Last Updated on July 16, 2021 8:07 pm
Friday, July 16, 2021
Exactly one month from today classes will begin for the fall, and face-to-face interactions will once again be the norm.
As we prepare for the coming semester, faculty and staff across campus are continuing ongoing efforts and initiating new programs to create an exceptional experience for our students.
- Provost Heather Norris and I are hosting a new, three-week comprehensive leadership workshop for chairs of academic departments, presented by the Division of Academic Affairs. This workshop ensures these campus leaders have access to important resources and information needed to foster the success of their students and faculty. The first week has been full of engaging conversations, and I have greatly appreciated spending time with these key campus leaders.
- Our newly digitized textbook rental program is already providing tremendous value to students. This digital addition to the program — only the second of its kind in the country — offers equitable access to most course materials for all students, and provides our students with convenient access (online or offline) to their materials before their classes begin.
- Later today, I will greet donors and student scholarship recipients at the Appalachian Scholarship Celebration. This annual event offers the chance for our donors to meet and hear stories from students whose lives they have forever changed through their generosity and leadership. Scholarships are vital to our efforts to promote access and inclusion on our campus. These donors are helping open doors and lessening the burden of debt for students, making it feasible for them to earn a degree from the premier public undergraduate institution in the Southeast.
We continue to urge all Mountaineers to get vaccinated to help protect our community, especially children under 12 and immunocompromised individuals who are unable to take the vaccine. This week, ECU Chancellor Rogers accepted my challenge to see which university can vaccinate the most students before the highly anticipated football game between our two schools on Sept. 2. Let’s show them how to do it, Mountaineers!
This summer, our university and faculty have received prestigious recognitions from the UNC System that reflect App State’s far-reaching influence.
- An App State research team was one of three from the UNC System to be awarded a grant through the University of North Carolina’s Research Opportunities Initiative (ROI), marking the first time our university has been selected as a lead principal investigator on an ROI grant. Led by Dr. Rahman Tashakkori, chair of the Department of Computer Science, the project aims to answer key questions on bee hive health, development and genomic diversity. App State will partner with a faculty member from UNC Charlotte for this project.
- App State was selected by the UNC System as one of six institutions to receive recurring grants from the North Carolina Principal Fellows Program. As part of the program, the Reich College of Education will partner with 12 school districts and the Northwest Regional Educational Service Alliance to train and support future principals through the university’s school administration program.
At our Staff Connect networking event earlier this week, it was clear our campus is starting to bustle with renewed energy and in-person experiences. With safety directing our decisions, we are getting back to the people, places and activities we love.
Sheri Everts, Chancellor
