Every quarter, the App State Board of Trustees meets, first in committee meetings where everything is actually decided, then in a big board meeting where formalities play out. This happened on Dec. 5-6 at the App State Hickory campus, I think for the first time.

Below are my notes from these meetings. Some are more interesting than others. All important in the end though.

If you want to read my notes, here’s nearly six hours of meeting video, unlisted on YouTube unless you have the links.

If you want to read this for the next 20 minutes instead, here we go.

CAUTION: This includes my commentary, which is not journalistic or checked for grammar. Just go with it. Unless your name is Steve, then you complain months later. It’s always a guy named Steve….

Enjoy, I’m gonna go watch Heated Rivalry.

Audit Risk and Compliance Committee

Internal audits OK. External audits, some in progress. One of these examines NIL.

Enterprise Risk Management speech. All the risks.

CIO talking about IT. Talking about AI and using Open AI. 

More Cyber Security. “We’re in a fight on a daily and weekly basis.”

They find people hiding in our environments.

There’s AI risks as well.

Nothing after closed session

Now onto Friday.

Academic Affairs/Student Affairs

Mark Ricks is SO IMPRESSED with App State Hickory.

Students Ben Tugwell and Sarah Johnson are presented.

Sarah’s been to the Dominican Republic, soon is going to Ecuador, Morocco and Nepal as part of Voyager Scholarship.

Ben Tugwell. He’s being meta. His seven-minute presentation lasted seven and a half minutes. He did well.

Several comments and questions from board members.

Now onto PCR report to examine departments, which will happen.

Hickory Campus update time by Amy Wood. Halfway through third year. 

523 degree-seeking students. Over 6,000 external visitors, building users who have attended workshops, meetings, tests, services, etc. Gonna be an anchor of Hickory’s innovation district.

Two phases done. Final phase of second floor underway, with Health Sciences and Simulation Lab, which will be done in August 2026.

Gotta educate that workforce. Says people in the area are thrilled to have App State here.

Outreached to Gaston, Iredell and other counties.

What’s the goal for students here in Hickory? Want to “meet the needs of the region.” Both traditional and non-traditional students.

Accounting is largest major in Hickory. They are very sought after.

Off-mic question about goals. “No doubt there will be exponential growth” over next few years.

Housing? Wood says housing in more affordable than Boone. Ya don’t say.

There’s been private investors asking about developing apartments in the region.

Some suited guy talked for a couple minutes about Project Kitty Hawk (nonprofit remote learning UNC System pet project) without realizing his mic wasn’t on. He’s reading a script. App State is exceeding PKH estimates. Hooray!

First PKH App State grad is graduating this month. Over 190 new students for Spring 2026. Expect enrollment of 650 by Summer 2026 and 1,000 by Summer 2027.

Adjourned

Finance and Operations Committee

2026-27 Tuition and Fees! Time to charge dem kids more.

NC Government wants tuition to remain flat. We’ve capped tuition at 12 credit hours. 

First time in a decade, we can raise up to 3%. And they must be for “inflationary purposes.” But we want to remain affordable.

Committee unanimously approved these. Short Queen Norris looked at it.

2.5% increase for residents, 3% for non-residents. It’ll bring in new faculty and academic advisors.

Oh yeah, $5K in fees for Doctor of Nursing Practice in Fall 2026.

Fees are going up, except the debt service fees. Two outstanding bonds for athletics facilities have matured, so it goes down six dollars.

Net increase is $60, or 1.9%, generation just over $1 million in incremental revenues.

More fees for rising utility costs, capital renewal costs for housing. $1.3 million more in revenue for housing.

Dining rate will generate $1.7 million, due to higher food costs and such. First time adjusting dining rates in two-plus years, although food costs are up $2.3 million in that time.

Textbook rental fee up again. $287,000 in revenue for rising publisher fees.

Transportation fee will be $105,000 to support AppalCART and SafeRide. App State students and staff comprise 95% of AppalCART ridership.

In total, $6.6 million in new revenue for all the stated reasons.

Mr. Wyatt, who always asks questions, is asking a question. How do we compare to other UNC System schools? Finance guy says we’re middle of the table and this shouldn’t move the needle.

Wyatt asks about athletic fees and the Sun Belt fees. Where are we compared to the Sun Belt Conference?  Finance guy doesn’t have that data. In UNC System, “second quartile.” Really wants to know how we compared in the Sun Belt.

