MARCH 19, 2009 ISSUE
ASU To Offer 200 Fewer Classes Next Year
Officers for Appalachian State University’s Board of Trustees are Jeannine Underdown Collins, left, vice chairman of the board; John Blackburn, chairman; and Hughlene Bostian Frank, right, secretary. Kathy Roark, special assistant to the chancellor, is assistant secretary. Photo by University Photographer Marie Freeman
ASU Chancellor Kenneth Peacock announced at the March 6 Board of Trustees meeting that the university will be able to offer 200 fewer classes next year because of state-mandated budget cuts. The cutbacks will result in fewer available course sections, increased class sizes and a heavier workload for faculty, and some students could face graduation delays.
“It is serious—there’s no doubt about it,” Peacock said at the meeting.
Lynn Drury, associate vice chancellor for communications and cultural affairs, said the university has thus far been asked to trim about $7.2 million from the campus budget and could be asked to cut an additional 1 percent.
Peacock said that ASU has not yet had to cut jobs. Instead, Drury said, the university does not plan to fill faculty positions that are currently vacant or that become vacant.
“One of the side effects is it will take some students longer to graduate because they can’t get the class section that they need,” Drury said.
Board of Trustees Approves Mountaineer Apartments Demolition
At the March 6 meeting, the Board of Trustees approved a plan to demolish the Mountaineer Apartments on Bodenheimer Drive to make way for a 400- to 500-bed undergraduate residence hall.
The university says the apartments, built in the early 1970s, have structural and infrastructure deficiencies because of their age. Mountaineer Apartments currently houses about 115 graduate and nontraditional students.
The estimated completion date of the new complex is fall 2011, pending approval from various state agencies. Demolition of Mountaineer Apartments would begin in summer 2010.
ASU currently houses about 5,000 students, or one-third of its student population, on campus. The trustees have said they want to increase student housing by 40 percent.
New Board of Trustees Officers Begin Terms
John Blackburn of Linville began his two-year term as chairman of the ASU Board of Trustees during the March 6 meeting. Jeannine Underdown Collins of Boone is the board’s vice chairman, and Hughlene Frank of Greensboro is the board secretary.
According to an ASU press release, Blackburn is president and general manager of Linville Resorts. He serves on the boards of Charles A. Cannon Jr. Memorial Hospital, Watauga Medical Center and Appalachian Regional Healthcare System. He is chairman of the Gordon and Mary Cain Scholarship Program, a member of the Linville Foundation, and co-founder and chair of the YMCA of Avery County.
Collins is president of Underdown and Associates of Boone. She earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Appalachian in 1979 and a master’s degree in history in 1981.
She served on the chancellor’s search committee, the search committee for the director of athletics and the chancellor’s installation committee. She is a past president of Appalachian’s Alumni Council. Collins is a member of the university’s Athletics Council and has been active on the Yosef Club Advisory Board, including terms as secretary, vice president and president. She received the alumni council’s Outstanding Service Award in 1996. Collins also serves on the Boone Tourism Development Authority and the board of directors for the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce.
Frank is a 1968 graduate of Appalachian. She is a past chair and current member of Appalachian’s College of Arts and Sciences Advancement Council and an active community volunteer in Greensboro. The university’s visiting writers series is named in her honor.
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