“The Liars Bench” was founded by Sylva writer and storyteller Gary Carden in June 2010. The show’s cast has provided more than 20 free programs of Southern Appalachian storytelling, music, poetry and drama in the Sylva/Cullowhee area since then, but a $10 admission will be charged at the two February shows. “Customarily, we ‘pass the hat’ at each performance in order to give a token payment to the performers,” Carden said. “However, in order to stabilize our finances we have decided to charge admission for this special program.”

Both February shows will include a presentation of Carden’s play “Coy,” which will be performed by Tom Dewees. The shows also will feature the talents of Carden, Cherokee storyteller Lloyd Arneach, claw-hammer guitarist Paul Iarussi, vocalist and musician William Ritter, poet and musician Barbara Duncan and mandolin player Eric Young.

Tickets are on sale at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva. For more information about the shows, call the Mountain Heritage Center at 828-227-7129.

The class, sponsored by WCU’s Division of Educational Outreach, will be held from 4:30-6:30 p.m. in Room 143 of the Cordelia Camp building.

The class will focus on helping women learn basic survival skills and techniques to help thwart assault. Topics will include violence awareness; simple, unarmed self-defense techniques; and a the most common weapons used for self-defense.

Instructor David Bradley has more than 20 years of experience teaching physical training and survival skills to civilian and military groups.

“Don’t trust your personal safety to a tube of old pepper spray or the panic button on your keychain,” Bradley said. “Everyone can learn some simple, easy-to-remember techniques that may save her life one day.”

Participants are encouraged to wear comfortable active wear. Heels, skirts and dresses are discouraged. Techniques are appropriate for most ages and levels of physical ability.

The cost of the class if $25 and registration is required. To register or for more information, call 828-227-7397 or go online to http://learn.wcu.edu.

A catered reception for an exhibit of work by Ron Laboray, assistant professor of painting and drawing at WCU, will begin at 5 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16, at the Fine Art Museum at Western Carolina University. Shown here is “#6 poppies” by Laboray, surfboard resin and auto urethane on aluminum, 2010.

Work by Ron Laboray, assistant professor of painting and drawing in the School of Art and Design at Western Carolina University, will be on exhibit through Friday, March 30, at the WCU Fine Art Museum.

Ron Laboray

A reception for the exhibit will begin at 5 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16, at the museum. An interview with Laboray, who joined WCU in the fall, will begin at 4 p.m. The event is free and the public is invited.

“Surveying Imagination Land: Ron Laboray” offers an archeological perspective of art, with subjects taken from pop culture past and present. Laboray’s subjects stem from similar types of material, such as pop culture, junk mail and spectacle, with the artist creating paintings and drawings based on data and following appropriated scientific rules.

“It’s a great opportunity for students and local residents to experience artwork that truly brings something new to the table,” said Denise Drury, interim director of the WCU Fine Art Museum.

The WCU Fine Art Museum is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday (and until 7 p.m. Thursday). Admission and parking are free. Learn more online at fineartmuseum.wcu.edu or contact Drury at 828-227-2553 or ddrury@wcu.edu.

Josh Whitmore explores the site of a proposed trail on WCU's campus.

Construction of nearly five miles of multiuse trail on Western Carolina University’s campus will begin this spring with support from a $75,000 grant from the North Carolina Division of Parks and Recreation’s Recreational Trails Program.

The grant, along with a $5,000 award from Specialized Bicycle Components, funds construction of the first phase of a trail system for walkers, hikers, trail runners and mountain bikers on WCU’s West Campus, where the $46 million Health and Human Sciences Building is nearing completion off of Little Savannah Road. The trail also will be used to support academic programs, such as recreational therapy and parks and recreation management.

“We are excited to be able to bring this resource to WCU and to the community,” said Josh Whitmore, associate director of outdoor programs at WCU and coordinator of the project.

Trail construction is expected to begin in April or May, with completion expected during the summer, said Whitmore. The initial access point will be from the Health and Human Sciences Building, and the trail will feature a natural surface and be wide enough to accommodate one person or mountain biker at a time.

