Fall Western 2013 CAROLINATHE MAGAZINE OF WESTERN CAROLINA UNIVERSITY

BINDING FORCE FROM HOMECOMING AND THE JUG TO THE TOWNHOUSE AND THE TUCK, TRADITIONS KEEP ALUMNI CONNECTED

TRAINING SCHOOL STRESSES CHANGES ARE NOTHING NEW STUDENTS STREAKED INTO OUTDOOR SAFETY, SURVIVAL IN SOUTHERN CONFERENCE RECORD BOOK 40 YEARS AGO Western CAROLINA FALL 2013 | VOLUME 17, NO. 3

The Magazine of Western Carolina University is produced by the Office of Communications and Public Relations for alumni, faculty, staff, friends and students of Western Carolina University. The views and opinions that appear in this publication are not necessarily those of the editorial staff or the official policies of the university.

CHANCELLOR David O. Belcher

CHIEF OF STAFF Melissa Wargo

MANAGING EDITOR Bill Studenc MPA ’10

ASSOCIATE EDITORS Jill Ingram MA ’08 Teresa Killian Tate

ART DIRECTOR HOMECOMING 2013 Rubae Schoen CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER OCTOBER 24-27 Mark Haskett ’87 GRAPHIC DESIGNERS John Balentine Tailgating. Noon-3:30 p.m. Parking lots Will Huddleston THURSDAY, OCT. 24 Zack Keys The Last Lecture. 2:30 p.m. Coulter recital adjacent to E.J. Whitmire Stadium. Joseph Moon hall. Burton Ogle, director of the environmental WCU vs. Elon University. 3:30 p.m. STAFF WRITERS health sciences program, “What is Cool E.J. Whitmire Stadium/Bob Waters Field. about Environmental Health.” Information: Keith Brenton Tickets: 800.344.6928. Randall Holcombe 828.227.7196 or [email protected]. Daniel Hooker ’01 African-American Alumni Postgame Patrick O’Neal Spirit Night. 8 p.m. Central Plaza. Reception. 6:30-8 p.m. A.K. Hinds Steve White ’67 Music, food, fun. University Center’s Club Illusions. STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS FRIDAY, OCT. 25 RSVP by Friday, Oct. 18: 877.440.9990, Ashley T. Evans 828.227.7335 or [email protected]. Alumni Scholarship Homecoming Golf John Witherspoon

Tournament. Noon. Waynesville Inn Golf Resort Stompfest. 8 p.m. John W. Bardo Fine and VIDEO EDITOR & Spa. Four-person captain’s choice format. Performing Arts Center. Annual stepping Joseph Hader ’12 $85 per person. RSVP by Friday, Oct. 18: competition by black fraternities and 877.440.9990, 828.227.7335 or sororities; sponsored by the Organization PRODUCTION MANAGER Ashley Beavers [email protected]. of Ebony Students and the Department of Intercultural Affairs. Tickets/information: Homecoming Parade. 6:15 p.m. CIRCULATION MANAGER 828.227.2276 or [email protected]. Cindi Magill Main Street, downtown Sylva. Homecoming Concert – Country music SATURDAY OCT. 26 artist Kacey Musgraves. 9 p.m. Ramsey Chancellor’s Brunch and Alumni Awards. Regional Activity Center. Tickets on sale 10 a.m. A.K. Hinds University Center Grandroom. at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 24. Information: Honoring Joan MacNeill, Distinguished ramsey.wcu.edu or 828.227.7677. Service Award; Johnny Carson ’71, Academic Achievement Award; Wes Elingburg ’78, SUNDAY, OCT. 27 Professional Achievement Award; Manteo Inspirational Choir Concert. 1 p.m. Mitchell ’09 MAEd ’12, Young Alumnus Award. A.K. Hinds University Center Grandroom. $15 per person, business attire. RSVP by Friday, Information: 828.227.2276 or Oct. 18: 877.440.9990, 828.227.7335 [email protected]. or [email protected]. Search for this icon throughout the magazine for stories that feature See the complete Homecoming schedule online at Homecoming.wcu.edu. online extras – videos, photographs and more, available ONLY online.

2 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University magazine.wcu.edu FALL 2013 | VOLUME 17, NO. 3 CONTENTS

20 28 18 38

FEATURES SECTIONS 18 BOSTON STRONG 4 Worth Repeating A former WCU track athlete recalls close call at marathon bombing 5 Opening Notes

20 TEST OF ENDURANCE 6 News from the A couple builds a top school for Western Hemisphere outdoor responder training 12 WCU Athletics 28 GET THE MESSAGE? The university is making huge strides 40 Alumni Spotlight in emergency notification 44 Class Notes

30 BINDING FORCE 52 Calendar Traditions help maintain campus connections with alumni and friends 54 The View from Here

38 THE BARE FACTS 55 Last Look Forty years ago, WCU was the epicenter of collegiate streaking in the U.S.

ON THE COVERS FRONT A symbol of WCU’s longstanding rivalry with Appalachian State, the Old Mountain Jug will be on the line one more time Nov. 23 when the Catamounts travel to Boone for what may be their final football game against the Mountaineers, who are leaving the Southern Conference after this season to join the Sun Belt Conference.

BACK More than 100 booths of Western North Carolina’s finest arts and crafts will be on display and for sale as the 39th edition of WCU’s Mountain Heritage Day, the university’s tribute to traditional Southern Appalachian culture, kicks off on campus Saturday, Sept. 28. More information available at MountainHeritageDay.com.

Fall 2013 | 3 “We’ve been trying for many years to get a provision under WORTH which concealed handgun permit REPEATING holders who’ve proven themselves sane, sober and law-abiding can protect themselves “It’s sort of like that “Reminded me of a Saturday in restaurants, on guy who lived next a.m. back in the late ’60s. educational property door when you were The mirrors in the dorm were and elsewhere.” growing up. He’s a swaying ... had never been in – Paul Valone of little bigger, has a an earthquake before then.” Grassroots North little more money – Bunny Bennett Parish ’69, Carolina to the N.C. and you always used replying to a WCU Alumni News Network, to fight him. Then Association Facebook post on a legislative he moves away, about a June 6 tremor near proposal that and you don’t have Cullowhee measuring 2.5 would allow gun- anybody to fight on the Richter scale. owners who hold with anymore. You concealed-carry didn’t necessarily “Seeing their faces along with permits to store their like him, but you’re hearing their stories while you firearms in vehicles going to miss him.” basically help rebuild their lives on university – Steve White ’67, is about the most rewarding campuses. WCU’s athletic experience I have ever been historian, to the involved in.” – Junior Matthew “I’m just not Asheville Citizen- Chevalier, one of 10 students convinced, based Times on arch- involved in a May service- on what I’ve seen, rival Appalachian based leadership course that that allowing more State’s decision to traveled to Staten Island, N.Y., firearms on campus leave the Southern to assist with rebuilding after is going to make Conference. Hurricane Sandy. campuses safer. I’ve not seen anything “Ultimately, we are looking at the river park as a to make me think catalyst for the revitalization of downtown Cullowhee.” that is the case.” – – Anna Fariello, associate research professor at Hunter WCU Police Chief Library and leader of CuRvE, a grassroots nonprofit Ernie Hudson to the dedicated to improving the Cullowhee community, Asheville Citizen- to the Smoky Mountain News on a proposed park Times on that along the Tuckaseigee River near campus. same proposal.

4 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University OPENING Notes

As the beginning of the fall semester approaches, Western These activities are occurring against the backdrop of Carolina University is in the midst of the process of sharpening challenging times. The university has absorbed more than $32 its focus. It is no coincidence that the university’s “2020 Vision” million in cuts to state funding since 2008-09. As I write this, strategic plan is subtitled “Focusing Our Future.” Those who our elected officials are debating the budget for the 2013-15 worked on the plan – and there were many from across the biennium, with further reductions anticipated. Simply put, we campus and the broader external community – realized the do not have the resources to do everything we would like to do importance of a well-defined institutional focus in order for or to be all things to all people. We never have. That is why we the university to move forward and continue to meet the needs are taking a hard look at all of our functions in order to make of students and the region we serve. informed decisions about how to use limited resources toward Perhaps the most significant “focusing” activity in which we the goal of maintaining the growth, vitality and excellence of are engaged is academic program prioritization. Through this the university and WCU’s ability to serve students and the rigorous and inclusive process, we have examined all programs people of North Carolina. in our academic mix, assessing their quality, productivity and That said, harsh fiscal realities alone are not driving this need connection to mission. Academic program prioritization was to sharpen our focus. Institutions of higher education – like a direct outcome of the “2020 Vision” plan, and it was called any organization – should engage in a systematic process of for by the first initiative of the first goal of the first strategic review and prioritization of all of its functions as a normal order direction. Academic program prioritization will become a of business. And we will do just that. Regular examination of regular activity, ensuring that we have the proper array of what we do and how we do it will be an ongoing initiative of programs to enable us to meet our institutional mission and this forward-looking university in its pursuit of distinction. position us for the opportunities and challenges ahead. As good stewards of the resources and trust granted us by the We also have thoroughly reviewed the structure of our people and the state, we must constantly evaluate our operations administrative and other non-academic areas. As a result, toward the goal of continuous improvement. Doing so will we have made several organizational shifts designed to meet make us more efficient and will leave us a stronger institution. the “2020 Vision” goals of improving the effectiveness and In fact, these efforts already are producing results. Enrollment efficiencies of campus business processes and ensuring continues to climb, and a higher percentage of students who the appropriate leadership and organizational structure come to WCU are staying to complete their degrees. We expect necessary in order to fulfill our mission. We have eliminated the trend of record enrollment to continue this fall. a vice chancellor position, combined several units and Western Carolina is a university with a proud tradition functions, streamlined procedures and practices, and and a future of extraordinary possibilities. By sharpening created operational synergies that make the university a more our focus, we are better positioned to live up to the legacy of nimble organization. our past, meet the challenges of our present and embrace the In addition, we are in the final stages of a comprehensive opportunities of our future. master planning process that will guide the development and You are part of Western Carolina, and I trust that you share improvements of campus over the next several decades. Through my pride and belief in the future of our university. this effort, we are addressing issues such as new building needs, use of existing space, parking and transportation, technology and other infrastructure, sustainability, safety and security, preservation of our unique heritage, and integration of campus with the surrounding community. Master planning will help clarify how we will develop our campus and its infrastructure to meet the changing needs of our DAVID O. BELCHER growing student body. Chancellor

Fall 2013 | 5 MARCHING BAND MAKING PLANS FOR THANKSGIVING 2014 AFTER SCORING ANOTHER PARADE INVITATION

Confetti fills the air as When the 400-plus members of the Pride of the Mountains Starnes told the band members. “The trip that we’re looking members and friends of Marching Band leave campus for the Thanksgiving holiday at right now would have us in New York on Sunday, Monday, the Pride of the Mountains break next year, it won’t exactly be a matter of “over the river Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday of Thanksgiving, Friday after Marching Band celebrate and through the woods, to grandmother’s house we go.” That Thanksgiving and drive back Friday night, so we’re talking the invitation to participate is, unless grandma lives in the Big Apple, because Western about a week in New York City the week of Thanksgiving.” in the 2014 Macy’s Carolina’s marching band is one of only 10 from across the For students such as Joel Gerome Jeffries Jr., a junior Thanksgiving Day Parade. nation invited to participate in the 2014 Macy’s Thanksgiving education major, the Macy’s invite represents the latest Day Parade in New York City. accolade bestowed upon the WCU marching band. “Being a Representatives of the Macy’s parade visited campus at the member and now drum major of the Pride of the Mountains end of the spring semester to surprise the marching musicians has given me many opportunities to experience things that with the invitation to take part in the 2014 edition of most college students aren’t able to say they’ve done: the annual holiday spectacular. Band members marching in the Rose Parade in California, had assembled in the theater of A.K. Hinds performing halftime for a Carolina Panthers University Center under the guise that they football game, and performing for the largest were attending a mandatory organizational marching band stage in the country at meeting when Wesley Whatley, the Bands of America Grand Nationals in magazine.wcu.edu parade’s creative director, broke the news. Indianapolis,” Jeffries said. “These “It’s my job to look across the opportunities are tremendous and now country to find the best bands, the most the Pride of the Mountains Marching entertaining bands, the most fantastic, Band is able to add on another major most fabulous bands to represent their experience to the books.” states and perform in our event,” said The band received the 2009 Sudler Whatley. “This year we received well over Trophy, presented by the John Philip Sousa 175 applications from bands across the country Foundation, considered the nation’s ultimate and even some international groups. We selected honor for college and university bands. When 10 from over 175. And let me tell you this: your name the WCU marching band appeared in the 2011 – Western Carolina University – was the first band I wrote up Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, Calif., it won on the board, the very first. It was a resounding yes from our “favorite band” in a poll conducted by KTLA-TV, earning committee. It was so clear. And that’s a testament to all of you.” 72,287 votes – 40 percent of all votes cast in the poll and more Whatley also unveiled a parade banner and presented a than any of the parade’s other musical groups. And now comes commemorative drum head to David Starnes, director of the the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade. Founded in 1924, the parade Pride of the Mountains, as the students showered Starnes attracts more than 3.5 million spectators lining the streets of with a rain of colorful confetti. “We’re not going to do this in New York and 50 million at-home viewers. a way where we go up and go, ‘Hi New York, bye New York,’” –By Bill Studenc MPA ’10

6 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University WCU LOOKS TO THE ARCHITECT OF ITS STRATEGIC PLAN FOR THE RETIRING CHIEF OF STAFF’S SUCCESSOR

After Dianne G. Lynch announced her will be able to hit the ground running She oversaw the renovation of the retirement as the chancellor’s chief of and have an immediate impact as the Chancellor’s Residence and H.F. staff earlier this year, Western Carolina university meets the challenges and Robinson Administration Building University did not have to look far for her opportunities ahead.” lobby, co-chaired the university’s successor. The university found its new Wargo assumes her new role as the organizational structure review process chief of staff, Melissa Canady Wargo, university is in the first phase of a and played an important role in the working as assistant vice chancellor for process of institutional restructuring. transition of institutional leadership planning and effectiveness in the same In addition to serving as principal from former chancellor John W. Bardo H.F. Robinson Administration Building aide to the chancellor on important to the university’s current leader. where Lynch served for 10 years as senior university operational matters and –By Bill Studenc MPA ’10 executive staff member in the Office of leading the university’s government the Chancellor. relations activities, she oversees WCU’s Wargo guided WCU’s yearlong communications and public relations strategic planning process and led a functions and a new marketing unit 36-member committee in drafting the formed from several existing offices. “2020 Vision: Focusing Our Future” Before Wargo changed offices June strategic plan approved last June by 1, her predecessor accepted two of the the Board of Trustees. She currently university’s highest honors. Lynch in serves as co-chair of the master March became just the 10th person ever planning committee, charged with to receive the Trustees’ Award, presented creating a comprehensive plan to guide only on rare occasions in recognition development of campus over the next of exemplary service. “Dianne more several decades. Her April appointment than meets the criteria for this award,” as chief of staff concluded a national said Joan MacNeill, board chair. “Any search conducted by a seven-member time that Dianne Lynch is involved in committee, which presented three a project, you can rest assured that it finalists to Chancellor David O. Belcher will be done to perfection. She makes for his consideration. it all look effortless, but we all know “Melissa Wargo brings an the large amount of effort that she puts exceptionally strong skill set to the into everything she does.” Lynch also position of chief of staff. In addition to a received the Paul A. Reid Award for keen analytical mind, she has an excellent Administrative Staff at WCU’s annual FINE ART MUSEUM GETS reputation on and off the campus for spring Faculty and Staff Excellence NEW DIRECTOR her ability to bring together a diverse Awards event in April. collection of faculty, staff, students, As chief of staff, Lynch oversaw David J. Brown, a longtime arts professional experienced alumni and community representatives several high-priority university events in many facets of arts and cultural organizations, has been to find common ground and a sense and projects, including commencement named director of the WCU Fine Art Museum. of shared direction in developing our ceremonies, the Chancellor’s Speaker “David has worked in North Carolina a number of university’s strategic plan,” Belcher said. Series, Fall Opening Assembly activities, years in the arts and brings a localized perspective to a “She sees the big picture and understands and chancellor’s installation events in national outlook on arts in our communities,” said Robert how things work in the University of March 2012. She served as a liaison to Kehrberg, dean of the College of Fine and Performing North Carolina system, as well as at local, state and federal elected officials Arts, which oversees the museum. the regional and community levels. She and to the UNC General Administration. Brown, of Winston-Salem, has worked in the field of art and visual culture for more than 25 years. Since 2010, he has worked as an arts management consultant. From 2007-10, he was deputy director of the Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke, Va., where he transitioned the 50-year-old institution into a new facility. Brown also has served in leadership and administrative roles with the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston- Salem, the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati and the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. “Some of the most rewarding times of my career have been in collaboratively creating unique and meaningful intersections with students, artists and the community, and I view the entire WCU campus and region as vibrant partners full of potential,” Brown said. WCU’s Fine Art Museum opened in 2005 with a focus Dianne G. Lynch on education, community outreach and development of (left) departs the a permanent collection of high artistic merit. Brown fills position of WCU’s a position left vacant by founding director and curator chief of staff while Martin DeWitt’s retirement in December 2010. Curatorial Melissa C. Wargo specialist Denise Drury has served as interim director of (right) assumes the museum for the past 2½ years. the role.

Fall 2013 | 7 ALUMNI AND FRIENDS CREATE NEW ENDOWED SCHOLARSHIPS

Western Carolina University alumni and friends are continuing to answer Chancellor David O. Belcher’s call to provide the additional financial support needed to create more endowed scholarships for WCU students. Belcher identified raising funds for endowed scholarships as the university’s No. 1 philanthropic priority, in order to ensure access to higher education for all capable students, during his installation address in March 2012. Through endowments of at least $10,000, scholarship assistance to deserving students can be awarded on an annual basis in perpetuity. Several new endowed Smartphone users meet the Dillsboro Mobile Man scholarships have been added to the books between (right), an 8-foot-tall costumed character emblazoned April 1 and June 30 of this year. They are: with a QR code allowing access to a mobile website. • Steven C. Jones Endowed Scholarship Fund (for inclusive education majors); donors Eva Jones and Jacob Jones. • Dr. Janice H. Holt Endowed Scholarship Fund (for students in the Whee Teach Program); donors Adam WCU-PLANNED EVENTS IN DILLSBORO R. Holt ’05 MSA ’10, Robert L. Holt ’73 and David WIN INTERNATIONAL AWARDS L. Holt in memory of Janice Holt ’76 MAEd ’77 EdS ’87 EdD ’12. For the second time in less than a year, events that faculty, staff and students helped plan, publicize and produce as part of Western Carolina University’s partnership • Construction Management Alumni Endowed with the town of Dillsboro have won awards from the Association of Marketing and Scholarship Fund (for construction management Communication Professionals. The Dillsboro Mobile Web App Launch Party held majors); donors include alumni of the construction in March 2012 recently landed one of eight gold awards in the association’s Hermes management program. Creative Award special events category. Meanwhile, another WCU project team won • Mickey and Sondra H. Pettus Alpha Xi Delta Endowed an AMCP Communitas Award in November 2012 for helping significantly increase Scholarship Fund (for students in Epsilon Gamma attendance during a holiday event the previous year. Chapter of Alpha Xi Delta sorority); donors Mickey “Dozens of faculty, staff and students from across the university contributed Pettus ’75 and Sondra Pettus ’76. hundreds of hours on just these two events, and we were successful because of their expertise, commitment and willingness to make a difference in our community,” said • Coach Bob Waters Football Walk-On Endowed Betty Farmer, professor of communication and special assistant to the chancellor Scholarship Fund (for walk-on student-athletes on the for Dillsboro. intercollegiate football team); donor Dan Brooks ’76. Initiated in 2009, the Dillsboro/WCU Partnership is a universitywide effort • Clarence Claude Teagarden Jr. Endowed Scholarship designed to match WCU expertise and support with Dillsboro’s challenges and Fund (for business administration and law majors); opportunities. Computer information students and faculty within the College of donors include the late Clarence Claude Teagarden Jr. Business worked with Dillsboro business owners and community members to create and colleagues from the College of Business. mobile.dillsboroplaces.org. The mobile Web application connects smartphone users to the town’s businesses and attractions, and features business and town information • Wells Fargo Endowed Scholarship Fund (for accounting, including turn-by-turn directions, social media links, promotions, special events finance, information systems and economics majors); and weather. To publicize the release of the app, public relations students and faculty donor Wells Fargo Foundation. developed a campaign that included a launch party held at Dillsboro’s historic Jarrett • John Davies Memorial Football Endowed Scholarship House. The event featured a countdown timer to the app’s launch, an “Experience Fund (for a member of the intercollegiate football team); Dillsboro” giveaway and the Dillsboro Mobile Man, an 8-foot-tall costumed character donor James Williston “Bill” Klugh ’72. designed and created by faculty and staff in WCU’s School of Stage and Screen. Escorted at the event by Paws, WCU’s mascot, the character wore a QR code enabling • Kathleen Wright Endowed Scholarship Fund (for smartphone users to scan to be immediately directed to the mobile website. communication majors); donor Donald Connelly. Meanwhile, the Dillsboro project won a Communitas Award for bringing larger • McCracken Family Scholarship Fund (for Honors crowds to the 2011 Dillsboro Lights and Luminaries. Communitas is a Latin word College students); donor Sandra Jayne McCracken ’65. that means people coming together for the good of a community, and AMCP judges said that the Dillsboro 2011 luminaries event “clearly exhibits communitas.” • Kenneth M. Hughes/Dixon Hughes Goodman To promote the 28th annual luminaries event, Farmer and her students designated Endowed Scholarship Fund (for accountancy majors the festival’s opening evening as WCU Night and planned special activities and prizes with preference given to students from Yancey and just for faculty, staff and students. Not only did merchants report increased sales and Buncombe counties or Western North Carolina); donor visitors, but also said they had customers return. In addition, merchants donated Kenneth M. Hughes ’74. $550, a portion of their proceeds from WCU Night, to a charitable organization in • Berniece Lloyd/Nancy Potts Coward Endowed support of the WCU Poverty Project. Scholarship Fund (for Honors College students); donors “Dillsboro is so proud to have been chosen to partner with WCU on this venture,” Carolyn and Orville Coward Jr. said Susan Leveille, co-owner of longtime Dillsboro business Oaks Gallery with husband Bob Leveille MBA ’87. “The partnership has been great for all of us. We • Paul and Nora Jones Endowed Athletic Scholarship have learned so very much from each other and about each other and have developed Fund (for a student-athlete on an intercollegiate team); a relationship that I hope will continue.” donors Paul Jones ’69 MAEd ’70 and Nora Jones –By Teresa Killian Tate MAEd ’87.

