Western Carolina University’s Pride of the Mountains Marching Band is the 2009 recipient of the prestigious Sudler Trophy, the nation’s highest and most-coveted award for college and university marching bands. Western Carolina is the first institution in the state of North Carolina and the first member of the Southern Conference […]

Thousands of people poured onto the campus of Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro for Merlefest which started on April 23 and ran through Sunday April 23. This festival has become very well known, gaining increasing popularity over the past few years. Merlefest is a four-day festival that celebrates a surprisingly […]

We love to watch the news. I love to watch the news. But there are some things about it that I don’t like. No mainstream news organization around will admit that, in most places, violent crime has been on a downturn. They’d rather sell you the exploitations of some good […]

Dear Editor, Your article on parking problems (4/24 – 5/1 edition) was spot-on. I’m a graduate student living in Madison Hall during the school year, and I drive to UNC-A twice a week for classes. After classes (or around 10 p.m.), I never had a problem finding a spot by […]

Every Memorial Day, we pay tribute to the American men and women who have died in combat. With speeches and solemn ceremonies, we recognize their courage and valor. But one fact goes unacknowledged in our Memorial Day tributes: all too many of our soldiers have died unnecessarily-because they were sent […]

A group of Western Carolina University students and faculty members will bicycle 870 miles to visit 88 Buddhist temples this summer during an educational pilgrimage on the island of Shikoku in Japan. “The Shikoku Pilgrimage is believed to be one of the most famous pilgrimages in Japan and in the […]

Amber Jones practiced her Spanish, which she was studying in a Western Carolina University course, and spoke in English as she recently helped a Cullowhee Valley School first-grader from a Spanish-speaking family with her reading and writing skills. “She was so happy someone had taken an interest in her language […]

During these troubling times, it is understandable why some may worry how the new indoor smoking ban will impact the hospitality industry, especially when it comes to bars, but let’s remember that there are other benchmarks to measure whether a smoking ban is a good idea. Here are a few: […]

Rainy skies outside didn’t dampen the enthusiasm inside Western Carolina University’s Ramsey Regional Activity Center as the university held a pair of commencement ceremonies to honor a record-breaking spring class of approximately 1,150 graduating students, and another group of about 100 students who will complete requirements for their degrees later […]