A Brevard woman is giving away poetry books written by her mother, an award-winning poet. Plus, the Coda Festival returns to Montreat College, an Asheville rapper releases a fantasy novel and Black Mountain College Museum + Art Center presents {Re}HAPPENING 11.
During a Feb. 4 meeting of the Council of Independent Business Owners, Paul Maurer, president of Montreat College, told attendees that the private, Christian liberal arts school has rapidly become one of North Carolina’s foremost cybersecurity institutions.
Billed as a wrap-up of a busy year for WNC’s state legislative delegation, much of the Dec. 10 gathering hosted by the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce wound up being devoted to the future of the General Assembly — a future that, following a Dec. 8 order by the North Carolina Supreme Court, faces many unknowns.
For the second day in a row, North Carolina set a record for the most COVID-19 cases reported in a single day. With numbers rising both across the state and in Buncombe County, here’s what you need to know about the coronavirus as the weekend approaches.
According to Western Carolina University’s COVID-19 dashboard, 17 students tested positive for the coronavirus on Oct. 12. Brevard College announced Oct. 10 that all classes would shift to remote learning for the week of Oct. 12 after three COVID-19 cases were confirmed on one athletic team.
While Asheville and Buncombe County K-12 schools are planning to start the academic year with heavy reliance on remote learning due to COVID-19, the area’s colleges and universities are taking a more aggressive approach in returning to campus. Western North Carolina’s higher learning institutions are bringing back students from across the state and around the country.
In 1916, tuition for Montreat Normal School (today’s Montreat College) was $225 per year, with scholarship options for those who could not afford to pay in full. The school’s early brochures placed a strong emphasis on character, as well as Christian studies.
The North Carolina General Assembly voted to award Montreat College $20 million towards the establishment of an independent cybersecurity training center in October, but Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed the money. The private, Christian liberal arts college’s boosters, however, say they won’t be discouraged in filling what they see as an urgent need for ethically responsible cyber operatives.
The money contained in a stalled budget bill that passed the General Assembly would go to Montreat College, a school in eastern Buncombe County with an enrollment of fewer than 1,000 students. $20 million would be used to establish a center to train people to protect digital information and systems.
A second campus of the N.C. School of Science and Math is on tap for 2021 in Morganton, and fundraising is underway to assemble the final pieces of the puzzle to bring the plans to life. Montreat College announced a new student loan repayment program, local elected officials came out to oppose all six constitutional amendments on the ballot in the 2018 general election and a major controlled burning training exercise will take place through Friday, Nov. 9 in the area.
Canadian Haakon Industries announced plans to locate a manufacturing facility to build air handling units at Enka Commerce Park. The company says it will employ up to 160 workers within the first five years of operation in Enka. For the fourth time, Montreat College will host a cybersecurity conference.
The 5Point Film Festival moves to Sierra Nevada, the Asheville Jewish Film Festival concludes with a documentary about Itzhak Perlman and more.
Increasingly, U.S. colleges and universities are working to make their institutions as environmentally sustainable as possible. These efforts cover a broad spectrum, from a recycling initiative at Stanford University that diverts 65 percent of the school’s solid waste away from landfills to Cornell’s plan to be carbon-neutral by 2035, as noted in The Princeton Review’s annual ranking […]
Montreat
On Saturday, March 25, Native Kitchen and Social Pub will host Race to Recovery Benefit. The restaurant will donate 100 percent of the day’s proceeds to the Olinger family.
The struggle embodied by Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain — and caused by the opposing forces of creating for progress versus profits, genuineness versus marketing genius, art versus money — plays the main stage in Caress’ debut book The Day Alternative Music Died.
• The inaugural Montreat Film Festival is accepting submissions from local filmmakers through Monday, April 6. Entries must be shorter than eight minutes in length and reflect this year’s theme of hope. According to Montreat College’s website, the festival’s goal is “to highlight stories that honestly express and explore the human condition through the power of […]
