By Jane Nicholson

BOONE—With more than 55,000 books in print about the Civil War, one might assume that there is no new information to be gleaned about the event that separated states, communities and families. But there is a topic that has received scant attention – the environmental history of the Civil War. [more]

BOONE—The transformation of Farthing Auditorium into The Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts at Appalachian State University is on schedule, with a completion date projected for early summer. The facility is anticipated to be open for the 2013 season of An Appalachian Summer Festival, to be presented in July. [more]

Commitment is largest gift made to the university by graduates

BOONE—Brad and Carole Wilson of Raleigh have pledged $3 million to Appalachian State University and the Campaign for Appalachian. Their commitment is the largest made to the university by alumni. The Wilsons, both members of the Class of 1975, are co-chairs of Appalachian’s comprehensive fundraising campaign. [more]

BOONE—High school and community college mathematics and science teachers in the region will learn new ways to excite their students about computer science by using data analysis and mining, visualization and image processing during a six-week summer program at Appalachian State University. [more]

BOONE—A 38-degree water temperature plus 142 hearty souls equaled $6,881.06 for Watauga County Special Olympics. [more]

Balfour Beatty Construction recently made a donation worth $18,000 in building materials to the Watauga County Habitat for Humanity ReStore. The donation included bags of concrete, brooms, shovels, snow shovels, insulation, wood and rebar. [more]

BOONE—Gifts totaling $94,900 have been made by the accounting firm of Dixon Hughes Goodman to Appalachian State University’s Walker College of Business. The gifts provide continuing support of the college’s Department of Accounting, discretionary funds available to the dean of the college, and have established the Dixon Hughes Goodman/Brooks Ferrell Memorial Scholarship endowment fund. [more]

BOONE—Students at Appalachian State University believe so strongly in reducing their environmental impact while on campus that they charge themselves a fee to support renewable energy projects. Now, they have begun using some of that revenue to support faculty research related to renewable energy. [more]

BOONE—Women faculty often choose to work at smaller universities which are considered family friendly and provide a better balance between academic and family life. [more]