App State celebrated its ninth annual Founders Day on Sept. 18 at the Boone campus, commemorating the university’s first day of classes in 1899 and honoring App State founders B.B., D.D. and Lillie Shull Dougherty. With the ringing of the Founders Bell, eight new members were inducted into the university’s Bell Ringers Society.

On Aug. 27, App State and nonprofit refurbisher E2D (Eliminate the Digital Divide) distributed 200 new laptops to first-year, first-generation App State students across the Boone, Hickory and online campuses. Since 2022, App State ITS has donated nearly 3,000 devices to E2D, with over 1,100 refurbished and given out in Watauga County.

During the test, App State uses email, voice and text messaging, and the Alertus desktop notification system to test system functionality.

App State has exceeded $50 million in private donations for two consecutive years, making fiscal years 2025 and 2026 the most successful fundraising years in university history. Funds raised support resources and programming for students, faculty and staff, with significant contributions going to academics, the arts and athletics.

The College Football Playoff (CFP) Management Committee has appointed App State Director of Athletics Doug Gillin to the CFP Selection Committee, which ranks the nation’s top 25 teams. Entering his 12th year leading Mountaineer Athletics, Gillin has overseen App State’s rise as a nationally recognized program competing at the highest levels of college sports.

Fourteen App State students are among the inaugural graduates of the UNC System Police Academy, which launched this year. Beginning this fall, they will serve the Boone campus community as sworn officers with the Appalachian Police Department, working part time until they graduate from App State with their degrees.

App State honored four Mountaineer alumni at its 2026 Alumni Awards Gala on July 11: Dr. M. Lee Barnes ’90, Donna Fiori ’80, Kendall Lamm ’14 and Shawn W. Poole. Nine alumni from the university’s colleges and University Libraries were also recognized.

App State’s Academic Services for Student-Athletes (ASA) staff earned national recognition with the Model Practice Award in Academics for its innovative approach to managing the transfer portal process for Mountaineer student-athletes. Since implementing the model two years ago, App State has completed more than 640 transfer evaluations and enrolled 176 transfer student-athletes. The model was developed through a collaborative partnership among ASA, Transfer Admissions and Engagement and campus stakeholders.

From securing small businesses against cyberthreats to building a resilient workforce, App State’s 2026 Chancellor’s Innovation Scholars awards are funding two vital faculty-led projects to support the skilled building trades in Western North Carolina and launch a cybersecurity clinic in Hickory.