University Police offers training to departments, groups and organizations on how to respond to an active shooter in the workplace or on campus. The one-hour training includes response techniques and provides opportunities for questions and answers. To schedule a presentation, contact Detective K.C. Mitchell at mitchellk@appstate.edu or 6176, Lt. Todd Corley at corleywt@appstate.edu or 6439 or Detective Darrin Tolbert at tolbertld1@appstate.edu or 6581.

Neva J. Specht has been named associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Her appointment is effective Jan. 1, 2010. Specht is an associate professor and assistant department chair in Appalachian’s Department of History. She replaces Rainer H. Goetz who is returning to a full-time faculty position in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures.

Specht joined the faculty at Appalachian in 1996. She is the university’s liaison with the Blue Ridge Parkway. She was campus coordinator of the UNC in Washington program from 2004-05, assistant coordinator of the University Honors Programs from 2001-04, and acting coordinator of the Department of History’s Public History Program for fall 1998.

She holds a Ph.D. in U.S. history from the University of Delaware.

A member of Appalachian’s faculty since 1990, Goetz has served in the dean’s office for 10 years, first as assistant dean then as associate dean for the past three years. In that position, Goetz was responsible for oversight of the college’s summer school operations, assisted with curriculum proposals from the college’s academic departments, and was the college’s liaison with the Office of International Education and Development.

Monica Pombo, associate professor in the electronic media/broadcasting program in the Department of Communication, has been named the department’s assistant chair. She replaces Dr. Carl Tyrie, who has served as interim assistant chair for the past two years. Tyrie will return to full time teaching in the department.

An Appalachian faculty member since 2003, Pombo holds a Ph.D. and a master of arts from the School of Telecommunications at Ohio University. Pombo received the 2008 Dwight L. Freshley “Outstanding Young Educator Award” presented by the Southern States Communication Association (SSCA) to a nominated professor who has been teaching between two and five years and has been outstanding in their teaching efforts.

Appalachian will host a Veterans Day ceremony Wednesday, Nov. 11, beginning at 7:30 a.m. The ceremony will be held at the Veterans Memorial located on the west side of Dougherty Administration Building. A continental breakfast will follow in the Dougherty Administration Building lobby. The public is invited.Guest speaker will be retired Lt. Col. Ron Branch. Branch is a former chair of the Department of Military Science and Leadership at Appalachian. He currently is general manager of University Highlands student apartments.

Dave Haney will present the lecture “Emmanuel Levinas and S.T. Coleridge: Judaic and Romantic Approaches to Ethics, Politics, and Otherness” Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 12,, in Room 114 Belk Library.  The lecture is free and open to the public. This event is sponsored by the Center for Judaic, Holocaust, and Peace Studies.

Haney is the author of two books on Romanticism that draw on the work of Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas. He will consider how Levinas’s post-Holocaust notion of a subjectivity based on a radical  otherness can be interpreted alongside Coleridge’s struggle to formulate a new philosophical relationship  between self and other in the early 19^th century. Both authors, For additional information, call 2311, e-mail t holocaust@appstate.edu, or visit www.holocaust.appstate.edu

Krystal Stewart, a staff member in Advancement Service, has been approved to participate in the Voluntary Shared Leave Program.  To donate vacation time (minimum four hours), send a letter or e-mail to Kathy Hamby, Human Resource Services (hambyka@appstate.edu). Include your Banner Identification Number. The deadline to donate leave is Friday, Nov. 20.

The Department of Biology will hold a class on the selection and proper care of tropical foliage plants. The class will be held Saturday, Nov. 14, at the greenhouse located at 333 Dale Street off State Farm Road. Participants can choose to attend a class from 9:30-11 a.m. or from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. The class is free and the public is invited to attend. This fun class, part of the biology department’s outreach program “High Country Gardening,” will be a continuation of a class offered in October, with a focus on less common species. The class will include a brief tour of the greenhouse conservatory and a demonstration of vegetative propagation techniques.

To register, e-mail greenhouse manager Jerry Meyer at meyerja@appstate.edu or call 262-4025 for more information.

The Office of International Education and Development (OIED) invites the campus community to attend the 5^th Annual International Fair Wednesday, Nov. 18, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Plemmons Student Union’s Grandfather Mountain Ballroom. The fair will introduce students to nearly 60 newly approved faculty-led study abroad programs offered in more than 30 countries for this academic year. The fair will also feature representatives of other study abroad opportunities and international ventures available to students, faculty and staff at Appalachian. Refreshments will be served. For more information about short-term faculty-led Appalachian Overseas Education Programs, visit http://www.international.appstate.edu/education/shortterm.php

For more information about other events organized during International Education Week at Appalachian, visit  http://www.international.appstate.edu/events/iew.php

• The Appalachian Brass Choir will perform Nov. 10 with the Hayes School of Music organ and brass faculty at 8 p.m. in Broyhill Music Center’s Rosen Concert Hall.