Although located in an area with steep terrain, the path will follow a route designed to have only a few short sections with as much as 20 percent gradient and no sustained sections that exceed a 15 percent gradient.

“The overall difficulty will be in the moderate to intermediate range,” said Whitmore.

Members of the community are invited to volunteer to assist with construction of the trail under the direction of a professional trail-building company and to attend a trail-building workshop on March 24 presented by an International Mountain Bicycling Association Trail Care Crew.

The free event, hosted by WCU and the Nantahala Area chapter of the Southern Off-Road Bicycle Association and IMBA, will include a required 9 a.m. to noon classroom session, lunch, afternoon work on the trails and free 7 p.m. screening of “Pedal Driven, a Bike-umentary” in the multipurpose room in A.K. Hinds University Center. Volunteers are asked to register at www.imba.com/tcc/schedule to allow organizers to plan for food, tools and space.

“We are truly jazzed about this new trail system,” said Sae Smyrl, president of Nantahala Area SORBA. “In addition to adopting the existing trail system at Tsali Recreation Area, the club is committed to helping create a new, more central place to play in the woods.”

Nick Bragg, a junior from Abingdon, Va., majoring in engineering technology and president of the WCU Cycling Team, said students today drive at least an hour to enjoy the most accessible, mountain-bike friendly trails in the area.

“This is, without a doubt, a facility that students will take advantage of every day, from stress-relieving nature walks to fast mountain bike riding,” said Bragg. “Having trail access that is legal, fun and close will draw cyclists to WCU, where we already have some of the best road-biking roads on the East Coast.”

For more information, visit the “WCU Trail System Info” link on the Base Camp Cullowhee website at basecamp.wcu.edu or contact Whitmore at 828-227-3466 or jwhitmore@wcu.edu.

Dan and Amy Cherry perform as the Balaton Chamber Brass.

The Balaton Chamber Brass, an instrumental duo comprised of the husband-and-wife team of Dan and Amy Cherry, will present a free concert Tuesday, Feb. 14, at Western Carolina University.

The performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the recital hall of WCU’s Coulter Building.

With Amy Cherry on trumpet and Dan Cherry on trombone, the couple presented their first concert as the Balaton Chamber Brass last fall. They will be accompanied during the Valentine’s Day performance by pianist Brad Martin. All three musicians are members of WCU’s music faculty.

The program will begin with a new composition, “Cherry Blossoms,” which was written by Iowa composer Wayne Lu and inspired by the Cherrys’ two daughters. Other selections will include “Romanza” by Carl Maria von Weber, “Bushwakker’s Brewpub” by Elizabeth Raum, works by Mily Balakirev and an unaccompanied piece written by Bruce Frazier, WCU’s Carol Grotnes Belk Distinguished Professor in Commercial and Electronic Music.

The concert will end with a presentation of the Papagena/Papageno duet from the opera “The Magic Flute” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Those attending are invited to a reception in the lobby of the Coulter Building immediately following the concert.

For more information, call the WCU School of Music at 828-227-7242.

Hosted by the Office of Undergraduate Admission, Open House is designed to give interested students an insider’s view of what life is like on the WCU campus. Visitors will have an opportunity to tour the campus and residence halls, learn about the university’s wide array of academic programs and extracurricular opportunities, and find out the important details of topics such as financial aid.

The event will begin with registration and an academic fair located around the concourse of WCU’s Ramsey Regional Activity Center from 8:30 to 10 a.m.

For interested students who cannot attend Feb. 18, WCU has scheduled another Open House for Saturday, March 24. Also, campus tours are available year-round by appointment for students and their families.

Registration for Open House and more information is available by going to the website openhouse.wcu.edu or by calling the Office of Undergraduate Admission at 828-227-7317 or toll-free 877-928-4968.

The event will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Haynes Center. No registration is required to attend, and prospective students are welcome to drop in at any time.

University representatives will be on hand to discuss WCU’s traditional prelicensure bachelor’s degree program in nursing, the accelerated bachelor’s program, the registered nurse to bachelor’s degree program and a dual enrollment undergraduate program that WCU offers in conjunction with A-B Tech.

