Last Updated on March 15, 2025 11:02 am
Friday, March 14, 2025
This week, the Appalachian State University Board of Trustees met on the Boone campus for its scheduled quarterly meeting.
Among its actions, the board approved tenure and promotion for recommended faculty and moved forward several construction items, including a new student housing complex at the Appalachian 105 site, which will utilize a public-private partnership project delivery method. This housing project, identified to meet demand for on-campus housing from sophomores, juniors and seniors, will include up to 850 new, apartment-style beds as well as additional student support services. Construction is proposed to begin in May and to be completed by fall 2027.
In my remarks to the board, I highlighted App State’s steady advancements in research, innovation and creative activities.
Innovation is as central to our founding identity as access, and we continue to build our research and innovation enterprise on areas in which App State has demonstrated excellence and is poised to lead in making real-world impact. The work of our faculty, staff and students yields real-world solutions and technologies that answer the needs of our communities and strengthen economies. Our students benefit from hands-on experience with impactful projects — deepening their learning experiences and preparing them to excel in their further studies and future careers.
This innovative Mountaineer spirit permeates throughout the App State Experience, whether our students are solving medical problems in a laboratory, building a championship solar race car or documenting the stories and challenges of regional communities devastated by Hurricane Helene.
At the college level, our research enterprise emphasizes applied problem-solving, designed to meet the needs of our communities and enhance economic development:
- In the Walker College of Business, we have expanded our cybersecurity offerings to include a bachelor’s degree in cybersecurity at both the Boone and Hickory campuses to address the need for trained experts to secure and safeguard information, infrastructure and digital assets for public, private and nonprofit organizations.
- The Beaver College of Health Sciences is helping address critical health care shortages, particularly in rural areas of our state, with our Doctor of Nursing Practice program, set to begin in August 2026. The hybrid degree will combine online learning with in-person intensive clinical training so that we can meet the needs of our students while helping address critical health care shortages — and help answer the call to alleviate an expected statewide shortage of more than 18,000 registered nurses over the next decade.
- The Lab for Innovative Design at Appalachian, in the College of Fine and Applied Arts, provides students in the Department of Applied Design with access to state-of-the-art resources and equipment that facilitate the integration of technology into furniture, interior and product design projects. The accomplishments in these learning environments have led to national and international student awards and increased corporate funding to support continued educational opportunities for our students.
- Dr. Rahman Tashakkori, our Lowe’s Distinguished Professor of Computer Science in the College of Arts and Sciences, earned a grant in excess of $640,000 from NCInnovation for his team’s honeybee hive monitoring system — with the potential to preserve our agriculture and food supply. Now, App State is a hub for NCInnovation, supporting other researchers in bringing their ideas to the commercial world.
- In the Reich College of Education, we are changing lives and communities — through our laboratory schools, in particular — with robust, exploration-based academic programs focused on literacy and STEM. The innovative and flexible learning models and support for teachers at our lab schools foster opportunities for lifelong learning and forward-looking community impact.
As we begin a new chapter — empowered by a commitment to advance and drive innovation in our communities and industries that has been more than a century in the making — I am deeply honored to be Appalachian State University’s Chancellor, and I look forward to continuing to work with all of you. I hope you will read my full remarks to the board here.
As we look ahead to the second half of the spring semester, please join me in congratulating Coach JohnMark Bentley and the App State Wrestling program for winning their third straight Southern Conference Tournament Championship last weekend in Asheville. It was a hard-fought victory that came down to the wire. We’re so proud of these student-athletes, and their coaches and staff, for this outstanding achievement, and we wish them the best of luck moving forward into the national championship tournament.
At App State, we relish a challenge. Together, we’re developing practical solutions to complex problems and teaching others to employ them — working together to advance a brighter future for all.
Heather Norris
Chancellor