• Cellist JW Turner will perform Nov. 13 at 6 p.m. in Broyhill Music Center’s Recital Hall.

• Works for male singers are featured during the Nov. 13 performance of the Appalachian Glee Club. The free performance begins at 8 p.m. in Broyhill Music Center’s Rosen Concert Hall.

• Classical and contemporary works for saxophone will be featured during a Nov. 15 performance at Appalachian. The program begins at 8 p.m. in Broyhill Music Center’s Rosen Concert Hall. Admission is free.

• Grace Anderson will present a cello recital Nov. 20 at 6 p.m. in Broyhill Music Center’s Recital Hall.

• The Appalachian Chorale celebrates its 34th season with a concert of music by Johannes Brahms on Monday, Dec. 7, at 8 p.m. in Broyhill Music Center’s Rosen Concert Hall.

Wellness Peer Educators, 10 selected nationally certified student health educators, are available to come to your class, residence hall, teams, club, floors or any other student organizations/programs and present on various health issues. Some programs are already created and some can be created and tailored to your objective. Visit the Student Wellness Center  Web site at http://wellness.appstate.edu and select “program request.”  At least two weeks notice and at least eight participants are needed for each program. Learn more about the Wellness Peer Educators at http://wellness.appstate.edu/pagesmith/73. The Student Wellness Center calendar is online at http://wellness.appstate.edu/index.php?module=calendar&date=1257048000.

Cuban-born poet Isel Rivero will read from her work Oct. 29 at Appalachian. The reading begins at 7 p.m. in room 114 Belk Library and Information Commons. The public is welcome.

In addition to the reading, Rivero will visit a class on U.S. Hispanic writers Oct. 29 from 3:30-4:45 p.m. in room 507 Sanford Hall, and meet with faculty and students Oct. 30 from 2-3:30 p.m. in Plemmons Student Union’s Watauga Room.

Rivero’s presentations are sponsored by Appalachian’s Global Studies Program, University College and the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures.

The Global Studies Program invites the campus community to the second panel in a special lecture series titled “20 Years after the Wall: 1989-2009,” commemorating the events of autumn 1989 and the opening of the Berlin Wall. The discussion will be held Monday, Oct. 26, from 7-8:30 p.m. in Plemmons Student Union’s Price Lake Room.

Speakers are:

Dr. James Barnes (Government and Justice Studies): “European Democracy Today”

Dr. Laurie Semmes (Hayes School of Music): “The Ukrainian/Bandura: A Metaphor of Freedom in Individual Expression and Collective Unity”

Dr. Nancy Love (Interdisciplinary Studies Program): “Skrewdriver and the Skinhead Scene: Where Anti-Communism Meets Neo-Fascism Before and After the Wall”

Global Studies is a unit within Appalachian’s University College. University College consists of the university’s integrated general education curriculum, academic support services, residential learning communities, interdisciplinary degree programs and co-curricular programming – all designed to support the work of students both inside and outside of the classroom.

An evening of woodwind chamber music will be presented by Oct. 26 by students in the Hayes School of Music. The free performance begins at 8 p.m. in Broyhill Music Center’s Rosen Concert Hall.

Tubas provide more than the “oom-pah” in marching bands or the voice of the mother ship in the movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” Octubafest, a concert Oct. 27 at Appalachian, will showcase the musicality of the tuba and euphonium. The free concert begins at 8 p.m. in Broyhill Music Center’s Rosen Concert Hall. Admission is free.

Collegium Musicum will present a free recital Oct. 28 at 8 p.m. in Broyhill Music Center’s Rosen Concert Hall. The student ensemble performs music from the 17th and 18th centuries.

The Appalachian Flute Ensemble will perform Oct. 29 at 8 p.m. in Broyhill Music Center’s Rosen Concert Hall. Admission is free.

The Hayes School of Music’s organ studio and the Boone Chapter of the American Guild of Organists present the third annual Halloween Monster Concert Saturday, Oct. 31, at 8 p.m. in Broyhill Music Center’s Rosen Concert Hall on campus. Admission is free.

Music can feed the soul and a recital Nov. 3 at Appalachian will also help feed the hungry in Watauga County. The Hayes School of Music’s Faculty Recital Series performance will benefit the Hunger and Health Coalition. The program features works by British composer Ralph Vaughn Williams performed by tenor Randall Outland, pianist Rodney Reynerson and violist Eric Koontz, all faculty in the Hayes School of Music.  The performance begins at 8 p.m. in Broyhill Music Center’s Rosen Concert Hall. Donations for the Hunger and Health Coalition will be accepted at the door.

The works of well-known composers and arrangers of big band music will be performed Nov. 4 by Jazz Ensemble I. The free concert begins at 8 p.m. in Farthing Auditorium.

