Lifestyle

Sports

WCU alum returns to head important athletics position

First published in The Western Carolina Journalist.  In November 2020, Tyler Pope was self-employed, producing a sports podcast with two of his friends from his undergraduate and graduate years. A year removed, he holds one of the most important positions in the Western Carolina University Athletic Department. Pope, a native […]

Opinion

Opinion: For the love of green bean casserole

When you think of Thanksgiving, what do you think of? Food, family, crafts, shopping, etc.? Well, when I think of Thanksgiving, I think of crowding into my grandparents’ house with my whole family dressed up. We normally eat Thanksgiving “linner”, late lunch, and an early dinner. We have the typical […]

Opinion

Opinion: Fem in Stem

I am a math major at Western Carolina University. The concentration of my major is traditional, not data science, not actuarial, not education. People [tend to] assume that since I am a woman and a math major, I must be going into education. While there is nothing wrong with going […]

Opinion

Op-Ed: Rural Hospitals

As COVID-19 vaccination rates in rural communities lag behind their urban counterparts, rural healthcare resources are becoming increasingly exhausted by COVID-19-related morbidity and mortality. Rural hospitals serve exceedingly important roles during the pandemic. They act as agents for the provision of vital healthcare resources to rural neighbors and families who […]

Opinion

Paper is NOT out of style

Two weeks ago, I was pleasantly surprised to see the Sept. 3 copy of Western Carolinian in the Friends of the Library BookStore on Sylva’s Main St. I had not seen a copy of the school newspaper in what seemed like forever and could not believe my eyes. Naturally, I […]

Sports

WCU basketball set to start anew in first game of season

WCU basketball lost a head coach and 12 players before the end of last season, leaving the team requiring an almost complete rebuild before the start of the 2021-2022 season.  Head Coach Justin Gray, former professional basketball player and assistant coach at Winthrop University, joined the Catamount team in April […]

Lifestyle

Video artist discusses diversity through exertion

Jefferson Pinder was getting his BA in Theatre when he visited a video art exhibition by Gary Hill and realized the strength of using video as an art medium. He’d always loved performance art because of the community it created between the artist and the audience, and video was the […]

Lifestyle

An Appalachian spin on A Midsummer Night’s Dream

As I walked down to the pavilion, I was instantly teleported to an Appalachian interpretation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The fiddler played a lovely tune as I took in the transformed pavilion that blended right into the nature surrounding us. Peter Savage, the director of this lovely performance, further […]