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.

At App State’s 2026 Appalachian Energy Summit, state officials announced the UNC System and its partners have avoided $2.27 billion in energy costs since 2002. App State’s portion of these savings was $81.1 million, and the university reduced its energy use per square foot by 51%, surpassing the state’s 2025 goal of 40% for a second consecutive year.

App State student-athletes have extended their streak of earning a cumulative GPA over 3.0 to 28 consecutive semesters. Mountaineer student-athletes in all 17 App State Athletics programs finished the spring 2026 semester above that mark, combining for a 3.32 semester GPA — the highest since spring 2020 — and an overall cumulative GPA of 3.36.

App State researchers Dr. Brett Taubman and Daniel Parker have secured a $1.82 million NCInnovation grant to turn surplus NC sweetpotatoes into a plant-based milk product line — the first of its kind in the world. Their Rootsii startup tackles agricultural waste while providing 1,800 hours of hands-on research for student innovators.