Thank you, Jacqui, and good afternoon, everyone. Congratulations on a great start to the semester! It’s definitely off and running.
Today, I want to expand upon a couple of points from my remarks during the State of the University address earlier this month. We had great attendance at that meeting, and hopefully you were all there. If you weren’t, you can find the video and transcript on the chancellor.appstate.edu website.
I’ll also highlight valuable partnerships App State is making through the Aspire Appalachian program and a new agreement with the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine signing.
As I stated last week, we’re refining how the Hickory Campus aligns with the overall university mission to better serve the community and the campus. To do so, we'll be refining some of the course offerings, which includes the possibility of offering Hickory-only majors. As you know, it is important that App State offers the majors that students want, provides students with the ability to complete gen ed and business core courses and supports the workforce needs of the community.
In case you haven’t seen the enrollment story Chancellor Norris shared on Friday, we’re working to carefully manage Boone campus numbers, and Hickory and online are two areas where we can work to expand capacity. Hickory campus enrollment grew by 41% from last year. The campus now serves 511 students. First-generation and rural areas are well represented on that campus: 294 are first-gen, and 346 are from underserved, or rural, North Carolina counties.
Moving forward, we’ll rely heavily on our academic and research strategic plans to inform how we can best serve the state and region with the options we have for our students to earn undergraduate degrees in 4 years, and we are dedicated to the exploration of additional graduate degrees in support of areas where we strategically lead and where the market shows demand.
Our goal is to ensure students can pick the best path of success for themselves. That could mean completing every course requirement in Hickory, beginning at a community college and finishing at Hickory, beginning in Hickory and finishing in Boone, or including online courses as they need them. Again, these scenarios will be guided and aligned with the Academic Affairs strategic plan and the needs of the market.
You’ve probably heard me before talk about removing barriers to success. I said at the State of the University address that whether that means cutting through a bunch of bureaucratic paperwork or requirements we’ve built into our systems over time — we are and will continue to prioritize this in Academic Affairs. I want everyone to have the most efficient path to their academic and career development goals and achievements. At the top of my agenda is an implementation of the Academic Affairs strategic plan, and I continue to welcome your input on that.
The Chancellor and I both recognize the importance of collaborative communication, and in Academic Affairs, our team continues to develop methods and avenues for achieving this. One example is the work by Jamie Parson to ensure faculty have clear guidance and understanding on policy and any changes to policy, so that you can focus on teaching, research, and creative endeavors and service. We will continue this work throughout the semester and I will keep you informed as the academic year progresses.
Over the last couple weeks, I have signed agreements on behalf of App State with Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College and Mitchell Community College through our Aspire Appalachian program. This program simplifies the transfer process for community college students, helping lower the overall cost of a four-year degree and reducing student loan debt. In the last few months, we’ve expanded the program to include 27 partner community colleges. We have long-standing and strong partnership with each of these schools, and share a goal working collaboratively to increase access to education for more students in our state.
Our latest census data show that App State currently serves more than 5,100 undergraduate transfer students — and we’ve consistently been named to Phi Theta Kappa’s national Transfer Honor Roll for our dynamic and innovative pathways that lead to success among community college transfer students. A big thanks to those of you in this room, and the many faculty and staff — particularly those who do advising work — for helping App achieve this important recognition.
Tomorrow, I invite you to join me in the lobby of the B.B. Dougherty Administration Building at 10:30 a.m. as App State signs an agreement with the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine. Each year about 625 seats are filled across VCOM’s four campuses out of 16,000 applicants. This agreement guarantees an interview for admission for any App State graduate who qualifies for their "Guaranteed Interview for Admissions Program.”
Since opening VCOM–Carolinas in Spartanburg, South Carolina in 2011, to address healthcare shortages in upstate South Carolina, VCOM–Carolinas has placed more than 900 physicians in upstate South Carolina and western North Carolina. The majority of them practice in rural and medically underserved communities.
VCOM’s senior dean, Dr. Matthew Cannon, acknowledges the rigorous pre-med program we offer, which prepares our students to be good candidates for VCOM.
Again, this is a faculty accolade, and another example of your commitment to the success of all of our students.
So, with another academic year underway, please share my thanks to the faculty you represent for a strong start to a year that will continue to bolster our already acclaimed academic success. It is your hard work that makes all these opportunities possible.
So thank you. I’m looking forward to a great year ahead, and to continuing to work with you.
Chair Bergman, this concludes my remarks.