(timestamp 1:16:34)

Norris interrupts! Says JMU is an “outlier” and that we’re “one standard deviation from the mean.” Question about Old Dominion since they’re also in Virginia. Norris says each Virginia university has its own Board of Visitors and they set their own fees.

Q about fee increase, when was the last time? Last year.

Onto vote, unanimous for the increases and one decrease.

Presentation on FEMA insurance updates, info only, so no vote. J.J. Brown presenting. Several projects paid to date.

$3.8 million paid to date. Got $1,218,110 from Liberty game cancellation.

It’s a lot of work. Multi-step project. Range in scope. West campus repairs, intramural fields, Howard’s Creek Dam, Varsity Gym floor, sheltering provided in Holmes, Legends parking lot.

Obligations over $4 million and growing. Likely to receive a check in 60-90 days from FEMA.

Still working through Legends Building Loss Claim. There’s another $2.7 million in losses to be included in future claim packages but must be reviewed for eligibility.

Sen. Ted Budd is working to “shake a few things free.”

Onto approving a capital project. J.J. Brown again. It’s Durham Park tennis court repairs for $749,000. Can start once the FEMA check comes up, hopefully this summer. Unanimous.

Capital projects update with J.J.

Thanks legislature for the finances

Wey Hall is done! “Prior version was like a cave.”

Duncan is 80% done. Delayed due to Helene. Completion in late March. College of Arts and Sciences, Math Department and labs are in there.

Peacock is 30% done. By August 2027. Started work on the new fourth floor. We have the largest undergraduate business college in the state.

Innovation District, STEM building is 34% done. Living Building aspect previously pulled out due to costs to comply. So it was reset. Asking for additional money from Raleigh to finish the project to maximize the building. Still excited about the building.

App 105 Phase 3, the indoor tennis courts, are half done. Completion in February.

App 105 student housing is 20% done. Approved last March, closed in mid-May. Two buildings almost completely framed. Other two aren’t far behind. 852 beds for upperclassmen, shared kitchens. Will meet critical need for students.

Indoor Practice Facility is gonna be done in September, the slide says. Brown says it’ll be done “before practice starts.” I don’t think that timetable matches up J.J.

Walker Hall has some planning funds. Progress goes forward. Fall 2027 start, Summer 2029 finish.

Chancellor delegated $200,000 for athletics storage building at App 105. Feels like something that could have been done earlier.

J.J. mentioned a couple of students who are interning with various construction managers.

Adjourned.

Athletics Committee with Special Guest Dowell Loggains

WRITER’S NOTE: This was 54 hours before the Birmingham Bowl invite madness happened, so the mood is failure not knowing the redemption arch was coming.

Starts with the recent SI video. Mark introduces it without turning his mic on. The person showing this video has over 6,200 unread emails in their App State email file.

Applause. Because Tommy Sofield was in it. Mark Ricks says nice words. Take a while to remember the mic.

Now the athletics committee formally begins.

Gillin time. Goes to the two student athletes. Sophia Baxter from field hockey up first. Then Henry Stark from men’s cross country. Both these are really good.

One trustee says field hockey is the toughest game he’s ever seen. You got a stick and can’t hit anyone with it! Now he’s talking (off mic) about cross country. He’s going on about donating to non-football sports.

Gillin time.

He’s flying through this because Dowell is here and gonna speak.

Causally mentions they’re gonna talk a lot about fundraising over next couple of days. Says they hosted the Rainbow Kitten Surprise concert (over 5,000 in attendance) with their oversight of the Holmes Center. That “oversight” thing sounds new.

Fundraisers, onto capital projects in record time. Last thing at App 105 is the indoor tennis facility. The Holmes Center office space is mentioned. As is Shawn Clark.

Baseball indoor hitting facility bids just came in.

Had first meeting last week on East Tower Advanced Planning.

Onto competitive updates. Dada-Mascoll. Field Hockey ranked, signature wins over P4 teams.

Seriously, this was like less than five minutes from Gillin. 

Someone wants to ask about the bus wrapping, says that’s exciting for him. Gillin says they had it 4-5 years ago, so Phillip Byers wanted it and so they got it. Feels big time when student athletes gets on that bus.

Dowell time! Gillin mentions recruiting rankings.

Obviously, the season wasn’t what we wanted it to be. Lost 4 games by 15 combined points. “When you build these things it takes time.”

