Health Haven a New Building’S High-Tech Features and Community Spaces Have the Campus Abuzz
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
western Winter 2013 carolina THE MAGAZINE OF WESTERN CAROLINA UNIVERSITY HEALTH HAVEN A NEW BUILDING’S HIGH-TECH FEATURES AND COMMUNITY SPACES HAVE THE CAMPUS ABUZZ SANTAS CUBED MARCHING BAND ADOPTS ‘MondaY NIGHT FOOTBALL’ CONVENE IN CULLOWHEE LITTLE DRUMMER BOY WELCOMES WCU ALUM western carolina WINTER 2013 | VOLUME 17, NO. 1 The Magazine of Western Carolina University is produced by the Office of Communications and Public Relations in the Division of Advancement and External Affairs for alumni, faculty, staff, friends and students of Western Carolina University. CHANCELLOR David O. Belcher A COLORFUL YARN VICE CHANCELLOR OF ADVANCEMENT The Catamount statue at the main entrance AND EXTERNAL AFFAIRS of Western Carolina University, pictured last Clifton B. Metcalf winter, models the holiday sweater it received courtesy of a WCU-based fiber arts group. MANAGING EDITOR Bill Studenc MPA ’10 ASSOCIATE EDITORS Jill Ingram MA ’08 Teresa Killian Tate ART DIRECTOR Rubae Schoen CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER Mark Haskett ’87 GRAPHIC DESIGNERS John Balentine Will Huddleston Zack Keys STAFF WRITERS Keith Brenton Randall Holcombe Daniel Hooker ’01 Leila Tvedt STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS Ashley T. Evans John Witherspoon PRODUCTION MANAGER Ashley Beavers CIRCULATION MANAGER Cindi Magill Search for this icon throughout the magazine for stories that feature online extras – videos, photographs and more, available ONLY online. 2 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University magazine.wcu.edu CONTENTS WINTER 2013 | VOLUME 17, NO. 1 22 17 20 26 FEATURES SECTIONS 17 A SANTA FOR ALL SEASONS 4 Worth Repeating Three real-bearded Santas meet in the ’Whee for a jolly good time 5 Opening Notes 20 LITTLE DRUMMER BOY 6 News from the Western Hemisphere The marching band’s percussion section finds a kindred soul in a stick-spinning 5-year-old 12 WCU Athletics 22 A HIGHER CALLING 36 Alumni Spotlight A retired NFL referee has joined the ‘Monday Night Football’ team 40 Class Notes 26 HEALTH HAVEN 48 Calendar The first building on the West Campus promotes collaboration, partnerships and service 50 The View from Here 51 Last Look ON THE COVERS FRONT Students and faculty are conducting research related to mosquito-borne illnesses in Western North Carolina, thanks to a secure insectary and lab in the new Health and Human Sciences Building. BACK Campus is aglow with signs of the holidays, and so is the Internet. Use the QR code on the back cover to visit a website with this season’s holiday video greeting, or visit seasonsgreetings2012.wcu.edu. Winter 2013 | 3 “This is more than a college WORTH marching band. It is a Broadway production!” – REPEATING Online comment to video of WCU’s Pride of the Mountains as part “As hard as it “Apparently I attend WCUofA. of CNN’s Battle might be to think Western Carolina University of the Marching about while of Alaska.” – Tweet from Bands competition. people are still WCU student Hayden Cairns being plucked during the freezing weather “Many games were from rooftops, brought on by Superstorm played in the rain, storms such as Sandy in October. sleet or snow. By Sandy represent halftime the field an opportunity “Having participated in was very muddy, to reassess well over 30 forums/debates and many times and improve during the primary and our marching future exposure general election, I was very shoes stayed of coastline impressed with the format and where we stood communities to professional manner in which momentarily and storms and ocean WCU conducted the debate.” we proceeded to surges.” – Rob –Congressman-elect Mark complete the show Young and Andy Meadows, commenting on a in our socks!” Coburn of WCU’s debate hosted on campus by – Art Dingee ’73 Program for the WCU’s Department of Political MME ’76 of Study of Developed Science and Public Affairs and Arlington, Texas, Shorelines in a the Public Policy Institute. a former member guest op-ed in of the marching USA Today after “We don’t care which party band, recalling Superstorm Sandy. you go to, as long as you look football games good going.” – Tagline of in WCU’s old the photo blog “Party Chic,” Memorial Stadium. created by Paige Hogan ’12 and WCU student Jeff Wilber to capture the competing street style of attendees of the 2012 Republican and Democratic national conventions. 