Susan Foringer-Burk is the first recipient of a new $1,500 scholarship for graduate students studying communication sciences and disorders at WCU awarded through a fund established by Margie Gibbs Motsinger, a Western alumna and the founder of a Greensboro-based communication and rehabilitative therapy clinic.
Marty Ramsey, alumni affairs director and 1985 WCU graduate, wanted his participation in The Campaign for Western to help academics and athletics, so he is directing his gifts to the Alumni Association Scholarship, the Loyalty Fund and summer school scholarships for student-athletes.
Ronald A. Johnson, who holds the JP Morgan Chase Chair in Finance in the Jesse H. Jones School of Business at Texas Southern University, is the next dean of the College of Business at WCU.
Fast-moving mountain landslides called “debris flows” topped the news in September 2004 when one such slide killed five people in Macon County’s Peeks Creek community, but it is another type of less-understood slope failure that is the focus of a long-term research project involving WCU geology students and faculty, and the state’s Geological Survey and Department of Transportation.
WCU will present honorary doctorates to Asheville businessman and philanthropist Joe W. Kimmel and to mountaineer and long-time benefactor Robert M. Failing, and also give out a major alumni award as the university holds spring commencement exercises at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 5.
Don Connelly, director of WCU’s broadcasting program, and Joe Mullins, a senior majoring in broadcasting, received national awards for radio production work at the Broadcast Education Association Convention Festival of Media Arts held recently in Las Vegas.
WCU is the recipient of a $267,477 grant from the University of North Carolina Division of University-School Programs for its project designed to integrate literacy, mathematics and technology in elementary and middle school science education.
WCU recently received a grant in the amount of $125,000 for the continuation of its SCIENCES program, an 18-month project designed to improve science education in Alleghany County middle schools.
WCU's Hunter Library recently announced winners for the April 2007 Cullowhee Edible Book Festival, co-sponsored semi-annually with the university’s department of art and design.
Students in Anna Fariello’s history class on museum exhibitions are putting their final project to work at WCU's Hunter Library from April 25 through the end of the 2007 fall semester.
Three WCU broadcasting students have been selected to attend the prestigious Media Sales Institute at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University following graduation this spring.
Bob Buckner, director of WCU's Pride of the Mountains Marching Band, will serve as guest conductor when Jackson County’s first community band presents a Mother’s Day concert on Sunday, May 13, at 2 p.m.
Students and faculty at WCU will assist the town of Canton in its ongoing efforts to fully recover from the devastating floods of 2004, thanks to a grant from a national community-based research program.
On a somber day that matched the mood and with light raindrops falling from the sky accompanying the tears in the eyes of participants, the WCU community paused Tuesday, April 24, to honor the memories of nine students who died during the past year.
The heads of Southwestern Community College and Western Carolina University signed an agreement on Monday (April 23) for a new partnership that will help students who are not quite ready for college-level courses at Western to prepare for full admittance.
Julia Ann Barnes, associate professor of mathematics and computer science at WCU, has been named one of the best teachers in the University of North Carolina system, earning praise for using creative ways to help her students understand difficult mathematical concepts.
The old joke goes that the only way you can get to Carnegie Hall is to practice, practice, practice. Or, you could simply join the Smoky Mountain Brass Quintet at the famous music hall for the group’s debut in New York this summer. The quintet, composed of Western music professors, will perform at Carnegie Hall on Friday, June 8.
WCU presented its top faculty and staff awards for teaching, research and service for the 2006-07 academic year Friday, April 20, at its annual spring General Faculty Meeting and Awards Convocation.
WCU's annual spring fling will take place on Friday, April 27, in the form of a carnival complete with rides, midway games and festival food. The event, open to the general public, will be held at the Ramsey Regional Activity Center from 4 until 8 p.m.
Jason Coggins, a graduate student in WCU's Master of Public Affairs Program, is the recipient of the 2007 Jake Wicker Scholarship awarded by the North Carolina City and County Managers Association.
When Susan Parrot Ward and her husband returned to Western recently for the dedication of a ceramics studio in their names, it was only the latest development in a long and rewarding association with Joan Byrd, professor in what is now the department of art and design.
WCU has chosen Microsoft’s Windows Live as its new e-mail system for WCU students. Once implemented, Windows Live will replace current server-based e-mail accounts, becoming students’ official university-business account system.
Two members of WCU fraternities have received prestigious honors, with one having returned recently from Washington, D.C., after representing his organization in meetings with Congressional representatives, and the other beginning a term as president of the governing body of men’s fraternal organizations in the Southeast.
Thanks to the work of Cynthia Brown, an assistant professor of applied criminology at WCU, the state of Mississippi is recipient of a $1.7 million federal grant to create an electronic health data system designed to prevent the type of communication problems that arose from Hurricane Katrina.
“The Connoisseurship of Collecting: Cherokee Baskets,” a program offering an in-depth look at Cherokee basket-collecting, will be held at WCU's Mountain Heritage Center at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, April 29.
WCU's Symphony Band, directed by Philip Morgan, and Wind Ensemble, directed by John T. West, will present a joint concert featuring student conductors and soloists at 8 p.m. Thursday, April 26, in the recital hall of WCU’s Coulter Building.
Western Carolina University Chancellor John W. Bardo and the university community react to the recent Virginia Tech tragedy.
Students and faculty members of WCU's department of communication, theatre and dance will present dance concerts on Thursday, April 26, and Friday, April 27, at 7:30 p.m.
A new breed of cat soon will be on the prowl at the Hickory Metro Convention Center, as the WCU Catamount Club moves the cornerstone event of its efforts to raise funds for student-athlete scholarships from Charlotte to Hickory.