Talks about how the Block A means something. We sell tradition and history. Only want to overcome tough times is to get to work.

Dowel did a study on winning teams. Most of them are accumulated of team captains, play two sports.

Spoils the Harris commit about two hours before, says we’ll be higher ranked at 2:45 p.m.

Just finished exit meetings. On Dec. 8, he was hired, then on Dec. 12, “about a million dollars of roster walked out the door.” 

Out of our 12 top players, had 10 under contract before getting to that point. We do have buyouts and such. “We’re going to lose a couple of players.”

“We’re going to lose 2-3 players we really want to keep.” Stay off Twitter. Why are they leaving? They’re chasing the bag. They want players chasing opportunities. 

Dowell had to ask if this was being recorded. Hah.

Says Boise “doesn’t touch our gameday crowd.” Feels he let a lot of people down.

Tells a story. After a loss, we’re in the car, driving home with his son. Says his boss is “very short with him” after a loss.

“I hate the media, I hate them.”

Anyway, onto the story. His son asks if he can play for App State one day. 

Says 85% of his team are awesome people. Says young people want to talk on their cell phone.

Says we’re a lot closer than our records says we are. We’re not going to have the same convo next year.

“We’re into A’s and B’s, not C’s and D’s.”

Had to let some people go because they don’t fit the vision.

Will work dusk til dawn every day. Doug hates him calling it “this place.”

You know the connection we have with our players.

Before finding ways to win, we gotta find ways not to lose.

Our players are gonna be the right values.

Hang with us.

“I’m an open book of transparency with that stuff,” meaning questions from the trustees.

J.K. gives a full vote of confidence to Dowell, says it takes time.

Says these kids have fight. Says we’ll be on the other side of these close games. These close games age him in dog years.

Off-mic question. Says pay it back in conference championship next season.

Q on roster makeup with transfers and what it’ll be. Mentions that this place needs certain players.

Dowel says in first team meeting, there were 54 players. Signed 54 new ones. Likely 10-15 guys we’re gonna help move to somewhere they can play. Says they want to be HS-based program. Transfers import other programs.

Do hit on some transfers who are “wired the right way.” D2 and FCS programs are in portal now. Sometimes we have 24 hours with no HR program. We do a Zoom with these players, ask them about a time in their life when they overcome.

Says there will be 20-24 portal kids this year. “And we want that number to go down and down.”

NIL is about roster retention. Mentions one player, who I think is Phares based on description, having “street agents” sliding in his DMs. Says some “street agents” are taking 10%, when it should be no more than 3%.

“Where JMU is ahead of us, they kept their juniors and seniors.” Says they don’t use NIL for freshmen. Says other Sun Belt programs whine about it.

Mark Ricks says going to dinner with Dowell is amazing.

Mark Ricks says we’re gonna kick everyone’s ass next year, including JMU.

Motion for closed session.

Main Trustees meeting

Opens meeting with closed session, which goes an hour.

Short Queen Norris time. Transcript is online, so I won’t go blow by blow as she does not deviate from the script.

Remarks from the December 5th, 2025 Meeting of the Board of Trustees / Office of the Chancellor / Appalachian State University

Norris says Boone is “at capacity,” so the university can’t grow in terms of number of students. Hence Hickory and Project Kitty Hawk.

Shows a couple videos of Hickory students talking about how awesome it is. One is a mom of two.

Stop saying you’re a Mountaineer alumni! Alumni is plural!

Committee reports. First one takes a while to turn their mic on.

Ricks talks about the Governors, Executive and Appeals committee, which was a conference call and not streamed. Boo!

Ricks said they considered proposed revisions to the BOT bylaws, the ASU Foundation Board of Directors revised its bylaws, Vice Chancellor Will Sears proposed foundation board appointments, new appointments and officers, then considered Board of Visitor reappointments and such. They recommended approval of all four, which is on the main meeting’s Consent Agenda.

No objections on the Consent Agenda. Everyone is eager to be done with it. Unanimous.

Next ASU BOT is March 19-20, 2026, on the mountain.

Ricks thanks Eric Church and his wife Katherine (sp?) for their help putting people back in homes, says there will be a mass migration before the holidays.

Ricks can’t make graduation as he’s out of country. He LOVES graduation.

Ricks gives encouragement ahead of the holidays and brings up App Kids, one of his favorite charities. He mentioned them last December.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Happy New Year, etc.