The 38th annual Uberto Price Reading and Language Arts Symposium will be held Friday, Nov. 2, from 9:45 a.m. to noon at the Broyhill Inn and Conference. A light fare reception will be held at 4 p.m. Nov. 2 in the Reich College of Education’s Room 02 Edwin Duncan Hall. Keynote speaker Dr. Charles Perfetti will discuss his latest paper, “Reading ability: Lexicalquality to comprehension,” an expansion and adaptation of his book “Reading Ability” published in 1985. To reserve a space, contact Dolly Farrell at farrelldm@appstate.edu or 2804.

Faculty, staff and students are invited to celebrate the founding of Appalachian’s new University College on Wednesday, Oct. 31, from 4-6 p.m. in the lobby of D.D. Dougherty Hall (between Old Library Classroom Building and the new library). Light refreshments will be served. Board of Trustees Chair Jim Deal, Chancellor Ken Peacock and Provost Stan Aeschleman will make remarks beginning at 4:45 p.m.

Coffey, Doughton, East, Hoey, Lovill and White residence halls will sponsor Trick-or-Treating for kids Tuesday, Oct. 30, from 6-8 p.m. The event is sponsored by Housing and Residence Life and White RSA and is run by each individual building. All trick-or-treaters and their parents should park in the faculty/staff lots on the east side of campus or in the Rivers Street Parking Deck. Student will escort trick-or-treaters through the building. Please wait patiently for someone to meet you, and do not wander through the buildings unescorted. There will be rooms in each building where children can trick or treat. Some of the residence halls will have activities set up in the lobby. For more information, call 262-2160.

The Boone Chapter of the American Guild of Organists and the Hayes School of Music will present a Halloween Monster Concert, Wednesday, Oct. 31, at 8 p.m. in Broyhill Music Center’s Rosen Concert Hall. Admission is free and costumes are encouraged. Featured will be Bach’s famous “Toccata and Fugue in d minor” with audience participation, the singing of “Pumpkin Carols,” a name-that-scary-tune quiz, free candy and more. For more information, call Joby Bell at 6467 or e-mail belljr@appstate.edu.

All faculty/staff who associate with or self-identify as GLBTQ (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender or Queer) are invited to a brown bag lunch Wednesday, Oct. 31, at 11:30 a.m. in the Jimmy Smith Lounge of Welborn Cafeteria. Guests speakers will be GLBT Task Force members discussing a proposed GLBT Center on campus. They seek opinions on the center’s services, location, etc. For more information, contact Linda Coutant at coutantla@appstate.edu.

Belk Library and Information Commons will host a Virtual Library Open House featuring “The Haunted Garden” Oct. 31 from noon to 4 p.m. in Room 024. Appalachian has its own virtual world called the AETZone where students attend classes and work cooperatively online. There is a virtual library called the Information Gardens, which provides library services and support to the students enrolled in AETZone courses. A haunted garden has been created in AETZone for Halloween. Computers will be set up in Room 024. Stop by, choose a Halloween avatar and meander through the AETZone and the haunted garden.

The Turchin Center for the Visual Arts will host a reception Friday, Nov. 2, from 7-9 p.m. celebrating continuing and new exhibits. New for the TCVA and part of the fall and winter exhibition season is Family Day, Saturday, Nov. 3, from 11 a.m.- 3 p.m. Bring the entire family for a full day of art, fun activities and live music. In addition, the following bands will provide an entertaining and varied musical experience: noon–12:45 p.m., jazz and blues group Swing Guitars; 1 p.m.–1:45 p.m., Brazilian jazz with Banana da Terra; and 2 p.m.–2:45 p.m., reggae beat with Hope Massive. All events are free and open to the public.

The Degas Quartet will perform Wednesday, Nov. 7, at 8 p.m. in Broyhill Music Center’s Rosen Concert Hall. The performance is presented by the Office of Arts and Cultural Programs in partnership with the Hayes Endowment for Musical Excellence. General admission tickets are $10 in advance and $12 at the door. For tickets or information, call the Farthing Auditorium Box Office at 4046 or visit www.pas.appstate.edu.

The Performing Arts Series will present the Seán Curran Dance Company at 8 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 9, in Farthing Auditorium. Tickets are $18 for the general public, $16 for seniors, faculty and staff, and $10 for students and children. Ticket prices increase at the door on show nights. For tickets or information, call the Farthing Auditorium Box Office at 4046 or visit www.pas.appstate.edu.

The Department of Theatre and Dance, College of Fine and Applied Arts, and the Office of Cultural Programs will host the 2007 North Carolina Dance Alliance Annual Event: Weaving Communities Through Dance, Thursday through Saturday, Nov. 8-10. The event marks NCDA’s 25th anniversary. All events are open to the public. For complete schedule information, registration and fees, visit www.ncdancealliance.org.

The Department of Theatre and Dance will present the dark comedy “The Waiting Room” by Lisa Loomer Nov. 13-19 in I.G. Greer Studio Theatre. “The Waiting Room” contains mature themes and is not appropriate for young children. Show times are 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and Monday, with a 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday, Nov. 18. Tickets are $10 and $6. Call the Valborg Box Office at 3063 for tickets and more information, or visit www.theatre.appstate.edu.