8 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University HONORS COLLEGE DEAN PUBLISHES POST-APOCALYPTIC NOVEL TO SUPPORT HIS DAUGHTER’S MISSION TRIP

The possibility of a zombie apocalypse has come up so often around the dinner table that the daughter of Brian Railsback, WCU Honor’s College dean, said she was not surprised her dad wrote a post-apocalyptic novel. “He and my two brothers are always scheming about what they would do,” said Cadence Railsback. “I feel confident we would be well-prepared.” What did surprise her, however, was her dad’s offer to direct all proceeds from his book “A Going Concern” to help her raise enough money to participate in the World Race. Adventures in Missions, a Christian organization, sends “World Racers” in squads to 11 countries in 11 months to serve. “It makes me feel like he really supports what I am trying to do, and it also makes me feel very humble to know that I am so loved,” she said. “This is a project that he spent at least five years of his life on that he handed over so readily to help me.” Honors College Dean Brian Railsback is directing proceeds from his book The concept for the novel struck Brian “A Going Concern” to help fund daughter Cadence’s mission trip. Railsback, an award-winning writer, after he read Cormac McCarthy’s post- apocalyptic book “The Road.” He began Inset photo by Katherine Freshwater to wonder what would happen if most of the human population were dead but the rest of the world Railsback completed the novel in 2009. After no initial was fine. Was it possible to write a post-apocalyptic story response from literary agents, he set the project aside until that wasn’t completely dark? Could there be a story that was deciding to self-publish the book. The experience would at once frightening, dramatic and humorous? “I lay awake at help him learn about the emerging e-book industry and night wondering how that would play out and what it would support his daughter. Among the book’s fans is Ron Rash, be like,” said Railsback. WCU Parris Distinguished Professor of Appalachian He dreamed up someone ill-equipped to survive – Culture, who said the novel is excellent and noted that someone who was not a scientist, not knowledgeable, not the story “has taken the bleakest of human scenarios and spiritual and who was wrapped up in popular culture. within it found decency and hope.” Who emerged was Trent Sheets, a 42-year-old guitarist in Railsback’s previous works include the novel “The a band called Subculture. The book follows Sheets as he Darkest Clearing,” which was published in 2004. Awards comes out of the woods near Cullowhee, discovers a virus for his writing include the Prose for Papa (Hemingway) has killed almost everyone and treks across the country. award, which was bestowed in 2006 for his short story Railsback titled the novel “A Going Concern” to capture the “Clean Break.” “A Going Concern” is available online story’s exploration of the future of humanity – will people at Amazon. thrive or fade away? –By Teresa Killian Tate

STUDENTS SLIDE INTO JELL-O AT TURTLE TUG

Losers slid into green Jell-O at the spring Turtle Tug, which turned out to be a winner for a camp for children with serious medical conditions. Organized by Western Carolina University’s Delta Zeta sorority, the event raised more than $1,300 for magazine.wcu.edu The Painted Turtle camp.

Fall 2013 | 9 Photo by Joan Marcus

PROFESSOR TERRENCE MANN EARNS TONY NOMINATION FOR ‘PIPPIN’

Terrence Mann and wife The School of Stage and Screen no longer has a two-time Mann previously was nominated for his role as the original Charlotte d’Amboise share Tony Award nominee on the faculty. That’s because Broadway Beast in the Broadway production of “Beauty and the Beast,” the stage in the Broadway star Terrence Mann, WCU’s Phillips Distinguished Professor which also garnered Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle revival of “Pippin.” of Musical Theatre, was nominated this spring for this third nominations for best actor, and as the original Inspector Javert Tony Award, this time for his performance in the smash revival in “Les Miserables,” which enjoyed new life as an Academy of “Pippin.” Award-winning film last year. In an interesting twist, the Mann was among nominees in the category of best latest Tony nomination came as the School of Stage and Screen performance by an actor in a featured role in a musical, nabbing unveiled its 2013-14 Mainstage season, a lineup that includes a the Tony nod for his portrayal of King Charles, father to the spring production of “Les Miserables,” which Mann will direct. title character. “Pippin” racked up 10 nominations and won Mann, who came to WCU in 2006, provides invaluable four awards, including best musical revival. Although many insight into the onstage and behind-the-scenes tricks of the odds-makers had Mann as the favorite in his category, the trade, said Robert Kehrberg, dean of the College of Fine and Tony went to Gabriel Ebert for “Matilda.” Performing Arts. “Terrence not only brings his life experiences as an accomplished theatrical professional to share with our students, he also frequently takes students to New York City to go backstage and see first-hand how things really work in the world of theatre,” Kehrberg said. “He provides our students with a rare, insider’s perspective on the business of mounting PROFESSOR GARCÍA-CASTAÑÓN’S POEM major theatrical productions.” WINS INTERNATIONAL HONOR Other highlights of Mann’s career include the roles of Rum Tum Tugger in “Cats” and Chauvelin in “The Scarlet A bilingual poem by Santiago collection “Objetos Desechables/ Pimpernel.” He also has taken the Broadway stage in “Lennon,” García-Castañón, professor of Disposable Objects.” “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” “Getting Away with Spanish and head of the Department He also recently traveled to Murder,” “A Christmas Carol,” “Rags,” “Barnum,” “Jerome of Modern Foreign Languages was Argentina for the release of his sixth Robbins’ Broadway” and “Jekyll and Hyde.” one of 20 finalists in an international poetry collection, “Equis (X),” during Mann’s wasn’t the only familiar face in Radio City Music poetry contest organized by La the Buenos Aires International Hall for the Tony Awards show. Former WCU student Ariana Pereza publishing house. The poem, Book Fair. In addition to his books DeBose, who made her Broadway debut this season in the titled “Una noche en compañía/ of poetry, his publications include nominated “Bring It On” and who currently can be seen in Night Company,” is from García- two novels as well as scholarly “Motown,” performed in musical numbers from both those Castañón’s forthcoming poetry publications. shows while Benny Enfinger ’08, who works as an actor in New York City, could be spotted in the audience. –By Bill Studenc MPA ’10

10 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University NEW DEANS NAMED ACADEMIC REVIEW PROCESS RESULTS IN FOR GRADUATE SCHOOL, DISCONTINUATION OF SEVERAL PROGRAMS COLLEGE OF HEALTH AND Chancellor David O. Belcher announced in July that the university will proceed with the HUMAN SCIENCES phased discontinuation of 10 of the 13 academic programs previously recommended by a campus task force for closure. Belcher also announced that programs in motion picture Two new faces – one familiar and one and television production, Spanish and Spanish education, which had been recommended fresh – joined the ranks of Western Carolina for discontinuation, will be retained, with program directors responsible for developing University’s Council of Deans over the plans to make improvements. summer. Douglas Robert Keskula, formerly Programs to be discontinued are a bachelor’s degree program in German; master’s associate dean for academic affairs in the degree programs in health and physical education, mathematics, mathematics education, College of Allied Health Sciences at Georgia music, music education and two master’s programs related to teaching English to speakers Regents University in Augusta, Ga., is now of other languages; and a minor in women’s studies. dean of the College of Health and Human In addition, several programs have agreed to voluntarily discontinue operations because Sciences, while Mimi Fenton, who had been of low enrollment or similarity to other programs available at WCU. Those programs serving as interim dean of the Graduate are undergraduate minors in American studies, Appalachian studies, broadcast sales, School and Research since July 2012, is broadcast telecommunications engineering technology, digital communications engineering that academic unit’s permanent leader. technology, earth sciences and multimedia; an undergraduate program in business designed Keskula had been in his position at as a second major for nonbusiness students; and master’s degree programs in chemistry Georgia Regents University, formerly the education and teaching music. Medical College of Georgia, since 2009. Belcher accepted all other recommendations as presented in May by the Academic He filled a vacancy created by the summer Program Prioritization Task Force, which spent the past year thoroughly examining 130 2012 departure of Linda Seestedt-Stanford, programs as part of an effort to give WCU leaders information to guide decisions regarding founding dean of the College of Health and the best allocation of limited resources and to ensure that the university remains focused Human Sciences, who left WCU to become on strong academic programs aligned to its mission. vice president of health sciences at Mary In addition to recommending some programs for discontinuation, the task force Baldwin College in Staunton, Va. In his recommended that the majority of programs be retained at current resource levels. Those role as associate dean at GRU, Keskula 96 programs are categorized as functioning at appropriate levels. The task force also had been responsible for the development assessed eight programs as “truly exceptional and high-performing,” and designated of new and expanded programs, student them for potential enhancement as additional resources become available. Those eight are and faculty recruitment, curricula revisions, bachelor’s degree programs in emergency medical care, environmental science, natural programmatic accreditation, distance resource conservation and management, nursing, parks and recreation management, learning and the integration of educational and recreational therapy; and master’s degree programs in communication sciences and technology in the classroom. disorders, and social work. Keskula garnered broad support among the The task force identified five programs as needing to develop action plans to address faculty and staff of the College of Health and weaknesses and take steps toward improvement: an undergraduate minor in residential Human Sciences during his interview, said environments; bachelor’s programs in middle grades education, and stage and screen; and James Zhang, dean of the Kimmel School of master’s programs in chemistry, and elementary and middle grades education. Construction Management and Technology, Programs slated for discontinuation will not close immediately. The university will who chaired the search committee. “We “teach out” students in those programs or help them transition into a similar program at had a pool of outstanding candidates for WCU or to another institution. Decisions to eliminate academic programs are subject to the dean’s position. Dr. Keskula’s academic the approval of the University of North Carolina system and the Southern Association of background, leadership experience and Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, WCU’s official regional accrediting agency. vision for the future of the college made –By Bill Studenc MPA ’10 him the best fit for the position,” Zhang said. Fenton, a professor of English, has been Detailed information can be found online at programprioritization.wcu.edu. leading WCU’s graduate programs and research activities since the retirement of the previous dean, Scott Higgins, who stepped down in June 2012 after 31 years of service to the university. A faculty member at WCU ART STUDENTS CREATE since 1992, Fenton previously served as MINIATURE GOLF COURSE associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences from 1997 until 1999 and as Five students constructed the Wacky Western director of graduate studies in English from Miniature Golf course when challenged with 1995 to 1997. using line, color, mass and other kinetic elements “Mimi has done a wonderful job in her to present risks and rewards as part of a three- year as interim dean and has implemented dimensional design honors project. significant initiatives to improve the efficiency Angel Butler, Jessica Grant, Katana Lemelin, of both the graduate studies side of the Elizabeth Mosher and Cole Johnson primarily operation and the research administration used found and secondhand materials to build the side,” said Mark Lord, acting provost at course. They placed works of art within the holes the time of the dean appointments. “She and incorporated challenges such as requiring a worked closely with program directors on golfer to send a ball through a Slinky. strategies to increase enrollment, initiated The course made its debut on campus in May and a summer research assistantship program will open again Saturday, Sept. 21, at the Jackson and restructured the Office of Research County Green Energy Park’s Youth Arts Festival Administration.” in Dillsboro. –By Bill Studenc MPA ’10

Fall 2013 | 11 CONFERENCE CALL MEMBERSHIP CHANGES IN THE RESILIENT SOCON ARE NOTHING NEW By STEVE WHITE ’67

Collegiate conferences are constantly looking for corporate The latest upheaval started late last fall with the College sponsors to enhance their financial spreadsheets. In light of Charleston announcing its move to the Colonial Athletic of recent developments, the Southern Conference might Association effective for the 2013-14 year. This spring, look into teaming with Timex Group USA, which produces Appalachian State and Georgia Southern announced their watches advertised to “take a licking and keep on ticking.” For jump to the Sun Belt Conference to join several schools from those predicting the Southern Conference’s demise following Alabama, Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas beginning in 2014- announcements by five member institutions in the past several 15. Davidson, looking for a “more prestigious basketball months that they would be leaving the league for so-called environment,” accepted an invitation in April from the Atlantic greener pastures, they might read the history of the nation’s 10. Finally, Elon, citing its heavy concentration of alumni and fifth-oldest NCAA Division I league to understand its ability students from the mid-Atlantic, announced in May its move to endure and evolve. to the CAA. The SoCon has survived numerous exoduses by multiple Heading into 2014-15, SoCon members will be current schools since its inception in 1921, including two that spawned schools (logos displayed in top banner) Western Carolina, a pair of the NCAA’s elite conferences. The first mass exit came Chattanooga, UNC-Greensboro, Furman, Samford, The Citadel 81 years ago, when 13 of the conference’s 23 schools (Alabama, and Wofford, who will be joined by three institutions that Georgia, LSU and Florida included) departed to form the accepted membership invitations in late May – East Tennessee Southeastern Conference. Twenty years later, seven members State, Mercer and Virginia Military Institute. All of the new (North Carolina, Duke, Clemson, South Carolina and N.C. members eventually will participate in football. State among them) left to start the Atlantic Coast Conference. VMI, a conference member from 1924 to 2003, returns after In the ’60s and ’70s, six more schools (West Virginia, Virginia nine years in the Big South Conference and will compete for Tech, East Carolina and Richmond included) exited before all SoCon championships in 2014-15. East Tennessee State the league settled in for more than three decades of relatively also returns after spending the past seven years in the Atlantic stable membership. Sun Conference. ETSU, a member of the SoCon from 1978 to

OUT WITH THE OLD: College of Charleston, Georgia Southern, Elon, Appalachian State and Davidson.

12 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University IN WITH THE NEW: (from left) Virginia Military Institute, East Tennessee State and Mercer.

2005, will restart its football program in 2015 and is expected have the right idea and East Tennessee has a new and stronger to play a conference schedule the following year. Its other 16 commitment to football and a new stadium.” sports will compete for conference championships in 2014-15. Davidson’s exit will mean a drop in the SoCon’s Mercer, a private school with an enrollment of 8,300, has been basketball status, he said, but Mercer beat Tennessee in a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference since 1978 and its the National Invitational Tournament last season, East men’s basketball and baseball teams advanced to postseason Tennessee State has a strong basketball tradition and VMI play in the past year. Based in Macon, Ga., the school will has been competitive recently. “And Wofford won back- resurrect its football program this fall after a 72-year hiatus to-back conference championships in 2010 and 2011,” he and will play in the non-scholarship Pioneer League for one said. “Baseball is losing four strong programs, but Samford season before beginning SoCon play in 2014. The Bears will won it all in 2012, we won the regular season this year, The field 18 men’s and women’s teams. Citadel is strong again and Mercer won the Atlantic Sun John Iamarino, Southern Conference commissioner, says this past season.” the league moved quickly from a defensive position earlier in Despite the changes, the SoCon remains true to its original the year to an offensive position, with interest in membership mission, said Johnson. “The major reason we have conferences from 12 to 18 schools and the eventual addition of the three is so student-athletes can compete in the same geographic new members. “Our membership is excited about rekindling region against schools with similar objectives and athletics old rivalries and establishing new ones. More importantly, philosophies and where families and friends can follow and we’ve been able to grow without extending our geographic enjoy their collegiate experience. It’s great to have most of your footprint to an extreme extent,” Iamarino said. “Our core road trips within a one-way three-to-four-hour framework. group of seven schools is committed to staying together and It’s not in the welfare of student-athletes, families, friends making the SoCon viable and more attractive financially, and the school’s supporters to spend the better part of two geographically and academically for current and future days traveling to and from games,” Johnson said. “Some of membership while creating more opportunities for our our sports initially might go through a rebuilding process in student-athletes and continuing our diversity and commitment terms of national numbers, but give the conference a couple to athletics integrity.” years and we’ll have a chance to be as strong as ever and a solid Many fans of those seven schools and the media that mid-major conference. I feel very good about the makeup of covers their athletics programs are skeptical about the SoCon the conference and where we are headed.” continuing to rank as a top Football Championship Subdivision Will the SoCon expansion continue? Probably, said Eaton. conference and its potential to remain among the NCAA’s top “But we are going to hit the pause button and see what happens basketball and baseball leagues. Athletics directors Randy with the middle level of the Football Bowl Subdivision, which Eaton at Western Carolina and Richard Johnson at Wofford seems to be in constant flux, and see what happens with some say they understand those concerns, but both foresee only a of the other schools that expressed interest in our conference. temporary loss of prestige for those sports. There were 12 to 18 schools initially interested, and many will The departure of perennial top 10 football programs Georgia still be there when the dust settles. We’ll take a long look over Southern and Appalachian State obviously will create a void, but the next couple years,” he said. other programs should step up quickly, Eaton said. “Wofford is The bottom line is that the Southern Conference, like a certain already there,” he said. “The Citadel and Samford are coming brand of watches, may have taken a licking, but it once again off good seasons. Furman has been there and, along with will keep on ticking. “From Western Carolina’s perspective, Chattanooga, is on the rise again. Hopefully, we are not that this a great opportunity to fill a void, seize the moment and far away from helping to fill the void, and Mercer appears to embrace the new Southern Conference,” Eaton said.

Fall 2013 | 13 CATAMOUNT ATHLETICS GOOD CHEER WCU SQUAD FINDS INSPIRATION IN A CHILD FIGHTING CANCER By TONY HOLT

At 18 months old, Kase Powell was diagnosed with a tumor in package that included signed posters, T-shirts, pompoms and, his brain – a large mass that was pressing against his pituitary from the baseball team, signed baseballs and a batting helmet. gland and stunting his growth. Days after he was diagnosed, (Cherry-Beck’s husband is assistant baseball coach Alan Beck surgery removed 95 percent of the tumor. It saved Kase’s life, but ’04 MAEd ’06.) The Powells reciprocated by sending bracelets nothing is likely to spare him from having regular treatments with Kase’s name on one side and the words “fight back” on and visits to the doctor. Based on classifications from the World the other, which the cheerleaders and baseball players wore Health Organization, Kase has a grade-two brain tumor, a for the remainder of their seasons. malignant mass that grows slowly but persistently. “Obviously, he’s our team’s hero,” said Cherry-Beck. “He’s Kase is now 3, and his story of endurance has spread across a fun-loving boy who’s fighting a hard battle. He’s so brave.” the country. The family – parents Ken and Amy Powell and twin In April, the team competed in the national Collegiate brother Knox – live in Palm Coast, Cheer and Dance Championship Fla. While they have no other family in Daytona Beach, Fla., where Ken in the area, they hear from supporters “OBVIOUSLY, HE’S OUR and Amy Powell brought Kase to the far and wide. competition and he met his admirers Towne & Reese, a jewelry line out of TEAM’S HERO. HE’S A face-to-face for the first time. “He Charlotte, offers a “Kase Necklace,” a FUN-LOVING BOY WHO’S took off hugging all of them,” his popular item. The necklace’s proceeds mother said. go toward the Kase Powell Fund. The FIGHTING A HARD BATTLE. The lobby was extremely noisy design of the necklace includes a and filled with people, mostly college gray stone that signifies the color of HE’S SO BRAVE.” students who have proven abilities to brain tumor awareness and the metal show spirit. But the loudest screams represents community strength. -KIM CHERRY-BECK ’01 that afternoon came from the Western Kim Cherry-Beck ’01, coach of the Carolina cheerleaders when they first Western Carolina University cheerleading team and a fan of the saw Kase. “I instantly got cold chills,” said WCU junior Logan jewelry line, learned the story behind the necklace and shared Farnsworth. “I started tearing up when I saw him.… He was it with her squad, who adopted the child as they prepared for really sweet. He gave us hugs and he gave us high-fives.... He their recent national competition. The team contributed to a was shy, but you could tell he was so happy to see us.” can tab drive for the Ronald McDonald House organized by the Reprinted in edited format with permission of The Daytona Beach Powells and sent the family a “Whee are cheering for you” care News-Journal.

