All that brass: WCU’s Trumpet Festival is quickly becoming an international affair
By Michael Beadle
Brad Ulrich was 10 years old when he began playing the trumpet. He’d started with the guitar but picked up his brother’s trumpet to sneak a few notes here and there.
Southern Comfort Food
By Michael Beadle
Long before the days of microwaves and fast food meals, there was the slow-cooked stew, a Southern standard prepared in vast pots over an open fire. These stews included tender meats, fresh vegetables, secret seasonings and a day’s worth of preparations that would bring out an entire community.
WCU trustees OK fee increases
Western Carolina University’s board of trustees unanimously approved proposed tuition and fees for the 2008-09 academic year, including increases to support operational costs for a new indoor recreation center currently under construction and to begin meeting student requests for enhanced campus health services.
WCU forges ongoing relationship with Canton
By Julia Merchant • Staff Writer
With a new town board, a new town manager, and a growing influx of young Asheville commuters looking for affordable housing, the town of Canton is setting itself up for some major changes — and students from Western Carolina University want to help.
Island music in the mountains: Western Carolina University’s gamelan orchestra helps share the music of Malaysian culture
By Michael Beadle
A few days before Halloween, strange sounds were coming from room 451 in the Coulter Building on the campus of Western Carolina University.
Giving nature a helping hand: Western Carolina University’s Forest Sustainability Initiative unites students with landowners to help maintain the future of forests
By Michael Beadle
Peter Bates inspects a trio of cucumber trees growing closely together on a 20-acre tract of woods in the Balsam Mountain Preserve in Jackson County.
He checks to see if one of the trees died from a chainsaw cut known as “girdling,” in which a partial cut is made around the tree trunk. It’s a forestry management practice used these days. The idea is that some trees have to die so that others will survive, thus maintaining a healthy and productive forest.
New WCU business dean has academic, business experience
Ronald A. Johnson, who holds the JP Morgan Chase Chair in Finance in the Jesse H. Jones School of Business at Texas Southern University, is the next dean of the College of Business at Western Carolina University.
Putting the “mock” in Democracy: Capitol Steps troupe brings political laughs to WCU
By Michael Beadle
Along with death and taxes, one of the most predictable things in life seems to be political scandal, and for the past quarter century few comedy groups in America have done a better job of poking fun at our elected officials than the Capitol Steps.
From Waynesville to the Big Apple
By Michael Beadle
Nick Taylor’s career in journalism has spanned four decades and several cities, but it all began in Western North Carolina.
WCU launches ambitious $40 million campaign
Western Carolina University Chancellor John W. Bardo has officially launched the first comprehensive fundraising campaign in the university’s 118-year history, a drive to raise at least $40 million in private support to help meet a renewed emphasis on academic quality.