Because Veterans Day falls on a Sunday this year, Appalachian will hold a ceremony honoring veterans on Monday, Nov. 12. The event begins at 7:30 a.m. at the memorial beside B.B. Dougherty Administration Building. A continental breakfast will be served in the administration building lobby following the ceremony. The public is invited. Brian Stokes will be the guest speaker. Stokes enrolled at Appalachian in 2005 as a 26-year-old freshman. Prior to his arrival in the High Country, Stokes spent five years in the U.S. Marine Corps, serving deployments to more than 10 countries during his military career, including two tours of duty in Iraq.

The National Center for Developmental Education (NCDE), housed in the Reich College of Education, is inviting proposals for its 4th International Conference in Access and Developmental Education to be held Sept. 24-27, 2008, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The deadline for submissions is April 1, 2008.

The conference is designed to encourage an international dialogue on topics related to research in access, developmental education, learning assistance, and diversity in postsecondary education.

The Conference Program Committee welcomes proposals on any topic related to developmental or access education and related support services for underprepared college students. Appropriate proposals might include reports of program activities based on research and theory, reviews of assessment instruments and techniques, results from master’s theses or doctoral dissertations, reports of ongoing program evaluation, reviews of literature, models for evaluation, summaries and analyses of state or local data collections activities, or research-based theories or models, especially those including application to goals related to diversifying higher education.

For additional information or to submit a proposal, visit http://www.ncde.appstate.edu, or call 3057.

UNC-Greensboro will host the Lilly Conference on College and University Teaching February 8-10, 2008, at the Koury Convention Center in Greensboro. The 2008 conference theme is “Learning by Design.” The deadline for proposal submission is Nov. 16. Proposals may be submitted at https://utlc.uncg.edu/conference/lillysouth/form.jsp. Additional information about the conference is available at http://www.uncg.edu/tlc/lillysouth/.

Chronicle of Higher Education
Most colleges have two or three levels of remedial math, also known as precollege or developmental math, starting with arithmetic and ending with beginning or intermediate algebra. The courses are typically pass-fail and not for credit, and are a prerequisite for credit-bearing math courses and most degree-granting majors and programs.

Estimates vary, but many community-college educators and experts say that on average between 40 percent and 70 percent of new students entering two-year colleges around the country place into remedial math.

“There are students taking these courses three, four, five times before they can pass them, and many who drop out, give up before they do,” says Barbara S. Bonham, coordinator of the higher-education graduate program at Appalachian State University and a consultant to colleges on remedial education. “That’s incredibly disturbing, and demonstrates that something is wrong — with the curriculum, with the teaching, with something or a combination of things that must be identified and addressed at every institution.” Read full story

Raleigh News and Observer
Fighting global warming could be a boon for North Carolina’s economy, researchers said Tuesday. If the state implements a host of strategies to cut greenhouse gas emissions, more than 325,000 jobs and $20 billion could be added to the state’s economy by 2020, according to a preliminary report from Appalachian State University. Read full story

Winston-Salem Journal

It was raining so much yesterday in the middle of the drought that it was hard to see the colorful mountain leaves.

Scientists across the state had predicted that the drought would mute leaf colors this fall.

But Gary Walker, a biology professor at Appalachian State University, had bucked the trend, predicting that the northwest mountain counties may have gotten just enough rain over the summer to produce good color. Read full story

Baltimore Sun
Football players and other athletes who engage in vigorous exercise for 90 minutes or more, such as cyclists and swimmers in hard training, appear to be at greater risk for contracting community-acquired MRSA because of the exercise, says David C. Nieman, an exercise immunologist at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C. Read full story

Winston-Salem Journal

Tuition bills have gone up for students at North Carolina’s four-year colleges this year, but the increases are slightly less than national averages, according to the College Board’s annual report on college costs.

The average cost of tuition and fees at four-year public colleges for in-state students in North Carolina has increased 6 percent, from $4,067 to $4,320, according to the report. For in-state students, tuition and fees this year at the 16 colleges in the UNC system vary from $2,897 at Elizabeth City State University to $5,176 at UNC Chapel Hill.

Even with the rising costs, an undergraduate degree at a North Carolina college is still a bargain, said Esther Manogin, the director of financial aid at ASU.

“When you think about it, a student can graduate from Appalachian (State University) for the price of an SUV,” Manogin said. “Contrary to an SUV, which is going to depreciate greatly, the second you drive it off the lot, education is going appreciate.” Read full story

Houston Chronicle

That was the conclusion of a report presented Tuesday to a legislative panel, which heard that the state could net 300,000 more jobs by 2020 by implementing energy efficiency programs and producing more renewable energy.

But that’s just a small percentage of the 5 million jobs now in North Carolina that generate $250 billion in income, said David Ponder, an Appalachian State University graduate research assistant and report co-author. Read full story

Asheville Citizen-Times

That’s the question when it comes to William Shakespeare courses in English departments of the state’s higher education institutions.

According to a study by The John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy study, 48 percent of North Carolina colleges and universities do not require English majors to take a Shakespeare class to graduate. The center is a Raleigh-based nonprofit.

Susan Staub, who teaches Shakespeare at Appalachian State University, said there is a “constant struggle” to include new works and authors in the department while not forgetting the classics. Read full story

Raleigh News and Observer
North Carolina’s economy is moving forward against some strong head winds.

The slowdown is apparent in the state’s employment numbers. In September, statewide unemployment rose to 4.9 percent from 4.8 percent in August, according to figures released Friday by the N.C. Employment Security Commission.

“I feel pretty good about the state economy, quite frankly,” said Harry Davis, a professor at Appalachian State University and economist for the N.C. Bankers Association. “I don’t think we’re going to have a recession anytime soon. There’s enough horsepower out there to keep us out of that.” Read full story