Graduate program representatives will be available to discuss master’s degree programs in family nurse practitioner, nurse administration, nurse anesthesia and nurse educator.

Attendees also can meet with admissions, financial aid and transfer credit advisers.

Those attending will have a chance to win door prizes, and refreshments will be available. More information about the education fair, including driving directions, is available by going to nursing.wcu.edu on the Web or by contacting Jessica Shirley, director of student services for the School of Nursing, via email at jshirley@wcu.edu or at 828-670-8810, extension 247.

WCU students and staff hold up a banner publicizing the "Battle of the Plug" energy conservation competition.

The Western Carolina University community has not only signed on to participate in a three-week national energy conservation competition but also raised the stakes by entering an individual challenge with Appalachian State University.

Beginning Monday, Feb. 13, WCU will measure which campus residence hall saves the greatest percentage of energy, as well as how the percent reduction overall compares with institutions participating in the competition, including Appalachian State.

“We are excited to have created buzz about this competition through the rivalry with App State,” said Lauren Bishop, energy manager at WCU.

The idea to use the WCU-ASU rivalry to boost energy conservation and awareness came to Bishop a few years ago, and the framework of the Campus Conservation Nationals competition provided a vehicle to make it easier for the idea to become a reality, she said. Crystal Simmons, ASU sustainability specialist, called Bishop to see if the competition could work and the result was the launch of the “Battle of the Plug.” The name is a spinoff from football’s “Battle for the Old Mountain Jug.”

Bishop and Virginia Fowler, residential living’s assistant director for facilities, have teamed up with several student organizations to promote the “Battle of the Plug” and conserve as much energy as possible.

“Some things we’re asking students to do include unplugging items that hold a vampire charge, like cell phone chargers or computer chargers, when they aren’t in use, or turning off lights when they leave the room, things like that,” said Fowler. “Other things like taking shorter showers or washing clothes in cold water also would help.”

Meanwhile, WCU’s Resident Student Association and Student Government Association are supporting “Battle of the Plug” through initiatives such as “Power Out for Poverty,” a voluntary blackout day, on Thursday, Feb. 16, to encourage poverty awareness and the impact of energy availability on reducing poverty.

“Battle of the Plug” is part of Campus Conservation Nationals, a nationwide electricity and water use reduction competition among colleges and universities created by the Center for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building Council and sponsored in partnership with Lucid, Alliance to Save Energy and the National Wildlife Federation.

For more information, visit energy.wcu.edu or contact Bishop at lbishop@wcu.edu or 828-227-3562.

Entitled the “Catamounts Unite Tour,” the series of nightly receptions is designed to allow Eaton and Speir to meet with WCU alumni, supporters and Catamount fans alike as they craft together the vision and direction of Catamount athletics and Western Carolina football.

Read the full story.

Sarah Meltzer

The book, titled “Step-by-Step Professional Development in Technology,” offers guidelines for bringing about effective professional development in technology and contains tools and resources such as preplanning worksheets, needs assessment surveys, long- and short-term inventory plans, technology inventory forms and training schedule templates. The chapters conclude with checklists to help readers track the steps they are taking to make professional development in technology a success in their school or district.

Meltzer said the book began as work on her dissertation. She was familiar with the need through her experience as a teacher and working in instructional technology support for the Palm Beach County School District in Florida. She also worked as an educational consultant and project manager for a software company supporting schools implementing technology into the curriculum.

“It was obvious that schools demonstrated a need for assistance in these areas,” said Meltzer. “My book evolved to be a basic hands-on ‘how-to’ book for school district technology directors, principals and teachers to use as a resource.”

Meltzer holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Wittenberg University and a bachelor’s degree in elementary education, a master’s degree in educational leadership kindergarten through twelfth grade and a doctoral degree in education with a focus on adult learning, all from Florida Atlantic University.

For more information, contact Meltzer at 828-227-3308 or meltzer@wcu.edu.