By Eric Johnson

ASHEVILLE (September 26, 2025) – Public universities are equal parts classroom and toolkit. They teach the next generation of students, and they also serve as huge repositories of useful expertise. That’s never clearer than in times of disaster.

Last week, UNC Asheville held a multi-day symposium — Remembering, Rebuilding, Reimagining — to mark the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Helene.

The remarkably broad roster of events offered a window into all the ways university scholars and staff went to work in the aftermath of the storm.

 Atmospheric scientists gave a detailed breakdown of the challenges involved in forecasting a mountain hurricane. Economists and environmental scientists debated the impact of flood planning regulations. Sociologists and anthropologists analyzed the way people responded to disaster warnings and offered ideas for how public officials can communicate better when threats loom.

In session after session, faculty described an overwhelming impulse in the aftermath of the storm: To put their skills and knowledge to work for Western North Carolina, to make sure that the lessons of Helene were captured in data, in stories, in art, and in policy.

“Together, they were a representative cross section of our whole university,” said William Bares, a professor of music who helped organize the six-day series of talks, performances, and exhibits. “We ended up with more than 80 events that showed how interconnected we all truly are.”

A Friday session on the hurricane’s impact on election turnout illustrated the point. Helene hit at a critical moment for the 2024 election cycle, after absentee ballots had been distributed and just a couple weeks before early voting commenced. Election officials and poll workers across the region had to scramble to ensure that thousands of people displaced by the storm could still cast their votes. 

University researchers swung into action, too.

Chris Cooper, a public policy professor at Western Carolina, created a detailed historical analysis of election turnout data to compare with 2024, finding that post-Helene voter participation actually held steady, despite all of the obstacles.

“It’s a story of resilience, working within the systems we have to get those votes cast,” Cooper said. “The work done by these frontline election workers was extraordinary.” 

A panel of local journalists emphasized the need for good information from trusted sources.

“Whenever there’s a void, and people can’t get their normal news sources, rumors start filling the void,” said John Boyle of the Asheville Watchdog. “That’s one of the most important things we do — try to set the record straight, try to get the facts right.”

That’s equally true for university scholars, whether they’re studying small-business loans or geospatial erosion mapping. The goal is better understanding to drive better preparation and recovery.

That work crosses disciplinary boundaries and reaches far beyond campus. One of the most striking aspects of the Helene symposium was how it brought together local pastors and poets, historians and holistic healers, orchestra conductors and oral history collectors.

The hurricane affected everyone in the region, and every part of the community found ways to respond.

“We had some 160+ community partners that the faculty brought in to share their expertise,” Bares said. “I was proud that the event brought our whole community together.”

WALKING AROUND UNC Asheville’s campus last week, there was little trace of the storm that shuttered the place for much of last fall. The piles of fallen trees are all cleared away; the damaged roofs are all patched; the Adirondack chairs scattered across the quad are once again full of students reading in the afternoon sunshine.

But the scars are there, most notably in the 6% enrollment decline Asheville experienced after missing out on weeks of school visits and campus tours last year. It was the only campus in the 16-campus UNC System that saw enrollment drop this year.

I hope that dip proves short-lived, because the world needs more of the human-scale education that Asheville is offering.

In his new book Dream School, higher education writer Jeff Selingo highlights UNC Asheville for occupying a unique and valuable niche in the college universe.

“As one of the few public liberal arts colleges in the country, the Asheville campus of UNC takes advantage of its place within a larger research university system,” Selingo writes. “Some 65 percent of students complete original research in their field of study, with class sizes averaging just 14 students.”

At several of the presentations last week, professors credited student researchers for their work on post-Helene projects, and moderators called on students in the audience by name, reflecting the tight-knit culture of the small campus.

After all of the panel discussions on Friday, I saw Bares and a group of Asheville faculty at the final event of the day — a poetry reading and open-air concert at Zillicoah Beer Company, a few minutes off campus and right next to the beautiful, now-peaceful French Broad River.

Holding a beer and grinning widely, he gestured to all of the people dancing, talking, and laughing together in a place that had been flood-wrecked and desolate just a few months before.

“Isn’t this awesome?” he asked. 

It was. A very Asheville way to mark the end of a very tough year.

Eric Johnson is a writer in Chapel Hill. He works for the UNC System and the College Board.