Places to go. Food to eat. Ideas for the perfect Valentine’s outing.

On Valentine’s day many people plan romantic outings with friends or their significant other. Luckily, Hickory is full of restaurants of multiple varieties and various price ranges.

For the person looking for a low priced and quick, yet enjoyable dinner close to campus, one should take trip to Naganos Japanese Restaurant. This offers a nice and casual dining experience that anyone would enjoy. Another well priced option, Applebee’s, which offers the popular two for $20 deal. This includes an appetizer to share and two entrees out of a choice of six, ranging from salads and pasta to chicken and ribs. A variety of options at a good price is always a good choice. Good priced pizza options with a great atmosphere also are available at one of Hickory’s newest restaurant addition, Mellow Mushroom. With assorted types of pizza on the menu, there is bound to be a satisfying choice for anyone.

When looking for a fancier restaurant for a Valentine’s date there’s many to choose from as well. Steakhouses in the area include Outback, Longhorn and Texas Roadhouse, all located within ten minutes of campus. For a unique dining experience, there is Kobe Japanese Steakhouse. This gives you the opportunity to watch the food being made in front of your table. Kobe also offers a two for $29 deal after nine o’clock everyday of the week. For Italian there are the classic choices of Olive Garden and Carrabbas, as well as the local choice of Davinci’s. With generally well priced options, as well as more expensive items on the menu, it is almost impossible to go wrong with an Italian restaurant.

To make sure your Valentine’s is not spent waiting in line for a table at the perfect restaurant, it is always a good idea to call ahead and make a reservation, or go early to ensure a short wait time.

A University on the Rise!
Join us for the campus-wise Rise Up Rally Monday, February 14 at 9:20am in the Cromer Center. View the first ever Lenoir-Rhyne television commercial featuring many of our current students. Win free Rise Up gear!

To get everyone geared up for the Rally on the 14th we have several contests this week to win free stuff.

Tuesday: Look for your “Save the Date” postcard in your student mailbox this afternoon. Fill in the statement, “I rise up by…” and be entered to win a Rise Up prize pack at the Rally.

Wednesday: Current L-R students, show up at Shaw Plaza between 12:30-1:15 and have your photo taken with the Rise Up logo to win a free t-shirt.

Thursday: If you haven’t already joined the official Lenoir-Rhyne University Facebook page, now’s the time! Log on after 9:00am today to see how you can win

Friday: Did you know there is a LRU Prize Patrol? The Prize Patrol will be roaming campus between the hours of 10:00am-2:00pm and if they spot you wearing L-R gear you’ll win a Rise Up prize. Be sure to check back at the Lenoir-Rhyne University Facebook page for photos from the week. Tag yourself, tag your friends!

What does it mean to be North Carolina’s rising university? As a student, you know it means that L-R is rising up everyday – conserving natural resources, fighting childhood obesity, connecting renowned writers to the community, just to name a few. We’re challenging our students to expand their minds, and their horizons, through research with faculty, study abroad and internships.

Lenoir-Rhyne is a university on the rise and we are excited to soon be able to share our stories with a much broader audience. Beginning on February 14th through mid-May, Lenoir-Rhyne will be airing television commercials in the Charlotte region as well as Greenville-Spartanburg-Asheville-Anderson market between 5:00am-10:00am. This will be an outstanding opportunity to showcase all that L-R has to offer as well as highlighting the Hickory area. We will also have a digital presence on various websites in Florida, South Carolina and Maryland, just to name a few. You’ll also hear L-R being talked about on area radio stations during traffic reports.

To kick off this exciting new campaign, we’d like to invite you to join us for a Rise Up Rally on Monday, February 14th at 9:20 a.m. in the Cromer Center for a sneak peek of the television commercial featuring many of our current students.

Lenoir-Rhyne University and Newberry College will play a women's basketball game on national television on Saturday, February 5, at Noon at Shuford Memorial Gymnasium.

Five Head Entertainment to Present Concert

Photo credit: Erik Jacobs

Five Head Entertainment will present David Wax Museum and Jacob Henry Godfrey in concert on Tuesday, February 15. The concert will take place at The Fireman’s Kitchen in Hickory Community Theater, located in downtown Hickory at 30th St NW. The performance begins at 8 PM and costs $7 in advance or $10 the night of the show.  A special discounted ticket is available for students at the cost of $5.  Tickets can be purchased in advance online at www.fiveheadentertainment.com

Recently anointed as Boston’s Americana Artist of the Year at the Boston Music Awards, the David Wax Museum has been called “one of Boston’s hottest new bands”. It is no surprise that their acclaimed performance at the 2010 Newport Folk Festival was hailed as one of NPR’s All Songs Considered Highlights of the entire weekend. The Museum’s ability to fuse traditional Mexican folk with country, folk and rock, creating an utterly unique Mexo-Americana aesthetic, is what generates its contemporary sound and its broad appeal. Combining Latin rhythms, call-and-response hollering, accordion pumping and donkey jawbone rattling, they have electrified audiences across the country. And they’ve just gotten started.