Blazing Bassoons, a 10-member student ensemble from Appalachian State University, will perform Sunday, Nov. 8, at 4 p.m. in Broyhill Music Center’s Rosen Concert Hall. Admission is free.

A program on Italy’s giallo films will be presented Wednesday, Oct. 28, at 1 p.m. in room 421 Belk Library and Information Commons. Admission is free. The program will be presented by Dr. Craig Fischer, an associate professor in the Department of English. It is part of the library’s Doorways International Program Series and is co-sponsored by the Office of International Education and Development.

Giallos were inventive, hyper-violent suspense movies popular in Italy – and elsewhere – during the 1970s. The films evolved from popular paperback murder mysteries that had signature yellow (giallo) covers.

Fischer will introduce the giallo through film clips, discuss its characteristics, and account for its status as a favorite genre of cult cinema. Fischer’s presentation is not recommended for impressionable minors or spectators easily upset by blood and terror.

The Turchin Center for the Visual Arts celebrates six exhibitions with its Fall Exhibition Celebration on Friday, Nov. 6, from 7 – 9 p.m., as part of Downtown Boone’s First Friday Art Crawl.  This event is free of charge and open to the public.  For information, call 3017 or visit www.tcva.org.

Irish poet Paula Meehan reads from her work Wednesday, Nov. 4, as part of the Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series at Appalachian State University. The reading begins at 7:30 p.m. in room 114 Belk Library and Information Commons. Meehan also will give the craft talk “Private Sources, Public Speech – Making it Up from Scratch” from 3:30 to 4:45 p.m., in room 114 Belk Library.

Award-winning documentary filmmaker Anne Lewis will visit Boone Nov. 8 and 9 to show her most recent work “Morristown: in the air and sun.” The documentary will be shown Nov. 8 at 7 p.m. in St. Elizabeth’s Catholic Church’s community room and at 2 p.m. Nov. 9 in Plemmons Student Union’s Linville Falls Room on campus. Admission is free.

The screenings are part of a series of presentations celebrating the 30^th anniversary of the Center for Appalachian Studies at Appalachian and the 40^th anniversary of Appalshop, the non-profit media arts center that produced “Morristown.”

The hour-long documentary explores issues of immigration, factory flight and the organized demand for economic justice in Morristown, Tenn. “Morristown” was awarded Best Foreign Documentary Festival by the International Cine de la Frontera in Mexico.

Howard Zinn, author of “A People’s History of the United States,” writes that the film “brings the complex issue of globalization down to its human level – where workers on both sides of the border, men and women, struggle to survive.”

Lewis is a senior lecturer in the radio, television, and film department at the University of Texas in Austin.  She has directed more than 30 documentaries and most of her work has aired on PBS.  She was associate director for the Academy Award-winning documentary “Harlan County, USA” and her documentary “On Our Own Land” won the duPont-Columbia award for independent broadcast journalism.

For more information, contact Tom Hansell with University Documentary Services at Appalachian at 7730 or hansellts@appstate.edu.

The documentary “From Wood to Singing Guitar” will be shown Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 7 p.m. in I.G. Greer Auditorium  at Appalachian State University. Admission is free. The film by Appalshop filmmaker Sean Lind showcases Wayne C. Henderson, a master luthier and musician from Rugby, located in southwest Virginia. The presentation is sponsored by the Center for Appalachian Studies in celebration of its 30th anniversary and Appalshop in celebration of its 40th anniversary. Additional sponsors are the National Endowment for the Arts, and University College and the Appalachian Heritage Council at Appalachian.

The Department of Philosophy and Religion invites everyone to participate in activities associated with World Philosophy Day. This year’s theme is “penser pour agir” (thinking in order to act).

The film “Examined Life” by Astra Taylor will be shown Nov. 12 at 7:30 p.m. in Plemmons Student Union’s Greenbriar Theatre. Admission is free. Taylor accompanies some of today’s most influential thinkers on a series of excursions through places and spaces that hold particular resonance for them and their ideas, including Cornel West, Avital Ronell, Peter Singer, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Martha Nussbaum, Michael Hardt and Judith Butler.

“Wittgenstein” by Derek Jarman will be shown Nov. 19 at 7:30 p.m. in Room 114 Belk Library and Information Commons. Admission is free.  The film is a dramatization, in modern theatrical style, of the life and thought of the Viennese-born, Cambridge-educated philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951), whose principal interest was the nature and limits of language. A series of sketches depict the unfolding of his life from boyhood, through the era of the first World War, to his eventual Cambridge professorship and association with Bertrand Russell and John Maynard Keynes.

In addition, a display table about World Philosophy Day will be in Plemmons Student Union Nov. 19.

World Philosophy Day was initiated by UNESCO to encourage reflection, debate and fruitful exchange. The day promotes reflection on the importance of philosophy and encourages all nations and people to share their particular philosophical heritage.

For information, call Monique Lanoix at 2422 or e-mail lanoixm@appstate.edu.