News | Lenoir-Rhyne University

2026 Aerobears rocket team, 8 members, at IREC with their rocket

We do big things: AeroBears prepare for a new season

Broad knowledge and teamwork are the AeroBears’ superpowers. After a successful 2026 launch season, LR’s rocket team is building toward a new competitive season — and aiming even higher in 2027.

Two students compare written and laptop notes in the audience at an event

Bears Engage explores freedom and responsibility in America at 250

Bears Engage brings music, theater, scholarship and conversation together as Lenoir-Rhyne marks America’s 250th anniversary and considers where we'll go in the years ahead.

Helping the next Bear on the trail: scholarship honors Mike Hogewood ’76

A new scholarship honoring regional sportscaster Mike Hogewood ’76 extends his legacy of opportunity, helping future Bears pursue the possibilities that shaped his own life.

Loury Floyd, Ph.D., receives statewide award for teacher education

Loury Ollison Floyd, Ph.D., associate provost for faculty affairs, assessment and accreditation, received the 2026 NCACTE Outstanding Contributions to Teacher Education Award on September 23.

Cover of Emotionall Sober and Unimaginably Good and Megan DeMatteo

Back to the Well: A Writing Life Comes Full Circle

After a decade building a professional writing career, Megan DeMatteo returns to Lenoir-Rhyne with her first published book and a new goal: fiction.

Lenoir-Rhyne University ranked #1 private regional university in Western North Carolina

Lenoir-Rhyne ranks #1 among private universities in Western North Carolina and appears among the South’s Top 25 in the 2027 U.S. News Best Colleges rankings.

Members of two sororities pose for a photo in front of the graffiti wall

Lenoir-Rhyne plans new home for Greek Life

A new campus home for fraternities and sororities will provide a dedicated space for connection, leadership and community as Greek Life participation continues to grow.

Andrew McCarthy leans on a podium with the LR seal on front

Andrew McCarthy on nostalgia, friendship and showing up

Opening the 2026–27 season of the Visiting Writers Series, McCarthy talked about friends, writing, travel and the strange but beautiful afterlife of teen stardom.

Lenoir-Rhyne announces new residence hall, Eastside Commons

Construction will begin in September 2026 on the new living-learning community for first-year students.

Pastor Vern, framed by congregation, reads during chapel service

Five questions with Pastor Vern

Interim university pastor Vern Kinard, M.Div. ’18, talks about finding his way back to Lenoir-Rhyne, creating a place of belonging, and the connections between music, faith and community.

Kevin Miller stands under an LR banner on the quad with his motorcycle

Mapping a route to entrepreneurship

Kevin Miller ’26 turned his love of riding in Western North Carolina into an entrepreneurial venture — with help from LR and a shot at $30,000 in a statewide startup competition.

Lenoir-Rhyne surpasses $90 million Charge Forward campaign goal ahead of schedule

Lenoir-Rhyne University has surpassed the $90 million goal of its Charge Forward comprehensive campaign ahead of schedule, reaching a historic milestone in the largest fundraising campaign in university history.