Amanda Buchanan is the first member of her family to go to college. Now with a bachelor’s degree from WCU, she has become the first student from Cherokee County to be admitted to North Carolina State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine in Raleigh.
The WCU student group Eco CATS (Conservation Awareness Team for Sustainability) will sponsor an Earth Day celebration Friday, April 20 and a showing of the slideshow “An Inconvenient Truth” Thursday, April 26.
Western Carolina University and the town of Sylva will host a Recycled Fashion Show that is free and open to the public on Monday, April 23, at 6:30 p.m. in WCU’s Niggli Theater.
Western Carolina University’s Fine Art Museum will host a meet and greet reception for rock ‘n’ roll photographer George Shuba at about 9:15 p.m. on Friday, April 27.
British art critic and publisher Derek Guthrie will present a public lecture, “Performing Monkeys and the Goose that Laid the Golden Egg – The Artist Dances for Postmodernism,” at WCU Saturday, April 21.
WCU will present a series of choral concerts April 20-21, featuring WCU choral groups and students from three high schools as part of the 26th annual High School Invitational Choral Clinic.
The University Players at Western Carolina University will close the 2006-07 theatre season with the comedy “All in the Timing” staging April 18-22.
Western Carolina University’s Mountain Heritage Center will celebrate the spring season by sponsoring a wildflower walk for families from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 22.
There is still time to sign up for Western Carolina University’s Tuckaseigee River Cleanup, scheduled for Saturday, April 21.
Three candidates for the position of vice chancellor for student affairs at Western Carolina University will visit campus in April and May for interviews, including an open forum and reception for each candidate.
Public receptions for three candidates selected as finalists for the position of dean of Western Carolina University’s newly reconfigured College of Arts and Sciences will be held on campus in April.
Western Carolina University’s Fine and Performing Arts Center will offer its second annual Sizzlin’ Summer Shorts Series with events throughout the summer, kicking off on May 23.
Five WCU students will join University of North Carolina system President Erskine Bowles and about 100 other students from UNC system schools on Tuesday, April 17, for “Research in the Capital,” an undergraduate research symposium held for the N.C. General Assembly in Raleigh.
Two historians will speak on “Color Lines: Race, Suburbs and Southern Politics” when they visit Western Carolina University on Thursday, April 19, as part of the university’s Visiting Scholars Series.
WCU will celebrate the cultures of its international students and faculty at its 28th annual International Festival, this year to be held Wednesday, April 18, from 10 a.m. until 3:30 p.m.
A national search for the next dean of the College of Business at WCU has narrowed the list down to three finalists who will take part in a series of public receptions on campus and in Sylva and Asheville as part of the selection process.
Claudia Bryant, assistant professor of political science at Western Carolina University, was recently elected president of the North Carolina Political Science Association.
Scholars, writers, musicians and enthusiasts of Appalachian culture will gather at WCU as part of National Library Week activities to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the publication of the Encyclopedia of Appalachia by the University of Tennessee Press.
WCU’s Last Minute Productions and Base Camp Cullowhee are looking for volunteers to help remove a year’s accumulation of trash from a section of the Tuckaseigee River in Jackson County Saturday, April 21.
Having followed very different paths in life, at first glance it would appear that Catherine Belair and John Greene do not have much in common. However, they both have a passion for education and working with young people and are among 23 adults preparing for licensure through the NC TEACH program at WCU.
Western North Carolina school teachers can win scholarships to pay the cost of a graduate-level course in education through WCU’s “Invest in Teachers Scholarship” program.
WCU is currently accepting applications for its Mountain Dulcimer Week, to be held June 24-29. The event will feature dulcimer-playing courses for all skill levels – from those who have never played before to experienced musicians.
Elementary and middle school students from the Western North Carolina region are invited to attend the fourth annual Cullowhee Creativity Camp, to take place in the Killian Building on the campus of WCU from Monday, June 18, through Friday, June 22, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Thirty-one WCU undergraduate students and four faculty members will be traveling to California on Thursday, April 12, to join representatives from more than 300 other colleges at the 21st annual National Conference on Undergraduate Research.
Western Carolina University will offer art workshops throughout April as a part of the “Learning for Fun” series.
WCU political science and public affairs students will hear how a major corporation lobbies state and federal government officials when Doug Bailey, a graduate of the WCU program, returns to his alma mater as keynote speaker at a departmental end-of-year banquet.
WCU's Theatre in Education Program will present “Dogwood’s Search,” a student-directed play for young audiences, at 10 a.m. Thursday, April 19, and 2 p.m. Saturday, April 21, in the Fine and Performing Arts Center.
The Western Carolina University music department will present a concert by renowned flutist William Bennett at 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 11.
Cane Creek Middle, Carolina Day and Roberson High schools were the top competitors Thursday, March 29, at Western Carolina University’s 37th Annual High School Mathematics Contest.
WCU political science student Chris Douglas was recently awarded the “best undergraduate paper” prize for his essay presented at the North Carolina Political Science Association conference.
A national psychological association recently honored WCU clinical psychology graduate student Lauren Drerup for her submitted work to a conference for psychopathology research.
Several Western Carolina University departments and student organizations will sponsor the annual “Take Back the Night” March, part of a worldwide effort to help end violence, on Tuesday, April 10.
More than 200 musicians from 50 high schools across North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Virginia will gather at WCU to participate in the 27th Annual Honor Band Festival Friday, April 13, and Saturday, April 14.
A student team from McDowell High School won top honors as WCU sponsored its 18th annual Computer Science Programming Contest on Tuesday, March 27.