David Wax Museum’s ascent has been a steady one. The band now consistently sells out historic venues such as Boston's Club Passim, often performing two shows in a single night due to heightened demand. The Museum is closely associated with many of the most innovative Americana bands active today, having toured nationally with The Avett Brothers and the Old 97’s and having shared bills with such acts as Carolina Chocolate Drops, Langhorne Slim, Ben Kweller, The Low Anthem, and Nathaniel Rateliff.  In addition to packing clubs and theatres across the country, David Wax Museum has been causing a ruckus in living rooms and backyards throughout the country. In these unique settings, the band's fiery and heart-wrenching shows have created an undeniable buzz and a devoted following.

Jacob Henry Godfrey is the brainchild of Morganton based Jacob Darden. Darden crafted his songwriting under the moniker of Israel Darling and with a constantly changing cast of musicians he toured the east coast to critical praise and a record deal with New York City based Engine Room Recordings.Under the moniker of Jacob Henry Godfrey, Darden continues to develop his edgy songwriting while exploring his unique voice.

More information about the show can be found online at http://www.fiveheadentertainment.com and music samples can be found at www.davidwaxmuseum.com.

Five Head Entertainment was formed in May 2007 and offers music management and event promotion services throughout North Carolina. Local volunteers are always welcome to help out with shows. Anyone interested in volunteering can contact Jimmy Rhine at (704) 473-0739 or by e-mail at info@fiveheadentertainment.com.

The Hickory Community Theatre is a volunteer based, nonprofit organization that exists to offer quality live theatre, provide lifelong learning opportunities, and foster creative expression throughout the community in a fiscally responsible manner.

"Dinner, Dance & Romance” with Lenoir-Rhyne University

Arts Aloud of Lenoir-Rhyne University will host the Hickory Jazz Orchestra’s “Dinner, Dance & Romance” on Friday, Feb. 11 at 6: 30 p.m. in the Voigt R. Cromer Center on campus.

The cost for couple seating is $50 per person or $40 per person for group seating. Ticket prices include dinner, wine and dancing. The dinner will begin at 6:30 p.m. followed by dancing at 8:00 p.m.

The third annual “Dinner, Dance & Romance” is a Valentine’s Day event that provides a night of romance for couples or for groups looking for an enjoyable evening in the Hickory community.  It begins with a catered dinner and moves into a night of dancing. The music will be provided by the Hickory Jazz Orchestra’s 18-piece ensemble, which performs swing and big band style music.

The attire for the event is formal. Tickets are on sale, but seating is limited. Perspective guests can purchase tickets at http://conferences-events.lr.edu, at the L-R Box Office Monday-Friday from 4-6 p.m., or by calling 828-328-7234. There is a $1 processing fee for all ticket purchases.

L-R Facuty, Staff & Students Participate in MLK Day of Service

On Saturday January 22, 48 volunteers, including students, faculty and staff gathered to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy of community service. Teams of volunteers completed service projects at six different organizations in the community, including Cooperative Christian Ministries, the Catawba Science Center and Longview Elementary thrift store. 

The groups came back to campus after their service projects to enjoy hot chocolate and snacks, reflect on their service and remember Dr. King’s challenge to help their community. 

This year marked the 25^th Anniversary of MLK Day of Service as a national event, and the 3^rd year of LR’s participation.

Summer Experience & Internship Fair This Thursday!

This Thursday, January 27^th students will have the opportunity to explore summer jobs and internships at the Summer Experience and Internship Fair. The event will be held in the Cromer Center from 11am-1pm. Please encourage your students and advisees to attend – undergraduates who have internships get the hiring and grad school acceptance advantage every time!

Sponsored by the Career and Personal Development Center. Email or call Katie Wohlman at Katie.wohlman@lr.edu, 328-7699 with questions.

Recruiters confirmed to attend:

Hickory Crawdads

WHKY

Chamber of Commerce

LR Office of Study Abroad

Higher Ground Summer Camp

Catawba County Parenting Network

The Cognitive Connection

Transportation Insight

LRU Visiting Playwright-in-Residence to Speak to Hickory Community

The Lenoir-Rhyne University Visiting Writers Series continues on Thursday, February 3, with LRU’s Visiting Playwright-in-Residence Amina McIntyre. McIntyre will speak at 7:00 pm in the Belk Centrum on campus. She has worked as an editor for the Infinite Field Magazine and is currently working as a playwright, freelance writer, and editor.

McIntyre is Lenoir-Rhyne University's first Visiting Playwright-in-Residence. While on campus she will be teaching an eight-week playwriting course for L-R students. This is an opportunity for students to write a 10-minute play with feedback provided by an accomplished writer.

In addition to productions of her short plays, Point of View and In Those Jeans, she has had a staged reading of her one-act Two Card Table and a Clothes Rack and a cold reading of her play Doin' The Work at the Indiana Theater Association ITWorks 2008, as well as poems in various publications. Her full-length play, Most Eligible Bachelor, was produced at Wabash College in April 2009.