Little Kase Powell has Kim Cherry-Beck ’01 (first row, second from right) and her squad cheering for him.

Photo by Steven Notaras/News Journal

14 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University who was joined on the first team by junior shortstop Aaron TITLE CASE Attaway, junior outfielder Julian Ridings and relief pitcher THREE CATAMOUNT TEAMS EARN Preston Hatcher ’13. Ridings and White also were selected The baseball Catamounts during the 2013 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft, celebrate one of their SPRING SPORTS CHAMPIONSHIPS Ridings in the 18th round by the Tampa Bay Rays and White 23 conference victories By BILL STUDENC MPA ’10 in the 33rd round by the Houston Astros. The Catamounts also (above); Alicia Bradshaw had second-team selections in junior catcher Adam Martin and helps put the women’s sophomore starting pitcher Jeremy Null – a two-time National track and field team in the The Catamount Department of Athletics added three Player of the Week selection – with reliever Jonathan Waszak championship spot (below). more Southern Conference titles to its trophy case over the named to the all-freshman team. spring as the men’s and women’s track and field teams both “Our No. 1 goal for next year is to get to found themselves at the top of the podium at the SoCon the regionals,” said Moranda, named SoCon championships in April and the baseball squad went on a Coach of the Year. “Our No. 1 goal this year torrid 11-game winning streak to claim its first regular season was to win a championship, and we did that. championship since 2007. The guys say they want to do everything it The Bat Cats swept Wofford in the home series finale, later takes next year to take that next step and taking two of three games on the road at Appalachian State get to the regionals. We’ll have a lot of guys to enter the conference tournament as the No. 1 seed. The back, and we have 22 players in summer Catamounts would go on to win its opening game, but stumbled leagues all across the country, from Cape in the next two games en route to an early tournament exit. Cod to California. They’ll be working hard Several upsets in other conference tournaments prevented to get better over the summer and then hit WCU from getting an at-large invitation to the NCAA baseball it hard when they return in the fall.” tournament field of 64, said Coach Bobby Moranda. Earlier in the spring, the women’s track “We were ranked No. 29 in the nation for the last two weeks and field team followed up its February of the regular season, but less than one-third of the No. 1 seeds indoor SoCon championship with the in the country won their respective tournaments, and there conference’s outdoor title. Not to be just weren’t enough at-large spots to go around,” Moranda said. outdone, the men’s squad also claimed a “I told the guys they still have a lot to be proud of. We ended conference crown. The teams are guided by Coach Danny the year nationally ranked in a lot of categories, including Williamson ’84 MAEd ’86, who was named conference Coach homeruns and doubles, and we were in the top 10 in the number of the Year for the 31st time and pushed his total number of of strike-outs thrown. We do have a lot of positives, including SoCon titles to 26, including both outdoor and indoor. rattling off 16 straight Southern Conference wins, which has Several Catamounts also won individual awards. Senior never been done here before.” Brandon Hairston ’13 was named Most Valuable Men’s Track Winners of 22 of their last 27 games, the Cats wound up Performer, while sophomore Alisha Bradshaw was named Most with a 39-20 overall record and 23-7 in the SoCon, the most Outstanding Women’s Field Performer and Tayla Carter was conference victories in program history. WCU landed seven named Women’s Freshman of the Year. Hairston and Carter players on the post-season All-SoCon team, including the were joined by junior Jocelyn Keen at the NCAA East Region media’s Player of the Year, senior third baseman Tyler White, Preliminaries in Greensboro.

Fall 2013 | 15 CATAMOUNT ATHLETICS

GRIDIRON GLORY DAYS FESTIVITIES WILL HONOR THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF WCU’S NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP APPEARANCE By DANIEL HOOKER ’01

The 2013 football season marks the 30-year anniversary of Western Carolina’s improbable run to the NCAA Division I-AA National Championship game. Plans are in the works to commemorate that accomplishment and honor the 1983 football team during the weekend of the final home game this fall – Saturday, Nov. 16 – against the Furman Paladins. Festivities include a 1983 team reunion for former players, administrators, athletic trainers, managers and other students affiliated with the season, followed by a pregame tailgate for reunion participants and their families. During the football game, members of the 1983 team will be honored as the Catamounts battle the Paladins, an opponent that has special significance: Western Carolina and Furman met twice during the Catamounts’ 1983 season, tying in Cullowhee while WCU pulled off a 14-7 victory on the road in the semifinal round of the playoffs to advance to the title game. Ten years ago, the 1983 football team was enshrined in the WCU Athletics Hall of Fame – coincidentally also on the same day the Catamounts faced Furman in Cullowhee. Eight individuals off the ’83 squad have been inducted, as well. Under the direction of legendary Head Football Coach Bob Waters, the 1983 Catamounts rode a string of 12 straight unbeaten weeks to make the Southern Conference’s first- ever appearance in the NCAA Division I-AA (now Football Championship Subdivision, or FCS) title game. The squad got off to a slow start, dropping its first two games before starting its run of 12 weeks without a loss to earn a post-season bid. The span included the 17-17 tie with Furman, which also made the playoffs. In the playoffs, the Catamounts upset three teams, including Furman in a rematch. WCU dropped the title game to nationally ranked Southern Illinois to end the season. The 11 victories compiled in 1983 remain the benchmark for WCU football, while the 15 games played by the Catamounts marked the most by any NCAA football team at all divisions in a single-season at the time. WCU finished ninth in the final NCAA national rankings, the highest for a Catamount squad all-time. Eleven Catamounts landed on the post-season All-SoCon squad, including eight first-team selections and three honorable mentions. Seven members of that team went on to earn All-America honors during their WCU careers: Eric Rasheed and Tiger Greene in 1983; Mark Buffamoyer ’86 MAEd ’88, Louis Cooper ’87 and Steve Kornegay ’87 in 1984; and Alonzo Carmichael and Clyde Simmons ’96 in 1985. Players Dean Biasucci ’88, Cooper, Greene and Simmons all went on to play in the NFL.

16 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University Photo by Chris Vleisides

PITCH PERFECT GREG HOLLAND BECOMES THE FIRST EX-CATAMOUNT TO PLAY IN BASEBALL’S ALL-STAR GAME

Former Western Carolina relief pitcher – and current Kansas The MLB All-Star selection is the second such honor of Greg Holland pitches his City Royals closer – Greg Holland became the first Catamount Holland’s professional career. He earned Texas League All- way into Major League’s baseball player ever selected for Major League Baseball’s All- Star honors in 2009 while playing in the Royals’ farm system All-Star Game. Star Game when he was tapped to replace Seattle Mariners with the Northwest Arkansas Naturals. Holland dominated starter Hisashi Iwakuma on the American League roster for opposing hitters in the first half of the 2013 MLB season, July’s “Midsummer Classic.” posting a 1.80 ERA with 22 saves over 35 innings. Going into A right-hander, Holland entered in the seventh inning of the All-Star break, the closer had struck out 44 percent of the the game, which was played July 16 at Citi Field in New York. batters he had faced this season to lead MLB and had struck He retired the first hitter he faced, forcing Arizona’s Paul out the side six times. Goldschmidt to hit a groundball to the third baseman, who Originally from Marion, Holland recorded 19 saves for threw Goldschmidt out at first. Holland then gave up a single Western Carolina from 2005-07, currently fifth best in to David Wright of the New York Mets before leaving the game. program history. He posted 10 career victories in his 82 career Holland was one of three Kansas City players on the appearances. He recorded 154 career strikeouts against 70 walks. American League squad, joining teammates Alex Gordon Holland was drafted by Kansas City in the 10th round of and Salvador Perez, who all played roles in the 3-0 victory over the 2007 MLB First-Year Player Draft on the heels of WCU’s the National League. “It was a dream come true,” Holland told runner-up finish in the NCAA Baseball Chapel Hill regional. MLB.com after the game. “We had 30 percent of the winning He went on to make his Major League debut on August 2, 2010, All-Star team out there in Royals colors, so that was pretty cool.” against the Oakland Athletics.

Fall 2013 | 17 BOSTON STRONG A former WCU track athlete describes the kindness of strangers in the wake of the marathon bombing

Morgan Turner ’12, a former member of the WCU cross country and track teams, was competing in the 2013 Boston Marathon on Patriots’ Day – Monday, April 15 – when she suddenly found herself immersed in a terror attack as two bombs exploded near the finish line, killing three people and injuring 264. A resident of Lincolnton, she recently completed her first year of teaching at S. Ray Lowder Elementary School. This is her account of what happened that day in Boston.

18 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University “They gave both me and the girl I was with a finishing medal and said we had earned it even though we did not get to cross the finish line. I could not care less if I had finished; I just wanted to find my family.”

A former WCU track athlete describes the kindness of strangers in the wake of the marathon bombing

My race was going well, but at mile 25 I decided I would walked with us to our bags, but nothing was going through. stop at a bathroom at the side of the course so I could sprint After we made it to the park, a lady named Savannah came the last mile in and enjoy that final mile. I came out of the down to help and texted my mom to tell her my location. bathroom and started running into the city, where tons of Then, volunteers who had run from the scene of the finish line spectators were gathered, cheering us on. I was so excited to found us. When they were running from the scene, they had be heading toward the 26-mile marker and finish line when accidently taken the finisher medals with them. They gave both I heard a noise like a cannon in the distance and saw a huge me and the girl I was with a finishing medal and said we had cloud of gray smoke coming up from the buildings ahead of earned it even though we did not get to cross the finish line. I us. I tried to rationalize it and thought that maybe they were could not care less if I had finished; I just wanted to find my shooting off cannons because it was Patriots’ Day and they family. We were still worried because there were reports of were celebrating runners coming in. I had a bad feeling it was more bombs in the area. more but continued running and then heard a much louder My mom’s call finally got through and she told the first lady boom and saw more smoke. I began to realize that this was from Boston where she was. The lady ran all the way to where not a cannon. my mom was and brought her back to where I was waiting. We The police started streaming into the road and told us to stop finally got in touch with my dad and he found his way to the running. Everyone was asking questions and trying to figure park. The Boston lady offered to drive us to the airport so that out what was going on. We could all hear loud sirens and saw we could catch our flight to Charlotte. We finally touched down police running toward the smoke. Runners then started to say and got home to Lincolnton around 10:30 that night, where my it was a bomb at the finish line. At this point I really started sister, uncle and grandparents were waiting to see us. I have to panic because I was positive my parents would be waiting never been so happy to see Lincolnton in my life. for me at the finish line. I cannot even begin to describe how thankful I am to those My phone had gone dead, so I asked other runners if I could ladies from Boston and the people of the city. Without them, borrow theirs. I started calling my mom and dad over and over I do not know how I would have ever found my parents in the again but no calls were going through. This made it even worse chaos or how we would have made it to the airport for our flight. because I thought they had been where the bomb was and that They even offered to let us stay at their homes for the night. their phones had been blown up. After 26 miles, your mind The people of Boston streamed out of their houses onto the and body are not working right; when extra panic is added, streets to help any runners who needed them. In a time when it turns bad quickly. I started crying and fell to the ground I was physically and extremely emotionally drained, these because my legs could not hold me up anymore. Another girl people stayed with me and went above and beyond to reunite around my age came and sat with me, and we both just sat me with my family. Those who did this horrible, evil act did it there awhile in shock. to the wrong city and the wrong group of people. Bostonians People who lived in the city were starting to come into the are a tough, proud, close-knit family – just like runners. We race route and offering phones to use. A Bostonian let me use will be back to run the Boston Marathon again, and it will be her phone, and I texted my mom and did not get a response. the best and largest Boston Marathon the world has ever seen. About 15 minutes later, the Bostonian came back to find me to I continue to pray for the people of Boston and families tell me my mom had texted back “yes” to tell me that they were of runners and spectators who were hurt and killed in this OK. I can’t explain the relief I felt at that time, but I still did horrible incident. The bombs went off and we stopped running not know where they were. The police then told us we had to around 3 p.m. I did not see my parents until after 5 p.m. These leave the area immediately. I wanted to go to the finish to look were the longest two hours of my life. Yet, I was fortunate, for my parents, but they would not allow us in that location. because my family and I came out of this situation safely. Many We decided to start walking to the family waiting area to see others cannot say the same. I could not put it better than the if our family members were there. Along the way we were both statement we received in an email from the Boston Athletic having a hard time walking and I was starting to get very bad Association, which read: “What was intended to be a day of stomach cramps so we had to stop for breaks. joy and celebration quickly became a day in which running a During one of those breaks, a sweet lady named Donna marathon was of little importance.” Although this is a terrible had come down to the street offering her phone to every way to be reminded, remember to always show your love and runner she saw so that they could contact their loved ones. thankfulness for God, family and friends. These will always She started calling my parents’ phone numbers while she be the true things of importance.

Fall 2013 | 19 TEST OF ENDURANCE A COUPLE STRIVES TO BUILD A LEADING EMERGENCY MEDICINE AND OUTDOOR TRAINING SCHOOL BY TERESA KILLIAN TATE

WILDERNESS RESCUE LL1.WCU.EDU ENDURANCE "IT CAN BE AN ALARMING FEELING TO BE DEEP IN THE BACKCOUNTRY WITH AN INJURY AND REALIZE YOU HAVE NO WAY TO COMMUNICATE WITH THE OUTSIDE WORLD." –JOSH WHITMORE

tanding in the snow on a forest road in Cullowhee, training, Landmark Learning courses range from intensive Justin “Padj” Padgett MS ’00 pulls make-up out of “Emergency Medical Technician” classes to safety, rescue and S his backpack to help set the scene of a mock emergency instructor certification courses associated with the American involving a trail runner and equestrians. “The horse kicks you Canoe Association, American Heart Association, Leave No in the head, sound good?” Padgett asks Ambrose Sleister III, Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics and the National Outdoor a student in a “Wilderness First Responder” class composed Leadership School Wilderness Medicine Institute. of therapeutic youth program counselors; rock climbing, In addition, the Padgetts have created unique courses, mountain biking, rafting, backpacking and mountaineering including a wilderness lifeguarding program and a community guides; and members of the U.S. Forest Service. medic class, and this spring launched the “Landmark Semester,” Wielding a cosmetics container of red, Padgett suggests a six-week course in which participants gain multiple Sleister, a student from Young Harris College and summer certifications and college credit through a partnership with raft guide, remove his rain jacket to avoid getting “blood” on WCU. Meanwhile, they are seeking accreditation from the U.S. it from his simulated head injury. Padgett instructs him to lie Department of Education. If successful, Landmark Learning partially in the bone-chilling creek along the road and to be will become the first training school of its kind in the nation mostly “out,” but report feeling pain. With Sleister and other to be accredited. “victims” ready and the rescuers on the way, Padgett slips out Maurice Phipps, professor of health, physical education of sight into the trees to meet up with co-instructor Kevin and recreation at WCU, said the couple provides vital Williams ’10 and observe. specialized wilderness training behind-the-scenes for the Having previously experienced hypothermia in real-life, outdoor recreation industry. “Most guests just put their lives Sleister braces for the dulling cold by closing his eyes and in instructors’ hands, whether it be rafting, climbing, zipping focusing on each breath. He lets himself sense some of the or other activity,” said Phipps. “They seldom think, ‘How much discomfort a patient in that situation might – an experience training has this instructor had?’ and ‘Who taught them?’” Padgett said often helps students develop empathy for those Josh Whitmore, WCU associate director of outdoor they are learning to help and gain a new perspective and programs, said Landmark Learning’s courses and custom deeper understanding of rescue techniques. As classmates training have helped staff at Base Camp Cullowhee, which check Sleister’s condition, monitor vital signs, cover him with offers outdoor adventures and experiences for students, become, a sleeping bag and move him to a backboard to be carried out, on average, more highly trained in wilderness medicine he shivers – and not because he was a good actor. and emergency response than their counterparts at other “I wanted it to be as real as possible so if they are ever faced universities. Whitmore said WCU is fortunate to have so with these things it doesn’t catch them off guard,” Sleister close and accessible a school that professionals across the said later. “These scenarios are aimed at keeping you from country attend. finding yourself in a situation, and, I guess, freezing up and “In the backcountry, extraction times could be many hours not knowing what to do. As a first responder, that’s one of the or even days,” he said. “Where an ambulance carries premade worst things you can do – someone looks to you for help, and splints for unstable broken limbs, you’ll need to manufacture all you can do is respond with ‘I don’t know.’” one out of the materials you are carrying or can find – sticks, Preparing students to confidently and competently take shoelaces, belts, tape. A lot of people think, ‘Oh, we’ll just call a action in emergencies and intense, life-threatening situations helicopter,’ but in most remote wilderness locations, cell phones comes second only to preparing them to anticipate and prevent don’t work, and dense vegetation make helicopter landing zones accidents from happening in the first place at Landmark few and far between. It can be an alarming feeling to be deep Learning, a Cullowhee-based school founded in 1996 by in the backcountry with an injury and realize you have no way Padgett and his wife, Mairi Padgett MAEd ’00. Committed to communicate with the outside world. Survival depends on WILDERNESS RESCUE to serving the outdoor community with education and the choices you make.” LL1.WCU.EDU

Fall 2013 | 21 Justin Padgett MS ’00 and Mairi Padgett MAEd ’00 founded Landmark Learning in 1996.

he “outdoors bug” bit both of the Padgetts young. Although Mairi’s family moved a lot and money was T tight, her parents committed to sending her to camp twice. Two extraordinary summers at Alford Lake Camp in Maine turned into 11. She came back year after year as a camper; a counselor; a leader of canoe trips, hikes and seven-week mountain treks; and head of the out-of-camp trips program. Camp director Sue McMullan said Mairi’s love of every part of the natural world, including a pet white rat she brought with her one summer, was infectious. “As Mairi grew, so did her leadership in our community – living with campers, helping to lead trips and sharing along the way the fascinating aspects of every path, every tree, every camping skill and every challenge that comes when camping in the out of doors,” said McMullan. Mairi realized just how attuned she was to nature when, five weeks into a seven-week trek in which swimming in your clothes was “doing laundry,” a perfumey smell overwhelmed her. She finally connected the fragrance to two freshly showered hikers. “I can feel a difference now because of my time outdoors with plastic or manmade smells,” said Mairi. “They don’t seem right.” For Justin, time outside was connected to family and, later, scouting. His dad, a Methodist minister, served churches in the Charlotte area and Western North Carolina, and Justin enjoyed accompanying him on outdoor youth outings. He also treasured hunting and fishing trips with his grandfather and their annual expeditions to The Pink Motel on the Oconaluftee River in Cherokee for little adventures. For him, spending time outside helped him navigate the rapid thoughts and ideas competing for attention in his mind. “Adventure, to me, is really about focus,” he said. “You can’t think about anything else but what is right in front of you.” Years later at Appalachian State University, in addition to majoring in social gerontology and pursuing a minor in psychology, he sought a minor in outdoor recreation, which at the time was called “leisure studies.” “I told my dad I was minoring in leisure studies, and he said, ‘You’re paying for that? It costs money?’” said Justin with a laugh. “During that time, the outdoor recreation industry was not necessarily recognized as professionally as it is now.” After Justin graduated from Appalachian and Mairi from Fitchburg State College in Massachusetts, the two found themselves in the same emergency medical technician course in New Hampshire in January 1994. At the time, Justin had shoulder-length hair and a lot of tie-dye in his wardrobe, and Mairi had a pierced nose and skateboards in her car. Justin coaxed her into taking the seat next to him, saying “I am a great study partner. I’ve got a 3.8 GPA from Appalachian State.