4 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University OpeNING Notes The holiday season offers everyone in the Western Carolina management and human resources are ranked “best buys” in University family an opportunity to spend quality time with terms of quality and affordability by the consumer advocacy friends and relatives, to take a well-deserved break from the group GetEducated.com. rigors of our academic pursuits and work, and to recharge Of course, 2012 always will have a special place in my heart our batteries before we head into the spring semester. The because it is the year of my official installation as Western approach of yet another January also prompts us to reflect Carolina chancellor. Susan and I truly feel blessed to be a part both on the highlights of the year that is coming to a close and of this extraordinary university and this wonderful community, on the opportunities inherent in the year ahead. It is a time to full of caring people and located in one of the most gorgeous celebrate the positive differences the university makes in the places on Earth. You have made us feel welcome, and we look lives of our students, the strong connections we have forged forward to working with you as we seize the opportunities with our community and region, and the lasting relationships awaiting us in 2013 – and beyond. we have built with our alumni and friends. Finally, while the holidays are a time for celebration For Western Carolina, 2012 will go down in the record books and introspection, they also are a season for giving. As I – literally – as a year to remember. Total student enrollment in mentioned in my installation address in the spring, Western the fall topped 9,600 for the first time in WCU history, thanks Carolina has made raising funds for endowed scholarships a to an increase of nearly 3 percent in the size of the freshman top philanthropic priority in order to enable us to meet our class and an uptick in our freshman-to-sophomore retention time-honored commitments to student access and student rate. When the dust settled, our total headcount enrollment success. In this difficult economic climate, too many students was at 9,608. With more than 51,000 inquiries already pouring simply cannot afford the cost of higher education, even at an in from prospective students for the 2013 freshman class and institution as affordable as ours. I invite you to join others who with our plans for strategic enrollment growth, I am sure our are giving back to the university, and to take advantage of the friends in the Office of Undergraduate Admission are among tax benefits that come with year-end charitable giving – all in those ready for the holiday break! support of the outstanding students who call Western Carolina It’s not just about quantity, though. It’s also about quality. home. For more information, visit the website give.wcu.edu. The average high school weighted grade-point average for You are part of Western Carolina, and I trust that you share fall’s freshman class is 3.63, up slightly from last year’s overall my pride and belief in the future of our university. freshman class GPA of 3.60. When students arrive better Susan and I offer our best wishes for a wonderful prepared for rigorous academic pursuits, they tend to stay with holiday season. us – hence our improved retention numbers! We also have received independent validation of our increasing academic quality. The latest edition of the U.S. News & World Report “Best Colleges” guidebook includes WCU among the top 15 public regional universities in the South. The Princeton Review once again lists our College of Business among the nation’s best schools at which to earn a master’s degree in business DAVid O. BELCHER administration. And our online graduate programs in project Chancellor Winter 2013 | 5 Libby Kephart Hargrave, great-granddaughter of Horace Kephart, and her husband, John, hold up a charter of the Missouri Sharpshooters and a target that are part of a recent donation to Special Collections at Western Carolina University’s Hunter Library. The couple visited the yearlong exhibit “Horace Kephart in the Great Smoky Mountains” at WCU’s Mountain Heritage Center (pictured here) after announcing the donation in September. ARTIFACTS DONatED TO HUNTER LIBRARY REVEAL MORE ABOUT PERSONAL LIFE OF ICONIC WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA FIGURE HORACE KEPHART From the weathered copy of to be available in early 2013 called the as a handwritten note about windy “Robinson Crusoe” believed to be the “Horace Kephart and Laura Mack conditions for shooting, distance to first book Horace Kephart ever owned Kephart Family Collection.” the target and type of gun. The bulk of to a Christmas card from George Masa The pieces reveal more about the new materials are personal letters, dated 1930 – the last Christmas before Kephart’s interests and who he was as including those Kephart exchanged Kephart’s death – the artifacts in a recent a “family man,” said Kephart’s great- with his wife and his children, from donation to Hunter Library are deeply granddaughter Libby Kephart Hargrave, whom who he lived apart after coming personal. They offer new insight into the in announcing the gift Friday, Sept. 28, to Western North Carolina. “There’s an iconic Western North Carolina figure at Hunter Library. A Florida resident, intimacy in his correspondence,” said who penned the classic “Our Southern Hargrave said items in the donation were Hargrave.