Appalachian Museum moving; making room for nursing school
By Frank Ruggiero

Space on the Appalachian State University campus is as elusive as a parking place.

The Appalachian Cultural Museum is learning this the hard way.

When the University of North Carolina Board of Governors authorized ASU to establish its nursing initiative, it became official. The cultural museum will be moved out from University Hall, located off Blowing Rock Road, and replaced by a center for the nursing program, which ASU Chancellor Ken Peacock said will be part of the Institute of Health and Human Services.

The institute has already moved into the University Hall offices formerly occupied by the Office of Cultural Affairs, which moved to King Street near the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts.

Though the museum has not yet found a home, Peacock indicated the university is striving to find it adequate space.

“Once again, that pioneer spirit has kicked in, and we’re going to do our best to find a place to put this,” he said.

“Once you have started something like a museum and you have it going, you don’t even like to put it on pause for a while, you don’t like to have to store it and say we’re coming back for a new beginning.”

Administrators at the museum refused to comment, though the university news bureau reported that a task force has been formed to find a new location for the museum.

Earlier this month, university officials met with town of Boone officials and other community leaders to discuss options, when the task force was named, the bureau reported, adding that members are, so far, Joe Furman, Watauga County planning director; John Cooper, owner of Mast General Store; Chuck Watkins, director of the Appalachian Cultural Museum; and a town representative to be named by Boone Mayor Velma Burnley.

According to Furman, Watauga County Board of Commissioners chair Jim Deal has attended several task force meetings, as have Burnley, Peacock’s chief of staff Lorin Baumhover, Kenneth Wilcox, Helen Ruth Almond of N.C. Heritage Tourism and museum volunteer Betty Bond.

“We’ve kicked around ideas on spaces and alternatives, but we really haven’t made a whole lot of progress,” Furman said. “Everybody would like to see it (the museum) stay, but where, and who pays? How much will the university invest in it?”

Furman is certain these are questions that will be answered in due time.

Health initiative

It’s also a matter of time to find out what becomes of the six-acre tract of land adjacent to University Hall that was donated by alumni Jack and Jean Elledge.

“We hope that this health initiative will take off, and we’ll need to expand the program,” Peacock said. “If so, the Elledge property is perfect for that. But we have to monitor how the program grows. If the interest is there, we think it will be. I have received so many positive comments...about Appalachian’s move to the health services area.”

Peacock is confident that the spacious University Hall is perfect for the Institute of Health and Human Services.

“This is more than just a beginning of the nursing program that’s there,” Peacock said. “This [institute] is pulling together programs that are already existing on our campus — speech pathology, communication disorders. There were some issues with the accreditation of the programs in the college of education, where they were located. You go to the bottom floor of Duncan Hall and see, literally, that they operate in closets in some places.”

Peacock said classrooms in Duncan Hall were converted for clinical office space, and since the health institute is “a way of serving the people of western North Carolina,” the university must maintain accreditation.

University Hall provides those programs with the space to function adequately, Peacock said.

“So, the University Hall move is more than just for a new nursing program, though that’s part of it,” he continued. “It is also meeting the needs of existing programs that we have that were facing some real problems.”

When Peacock met with Erskine Bowles, president-elect of the UNC system, he said Bowles indicated strong support for the program, as well as the university’s education program.

“He said you couldn’t be doing two things that would be better for the state of North Carolina than to increase the number of teachers coming from your program and to get involved and strengthen your allied health program to prepare more nurses,” Peacock said.

A report from Cindy Wallace, interim vice chancellor for student development, showed that 1,913 high school students, who took the SAT in 2005 and sent their scores to Appalachian, indicated they were interested in majoring in health/allied services, with the second choice being education at 1,572.

*Frank Ruggiero can be contacted at ruggiero@wataugademocrat.com