22 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University "AS GUIDES OURSELVES, WE KNEW THE SAME LANGUAGE." –MAIRI PADGETT '00

Maybe I can help you.” She accepted the seat but let him know the school as a platform for their graduate school projects. she could hold her own. “She said, ‘I don’t think I need your They led trips and taught outdoor skills as well as CPR and help, but maybe I can help you,’” he said. first aid. They later added swiftwater rescue and wilderness After the class they went to the Adirondacks together and and emergency medicine to the course offerings. Many of watched dogsled races before Mairi headed to Maine and their early clients were colleges that hired them to facilitate Justin to River’s Way Outdoor Adventure Center in Tennessee, programs and businesses for which the Padgetts hosted where he developed programming including caving, climbing, group initiatives and teambuilding as part of corporate ropes courses, rafting and canoeing activities to enable people training and development. with disabilities to take part. Now and then, Mairi and Justin What they quickly realized was that they did not want to exchanged post cards and letters but did not talk again for compete for clients with their friends and colleagues at other a year. That was when Justin, while eating burritos in the outdoor schools and companies. What they preferred was to parking lot of a 7-Eleven in Colorado, was advised by his facilitate and teach certification courses and classes needed by mountaineering partner that it was time to take action. “He those, who like them, had a passion for working in the outdoors. said, ‘Man, look, if you keep talking about this lady, it’s just They acquired additional training and qualifications needed to going to make me crazy. … We are mountaineering, and you teach instructor-level classes. As Jon Lowrance, a Landmark need to focus, and if you need to call her to get that complete, Learning alumnus-turned-instructor says, students with no you need to do that,’” said Justin. prior medical training would leave the school knowing how So, armed with quarters at a pay phone, Justin made four to handle injuries such as open fractures, head trauma or or five calls until he found someone who had Mairi’s phone seizures “at night, outside, in the rain, in the snow and with number. When he reached her, he could only talk for about no ability to call 911.” five minutes, but that was all he needed to make a plan to fly to The couple’s teaching styles proved complementary. “Mairi’s Portland, Maine, to see her. The couple began to spend more directness, pragmatism and compassion offer excellent balance and more time together while still leading trips and working to the humor, paramedic and wilderness experiences and at camps. They guided rafts on the Nantahala, the Pigeon, boundless energy that define Justin’s classroom presence,” the Ocoee and world-class sections of the New and Gauley said Shana Tarter, assistant director of the National Outdoor in West Virginia. To make ends meet between seasons, Mairi Leadership School Wilderness Medicine Institute. Meanwhile, worked as a veterinary technician and Justin as an EMT and, the Padgetts enjoyed the group dynamics and immersing later, as a paramedic. themselves in the subjects as well as hearing their students’ Not long after they were married in 1996, they started to adventure stories and aspirations. “As guides ourselves, we dream about owning and operating their own outdoor school. knew the same language,” said Mairi. “It became a very easy “When trip leading, we spent a lot of time teaching – that was a piece of our fabric.” passion we had,” said Justin. “As soon as a student has an ‘aha’ In 1998, they they put a lot of energy into designing and moment, you kick into high drive.” They decided to apply to creating a nine-day, multicertification course called the graduate school and chose Western Carolina University, which “Landmark Trip Leader School.” “We told ourselves, ‘We offered programs that matched both of their interests. Mairi are graduating from graduate school soon, and either this was drawn to educational administration and Justin to human is going to work and is worth our energy, or we have had a resources development. Plus, Justin’s dad, Frank Padgett, was hobby up to this point, and we need to use our degrees and get serving as a pastor at Cullowhee United Methodist Church on real jobs,’” said Justin. When students came from Tennessee, campus, and the area offered access to trails and whitewater. Georgia and North Carolina to participate, the Padgetts went The only sacrifice seemed to be less convenient access to rock all in. They streamlined Landmark’s courses, focusing on what climbing, so they sold their climbing gear. It was a sacrifice outdoor educators and trip leaders needed and eliminating they were willing to make. “We decided it was easier to swim services such as leading trips. “That was a turning point,” than fly when things go wrong,” said Justin. said Justin. “We went from being Landmark Adventures They founded Landmark Adventures and began offering to Landmark Learning.” guiding services and outdoor instruction based out of their basement apartment and “The Camel,” their 1992 four- INTERVIEW: JUSTIN'S 6TH GRADE RESCUE wheel drive truck. They chose the name to represent their commitment to incorporating the diverse landmarks and LL2.WCU.EDU touchstones students need to find their way, and they used

Fall 2013 | 23 Justin Padgett MS ’00 and Mairi Padgett MAEd ’00 transformed this 1920s cabin on Cane Creek into the Landmark Learning office. (Photo courtesy Landmark Learning)

INTERVIEW: NOTHING TO LOSE LL3.WCU.EDU

hile continuing to teach at venues from community and the office itself feature a forest view and the sound of the centers to trailheads to the Andes Mountains in rushing water of the creek, and the size of the campus has W Ecuador, the couple committed to building a base grown to 40 acres. for Landmark Learning in Western North Carolina. Without Landmark Learning also achieved steward forest any financial backers, without grant assistance and while classification. The couple adopted a 20-year plan for land trying to pay back student loans, they took out a high-interest management to improve forest habitat health. The steward loan with a one-year balloon payment in spring of 2000 to forest designation enabled the Padgetts as private landowners to purchase nearly 30 acres of land with a small cabin on Cane benefit from state forest service resources and knowledge. They Creek in Cullowhee. “It wasn’t secure, but back then it seemed were able to buy seedlings for as little as a nickel to help reforest to match our adrenaline junkiness, and it was the only way to the property, which they also have opened to WCU students move forward,” said Justin. in biology and environmental health for research projects. Although the couple loved their creekfront land, the house Meanwhile, skills learned at WCU, including research appraised at zero-dollar-value and turned out to need more methods, program design and statistics, proved crucial to work than a new coat of paint and siding. As they pulled developing curriculum for courses and creating new courses back its crumbling layers, they found newspapers dating back such as “Community Relief Medic,” which evolved from a class to 1927 in the walls and sofa cushions and clothing in the called “Mission Medic” that they developed while working and insulation. When they asked an acquaintance who came to kayaking in Ecuador. Years later, while talking with mission fix the initial, nonfunctional plumbing if he could help shore teams en route to Haiti at the Miami airport, Justin realized up the house and make it a little more square, he told them, an adapted version of the curriculum could benefit the many “You can’t polish a turd.” volunteers he met who he said had “golden hearts,” but limited, Thus began the Padgetts’ education in construction, permits if any, medical training or understanding of how to safely and and building codes as they rebuilt the house around itself. They efficiently serve in a disaster area. lived in their truck and bought supplies with credit cards. They Another important element of their course design is fun. spent days off on tasks ranging from rebuilding the original Final written exams are “lovingly referred to as a celebration walnut foundation to installing drywall. Helping them was of their knowledge,” according to an entry in the Landmark Matt Cole, a Penn State student who had taken one of their Learning blog. Hands-on, lifelike scenarios woven into the courses and was adamant about being their intern. They told curriculum include unexpected twists to leave students Cole they didn’t have a place for him to stay, but he wanted to questioning and thinking. “We believe when someone has come anyway. He slept in a hammock under an apple tree, and fun doing what they are doing, which is largely what happens his assistance with course logistics, construction and cabinetry, in scenarios, that memory lasts way longer than a PowerPoint, and other initiatives proved invaluable. a lecture or a comment from an instructor,” said Justin. “We were in a race,” said Mairi. “When it got cold, we needed Students have written Landmark Learning after their courses to be able to move indoors. Second, if we weren’t able to flip the to share examples of how they used what they learned – from whole thing within the year, we were going to be in a world of assisting at car accident scenes on the way home from their (financial) hurt.” A week before the first frost the building was classes to caring for patients with injuries from broken ankles sealed in. They were soon able to refinance and pay off their to seizures on remote trails and in the desert. But what the credit cards. Within a few years, the campus came to include Padgetts hope is that there won’t be many stories – that their a 1,200 square-foot classroom, bathrooms, showers, a kitchen, students learn enough about accidents to prevent as many as a pavilion, a gear room and a recycle station. There also now possible. “The best trip leader is almost like a neurotic parent,” is a bunkhouse and primitive camping area that transforms said Justin. “You have this premonition about this thing that during courses into “tent city.” The deck attached to the office could happen, and you do everything you can to rule it out.”

24 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University PERFORMANCE PEAK

nnual enrollment in Landmark Learning courses has grown in the past decade from several INTERVIEW: NOTHING TO LOSE A hundred to more than 2,000, and among them are LL3.WCU.EDU “Landmarkians” – students who return for more courses. The cadre of the school’s contract instructors, whom the Padgetts select based on their experience as trip leaders and as dynamic, effective educators, has grown to several dozen. Also on staff are a full-time instructor, logistics coordinator and student services coordinator. This spring, the school launched what Justin has dubbed the “mothership” of Landmark Learning – the Landmark Semester. In six weeks, students become EMTs and Leave No Trace master educators as well as proficient in wilderness medicine and comfortable with canoe instruction, swiftwater rescue and wilderness lifeguarding. What they take home are seven certifications and up to nine hours of college credit. “Many college programs are not able to provide some of the very specific professional development courses and certification programs we offer, and the Landmark Semester takes folks that have completed or just completed a program such as parks and recreation management and catapults them into the outdoor recreation industry,” said Justin. Also this spring, Landmark Learning hosted a site visit related to its quest to become accredited from the Accrediting Council for Continuing Education and Training. The Padgetts want to be able to transfer college credit directly, thus saving students from the expense of paying Landmark Learning tuition in addition to college tuition for each course. They also want to make sure their practices are as robust as they can be. To prepare, Mairi spent a Saturday in front of a computer

"THEY EMPOWER PARTICIPANTS TO TEACH OTHERS, TRAIN THE WORLD AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE." –BEN LAWHON

Landmark Learning students practice carrying a patient out of the woods during a mock rescue exercise. Fall 2013 | 25 "LANDMARK IS GETTING A REPUTATION AS A LEADER IN THE SOUTHEAST FOR OUTDOOR INSTRUCTORS, WHATEVER THEIR MODE IS." –DEB SWEENEY WHITMORE

reviewing information that, in the end, left her grateful for her experience at WCU. “I felt like saying, ‘Thank you, Kevin Pennington. I just used my entire graduate degree in 10 hours,’” she said, referring to WCU’s former director of higher education programs at WCU. Up next for Landmark may be more construction in Cullowhee. Thirty-five percent of courses are taught on site, and the Padgetts say students would benefit from an updated and larger classroom and would enjoy better bunkhouse facilities. They are even considering replacing the office and classroom they worked so hard to build. “Part of what has helped us is the ability to change on a dime,” said Justin. “When we realize we need to change a policy or a practice, we don’t have to wait for a committee meeting or months for the ideas to be discussed. SPINAL STABILIZATION When we say, ‘It’s crazy, we should do it,’ we do it.” LL4.WCU.EDU What has emerged are strong affiliations, partnerships and relationships, and a reputation of quality. Michael Belcher ’09 MHS ’12, an emergency medical science instructor at Southwestern Community College, said he has not only worked with Justin in the field as a paramedic but also with students HYPOTHERMIA RESCUE who decide to further their educations at SCC after taking a LL5.WCU.EDU Landmark Learning course. “Landmark Learning is setting the standard for EMS education not only locally, but nationwide,” said Belcher. Deb Sweeney Whitmore, a Landmarkian herself and director of program operations at the North Carolina Outward Bound School, said the Padgetts offer high quality from classroom instruction to customer service. Phone calls to Landmark Learning often ring only once before they are answered, said Whitmore, who is married to Josh Whitmore from WCU. “Our staff would say hands down they have a great experience with Landmark, and Landmark is getting a reputation as a leader in the Southeast for outdoor instructors, whatever their mode is,” she said. Ben Lawhon, education director for the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics national organization and a past Landmark Learning instructor, pointed out that Landmark is one of only seven organizations in the United States approved to VERTICAL PIN RESCUE offer the highest level of the Leave No Trace trainings available LL6.WCU.EDU – the “Master Educator” course. “Our organization looks to bring only the most qualified organizations on to offer our course,” said Lawhon. “The quality of Landmark is reflected in what Justin and Mairi have instilled as their standard, and it’s a high standard. They integrate Leave No Trace into everything they do, and they require their instructors to do the same. They really walk the talk in terms of their commitment to stewardship, and through their programming they are empowering their participants to teach others, train the world and make a difference.” AND SERVE TO PROTECT

he Padgetts recognize that while they may not yield Lowrance. After training as a wilderness first responder, the same kind of financial rewards as some of their he was an EMT and then a nurse in addition to continuing T classmates working in more traditional corporate his outdoor pursuits and becoming a Landmark Learning settings, they believe their work is important and extends to instructor. He worked in critical care and is now in graduate everyone their students go on to serve. “We love our students, school at WCU studying to become a certified registered the subject matter and the skills we are teaching,” Justin said. nurse anesthetist. “Sometimes, to our financial detriment, our decision-making For the Padgetts, service ranges from tracking a possible is about relationships and not bottom lines.” threat to the Jondachi River in Ecuador to attending community Through their work, they also want to advance the revitalization meetings and working in a community garden profession and protect the environment. They are involved in Cullowhee, and they participate as a family with their with industry organizations, present at conferences and join 8-year-old daughter, Ellie, and 5-year-old son, Alex. They have efforts to improve national standards in the industry in such watched the outdoors come alive for their children as they ways as helping co-author a wilderness medicine field guide. hike, tube, paddle and ride scooters together. What it’s really In 2012, the Appalachian Center for Wilderness Medicine all about for them – what they do with Landmark Learning presented Justin with the Mountain Laurel Award, which and what they do in service – is encouraging people to have honors an individual who has made extraordinary, lasting the skills and knowledge to be able to enjoy the outdoors and and substantial contributions to wilderness medicine in the protect it, said Mairi. Southern Appalachians. Over the years, they have seen an increasing amount of use In addition, how they teach and how they live are connected and traffic at the rivers and trails where they teach and visit, to their ethic of helping others, said Tarter from the National and they are glad. “If you don’t create a love for the resource, Outdoor Leadership School Wilderness Medicine Institute. you can’t create a voice for that resource to protect it,” said “From the ‘Community Relief Medic’ program, to their Mairi. “We encourage people to go out and play, but to play work with underserved communities in Ecuador, to their appropriately with risk management and risk prevention in contributions in the local community, they role model service,” mind so these resources can be enjoyed for generations to she said. “I believe students who engage with Landmark come come. I wish for all kids that they have a chance to go outside, away with a new perspective on how to help.” climb a mountain or go down a river.” For some, the perspective changes everything. Jon Lowrance came to Landmark Learning as a college student studying outdoor education, and conversations with the Padgetts on ENJOY VIDEOS AND SLIDESHOWS IN THE the porch and while paddling down WNC creeks pointed ENHANCED ONLINE VERSION OF THIS STORY him in a new direction. “They lit a spark in me to pursue a career in health care and experiential education,” said AT LANDMARK.WCU.EDU.

Fall 2013 | 27 WCU is making huge strides in emergency notification

By RANDALL HOLCOMBE

Redundancy is not usually considered a good thing, The idea is to get the message out to the campus but when it comes to emergency notification, the community by several methods, in case an individual more methods available for sending out an alert to system does not work as it should, and to improve the the public, the better, even if an individual receives potential for reaching individuals no matter where they the same message several times, says Tammi Hudson, are or what they are doing. Toward those goals, over Western Carolina’s emergency manager. When a the past year, Hudson has been overseeing massive situation occurs at WCU that presents a danger to the leaps in the university’s ability to communicate with its public, all those involved in public safety on campus population of students, faculty, staff and visitors during want to have at their disposal a toolbox that contains emergency situations, with the greatest improvement numerous types of notification systems, Hudson said. in that capability scheduled to happen this fall.

28 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University The 2007 mass shooting at Virginia Tech that resulted Communications Center in an hour-and-a-half, and the single in the deaths of 33 people played out live on television and interface for public notification will be a big advantage during computer screens all across the country to an unprecedented tense situations, he said. degree, said Hudson, who was then working as physical In addition to providing “one button” use for all the campus security and emergency operations center manager at the notification systems, the Alertus system adds a new and Indianapolis International Airport. “Because it was efficient notification tool to WCU’s toolbox, Tammi on a college campus and young people were Hudson said. The system is being provided to involved, I think it deeply affected people,” the university free of charge through an she said. Virginia Tech was a wake-up call Alertus grant program, with WCU having for colleges and universities across the to provide only hardware space. WCU’s country “to take notice and realize that Division of Information Technology bad things can happen on a college began the process of remotely pushing campus,” she said. One of the issues out Alertus software to faculty, staff and highlighted by the tragedy was the classroom computers during the spring, need for efficient ways to communicate and tests of the system have been going with a campus community during an on through the spring and summer. The emergency situation. Another outcome software communicates with a server of the Virginia Tech shooting was a located in WCU’s Forsyth Building, and directive from University of North Carolina when an alert is sent out, it will take the General Administration that each UNC form of a full-screen message that will display campus should have an individual working as on the computer user’s monitor. Students’ personal emergency manager, and Hudson became WCU’s computers may be added to the Alertus system in the first emergency manager in March 2009, taking on duties future, Tammi Hudson said. that had been shared by several individuals and offices Neil Calvert, support analyst in WCU’s IT division, and his on campus. colleagues in IT have played an integral role in Alertus system Since Hudson’s arrival at WCU, several situations have implementation, said Hudson, calling the project “a great warranted alerting the campus community through its example of collaboration and teamwork.” Calvert reported that emergency notification systems. One that stands out was as of mid-June more than 2,100 faculty, staff and classroom a robbery on a Wednesday in December 2011 at the State instructor computers had received the new software, and Employees Credit Union, located across N.C. Highway 107 the process will be continuous to install the software as new from the east campus in Cullowhee. The search for the armed computers are booted up on campus. A big test of the system, suspect resulted in WCU police issuing a “timely warning” for involving faculty and staff computers, was planned for Aug. the campus a few minutes after confirmation of the robbery, and 2. Calvert said he and his IT colleagues have been pleased to then a campuswide emergency notification with a “shelter-in- assist in implementing the alert system. “IT staff members place” advisory that was in effect for just more than two hours work on projects that are important to WCU all the time, but as law enforcement authorities searched for the suspect. The this one is especially significant,” he said. suspect was eventually arrested off campus, but investigators Yet another upgrade in WCU’s emergency notification efforts determined that he had been on campus, unarmed, before the occurred in early summer, when university officials contracted arrest took place. During that incident, a variety of emergency with RAVE Mobile Safety to provide texting, voice call and notification systems were used to communicate with the email service during emergencies. The PIER/Cat Tracker campus community, including WCU email; the PIER/Cat system will be retained for a time to provide a backup website Tracker system that sends out text messages, voice calls and in emergency situations, Tammi Hudson said. RAVE also email to registered individuals; the campus siren system; and will interface with Alertus and the rest of WCU’s emergency the WCU home page and emergency information page on the notification systems. Internet. The notification systems worked well overall, Hudson The improvements being made with WCU’s emergency said, but sending out each message required the involvement notification systems is not just a passing fancy, said Robert of seven individuals across campus. Edwards ’77, vice chancellor for administration and finance. That will change this fall, Hudson said, as the new Alertus Maintenance and improvement in the systems is called for desktop notification system goes online, providing a single in the university’s strategic plan. “Emergency preparedness interface that will make it possible for one individual to and safety of our students, faculty, staff and visitors is at the simultaneously send out an emergency message through all forefront of our mission,” Edwards said. of WCU’s campus notification systems in a few easy steps. Tammi Hudson said improvements being made on campus Ernie Hudson, WCU police chief, calls the upgrade “a real in the area of emergency notification would not have happened coup” that will allow public safety telecommunicators (formerly without the ongoing support of Edwards, Chancellor David known as “dispatchers”) to focus more of their attention on the O. Belcher and the university’s executive council. Other ideas response during emergency situations. The telecommunicators being discussed for improving the systems include at WCU’s Emergency Communications Center, supervised by disseminating messages through digital signage and campus Tammi Hudson, are at the focal point during those instances, cable television, she said. “Managing our notification systems communicating with the public, police officers and other is a constant process of evaluation and training, and also emergency responders, and often are the individuals who looking at new technologies to find those that are a good fit send out the first alerts to campus, Ernie Hudson said. During for our campus. We have a very safe campus community and the December 2011 shelter-in-place situation, more than 200 environment, but bad things can happen in great places. You telephone calls from the public were received at the Emergency have to be prepared,” she said. BINDING FORCE FROM THE TOWNHOUSE TO THE WOODLAND STAGE AND THE OLD MOUNTAIN JUG, TRADITIONS KEEP US HAPPILY CONNECTED TO OUR BELOVED UNIVERSITY BY JILL INGRAM MA ’08

Traditions are born and traditions die, and “They help us connect to something larger and while they survive, traditions can take on to each other. For a university, they help us powerful lives of their own. With their regular to recall pleasant memories and reaffirm our occurrence and specific requirements for sense of place.” Here, we survey some of the conduct, “traditions affirm our sense of identity traditions in the university’s long history in an and belonging,” said Richard Starnes ’92 effort to understand a little bit better the ties MA ’94, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. so many alumni have to this very special place. BINDING FORCE

THE TOWNHOUSE For generations of students, two simple words – “The Townhouse” – are enough to evoke waves of nostalgia and affection. Though it changed hands a number of times during its history, from the late 1940s to the mid-1980s, the establishment was a popular gathering spot for students. Betty Allen ’68, former president of the WCU Alumni Association, recalled time spent at her “favorite hangout” as among her fondest WCU memories. Like many others, Allen “checked in before or after most classes, athletic events and meetings,” she said. It was small and lacked polish, but in an era when many students didn’t have cars, the Townhouse was one of only a handful of nearby alternatives to eating in the cafeteria, and its booths, menu and jukebox were a siren call to the masses. “That was like taking another course, even though you didn’t get credit for it,” said Steve White ’67. “You learned so much about what was going on at the university – you picked that up at the Townhouse. It was the meeting place and social place on campus.” Gurney Chambers ’61 recalled that jukebox “going all the time.” Winfred Ashe ’54 MAEd ’59 and his wife, Ellen Ward Ashe, owned the Townhouse from 1957-1973, and lived in an apartment above the restaurant the entire time. While the formal hours were 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., most mornings customers were piling in at half-past six (perhaps, like White, for a fried- pie breakfast) and “it was sometimes almost 1 a.m. before we got closed down,” Winfred Ashe said. The menu certainly CLASS PHOTO contributed to the restaurant’s popularity. Hot dogs were 15 While printed yearbooks faded out about a decade ago, this fall will mark the cents, cheeseburgers a quarter and coffee, Coke and ice cream fourth year that the freshman class has congregated on the football field after 5 cents apiece. But it was more than that. “A lot of the students convocation for a class photo. While the photo isn’t mandatory, the promise of a hadn’t been away from home before, and they realized they new WCU T-shirt draws new students to the field, said Phil Cauley ’83 MS ’90, could come there and have friendship and someone who director of student recruitment and transitions. A team from the Pride of the cared about them,” said Ellen Ashe. Some students used the Mountains marching band outlines the corresponding class year on the field, restaurant as a home base to such an extent that they kept and personnel from student affairs direct the approximately 1,500 newcomers their textbooks there, Winfred Ashe said. “They would bring – in their new T-shirts, of course – to their places. “It’s a huge production,” said their books at the beginning of the quarter, and at the end of Ashley T. Evans, the university photographer who snaps the picture. The photo the quarter they’d gather them up again.” finds a place online, and admissions staffers use it in promotional materials.

