WCU mourns the passing of Provost Angi Brenton

Angela Laird Brenton, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at Western Carolina University since Aug. 1, passed away Wednesday, May 8, after a three-month battle with pancreatic cancer.

Sony gifts state-of-the-art camera to film program

Western Carolina University celebrated the gift of a state-of-the-art professional camera from Sony valued at nearly $100,000 on Friday, May 3, at the fifth annual Controlled Chaos Film Festival of student productions.

WCU campus master planners to seek community input May 13 in Sylva

Representatives of the firms assisting Western Carolina University in drafting a comprehensive master plan that will guide campus development and improvements in the years ahead will seek input from members of the community Monday, May 13, in Sylva.

Honors College students primed for graduate school

Western Carolina University’s spring graduating class includes 174 undergraduate students who will be receiving their diplomas as members of the university’s Honors College, and if past trends are any indication, many of those students will soon transition to graduate schools, including WCU’s, to begin work on their master’s, doctorates and other graduate degrees.

Dean’s post-apocalyptic novel raises money for daughter’s mission trip

Not long after reading Cormac McCarthy’s dark, post-apocalyptic novel “The Road,” Honors College dean Brian Railsback was haunted by questions – questions that eventually drove him to write and recently publish “A Going Concern.”

Students draft business plan to help develop WCU health clinic

Recommendations in a 100-page business plan created by Western Carolina University seniors are helping guide development of a self-sustaining primary care health clinic in the university’s Health and Human Sciences Building.

Online photo archive grows through WCU-Great Smokies partnership

“Picturing Appalachia” is a collection of more than 1,000 early 20th-century photographs that provides a glimpse into the life, culture and natural landscape of the Southern Appalachian mountains in and around Western North Carolina.

Spring commencement ceremonies to be May 10-11

Western Carolina University will hold three commencement ceremonies over a two-day period – Friday and Saturday, May 10-11 – to recognize the academic achievements of the university’s record-breaking spring graduating class.

Recycling bins donated to WCU placed on campus

Western Carolina University volunteers recently placed on campus the majority of 75 new recycling bins received through the Alcoa Foundation Recycling Bin Grant Program.

News Briefs

• Students challenged with using line, color, mass and other kinetic elements to present risks and rewards in a miniature golf course as part of a three-dimensional design honors project shared the fruits of their labor - the Wacky Western Miniature Golf course - on the lawn of A.K. Hinds University Center in early May. (more...) #
• A ceremony on Monday, May 6, honored the late Janice Hooper Holt, who was Western Carolina University's executive director of teacher recruitment, advising and career support, with the planting of a dogwood tree near the Killian Building and awarding of two student awards named for Holt. (more...) #
• WCU sport management’s inaugural undergraduate research team placed sixth out of 13 universities in the case study competition at the College Sport Research Institute Conference at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in April. (more...) #
• Students in the master’s degree program in human resources offered through the Department of Human Services served as HR consultants to four nonprofit organizations in North Carolina as part of their coursework this spring. (more...) #
• Several WCU faculty members will present at the Cashiers Historical Society annual symposium focusing on Cherokee history Thursday, May 23, in Cashiers. (more...) #
• The spring issue of The Magazine of Western Carolina University is now available online. (more...) #