A native of Atlanta, GA, McIntyre received a BA in Anthropology at Colby College, a MA in African American and African Diaspora Studies from Indiana University, Bloomington, and a MFA in Creative Writing from Spalding University.

LRU to Celebrate the Life and Works of Martin Luther King Jr.

Lenoir-Rhyne University, in collaboration with other community organizations, will 
celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. with several events in January.
Dr. Timothy B. Tyson, Senior Research Scholar, Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, will speak at 10:00 a.m. on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, January 17, in the P.E. Monroe Auditorium, located on the LRU campus. The Lenoir-Rhyne Gospel Choir will also perform during the program.

Dr. Tyson grew up in North Carolina, graduated from Emory University in 1987 and earned his Ph.D. from Duke in 1994. Tyson, a professor of African-American studies who’s white, unflinchingly examines the civil rights struggle in the South. He serves on the executive board of the North Carolina NAACP and works on issues of race and public education, in addition to his labors as a writer, historian, and teacher.

Tyson has written several books including Radio Free Dixie: Robert F. Williams and the Roots of Black Power, the story of an influential radical NAACP branch president from Monroe, NC as well as Blood Done Sign My Name, which went on to win the Southern Book Award for Nonfiction and the Grawemeyer Award in Religion.

As Senior Research Scholar at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke, he can be found on Wednesday mornings out in the yard cooking eastern North Carolina pork barbecue over a hickory fire for his seminar. His handiwork has no tomato-tinted hint of what Tyson refers to as “the Lexington heresy.”

On the equally crucial basketball question, Tyson’s position is more balanced. Though born a Blue Devil, he holds appointments at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as well as Duke. On game day, he dons the darker blue, but otherwise roots for both the Blue Devils and the Tar Heels, making him perhaps a singularly ecumenical figure in our state, crossing color lines of all kinds.

The spring course Tyson teaches with gospel singer Mary D. Williams, “The South in Black and White,” continues to draw hundreds of students from North Carolina Central University, Duke, the University of North Carolina, North Carolina State University, and the surrounding community.

Tyson lives in Chapel Hill with his wife, Perri Morgan, who teaches in the Duke Physician’s Associate program, and his son, Sam Tyson, lead guitarist for “Rev. B. and the WannaBees,” who will graduate from East Chapel Hill High School this year. Their daughter, Hope Tyson, will graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison next year. His father, Rev. Vernon C. Tyson, a retired United Methodist minister, and his mother, Mrs. Martha Tyson, a long-time public schoolteacher, live in Raleigh.

Dr. Tyson will also be the featured speaker at the Annual MLK Community Worship Service on Sunday, January 16 at 5:00pm at Corinth Reformed Church, 150 16th Avenue NW in Hickory.

Immediately after the January 17th presentation, the Hickory NAACP annual march will take place, from the university to the Brown-Penn Recreation Center, located at 735 Third St. SW, Hickory.

All of these events are free and open to the public. For additional information, contact Emma Sellers, LRU Director of Residence Life, 828-328-7288.

Healthcare Reform Topic of Fall Business Forum at LRU

Louis Rossiter

Louis Rossiter, Research Professor with the Thomas Jefferson Program in Public Policy at the College of William & Mary , will be the guest speaker at the Lenoir-Rhyne University Business Fall Forum. He will be discussing the “Economics of National Healthcare Reform.”

This event is hosted by Dr. Wayne Powell, the Charles M. Snipes School of Business faculty and the LRU Business Council Board of Directors. Rossiter will speak at a luncheon scheduled for 12:00-1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 8 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Hickory. Registration will begin at 11:30 a.m.

Rossiter currently serves on the Board of Regents of the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health; the Board of Directors of AcademyHealth and its Finance Committee; and is the 2010 Chair of the Board of Directors of the Coalition for Health Services Research. He has served on numerous boards and advisory groups including the National Advisory Council of the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Rossiter is the former Secretary of Health and Human Resources for the Commonwealth of Virginia. As Secretary, he directed the implementation of Virginia’s new private health insurance program for children and families; ensured significant further improvement in the state’s mental health system; created new policy initiatives in the emerging field of human genetics; and brought the major information technology projects in the Secretariat to national prominence.

He served as a professor at the Medical College of Virginia (MCV) Campus of Virginia Commonwealth University from 1982 to 2000 where he was the first director of the Williamson Institute for Health Studies. He took a leave of absence from the university from 1989-1992 to serve as deputy for policy to the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). As deputy, he created and directed a new payment system for U.S. hospitals under Medicare and formulated all agency policy initiatives through the federal legislative process.

Rossiter, 61, received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his bachelor’s degree from Lenoir-Rhyne University.

Tickets for this event are $50 each for members of the Lenoir-Rhyne Business Council and $75 each for non-members. A table for eight is $350. To reserve your tickets, contact Leeanne Kale at leeanne.kale@lr.edu or call 828-328-7321.