Fall 2013 | 31 SCOTT BEACH In the 1970s and ’80s, the grassy, west-facing strip of lawn at Scott Hall was the place to be on hot, sunny afternoons. Limbo and “sexy legs” contests kept the crowds entertained; indeed “Scott Beach,” as it was affectionately known, was so popular that the student radio station would set up there for live remotes and some enterprising soul printed “Scott Beach Lifeguard” shirts. A Scott Beach photo on a Facebook page for WCU alums of the 1980s has drawn numerous comments. “Those were the days!” wrote Ricky Deese ’78 MIT ’80. “Used to love hanging out there, skipping class, cold beverage in hand!” Those days mark a different time in Cullowhee, before increased technology and the four-lane, when the campus had a more remote quality, said Bill Clarke ’78 ME ’80, director of WCU’s Ramsey Regional Activity Center. “People were creative about making their own FRESHMAN RUN fun,” said Clarke, who would admit only to being in the general vicinity of Scott Beach and flat-out denied ever participating in the sexy legs contest. Folks in the stands at the first home football game of the season the past two years have witnessed the birth of a new tradition at WCU, the Freshman Run, when hundreds of the newest members of campus sprint with Chancellor David Belcher and the president of the Student Government Association onto the field just prior to play. Belcher won’t take credit for conceiving the idea, but he immediately warmed to it. “It seemed like such a great idea – a way to get the new freshmen engaged in the football experience,” he said. “It’s also impressive to people in the stands. When you see that many students coming at you, you get a sense of just how many students came to the university.” The logistics of the run – which marks fall 2013 as its third year – are no small thing, said Phil Cauley ’83 MS ’90, director of student recruitment and transitions. Timing is everything, as the game is scheduled to start just minutes after the freshmen bound onto the field, and collecting stray students and ushering them into the stands is key. While the event is exciting, said Cauley, who watches from the safety of the stands, he admits to worrying about potential headlines the next day: “Chancellor trampled by freshmen.” Not to fear. Belcher, who calls the event “a blast,” addresses the students in the Ramsey Center before the run. “I get up and I say, ‘There are just a few rules here. Don’t trample the chancellor. It will not really enhance your likelihood of success here.’”

32 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University TUCKASEIGEE RIVER For decades, students have made use of the nearby Tuckaseigee River for recreation, riding on inner tubes in the waterway’s gentler stretches and tackling its whitewater rapids by kayak or raft. Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity once hosted a popular annual raft race on the river, and countless students have floated down the Tuck on tubes in warm weather months. Even now, Daniel Hooker ’01, assistant athletic director for media relations, will break away occasionally to relive those float trips of his undergrad days. “Finding an escape from the rigors of school work then – and real-life work today – is important,” Hooker said. “I fondly remember trips to the river at East LaPorte and the old rope swing down North River Road – and still to this day float past that bend in the Tuck where it once was. One would be hard pressed to find a more relaxing way to spend a hot summer’s day here in the mountains than on the Tuckaseigee.” On those current-day tubing trips, Hooker is sometimes joined by colleagues including Haywood Community College instructor Greg McLamb ’00, the Catamounts Sports Networks’ roving sidelines reporter. “I fell in love with the Tuck my sophomore year when I lived at Carolina Village. The river was across the street and I could not wait for warm weather to go tube,” said McLamb. “Now, every time I get in the river, it takes me back to my college days and summer school at WCU.” Activity on the river took a more ecological turn in 1985 when WCU began sponsoring the annual Tuckaseigee River Cleanup. “The river was a dumping ground, and we used it all the time for recreation,” said Tim Jacobs ’71 MAEd ’75 MA ’99, former director of A.K. Hinds University Center, who helped convince about 50 volunteers to pick up trash along the riverbanks 29 years ago. “We didn’t make it a third of the way down the river before we were out of trash bags. This made us realize that we needed the event to be even bigger.” Mission accomplished. Today, the event attracts more than 600 volunteers annually, and it has grown to become what Mark Singleton of American Whitewater calls “the largest single-day river cleanup project in the nation.”

ROCK WALL As solid and permanent as rock walls tend to be, the specifics of a certain rock wall at WCU are a bit tricky to nail down. After digging around a bit (and hitting our own rock wall, so to speak), staffers at The Magazine of Western Carolina University have determined that, on a campus filled with rock walls, the exact location of said “rock wall” likely changed with the times. At any rate, the connotations are the same: male students would position themselves at particular spots around campus and hoot and holler at female coeds as they passed. Or as WCU archivist George Frizzell ’77 MA ’81 so delicately phrases it, “It had connotations about dating.” Indeed, a 1974 story in the student newspaper refers to a “Horney Wall” that likely is the one shown here. Gurney Chambers ’61 and Steve White ’67 recall students gathering along the rock wall close to the entrance of the Old Student Union. After dinner at the nearby Brown Cafeteria was “the best opportunity of the day to observe each other,” Chambers said. “As the girls would walk into the student union for supplies or a Coke, they’d hear all kinds of wolf whistles.” (While he admits to admiring the girls, Chambers is adamant he did no whistling.) No word on how the women felt about this. For his part, Chambers doesn’t ever recall seeing a female perched on the wall. According to White, “A lot of the young ladies would try to avoid it, but they couldn’t.”

Fall 2013 | 33 SENIOR TOAST Heading into its third year, the Senior Toast is a growing tradition held at the Chancellor’s Residence for graduating students who have made a small financial contribution to WCU (an invite requires a gift equivalent to graduation year, such as $20.13, for example). The toast, made with commemorative glasses filled with sparkling cider, is a way for students to express how much the university means to them. “Western has presented me with so many amazing opportunities. Its faculty and environment have allowed me to succeed and realize my dreams,” said Tess Branon ’13, a recent toast participant. “This is only the first of several gifts I hope to give back to this wonderful institution.” While she initiated the toast as a means of fostering annual giving among new alumni, it’s become more than that, said Natalie Clark of WCU’s Office of Development. “Response has been great,” she said. “What’s really nice about it is that it’s held at the chancellor’s house, because Susan and David are just so welcoming. It’s a nice atmosphere – parents and friends of the students are invited, and everyone feels like they are part of the WCU family.”

WOODLAND STAGE Many a graduate speaks tenderly of the Woodland Stage, a sloped, grassy expanse adjacent to Madison Hall. Fashioned in 1926, apparently with dirt excavated from a nearby construction project, the outdoor amphitheater for many years was the spot for formal events from the annual May Day Festival – May Queen Dottie Sherrill ’58 ’MAEd ’70 EdS ’84 and her court shown here – to plays (what better setting for “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”?) and even commencement. “Just to see a graduating class march on this stage and, amid laughter and joy, receive their diplomas is enough to make even a small child love better God’s great outdoors,” gushed a 1930 article from the student newspaper. The Woodland Stage also was the place for fun of the less formal and even spontaneous nature. Gurney Chambers ’61 recalls watermelon dished out there every July 4 for students on campus in the summer, and Thomas Lyndon Smith ’61 wrote in to report that when it snowed, “we slid down it on cafeteria trays.”

34 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University MUD VOLLEYBALL It was dirty, unsophisticated and a lot of fun. Sigma Phi Epsilon (now inactive) launched an annual mud volleyball tournament in the late 1980s, held on a stretch of land across N.C. Highway 107 from the Ramsey Center. Flooding a pit a few days prior to the weekend-long event (rumor has it the Cullowhee Volunteer Fire Department provided that service), students would form teams and compete for first in all its muddy glory, with proceeds benefiting nonprofits (including, in 1990, the CVFD). Athletes, friends, Greek organizations, groups from residence halls – “It was something that everybody did,” said Brenda Gallagher Holcombe ’94, now director of university scholarships. Sadly, this tradition died in the mid- 1990s. One contingent probably happy to see it go? The housekeeping staff. “The residence halls would be trashed,” said Holcombe, at the time a resident assistant in Helder Residence Hall. “There was mud everywhere – in the hallways, shower stalls, stairwells.” She reported once seeing a member of the housekeeping staff attach a hose outside Helder so players could spray themselves off before they came in.

DANCES “They used to have dances at the drop of a hat,” notes George Frizzell ’77 MA ’81, who wrote about forgotten campus events in a 2011 article in the Hunter Library newsletter. A formal dance always accompanied May Day events, held until the early 1970s, with other dances mentioned in the yearbooks and newspapers from the late ’40s through the ’50s, including dances for Halloween, the New Year and Valentine’s Day. Such dances typically observed a strict protocol, including a dress code and chaperones, Frizzell said. An exception was Sadie Hawkins Day, a particularly popular event perhaps because it encouraged students to reverse the prevailing social norms of the day concerning dating. Based on the popular comic strip “Li’l Abner,” the fall event (sponsored by the campus Women’s Athletic Association) “encouraged participating women to ‘catch’ a dance partner for the evening’s event in a freewheeling afternoon footrace,” according to Frizzell. Participants often attended the dance in costume as their favorite comic strip characters. Indeed as time passed, the formality of the early dances faded; a 1959 Beatnik Ball encouraged students to “abandon the shrouds of society for the mysticism of Beatland.” Nightly dancing remained popular on campus even into the early 1970s, said Steve White ’67. Students regularly congregated at the Old Student Union for a couple hours after dinner to socialize and listen to the jukebox. “That’s where I learned to dance,” he said.

Fall 2013 | 35 OLD MOUNTAIN JUG Called “the best football rivalry you’ve never heard of” by Sports Illustrated in the 1980s, the Appalachian State-WCU Battle for the Old Mountain Jug is a tradition with legs, and one that is near and dear to Steve White ’67. In the early 1970s, when White was in the WCU sports information post, he and his counterpart at ASU wanted to create a trophy for the mountain rivalry. They settled on a moonshine jug – “a takeoff on the Hatfields and McCoys” – that a Boone man crafted. App State went home with the jug the first year, in 1976, with the Catamounts bringing it home the second. The jug seesawed through the rest of the decade and into the early ’80s, but it had been sitting in its trophy case in Boone for more than a dozen years when Brad Hoover ’00 (pictured here) led the Catamounts to victory in 1998. The last time WCU possessed the jug was in 2004. “App fans will tell you that it really doesn’t matter to them until they lose it, and then it’s the most important thing on the planet. It definitely brings something to the rivalry,” said David Jackson, Appalachian State’s associate athletics director for public affairs. What will become of the Old Mountain Jug after the Mountaineers hightail it out of the Southern Conference? That all depends on what happens Nov. 23 when the Catamounts travel to Boone for the final game of the regular season. Whoever wins it this year will almost certainly lock up the jug long-term. White, for one, is feeling pretty confident. “I think we’re going to be extremely motivated this year,” he said.

VICTORY BELL “Ring out the false, ring in the true,” bears the inscription on the Victory Bell, which originally hung in Old Madison Hall (torn down in 1938) and was used to mark class periods. Though its formal role became marking athletic victories, it hung near the Old Student Union when Steve White ’67 was an undergraduate, and he recalls students hijacking it to mark pretty much anything they considered significant. “Say, if it was the last day of class, or the first day of class, or holiday break – things like that,” White said. Now strung safely atop the Alumni Tower, the unauthorized ringing is less frequent. Since 2008, a replica bell has been rolled into Whitmire Stadium to announce the football team’s arrival. A tradition no one seemed to mind crossing off the list? Beanies (like the one shown here), which were introduced in 1957 to strengthen school spirit and died out about a decade later. The rules said freshmen could take off the headwear if the Catamounts won the Homecoming game; otherwise they stayed on until winter break.

36 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University HOMECOMING What better example of collegiate tradition than Homecoming, with a variety of activities designed to appeal both to current students as well as to alumni sometimes old enough to be the parent, grandparent, perhaps even great-grandparent, of those current Catamounts? The university’s Homecoming traditions trace their roots to 1933 and the re-establishment of the football program, which had been suspended for several years because of a drop in men’s enrollment in the late 1920s, as Curtis Wood and Tyler Blethen explain in their history of WCU, “A Mountain Heritage.” Prior to the rebirth of football, alumni had returned to campus for events surrounding commencement. Over the years, Homecoming evolved to include a barbecue dinner prepared by faculty and staff for campus visitors (an activity still carried on today by members of the Division of Student Affairs), the election of a Homecoming Court, and the presentation of awards to notable alumni. In addition to the standard crowning of a Homecoming queen, the university in 1995 added the naming of a Homecoming king to the mix of activities and revived the traditions of a student banner competition and bonfire. The 1999 tragic Texas A&M bonfire accident, in which 12 people were killed and 27 injured, prompted universities across the country, including WCU, to extinguish campus bonfires. (Similarly, safety concerns after a fireworks explosion on July 4, 2009, at the Ocracoke campus of the N.C. Center for the Advancement of Teaching that claimed five lives resulted in the discontinuation of pyrotechnic displays at WCU’s Homecoming). In 1996, organizers returned the annual Homecoming parade to downtown Sylva for the first time in some 40 years and added a new community service element to the array of activities. “Homecoming is not all fun and games” Joab Cotton IV ’04, then-president of the Interfraternity Council, said in 2003. “We want to take the opportunity to give something back to the community that serves as our home away from home.” In recognition of the unique traditions of African-American students and alumni, the university’s Homecoming events have grown to include “Stompfest,” featuring step-show dances performed by members of African-American fraternities and sororities, and a concert of gospel music by the Inspirational Choir. In 2012, WCU held its first all-sports reunion for former athletes, coaches, trainers and managers, with the second annual reunion scheduled for Homecoming 2013.

SAVE THE DATE OCTOBER 24-27 HOMECOMING WEEKEND For a detailed schedule of events, see page 2. HOMECOMING.WCU.EDU | 877.440.9990

Fall 2013 | 37 THE BARE FACTS BY RANDALL HOLCOMBE

“OUR MOMENT IN THE SUN WAS BRIEF, BUT GLORIOUS! ”

RICH HALL BOB SABIN DWIGHT SPARKS Years before he became an Emmy-winning comedian, From then on, breaking the record was Hall’s obsession, with appearances on “Saturday Night Live” and David Sparks said, but before alerting the student body about Letterman’s show, Rich Hall was a quirky Western the record streak attempt, the duo concocted a plan for a Carolina student who was spotted one day in the winter “warm-up” streak involving them and a third student whose of 1974 exhorting his fellow students to gather in their identity is unavailable. Their route would be across the lawn birthday suits for an attempt to establish a new national of A.K. Hinds University Center, and the streak would be collegiate streaking record. “Rich stood on the overhang timed to take place just before the start of a concert in the (Opposite page) Western of Leatherwood (Residence Hall) with a megaphone, nearby Reid Gymnasium. They planned to leap out of a car Carolinian photographer calling out to students as they were coming out of Dodson near the gymnasium, do the streak, and then jump back in Steve Cook ’75 captured Cafeteria,” recalls Bob Sabin ’75, then a WCU junior who the car idling behind the University Center. Dwight Sparks ’75 (left) and reported on the unclothed antics for the campus radio “Our courage failed and our driver had to make three Rich Hall during the “warm- station. “It got their attention.” passes before we jumped out,” said Sparks, who had up” streak that preceded the Dwight Sparks ’75 covered the record attempt for the arranged for a Western Carolinian photographer, Steve record-breaking streak. The student newspaper, the Western Carolinian, and as a clothed Cook ’75, to be on the scene. “Hardly anyone noticed three photo has been manipulated observer, he remembers the evening of Thursday, Feb. 21, naked guys running like fools in the night.” However, the for public consumption. 1974, as being uncomfortably cold for a bunch of college campus newspaper published the following day contained students running in the buff. Braving the chilly conditions, a photograph of Sparks and Hall streaking, along with the WCU students succeeded in setting a new record for an article composed by Sparks, further helping to boost participation in a coed college streak, as trumpeted in participation for the record streak that took place later Sparks’ article published on the newspaper’s front page the that week. following week. According to his account, 113 naked male students emerged from the basement of Leatherwood and ran about 400 yards before returning to the basement. At THE AFTERMATH the same time, 25 unclad female students darted from the basement of nearby Helder Residence Hall and ran about Following the record WCU streak and subsequent 100 yards before returning to that residence. (Leatherwood nationwide publicity, several hundred letters from and Helder, as well as Dodson, have been replaced in recent individuals unhappy about the streaking in Cullowhee years.) The participation by 138 WCU students broke the landed in the office of Glenn Stillion, the university’s vice previous record of 125 streakers that had been set earlier chancellor for student development at the time. Stillion in 1974 by students at the University of Maryland. was quoted in the Western Carolinian as saying, “It’s our After observing the record WCU streak, reported to have main job to try to get the damn students to have some taken place around 9:30 p.m., Sabin hurried to the radio sense,” and he implied that streaking students would be station, known then by the call letters WCAT, and composed punished. But no streakers were charged in either student his account of the event. He relayed his story to the Raleigh court or criminal court, and university officials tried to bureau of a major national news service, United Press take a low-key approach, recalls Stillion, now retired and International, and it was picked up by print and broadcast living in Florida. “We didn’t get excited and overreact too media around the nation. “My mom heard it on the radio much,” he said. “Some people across the country were in Los Angeles,” Sabin said recently. “And somebody from burning buildings down in the ’60s, so we thought running NBC called me to talk about it the next morning.” around naked was fine, compared to that. A lot of people The WCU students’ time in the limelight was limited, were terribly upset, but it really didn’t get the university however. The collegiate streaking fad was at its high point totally fouled up.” during the mid-1970s, and several days after the mass streak in Cullowhee, a new record was set by students on another campus. But, as Sparks describes it now, “Our university received publicity money couldn’t buy. Our moment in the “We didn’t get excited and overreact sun was brief, but glorious!” too much. Some people across the country were burning buildings THE INSTIGATOR down in the ’60s, so we thought University records indicate that Richard Travis “Rich” running around naked was fine, Hall was from Charlotte and attended WCU from fall semester 1972 through spring semester 1975. (Multiple compared to that.” EX-VICE CHANCELLOR GLENN STILLION attempts to contact Hall to comment on this article were unsuccessful.) He was a sophomore with an undecided major at the time of WCU’s record streak. While in Cullowhee, In newspaper reports about WCU’s record streak, Hall Hall earned a reputation as a jokester, said Sabin, a non- confessed to being the organizer and explained that his goal streaker at WCU who now lives in Marietta, Ga. “He wasn’t was to gain attention for issues he was promoting, including a radical, but he was known as a character on campus,” beer on campus, 24-hour guest visitation and the need to Sabin said. Sparks reflected that Hall also liked to keep up “update” Cullowhee, but he admitted that most of the with the news. “My mother sent me Newsweek magazine students in the record streak did not participate for political so I would have regular mail at Western,” he said. “Rich purposes. Looking back on the events almost four decades lived directly across the hall from me in Leatherwood and later, Sparks said he believes the students were motivated regularly lounged in my room, reading my Newsweek, by a variety of reasons. “We were young, it was winter, and while I tried to be a serious student.” Eventually, a story maybe we had cabin fever,” said the Mocksville resident. about the University of Maryland’s record streak caught “For many students, I suspect it was the novelty of running Hall’s attention, and his reaction, Sparks said, was naked without getting arrested. We were on the leading edge “We can beat that!” of a phenomenon that swept the nation’s campuses.”

