ceremonies.
The mace (left) is a particularly emblematic artifact, serving as a symbol of authority just as it did during the Middle Ages, when a macebearer accompanied an official taking office or opening court. Appalachian State University’s mace symbolizes the university’s mountain heritage. Its design, as a walking stick, and the physical materials of which it is crafted are appropriate to the natural environment of the area. At the top of the mace is a soaring, red-tailed hawk, symbolizing the empowerment of education. The talons of the hawk are grasping two quartz crystals, one representing the global nature of the university and its educational programs, and the other — a reproduction of Grandfather Mountain, the highest peak on the eastern escarpment of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
The medallion and chain of command (center) represent the trust and authority invested in the chancellor by the institution’s governing body. In academic regalia, the use of medallions is traced to the Middle Ages. Placing the medallion and chain of command on the chancellor’s shoulders signifies the transfer of authority and responsibility for the institution to the newly installed chancellor.
The tradition of academic regalia (right) probably originated in the traditions and necessities of the Middle Ages, when people dressed in keeping with their class and for their needs. Warm cloaks and hoods were needed because many of the buildings where scholars taught were cold. From the various traditions that grew up surrounding academic costumes, a code was established and subscribed to in 1894 by most universities and colleges in the United States. Now that academic costumes are prescribed, audiences can identify the institutions awarding degrees, the nature of the degrees and the faculties awarding them.
Thank you to Chase Reynolds and Kyla Willoughby in University Communications for the photos in today’s newsletter.