Fall 2013 | 39 alumni SPOTLIGHT

There’s a whole world out there, “who knows what opportunities we will come upon.” –MEGHAN DOHERTY ’03

After shipping their truck – and themselves – to Cartagena (there is an essentially impassable 100-mile gap between ADVENTURE Panama and Colombia), they traveled through Colombia for climbing and caving and then into the Southern Hemisphere via Ecuador, where Doherty – who played Catamount soccer – was delighted to unexpectedly score stadium seats at a “futbol” match between Ecuador and Chile. OVERLAND For Doherty, the game captured what she and her husband love about traveling. In a post to the blog she kept while One couple refuses to allow a nightmarish chronicling the trip (at adventureamericas.wordpress.com), event to cut short their tour of the Americas she wrote: “There’s a whole world out there, who knows what opportunities we will come upon, what we will learn about By JILL INGRAM MA ’08 people and about ourselves. We only have one life to live, why not live it to the fullest!” Unfortunately, a terrifying experience For many people, a week or two of vacation every year suffices in Peru temporarily changed their perspective and nearly to satisfy the hunger for adventure. Meghan Doherty ’03 and ended their fun. her husband, however, are a different sort. A few days after Christmas, Doherty, Wolfrom and Doherty and Jed Wolfrom share a sense of adventure and Wolfrom’s sister Jennifer, who had flown in from her home in a love of travel, and since they met in 2005 at a ski resort in Wyoming to meet them for 10 days, found a quiet spot to camp Jackson Hole, Wyo., had talked of an extended trip driving for the night off a road near the village of Pallcca, not far from the Americas. “At some point, we realized if we were going to Machu Picchu. By this point, Doherty and Wolfrom had been do it, we needed to do it,” Doherty said. traveling for nine solid months and routinely camped roadside The couple, who married two years ago and split time with no incident. On the evening of Dec. 29, however, as the trio between Wyoming and Moab, Utah, spent two years saving, toasted Jennifer Wolfrom’s 30th birthday, they were noticed by planning and relentlessly searching for the perfect vehicle for a couple of village residents and soon attracted a crowd. When their adventure. Ultimately, they decided on an older model the travelers refused to turn over their documents – experienced truck, which they outfitted with a customized camper to serve travelers typically make it a practice to share their passports as kitchen, bedroom and – in adverse conditions – living area. only with officials – tensions escalated and the crowd turned Doherty and Wolfrom’s general plan was to travel along the violent. For the next 11 hours, into the early morning of Dec. coast, where they might enjoy beach life, with sojourns into 30, a mob of at least 30 people pelted the travelers with rocks the mountains for climbing and hiking, with the southernmost and chased, beat and whipped them, holding them at gunpoint tip of Argentina as their ultimate goal. before ultimately allowing them to go. Leaving Wyoming on April 1, 2012, they started down the The travelers at first were hesitant to court media attention, Baja Peninsula, took a ferry across the Gulf of California and but with action from U.S. and Peruvian governments slow journeyed through mainland Mexico. Crossing the border to arrive, they eventually did speak with Contessa Brewer into Guatemala, they spent two weeks in Spanish language of NBC for an interview that aired Jan. 25 on “Today.” school and explored the country’s natural pools and caves. The story spread worldwide; Wyoming lawmakers helped On through Central America they went: El Salvador and initiate assistance from the American Embassy in Peru, and then a sprint through Honduras to reach Nicaragua, where Peruvian tourism officials offered an apology. “I don’t know they hiked a volcano that cradles a sunken lake and enjoyed if we would have even gotten our truck back or gotten any extended surfing. Then to Costa Rica, where Doherty’s mother of the help we needed if we hadn’t had the media attention,” joined them for two weeks. Doherty said.

40 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University Their physical injuries were extensive. Jed Wolfrom lost teeth my favorite country,” she said. With Morales and LeTendre, they in the attack and the three received 100 stitches among them. drove into Ushuaia, commonly regarded as the southernmost Their vehicle was smashed and broken, and their passports, city in the world. Then they drove a bit farther, to a place called money, debit cards and electronics were stolen. Perhaps most Rio Moat, where the road actually ends. They had reached pronounced was the emotional trauma. “We did consider their destination. ending the trip,” Doherty said. “That was the initial thought: After 13 months of travel, the couple flew to Miami toward the ‘We want to go home.’” But as time passed in Lima, Peru, end of May and were embraced by family. They were reunited processing paperwork and waiting for the return of their with their vehicle at a Virginia port at the end of June. They vehicle, the couple made the decision to travel on. “We’d had spent time visiting family and friends on the East Coast over During their trip from so many great experiences it was worth it to us to at least try,” the summer as they transitioned back to a more routine way of the United States to the Doherty said. life. “There’s a little cultural adjustment,” Doherty admitted. southernmost tip of South They did make an adjustment, from then on always traveling Soon after their arrival back in the U.S., they learned that America, Meghan Doherty as part of a larger group. They spent months exploring Argentina four individuals will be charged with aggravated assault and ’03 and husband Jed with two other overlanding couples, including Danni LeTendre robbery in the act of violence against them. While Doherty Wolfrom set up camp on and her husband, Cesar Morales, formerly of Washington, wants to pursue justice, she has achieved an emotional distance. the coast of Chile (above), D.C., who described Doherty and Wolfrom as “awesome travel “We’re not letting it rule our lives,” she said. the couple’s last view of companions.” That their friends bounced back from the attack The couple plan to head back to Wyoming by fall at the the ocean for a while. in Peru is inspirational, Morales said. “It blew me away how latest. Doherty has resumed her work with an environmental Later, they crossed the open and engaged they were to new experiences on a daily basis consulting company. Wolfrom is a carpenter and typically has border from Chile into after having a pretty horrible experience,” he said. work wherever he lands. Perhaps most exciting, they want to Argentina, the final country They also proved to be reliable and fast-thinking in an have children. “We met a lot of families who traveled together on their cross-continental emergency. The couples were together, with Wolfrom and with young kids. It seemed really neat,” Doherty said. Another adventure (below). Doherty ahead in their vehicle, one afternoon when an accident new adventure down the road. rolled LeTendre and Morales down a riverbank. Having seen it in the rearview mirror, Wolfrom and Doherty came bounding down the bank to check on their friends. Wolfrom, who has EMT training, gave his friends a once over and declared no major injuries. Then they worked together to coordinate a piece of heavy equipment to pull the vehicle out of the ditch. “I don’t even want to think how that day would have happened without them there,” LeTendre said. “It was such a relief to see their faces.” With its landscape and food – not to mention cheap and delicious wines – Argentina proved a high point for Doherty. “We pretty much ended with

Fall 2013 | 41 alumni SPOTLIGHT EQUAL PLAY An educator-administrator advocates for diversity, inclusiveness and healthy living By KEITH BRENTON

Health and fitness is not just a concern for the physical body, professionalism and personal example raised the standards but for the whole person. That’s whatRon Morrow ’78 believes, for everyone,” Morrow said. “Dr. Spilker never had to tell you and he has built a 30-year career on that principle. An educator how to be a good teacher; he showed you.” and administrator in the field of health and physical education, His mentor encouraged Morrow in coaching/training roles Morrow has advocated for diversity and against obesity, and in gymnastics, cross country team and swimming at WCU. his achievements have led to receiving the 2012 Academic A yearning to teach led him to earn his master’s degree in Achievement Award from Western Carolina University. kinesiology and physiology at the University of North Carolina His passion began at a young age, inspired by his family: at Greensboro in 1984. During that decade, he served in various brothers Jack Morrow III and twin Donnie Morrow Sr. ’79, positions at Charlotte and Gaston County YMCAs and schools. mother Mary Louise, and especially his dad, the late Jack From 1990 to 1998, Morrow was swimming-diving coach and Morrow Jr. “My father was the aquatic director for the YMCA later instructor of physical education at Davidson College. in Charlotte for 50 years,” Morrow said, “I began early, learning Serving in those positions made him aware of the problem different sports well enough to teach them. I was teaching of inclusion in health and physical education settings – people swimming when I was 6 years old, and I saw the proud and being socially disfranchised. The experiences took him back excited reaction of children who learned a new skill.” to those of his childhood. “As a teacher, I saw very clearly that He grew up participating on the swimming and diving gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students were being teams, and also played racquet sports, gymnastics and martial excluded, not included,” Morrow said. “The focus was on the arts. “I wanted to learn to do everything well enough to teach natural athlete. The other kids were doing their homework magazine.wcu.edu it,” he said. But becoming a star athlete wasn’t in his future. in the bleachers.” “My older brother and my twin brother were natural athletes, He returned to UNCG and earned a doctorate in exercise whereas I was not. I was not the last pick on the team; I just and sports science in 2000, focusing on creating a safe, inclusive wasn’t picked, ” Morrow said. “I wanted to make sure the climate in physical education for all participants – especially Ron Morrow ’78 (left) traces children I taught never had to experience that harassment due those in the LGBT community. In 2011, he established the his interest in teaching and to their lack of skill and a lack of empathy from their teacher.” Ronald G. Morrow Scholarship at WCU for health and physical coaching to his undergrad Following his brother Donnie to WCU, he signed up to study education majors who intend to research in the area of diversity. years at WCU and Otto health and physical education – and met another source of “Although racial and gender issues have been researched and Spilker, professor emeritus powerful inspiration, Otto Spilker. “Not only did Dr. Spilker investigated, very little to no research has been done on the of physical education. provide excellent subject knowledge and expertise, but his inclusiveness of LGBT students – not to mention the LGBT professionals who are teachers,” he said. Morrow’s career also continued to emphasize inclusion and healthy lifestyles. While he served as executive director of the North Carolina Alliance for Athletics, Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance from 2001 to 2011, the organization grew from 800 to almost 3,000. There he launched a fitness testing program for 1.4 million K-8 schoolchildren in 2008 to address childhood obesity. Later, Morrow founded the nonprofit North Carolina In-school Prevention of Obesity and Disease, tracking student data and delivering “fitness report cards” to parents and physical education teachers at nearly 500 participating schools. He has published articles in The Journal of Homosexuality, Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, Journal of Sport Management and Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport. He has presented at meetings of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance; North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity; Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network; and the Association for the Advancement of Applied Sports Psychology – often about inclusiveness. “This issue is not even being addressed in teacher education classes’ textbooks,” Morrow said. “If you teach, you teach LGBT students, and more than likely have more than one colleague who is LGBT.”

42 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University BREATH OF FRESH AIR The road from fandom to stardom is navigated by a band’s new drummer By PATRICK O’NEAL

Randall Harris ’09 MM ’11 has played in front of thousands two weeks as a guitar tech while the band was on tour. Harris Drummer Randall Harris ’09 of fans and appeared on national television as the drummer wanted to, but the gig was smack in the middle of the semester. MM ’11 performs with the for alternative Christian rock band NEEDTOBREATHE. After Bruce Frazier, WCU’s Belk Distinguished Professor of rock band NEEDTOBREATHE And it all started while Harris was still a Western Carolina Commercial and Electronic Music, agreed to accommodate in an April concert at WCU’s University student. his schedule, Harris joined the band as a crew member. “Randy Ramsey Center. NEEDTOBREATHE, based in Seneca, S.C., consists of three was a conscientious, responsible student,” said Frazier. “When core members – Bear Rinehart on lead vocals, Bo Rinehart his obligations overlapped, we arranged it so he could complete on lead guitar and Seth Bolt on bass – and a roster of touring his school assignments early and satisfy both responsibilities.” members. The band has released four studio albums, with 2011’s “They threw me into the fire quick,” recalled Harris. “I had “The Reckoning” reaching No. 6 on the Billboard charts, and 14 guitars, a banjo and a mandolin. In addition, I had to be is currently on tour and working on a new album. the drum tech, a monitor engineer and make tea three times Harris started drumming at a very early age. “When I was a day for the lead singer.” in third grade, I saw the music video for AC/DC’s ‘Back in Harris continued to work in the studio with Black.’ I went outside, whittled some sticks and started hitting NEEDTOBREATHE after graduating with his master’s degree magazine.wcu.edu everything in the house,” he said. His parents bought him a and was on hand when the band’s drummer quit unexpectedly $100 used drum set and the path to stardom began. a week before the start of a national tour. The departure proved In Harris’ sophomore year at WCU, as he was scanning an opportunity for Harris, who had been so quiet about his radio stations, he happened to hear the final 30 seconds of own musical talent that NEEDTOBREATHE front man NEEDTOBREATHE’s song “Washed by the Water.” He bought Bear Rinehart didn’t even know he played drums. After an the band’s album “The Heat” and became an avid fan. impromptu tryout, Harris sat in for a recording session and Harris had the opportunity to meet the band in 2010, while was then invited to join the band, which in October 2012 he was in graduate school studying music and interning as a performed on the late-night TV show “Conan.” As part of its lighting and sound operator at the Ridgecrest Convention current tour, the band also performed in the Ramsey Regional Center, near Black Mountain. It was a cold February day, and Activity Center in April. during the process of unloading gear from the band’s van for Harris is as surprised as anyone with where his work has led. a concert, some equipment crushed Harris’s hand. He hid his “I always wanted to be part of this band, but I never expected injury and continued unloading; his efforts were not in vain to be in the limelight,” he said. – he met the tour manager and the two exchanged numbers. Patrick O’Neal is a senior communication major concentrating in public A couple weeks later, the manager asked him to fill in for relations and journalism.

Fall 2013 | 43 TRACK THIS Timothy Vaught ’01 is associate head men’s and women’s track and field coach at Coastal Carolina University, where he coaches team members in the sprint, jump, hurdle and combined events. In June, Vaught was named the Southeast Region Women’s Assistant Coach of the Year by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association after his 4x100 and 4x400 relay teams qualified for the NCAA Championships. From 2002-06, Vaught served as an assistant track and field coach at CCU; he left the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he was the associate head track and field coach, to return to CCU. While at WCU, he earned all-conference honors in the 4x100 meter and 4x400 meter relays and was a member of the 4x400 meter NCAA Championship qualifying team. Vaught, also a running back for Catamount football, got his coaching start as a WCU track and field graduate assistant.

Photo courtesy of Coastal Carolina University. classNOTES

1961 1967 1972 Marie Benge Craig Roth MAEd ’63 is a John Henzy has retired as provost of Philip B. Bowser MA had a selection of retired math teacher and has written three Gloucester County College in New Jersey. his fine art photographs hanging in the award-winning books on the history of In his 43 years with the school, Henzy Springbox gallery in Portland, Ore., this Davie County. Roth teaches genealogy and held positions including lecturer, full past spring. Bowser teaches in the school tatting at John C. Campbell Folk School. professor, dean and acting president. He psychology program at Lewis and Clark calculated that during his career he taught College. Shown here is Bowser’s work 1964 as many as 30,000 students. titled “Rainy Beach.” Daniel Tharpe MAEd ’68 is a 2013 inductee into Florida’s Space Coast Sports 1969 Hall of Fame. Billed by the Hall of Fame as “one of the most versatile and greatest all-round athletes in the history of Brevard and of the state of Florida,” Tharpe earned 15 varsity letters in basketball, baseball, football and tennis as a student at Cocoa High School. Tharpe started in all four sports during his time at WCU and was inducted into the WCU Athletics Hall of Fame in 1991. Early in his career, he returned to his Brevard community and coached basketball and tennis at Cocoa High and started a basketball league for children ages 6-12. He later returned to WCU as an assistant coach and then Ludy Wilkie has donated to the Bostic coached at East Texas State. Lincoln Center more than 20 years worth of research material on the legend that Abraham Lincoln was born in North 1966 Carolina. Wilkie, who has written two A novel by William Pipes EdS ’75 plays about the legend, offered the titled “Darby” was published by Ecanus materials to the center to make them 1976 Publishing of Great Britain. Pipes describes accessible to a wider audience. The Joni Mabry Brown, retired band director the novel as “a story of danger, suspense, materials primarily explore Lincoln’s at Bates Middle School in South Carolina, romance and intrigue interwoven with the paternity. (Photo by Deborah Keller) has been inducted into the South Carolina history and culture of the Appalachians.” Band Directors Hall of Fame.

44 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University the A-B Tech campus. Parker also worked 1977 collaboratively with Isothermal Community 1993 College in her role with Rutherford County Brigette Welton Schools. She lives in Haywood’s Crabtree has been appointed community with husband Greg Parker to the Striving MAEd ’88. for Excellence committee of the Society 1988 for Marketing Professional Services. During her three-year term, Welton will be responsible for facilitating the SMPS national awards program, including developing standards criteria, as well as promoting the organization at the local and national levels. She is marketing manager in the Raleigh office of Dewberry, WCU staff members made cards and a professional services firm that provides wrote letters to soldiers for care packages architecture, engineering, management and to be distributed by Operation North consulting services to public- and private- State, a nonprofit organization founded sector clients. by Terry Snyder to support military programs connected to North Carolina. Lisa Winders, director of military student services at WCU, reached out to Operation Margaret Simpson Vestal MA ’91 North State to explore possible needs as recently opened RE/MAX Results in WCU’s Staff Senate planned spring service Asheville. Vestal (known as Peggy during Alumni Association announces activities. Snyder, the organization’s her WCU years) has been a real estate chairman, said the timing was perfect as broker in Asheville for 12 years and a election results he had just been contacted about helping RE/MAX associate for six years. She will a special forces unit. Fourteen staff continue in real estate sales while her The 2013 Alumni Association board of directors election members together wrote 100 cards for husband and co-owner, Jimmy Vestal, the care packages. Snyder is married to oversees office operations. She achieved has closed, and five new members are joining the slate Miriam “Dawn” Eldridge. RE/MAX 100% Club status in 2012 and of representatives. Elected to serve three-year terms that 2011 for productivity levels that were expire at the end of 2015: more than double the industry average. 1981 From District 1, Timothy E. Gillespie ’86, of Asheville. John Knight MAEd ’83 is retiring from District 1 consists of the N.C. counties of Alleghany, Buncombe County Schools, where he 1989 Alexander, Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Burke, Caldwell, was a speech therapist and coach in the Sherri Holbert is director of the Park Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Owen District for 30 years. At Charles D. Ridge Health Foundation. Holbert had Macon, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Rutherford, Polk, Owen High School, Knight coached girls’ served as a development officer at Park volleyball, boys’ basketball and boys’ and Ridge since September and is responsible Swain, Transylvania, Watauga, Wilkes and Yancey. girls’ golf (he formed the first girls’ varsity for coordinating annual giving and golf team there in 1998) and earned golf major gift initiatives and planning and From District 2, Benjamin “B.J.” Pendry ’07, of Charlotte. coach of the year honors 16 times. In implementing special events. District 2 consists of the N.C. counties of Alamance, Anson, May, Knight supporters surprised him by Cabarrus, Caswell, Catawba, Cleveland, Davidson, Davie, raising enough money to send him to play Forsyth, Gaston, Guilford, Iredell, Lincoln, Mecklenburg, the Pebble Beach golf course in California. 1991 Montgomery, Randolph, Richmond, Rockingham, Rowan, Don Lourcey Stanly, Stokes, Surry, Union and Yadkin. MAEd is 1984 director of Jim Davidson MBA is CEO of Miami- professional From District 3, Allison Hinson Kenney ’02 ME ’05, based Farelogix, which provides learning and of Chapel Hill. District 3 consists of the N.C. counties technology to help airlines personalize the Michelle of Bladen, Chatham, Columbus, Cumberland, Durham, way tickets are sold to frequent fliers. Harrison Edgecombe, Franklin, Granville, Halifax, Harnett, Hoke, Lourcey MA Johnston, Lee, Moore, Nash, Northampton, Orange, ’93 is chief Person, Robeson, Sampson, Scotland, Vance, Wake, 1987 academic Warren and Wilson. Barbara Sue Messer Parker MAEd EDS officer for ’03 EdD ’07 is the new president of the North From District 4, Jillian Hardin ’99, of New Bern. District Haywood Community College. Parker Carolina Virtual Public School. The couple comes to the position from Rutherford has a 9-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, and 4 consists of the N.C. counties of Beaufort, Bertie, County Schools, where she was assistant lives in Statesville. Brunswick, Camden, Carteret, Chowan, Craven, Currituck, superintendent of curriculum and Dare, Duplin, Gates, Greene, Hertford, Hyde, Jones, Lenoir, instruction. She also spent long stretches Martin, New Hanover, Onslow, Pamlico, Pasquotank, in administrative positions in the public 1992 Pender, Perquimans, Pitt, Tyrell, Washington and Wayne. schools in Haywood and Buncombe John Connet is the new city manager for counties. While in Buncombe, Parker Hendersonville. Prior to this role, Connet From District 5, James “Josh” Paris ’01, of Alpharetta, Ga. worked closely with Asheville-Buncombe had served as city manager of Clinton, his District 5 consists of all states except North Carolina. Technical Community College to hometown, since 2002. implement a middle college program and an early college high school program on

Fall 2013 | 45 class 1996 1997 1998 Jeanne Dulworth, assistant professor of Ellen McCann received her doctoral Channing Austin is the 2013 N.C. social work, won WCU’s Excellence in degree in criminal justice from Rutgers Fraternal Order of Police Officer of the NOTES Teaching Liberal Studies Award for the University in 2012 and now works for Year. Austin also was recognized as 2012-13 academic year. The award was the Pew Charitable Trusts in Washington. Officer of the Year by the Statesville Police presented at the annual spring Faculty and Department, where he has served for Staff Excellence Awards event. Jason Queen is a sports reporter for The more than 19 years. Dispatch newspaper in Davidson County, Construction of a new complex for Smoky where he recently earned second-place Angie Cooley is a music teacher at Mountain Obstetrics and Gynecology, honors for sports columns from the Mitchell Road Elementary School in founded and owned by Dr. Janine Keever, North Carolina Press Association in Greenville, S.C. Cooley has been named is under way in Jackson County, with the category of daily newspapers with among the finalists for 2013-14 Greenville completion expected later this year. The circulation of less than 12,500. Queen County Schools Teacher of the Year, to be facility will provide women’s health care for worked for The Dispatch from 2005-09 announced in August. residents of Jackson, Macon, Swain and and rejoined the paper in 2011. Graham counties. Eric T. Perry has written a novel, “Before I Go,” about a terminally ill man coming to terms with his mortality. Perry, inspired to write the novel by a 2012 cancer scare, has pledged to donate a portion of the proceeds to The V Foundation for Cancer Research, founded in 1993 by the late Jim Valvano and ESPN. 1999

Doug Coe MPT and his wife, Emily Hinton Coe, have helped organize the annual Marine Mud Run in Pinnacle A Privilege to Give since it started in 2010. The race has grown from 1,335 participants the first year to 4,000 for the race held June 1. “The valuable lessons I learned at WCU have served me well in life,” says For each of the past two years, the event Donna Winbon ’80. Positive thinking, teamwork and leadership were has raised more than $70,000 in support among the skills she gained from playing on the women’s basketball of North Carolina military and veterans team, serving as a resident assistant in Helder and head resident in organizations. Doug Coe helps with Walker, earning her degree and simultaneously deepening her love course design and obstacle construction of the mountains and the outdoors. and directs the run for children 12 and younger while his wife focuses on runner After 15 years as a retail store manager, area manager and regional registration and editing print publications. manager, Donna started her successful career as a financial adviser with Edward Jones Investments in Raleigh. “As a financial adviser, I 2000 discuss legacy planning with my clients and prospects daily. It comes Brad Hoover is the new head football naturally, then, for me and I feel it is a privilege to give to WCU,” said coach at Union Academy, a charter school Donna, who lists WCU as both a tax-deferred and testamentary trust in Monroe. Hoover was the starting beneficiary as part of her own legacy planning portfolio. fullback for the NFL’s Carolina Panthers for nine years and was a star running back When trying to determine what areas to support at WCU, Donna said while at WCU. she wanted to make the greatest gift possible to serve the university. She said she realized that an unrestricted gift serves WCU best because 2001 the future needs of the university will change from one decade to Jayme Linton, director of teacher another. “True joy in life comes from giving, whether it is of your time education at Lenoir-Rhyne University, or support. Even though I live in Raleigh, a part of me will always be was named one of “20 to Watch” in these beautiful mountains,” Donna said. for 2012-13 by the National School Boards Association’s Technology Leadership Network for her ability to inspire colleagues to adopt innovative For more information, contact Herb Bailey, director of gift planning technology that contributes to high-quality 828.227.3049 | [email protected] | giftplanning.wcu.edu learning environments and more efficient operations.

46 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University Kam A. McDonald graduated with a company since 2007, most recently as master’s degree in social work from 2004 senior event manager. Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C. Eric Newsom MA ’07 is a professor in the Department of Communication at the Christian E. Dwight Edwards MA is Gordon Smith University of Central Missouri. manager of the Thomas Wolfe Memorial in MS has been Asheville after working there six years as a a member of Jason Woods is historic interpreter. the Asheville vice president and City Council manager of retail since 2009 projects for Bank 2007 and is running of Oak Ridge, a for re-election community bank to a second with five locations term this fall. in Greensboro, Smith is a Summerfield and child-and-family Oak Ridge. Woods counselor in has worked with private practice. He and his wife, Rachael, Bank of Oak Ridge for five years and most live in West Asheville. recently served as branch manager and vice president. 2002 Cory MacGillivray MAEd ’06 was named 2005 the middle school science instructional Brandon A. Robinson MA ’10 earned his coach with Winston-Salem/Forsyth County juris doctor degree from North Carolina Schools. He previously taught biology at Central University School of Law in the Stacey Mitchell Atkins and John Atkins West Forsyth spring. During Robinson’s final semester ’08 are married and living in Charleston, High School in law school, he completed a 12-week S.C. Stacey Atkins is a consultant with in Clemmons. externship at the University of North Nerium International and John Atkins is an MacGillivray Carolina Center on Poverty, Work and engineer with APAC-Ballenger Paving. The and his wife, Opportunity and, with a former classmate, couple wed in June 2011 at Nantahala Stephanie Lee co-authored an article published in Lake with multiple WCU alumni as MacGillivray the spring 2013 issue of the NCCU members of the wedding party. They are ’05, welcomed Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Bobby Applewhite ’07 ’09 (third from their second Law Review. left), Jesse Ramirez ’09 (fifth from right), child, Sawyer Jessica Stroupe ’08 ’09 (left of bride), Benjamin Sally Mitchell ’10 (right of groom) and MacGillivray, in 2006 Kristen Lynch ’08 (third from right). Josh February. Shannon Ilsley is director of events at Kitchens (seventh from left), Jamar Frazier Patrick Properties Hospitality Group in (second from right) and Davina Cook Pike Charleston. Ilsley has been with the (far right) also attended WCU.

Disability doesn’t stop long-distance student from powering through degree

This is how Bill Miller ME ’13 rolls: With serious Miller also uses his injury as a platform to speak to church Commencement weekend determination. groups, Rotary clubs, chambers of commerce and schools, the was the first time that Bill The 36-year-old, of Leesburg, Fla., graduated in May from paper reported. “My brain is very active. I’m never bored,” Miller Miller ME ’13 (center) met WCU’s online master’s degree program in entrepreneurship. said, adding that he plans to write a book about his experience. some of his classmates, This comes five years since he graduated from the University With his entrepreneurship degree in hand, Miller’s next goal is including (from left) Jeremy of Florida with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, to secure work as a teacher at the college level, he told the paper. Balog ME ’13, Arlene also earned online. That achievement came 11 years after a fall “Entrepreneurship is what this country needs to thrive again, Childers ME ’13, Sharon dislocated two vertebrae in his neck and left him a quadriplegic economically speaking. If I can do a small part to help people Martin ’94 ME ’13 and confined to a wheelchair. start their own business, I feel like I can make a difference for Lindsay Keene ME ’13. Miller’s trip to Cullowhee for commencement was the people and my small part of the country,” he said. first time he met his professors and some of his classmates in person and saw the WCU campus, which he said is “absolutely beautiful,” according to the Orlando Sentinel, which produced a story about his achievement. Miller was recognized as the entrepreneurship program’s 2013 outstanding student. According to Miller, who keeps a personal website at www.lookmomnohands.net, his goal since his injury has been to improve physically as well as remain productive. A decade ago, Miller and a partner developed a device that attaches to a wheelchair and allows quadriplegics to bowl. He then co-founded a company, called Manufacturing Genuine Thrills, to sell the device. And by the way, Miller bowls a 255.

Fall 2013 | 47 Erika L. class Impagliatelli has been accepted as a member NOTES of Teach for America, an Rosanna Pearson Bare in March organization that was named teacher of the year for serves students in Wilkes County Schools, where she is urban and rural a first-grade teacher at Moravian Falls public schools. Elementary School. Impagliatelli will attend summer training in Houston and will begin teaching math Bradley J. Botts MPM is vice president this fall in a middle school in the Rio of membership (an active voting board Grande Valley area of Texas. She will member position) for the North Carolina continue her graduate studies in learning, chapter of the Project Management design and technology through Penn Institute. The N.C. chapter has more than State’s World Campus. 2,800 members. 2010 2008 Nathan Gatto and Sarah Clark ’12 are Natasha Janicki ’11 and some of the children she met during Jamie Crumley- owner-operators of Wright’s Backyard a mission trip to Haiti in early 2013. Tate lives in Birding Center in Winston-Salem, a bird- Nashville, Tenn., supply business that started in 1983. The where she is couple is engaged to be married in April. establishing a career as a singer Janette Hammett MHS ’12 is the child and songwriter nutrition director at Cherokee Central Trip to Haiti opens alumna’s and performs at Schools. Prior to her employment venues including there, Hammett worked as the tobacco eyes to poverty NASCAR races, prevention coordinator at Macon County universities and festivals. Tate also Public Health and as a nutritionist and When Natasha Janicki ’11, a recreational therapy is a licensed attorney in the state of director of the Women, Infants and major, wasn’t accepted into a graduate program for Tennessee. Children program in Swain County. occupational therapy, she decided to make other plans. “I was unsure of what my next move should be and just Tara B.W. Gleason MS ’10 manages a really felt that I needed to do something more productive branch library for Clemson University’s 2011 with my life,” said Janicki, who grew up in Kitty Hawk School of Education. Gleason worked Ronnie Garcia is an account executive with the Carolina Panthers. Garcia, a and returned there after college. at WCU’s Hunter Library as an undergraduate student and as an former member of the WCU golf team, A member of Kitty Hawk United Methodist Church, assistant supervisor while completing began as an intern with the Panthers Janicki asked her pastor for ideas and learned that a her graduate degree. in 2011. neighboring church, Bethany United Methodist, was planning to send a team of volunteers to Haiti for Sgt. Brandon Lee Monteith deployed to approximately two weeks in January 2013. Janicki, who 2009 Afghanistan in the spring for a yearlong didn’t know any other participants (although she did Anna Browning tour as part of the N.C. National Guard’s meet her boyfriend on the trip), hopped on board for an has written a 32- 210th Military Police Company in support experience she describes as “life-changing.” page children’s of Operation Enduring Freedom. The unit will be conducting law enforcement Janicki and her teammates spent the majority of their picture book titled “Tanner Turbeyfill and customs inspection operations as time on a construction project in Croix-des-Bouquets, and the Moon American military forces begin working about 20 miles northeast of Port au Prince. While Rocks.” Josh toward a coordinated withdrawal from that construction was new to Janicki – “it’s very different Crawford ’10 country. A resident of Jackson County, to see everything done by hand as opposed to using all illustrated the Monteith has been with the 210th for the heavy equipment we have here in the U.S.” – the book, about a boy approximately five years. day-to-day living conditions were the real eye-opener. whose tree house turns into a spaceship “The most shocking part of the trip was the poverty that takes him to the moon so he can Leslie Putnam spent from March 2012 and hunger I saw,” she said. On the final day of the trip, gather the moon to April 2013 as a resident acting intern at Wayside Theatre in Middletown, Va., Janicki and her teammates distributed a food donation rocks he has always wanted. where she choreographed, taught musical of rice, beans and oil they had collected before the trip, Browning is an theatre classes and performed in shows enough to feed just more than 100 families of six for administrative including “Hank Williams: Lost Highway” one month. When the food ran out before everyone had support associate and “Private Lives.” received some, a riot began; the mission team made its in WCU’s Writing way to safety through a screaming, grabbing crowd. and Learning “I have always known there were starving people in the Commons. 2012 world, but there is nothing that compares to seeing it up Mercedese R. Brouard recently enlisted close,” Janicki said. “I thought ‘feeding the hungry’ would in the U.S. Navy under the delayed entry program. Brouard will undergo basic be a joyous experience, but it was the exact opposite.” training at the Navy’s Recruit Training Janicki now works as a behavior therapist for special- Center in Great Lakes, Ill. needs children, and while taking an extended break isn’t an option at the moment, she hopes more mission trips Andres Guillama of Waynesville was one are in her future. “It definitely is something I would like of 12 contestants on the most recent to do again if I got the opportunity,” she said. series of Food Network competition series

48 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University Performer raps heart around fellow Hurricane Sandy survivors

A resident of New Jersey’s Atlantic coast, Patrick Whelan has helped raise additional money by participating in ’06 has an alias: “ShoreShot.” It’s his professional identity, other fundraisers. the name by which he is known as a rap and hip-hop artist. “We wanted people to understand ‘Sho Love’ is more Patrick “ShoreShot” It’s a career that has come from the background to the than simply a song title – it’s a call to action and a way of Whelan ’06 inspires — and forefront – and now to the shorefront. living,” said Whelan. “Even though this project highlights is inspired by — pupils at As a student majoring in communication, Whelan worked the devastation New Jersey shore communities endured, the coastal New Jersey- at WWCU-FM and Channel 62 while also producing original the commitment to show love to our neighbors and those area elementary schools music from his dorm room. After graduation, he worked as in need should not be limited to times of crisis.” where he conducts production assistant and sales rep with CBS in New York Whelan currently is working on his third album, “Return benefits for victims of City before taking a sales job with AT&T Interactive, where of the Tides,” set to release this summer. Hurricane Sandy. he earned enough to finance and produce his debut album, “Slowly but Shorely,” in June 2010. The label he formed the following year, ShoreShot Music LLC, produced his sophomore album, “The Progress Report,” in February 2012. Whelan began showcasing his talents and promoting his albums by performing on university campuses throughout the mid-Atlantic region. Then, like many of his neighbors, he became all-too-well-acquainted with a force of nature named Sandy. “The hurricane hit at the end of October, and things took quite a bit of a turn for a whole lot of people, including myself,” Whelan said. Cleanup and restoration at his home, in Brick, N.J., became an unexpected source of inspiration. “While I was pumping 4 to 5 feet of water out of my crawlspace and pushing out wet insulation, I came up with a song,” Whelan said. That song, “Sho Love (You Survived It),” soon was recorded with the help of Erich Wald of Waretown, N.J., and the children’s chorus of the Russell O. Brackman Middle School in Barnegat, N.J. A music video, available on YouTube, was directed by another local artist/ cinematographer, Joey Salpietro, also a resident of Brick. “Sho Love” began to gain momentum locally and on YouTube and then was made available for purchase through a number of online vendors. Whelan chose to donate all of the online MP3/single sales receipts to Holy Family St. Vincent de Paul Society in Union Beach, N.J., a charity capable of distributing the income directly to families in need. As of mid-June, Whelan had contributed approximately $670 to the nonprofit and

“Food Network Star,” which concludes in WCU Office of International programs August. The winner earns his or her own and Services who is from Gerliech, show on Food Network. traveled with members of a nonprofit organization to work on the project. The Zach Heaton has finished working on group planned to train approximately WE WANT THE SCOOP a new fly fishing TV show called “In the 10 people from the local community Loop.” Heaton also shot one episode of there to also participate. Miller works in ON YOUR LIFE EVENTS another fishing show titled “Fly Nation” Raleigh as an assistant to Rep. Joe Sam and helped shoot the pilot of a new show Queen of N.C. District 119. titled “Action Sports Information Desk.” Christina Banner Pettus was married Anderson Miller in October 2012. She works at Clater Send us your news and photos continues to work Kaye Theatreworks in Hickory, where she on building a well helps run the performing arts school. EMAIL: [email protected] in the Kenyan MAIL TO: Class Notes editor village of Gerliech, Groce Scot Robinson MAT has been a project he accepted to the University of Bristol in 420 H.F. Robinson undertook while the United Kingdom to pursue a doctoral Cullowhee N.C. 28723 still a student at degree in history focused on the late WCU. Miller and medieval period. Christopher Pedo, For more information, call 828.227.7327. an adviser in the

Fall 2013 | 49 Shirley Muse Bryson ’37 Melissa A. Freeman Ledgister ’88 Two new members appointed April 17, 2013; Sylva. April 10, 2013; Asheville. to WCU Board of Trustees Otho V. Cagle Jr. ’56 James Leo Luther Jr. ’86 The University of North Carolina Board of Governors Feb. 20, 2013; Waynesville. March 15, 2013; Asheboro. has appointed two new members to the Western Carolina Bruce Dennis Carden ’60 MAEd ’61 David Henley Marshall ’72 University Board of Trustees, including alumnus Kenny March 23, 2013; Waynesville. March 1, 2013; Stokesdale. Messer ’86, an executive with Milliken Corp. Joining Messer on the WCU board this fall is Phil Drake, chief Irma Melvynie Casey ’71 Linda Kay McClure ’92 executive officer of Drake Enterprises. The appointments April 10, 2013; Sylva. March 9, 2013; Waynesville. are for four-year terms. The UNC system governing body David Bryce Clemmer ’09 Harold Dennis Melton ’75 also re-appointed current trustees Edward Broadwell Jr. March 11, 2013; Forest City. March 7, 2013; Graham. of Asheville, retiring in November as chairman and CEO of Home Trust Bank, and Southern Pines businessman Betty Elaine Penland Coin BSEd ’41 Curtis Stephen Metzger ’94 March 10, 2013; Franklin. March 3, 2013; Beverly, Mass. George Little to four-year terms. A resident of Greenville, S.C., Messer is global business Pauline Pressley Collins ’42 Douglas W. Murajda ’73 director of specialty chemical and packaging at Milliken April 15, 2013; Amherst, Mass. April 12, 2013; Boiling Springs, S.C. & Co. in Spartanburg, S.C. He is a past president and Louise Edwards Cowan ’47 Ned C. Owings MAEd ’70 member of both the WCU Alumni Association Board of April 29, 2013; Murphy. April 23, 2013; Union, S.C. Directors and the Catamount Club Board of Directors. Messer served on the search committee that helped select Michael Deaver ’69 Laura K. Phillips ’54 David O. Belcher as chancellor in 2011 and was part April 1, 2013; Waynesville. Feb. 25, 2013; Advance. of the 2020 Commission, a 36-member committee that Mary M. Crampton Deere MED ’72 Watson Smith Rankin ’57 MA ’62 led a strategic planning process to guide the university’s April 13, 2013; Hayden, Ariz. March 25, 2013; Loris, S.C. direction and development over the next decade. A native of Franklin, Drake began developing tax Mildred P. Dodson ’76 MAEd ’78 Emmett Sprinkle Sams ’41 EDS ’81 April 21, 2013; Rosman. April 2, 2013; Mars Hill. software in 1977. His companies now employ more than 500 people in businesses that include accounting, Jill J. English ’91 Ralph H. Sharpe Jr. ’67 retail, software, dining, theater, golf, printing, Internet March 27, 2013; Hendersonville. March 27, 2013; Winston-Salem. service, family entertainment, construction and fiber Julian Milo Fields Jr. ’77 William A. Sink ’67 MAEd ’70 optics. A frequent guest speaker for business students at April 5, 2013; Williamsburg, Va. March 2, 2013; Etowah. WCU, he was a member of the WCU Millennial Initiative Select Committee, which helped develop strategies for Allen J. Fisher MBA ’86 Herbert Matthew Smith ’92 the university’s comprehensive regional economic and March 1, 2013; Raleigh. March 7, 2013; Ruffin. community development effort. Bruce Harvey Fitchett ’63 James F. Smith ’57 Drake and Messer fill vacancies created by the April 22, 2013; Asheville. March 18, 2013; Hayesville. departure of Joan MacNeill, board chair, and former N.C. Sen. Steve Metcalf, both of whom reached the Harvey Edgar Franklin ’51 MAEd ’58 William “Bill” Taylor Jr. ’58 March 26, 2013; Marshall. May 3, 2013; Raleigh. end of their terms June 30. MacNeill, a co-founder and former president of the Great Smoky Mountains Carolyn Corry Gay MAEd ’76 James Donald Tomberlin ’50 Railway in Dillsboro, was named by the N.C. Senate to March 23, 2013; Hendersonville. May 4, 2013; Asheville. the 32-member Board of Governors. Bill Chrest George ’64 Charles Holman Venable ’54 The UNC board selects a total of eight trustees for April 24, 2013; Waynesville. Dec. 29, 2012; Clemmons. each campus of the university system, and the governor appoints four. Appointments from the governor are Winnie Wilkinson Gray ’40 Frances Tarleton Wheeler MAEd ’04 forthcoming. In addition, the president of the WCU Student May 7, 2013; Buxton. May 19, 2013; Hickory. Government Association is an ex-officio member of the Walter Keith Hampton ’75 MIE ’81 Dorothy Martin Williams ’54 WCU Board of Trustees. April 25, 2013; Brasstown. March 3, 2013; Bryson City.

Norman Clifton Hardin ’57 Roy L. Williams ’63 April 15, 2013; Forest City. April 6, 2013; Reidsville.

Linda G. Hardy ’76 MA ’81 Donald Gene Young EDS ’94 April 16, 2013; Sylva. Feb. 20, 2013; Glendale, Ky.

Elizabeth F. Hargett ’70 class ALUMNI DEATHS Feb. 27, 2013; Newman, Ga. Kristen Ann Almand ’05 Martha J. Harrison ’75 UNIVERSITY DEATHS March 4, 2013; Trinity. March 20, 2013; Charlotte. Angela Laird Brenton, provost, May 8, NOTES 2013; Dillsboro. Carolyn Jeanie Ashe ’87 Rosalind Stalcup Hawk ’80 March 2, 2013; Hendersonville. Feb. 28, 2013; Andrews. Sona G. Norton ’86, Mountain Heritage Center office manager, June 15, 2013; Robert Jack Baker ’65 Laverne Isarael Hendrix ’39 MA ’56 Sylva. Sept. 12, 2012; Bryson City. March 9, 2013; High Point. Horace Ray, former staff member in WCU Sara Sullivan Boone ’69 Charles David “Babe” Howell ’54 dining services, Feb. 27, 2013; Sylva. March 23, 2013; Buford, Ga. MAEd ’56 May 4, 2013; Newland.

Patricia D. Brown MAEd ’03 EDS ’05 Louis Lunceford Kovacs ’70 EDD ’11 March 23, 2013; Leicester. Feb. 26, 2013; Charlotte.

50 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University LASTING LEGACY Provost Angi Brenton had a major impact on WCU in a short period of time By BILL STUDENC MPA ’10

Angela Laird Brenton served as provost and vice chancellor while being a good listener and she had that rare talent of for academic affairs for only nine months before pancreatic bringing large groups to decisions rather quickly. All the way cancer claimed her life May 8, but members of the campus around, her passing was a huge loss for the university.” community agree she left an indelible mark on the institution. Brenton came to WCU from UALR, where she had served as In addition to guiding WCU through the process of program dean of the College of Professional Studies since 2001. Belcher prioritization (see related story on Page 11) and hiring three and Brenton had worked together previously at UALR, where deans, Brenton spearheaded the creation of a new campus he served as provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs leadership initiative and established an event designed to prior to his appointment as WCU chancellor in 2011, and at encourage young people to share innovative ideas for improving Missouri State University, where he was dean of the College their communities. of Arts and Letters and she was head of the Department of “Our hearts are broken,” said WCU Chancellor David O. Communication and Mass Media. Belcher. “In her short time in Cullowhee, Angi has been a After Brenton’s death, her husband, Keith (who works in wonderful colleague and friend. Although Angi was at Western WCU’s Office of Communications and Public Relations), Carolina for less than a year, she has had a tremendous impact suggested that anyone wishing to make a lasting tribute on this university through her leadership on several significant consider a donation of any size to a variety of organizations, initiatives, and she quickly became a respected and beloved including a scholarship fund she established at WCU for member of the WCU family. Her passing saddens us deeply.” Honors College students. Angi Brenton (shown here Brenton was instrumental in launching WCU’s new Beth Tyson Lofquist ’78 MAEd ’79 EdS ’88, who served as speaking at a campus Leadership Academy. Patterned after a similar college- interim provost from 2011 until 2012, has agreed to come out gathering) quickly became level initiative she started at the University of Arkansas at of retirement and serve again in an interim capacity while a known by her colleagues for Little Rock, the effort to nurture faculty and staff leaders by national search is under way for the next provost. her skills as a communicator. providing them with professional and personal development opportunities alongside other campus colleagues gets under way this fall with its first class of participants. “She wanted to carry the spirit of what she had done at UALR and expand it to the entire WCU campus and the whole region. Part of the concept of leadership on an engaged campus like ours is having leaders reach out to the community, which is one reason why our academy will end with a leadership tour across the region,” said Laura Cruz, director of WCU’s Coulter Faculty Commons and chair of the Leadership Academy Steering Committee. “And she would say, ‘this is no sage on a stage,’ where somebody talks to you for two or three hours about leadership. It’s about people coming together in an interactive format to help solve problems. She had a real vision of our strength as educators, and how to make those strengths even better.” Brenton also helped establish the inaugural WCU Discovery Forum, part of an initiative launched by the N.C. State University-based Institute for Emerging Issues to promote young leaders and community interaction. At the WCU event in April, student teams selected by a special campus committee shared with an audience of students, faculty and community members the results of research projects aimed at offering a potential solution to a significant societal problem, doing so in a series of five-minute presentations. Among her top priorities was the hiring of deans to lead WCU’s Kimmel School of Construction Management and Technology, College of Arts and Sciences, and College of Health and Human Sciences; and conducting a comprehensive examination of the university’s academic programs, the first since the 2000-01 academic year, in order to assess their quality and productivity and to help determine allocation of resources. “I have reported directly to six vice chancellors or provosts and learned from each of them. Still, I was absolutely amazed at Angi’s work as provost in the short time she was here,” said Brian Railsback, dean of the Honors College. “She brought the concept of the Discovery Forum to campus, and she did a very difficult yet brilliant job with the program prioritization process. At meetings, she moved the discussion along efficiently

Fall 2013 | 51 eventsCALENDAR

AUGUST SUNDAY, SEPT. 8 SATURDAY, SEPT. 14 SATURDAY, AUG. 17 Catamount soccer – vs. Charlotte. Catamount football – vs. The Citadel. Valley Ballyhoo – Annual event highlighting 2 p.m. Catamount Athletic Complex. Catamount Club Day. 3:30 p.m. student and community organizations. 800.34.GOWCU E.J. Whitmire Stadium. 800.34.GOWCU Music, food, entertainment. 4:30-7 p.m. University Center lawn. 828.227.3621 MONDAY, SEPT. 9 – FRIDAY, SEPT. 13 SATURDAY, SEPT. 21 Sand Mandala: Mystical Arts of Tibet – Catamount football – vs. Mars Hill. Family TUESDAY, AUG. 27 “Painting” with colored sand, from the Weekend. 3:30 p.m. E.J. Whitmire Stadium. School of Music Faculty Showcase artistic traditions of Tantric Buddhism, 800.34.GOWCU Concert – Musicians who teach display will be displayed. Part of the Arts and their multifaceted gifts and passions. Cultural Events Series. 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 25 – 7:30 p.m. Recital Hall, Coulter Building. Grandroom, A.K. Hinds University Center. SATURDAY, SEPT. 28 828.227.7242 828.227.3622 “Next to Normal” – Musical depicting the struggles of a suburban mom with bipolar WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 11 disorder and its effects on her and her SEPTEMBER Sacred Music Sacred Dance – family. Part of the Mainstage theater season. TUESDAY, SEPT. 3 Multiphonic singers of the Drepung 7:30 p.m. Hoey Auditorium. 828.227.2479 Belchers and Friends Concert – Chancellor Loseling monastery will be performing in David Belcher (pianist), wife Susan conjunction with the Mystical Arts of Tibet SATURDAY, SEPT. 28 (soprano), and some of their colleagues event. Part of the Arts and Cultural Events Mountain Heritage Day – 39th annual and friends will perform. 7:30 p.m. Bardo Series. 7:30 p.m. Bardo Arts Center. celebration of Southern Appalachian Arts Center. 828.227.2479 828.227.2479 culture. Food, mountain music, dance, arts, crafts. 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Intramural Fields / Mountain Heritage Center. 828.227.7129 / MountainHeritageDay.com EXHIBITS SUNDAY, SEPT. 29 FINE ART MUSEUM | 828.227.3591 | fineartmuseum.wcu.edu Brass Transit – Tribute to the band Chicago, “Concepts of the Book: Conceptual Artists’ Books from the Collection of the Fine Art Museum.” Selected in 1968-1976. Part of the Galaxy of Stars collaboration with professor Seth McComick and his fall 2012 “Contemporary Art” class. Through Sept. 13. Series. 7:30 p.m. Bardo Arts Center. “Credo: The Photo-ethnography of Rick Cary.” Cary’s work as a documentary photographer is rooted in his 828.227.2479 academic training in both photography and the psychology of art. Through Sept. 6.

MOUNTAIN HERITAGE CENTER | 828.227.7129 | mhc.wcu.edu OCTOBER WEDNESDAY, OCT. 2 “Horace Kephart in the Great Smoky Mountains.” Examines the life of one of the founders of Great Smoky Nai Ni Chen Dance Company – Fusion of Mountains National Park and showcases the museum’s collection of his camping gear. Through September. American modern dance with the splendor “100 Years of Service: Home Demonstration Clubs in North Carolina.” Opening Aug. 1. of Asian art. Part of the Arts and Cultural Events Series. 7:30 p.m. Bardo Arts Center. “Cherokee Arts & Crafts: Tradition and Innovation.” Opening Sept. 9. 828.227.2479 “Migration of the Scotch-Irish People.” Focuses on early settlers to the mountains and explores the tension between religion and law. Ongoing. WEDNESDAY, OCT. 16 Alash Tuvan Ensemble – Tuvan, the art of “A Craftsman’s Legacy: The Furniture of Jesse Bryson Stalcup.” Handcrafted furniture from the early 1900s. Ongoing. throat-singing multiple pitches at once, will “Western Carolina: The Progress of an Idea.” An examination of Robert Lee Madison’s “Cullowhee Idea.” Ongoing. be performed by an ensemble from Siberia. Part of the Arts and Cultural Events Series. 7:30 p.m. Bardo Arts Center Theatre. 52 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University 828.227.2479 SATURDAY, OCT. 19 SUNDAY, NOV. 24 SATURDAY, DEC. 14 Catamount football – vs. Wofford. Hall “Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash” Winter Commencement – 2 p.m. of Fame Day. 3:30 p.m. E.J. Whitmire – Thirty-five hit songs portray the life of Ramsey Center 828.227.7216 Stadium. 800.34.GOWCU the legendary artist. Part of the Galaxy of Stars series. 5 p.m. Bardo Arts Center. Events, times and dates are subject FRIDAY, OCT. 25 - SATURDAY, OCT. 26 828.227.2479 to change. Homecoming – Event schedule online at homecoming.wcu.edu. Parade 6:15 p.m., Friday. Main Street, Sylva. Catamount DECEMBER football – vs. Elon. 3:30 p.m., Saturday. TUESDAY, DEC. 3 E.J. Whitmire Stadium. 800.34.GOWCU “An Enchanted Broadway Holiday Show” For up-to-the-minute – Part of the Arts and Cultural Events Series. 7:30 p.m. Bardo Arts Center. information, event details and NOVEMBER 828.227.2479 a complete listing of university FRIDAY, NOV. 8 Catamount soccer – Senior Day match WEDNESDAY, DEC. 4 events, visit events.wcu.edu. vs. Wofford. 2 p.m. Catamount Athletic Taradiddle Players Holiday Performance – Complex. 800.34.GOWCU A version of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” performed in the “commedia dell’arte” WEDNESDAY, NOV. 13 – FRIDAY, NOV. 15 style. 1 p.m. Grandroom, A.K. Hinds VISIT US ONLINE AT SUNDAY, NOV. 17 – TUESDAY, NOV. 19 University Center. 828.227.7242 “Zombies on Campus! A MAGAZINE.WCU.EDU SlaughterPocalypse” – An original SUNDAY, DEC. 8 FOR ANYWHERE-ACCESS drama in an intimate stage setting. “Sounds of the Season” – Holiday music TO MAGAZINE FEATURES Part of the Mainstage theater season. performances by WCU instrumental and AND ONLINE EXTRAS. 7:30 p.m. Bardo Arts Center. vocal ensembles. 3 p.m. Bardo Arts 828.227.2479 Center. 828.227.2479

ON THE ROAD AGAIN Alumni events scheduled across the Southeast through 2014 Chancellor David O. Belcher is spanning the Southeast for a series of events designed to keep the university connected with alumni, friends and elected officials. The visits – with stops across North Carolina and in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee – is a follow-up to the 2011 “Get Acquainted Tour,” which took Belcher and wife Susan to some 15 municipalities over four months during his first year as chancellor. “When we visited communities across the region and state in 2011, one thing we heard over and over again was that the ‘Get Acquainted Tour’ should not be a one-time thing,” said Marty Ramsey ’85, director of alumni affairs. “Friends and alumni asked us to return to their communities and update them about what is going on at the university, and that is what we intend to do.” The new series of visits began with a June event in Murphy at Doyle’s Cedar Hill Restaurant, sponsored by the Murphy Electric Power Board, for alumni and friends from Cherokee, Clay and Graham counties. It was followed by a July reception for members of the Greater Asheville/ Hendersonville communities held at Highland Brewing Co., sponsored by Tim Gillespie ’86 and Betsy Gillespie ’86. Next stops are Wednesday, Sept. 11, in the Greater Raleigh/Triangle area at the Raleigh Marriott City Center and Tuesday, Sept. 24, in the Greater Charlotte area at the Westin Charlotte. Both events will be from 6:30 until 8 p.m. The tentative schedule includes future visits in North Carolina to Greensboro, Sylva, Cherokee, Hickory and Southern Pines, and out-of-state stops in South Carolina, Greater Atlanta, Tampa and Orlando in Florida, and Nashville and Knoxville in Tennessee. Chancellor David Belcher (above) connects with alumni and friends in the For information, contact the Office of Alumni Affairs at 877.440.9990 Asheville area at a recent reception. Among them are (below, from left) or via email at [email protected]. Alumni and friends are invited to Matt Janney ’01, Aaron D’Innocenzi ’10, Terri Lynn Queen ’88 and share photographs taken during these events on the WCU Alumni Josh D’Innocenzi ’04, who all work at Clear Channel Radio in Asheville. Association Facebook page, www.facebook.com/WCUAlumni. WCU isWCU a University of North Carolina campus and an Equal Opportunity Institution. 55,000 copies of this public document were printed at a cost of $19,330.32 or $.35 each. Office of Public Relations/Creative Services | August | 2013 13-152

Fall 2013 | 53 THE VIEW FROM HERE

Public higher education provides benefits to the individual and society alike

Chris Cooper, head of the Department of Political Science and Public Affairs, shared these thoughts at WCU’s Graduate School commencement exercises. Cooper was named WCU’s recipient of the University of North Carolina Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching for 2013.

There is much to celebrate this commencement day. You have before Chapel Hill enrolled its first students, the state Constitution sacrificed a lot over the past one, two, three, four – or in a few proclaimed “all useful learning shall be duly encouraged, and cases six, seven or eight – years. You’ve chosen education over promoted, in one or more universities.” In our second and third work, over play and over time with family and friends. You state Constitutions, the state declared education is “necessary are preparing yourself to be successful in a rapidly changing to good government and the happiness of mankind” and then economy. You recognized that education does not end the instructed the General Assembly to “provide that the benefits of moment you receive your undergraduate degree. For all this, the University of North Carolina and other public institutions of you should be proud. And you chose to further your education higher education, as far as practicable, be extended to the people in a public institution. For this, you should be proud, as well. of the state free of expense.” Most of you had a choice of where to go to graduate school, Why were they so committed to education? Did they just and there were public and private options. Take the MBA, for want you to make more money and get a good job? Partially, example. I did some some Googling (or, in today’s parlance, yes. If you’re making more and are gainfully employed, you will “research”) and there are 14 private schools offering MBAs in contribute more to the economy. You’re more likely to buy a house the state. But you chose WCU. My guess is that cost was among or the entire collection of “Game of Thrones” and less likely to the reasons why. One private university charges $24,000 a year commit crimes. According to your state Constitution, you’re also for its MBA program. You can go to WCU for a third of that more likely to be a better citizen and to live a happier life. Public cost. Does that mean we offer an education that is one-third education is a rare example of something that provides both the quality, or that we’re such terrific money managers that we private benefits to you and public benefits to the state as a whole. can run a program for one-third as much as our private school Of course, not all government is good. As my economist friends colleagues? Maybe we give you the same degree for one-third remind me, most goods are better provided by the private market. the number of credits? Of course not. We charge what we charge I don’t want a national, state or local department of snack foods, because your fellow citizens and your government made an and there’s a reason Congress is less popular than Nickelback, investment in your education. The state appropriates more than traffic jams or cockroaches, but our support of public education $11,000 annually for every UNC system student’s education. has worked tremendously well for 200-plus years. It works in Even if you paid “full freight,” state government put in more Cullowhee, it works in Wilmington, it works in Chapel Hill and, money toward your tuition than you did. much as it pains me to admit, it even works in Boone. These days, it is unusual to point out how our accomplishments You went to a public institution for graduate school, so you are connected to government. As a political scientist, I may be wondering what you owe the state. Fortunately, from can tell you that people hate government. Democrats hate here on your interests align pretty well with the state’s. You government, Republicans hate government, people who own owe it to the state to use your degree to be financially stable and cats hate government, people who hate the people who own prosperous. On average, a graduate degree translates to about 38 cats hate government. People who want to be in government percent more income per year – so far, so good. Drawing from the run campaigns based on how much they hate government. Can Constitution, you also owe it to the state to live a life that benefits you imagine this in another line of work: interviewing for sales “the happiness of mankind” and “supports good government.” manager of Doritos by saying you’re patently against snack foods? Here, too, your graduate degree will help. Education is consistently Yet that’s what we do. And it’s pretty successful. Only a quarter tied to happiness. Those with graduate degrees are much more of all people trust government nationally. In North Carolina, likely to vote, engage in other forms of political participation, it’s not much better. Recent polls suggest that people here aren’t and volunteer. Most importantly, you owe it to the folks who will real fond of the Legislature. And you Democrats don’t get too walk across this stage in the future that they will have the same excited – when you were in charge, people were so upset that support from the state that has allowed you to be here today. they voted you out of office. So give yourself a pat on the back. You deserve it. Hug your Despite this hatred of government, there are some things family; they deserve it, too. Then walk up to any North Carolina government does well – public education is one of them. adult you don’t know and say “thank you” for contributing to your Fortunately, we’ve long recognized that in this state. We’ve had education; they certainly deserve it, as well. Finally, remember three different North Carolina Constitutions, and there have that among your goals, along with money and prestige and been a lot of changes across those documents. But one theme has security and happiness, should rest an obligation to the welfare remained virtually untouched. In 1776, about 100 years before of the whole North Carolina community that has taken a part Robert Lee Madison hatched the “Cullowhee Idea,” and just in lifting you up.

54 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University END OF AN ERA? LAST When the Western Carolina football team travels to Appalachian State for a Nov. 23 game, it apparently will signal the end of “The Battle for the Old Mountain Jug.” With ASU leaving the Southern Conference for the Sun Belt next season, this LOOK year is expected to mark the last time the longtime mountain rivals, who have met 77 times since 1932, will compete on the gridiron – at least for the foreseeable The Catamount and future. There have been moments both memorable and forgettable in the games Mountaineer mascots that have been played since the jug was created in 1976. What’s your favorite arm wrestle for the Old memory from the WCU/App State rivalry? Email us at [email protected] Mountain Jug in 1997. (subject line: “Old Mountain Jug”) or send us a letter at Old Mountain Jug, 420 H.F. Robinson Building, Cullowhee, N.C., 28723. And while passions run high when it comes to this rivalry, keep it clean!

Fall 2013 | 55 WESTERN CAROLINA UNIVERSITY 1 UNIVERSITY WAY CULLOWHEE, NC 28723