HONORING EXCELLENCE

University Awards Day set for April 30

East Carolina University will mark Founders Day/University Awards Day on April 30, recognizing the establishment of the institution 107 years ago by the N.C. General Assembly.

The university’s top awards in teaching, scholarship of engagement, research and creative achievement, leadership and the Centennial Awards of Excellence will be announced during an event at 9 a.m. in Hendrix Theatre, Mendenhall Student Center. During the event, this year’s inductees into the Servire Society will be recognized.

Later that day, in Mendenhall Student Center’s Great Room, Chancellor Steve Ballard will recognize the newest members of the Servire Society during an induction reception at 1:30 p.m.

Each Servire Society inductee has contributed 100 or more hours of volunteer service – without compensation and outside his or her normal realm of duties – to the community at large within the previous year.

Also recognized will be several community organizations that provide opportunities for faculty, staff and students to perform volunteer service.

At 3 p.m., the university will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the partnership that created the Queen Anne’s Revenge Conservation Lab. The event will be at the lab, which is housed on ECU’s West Research Campus, 1157 VOA Site C Road, Greenville.

In the QAR lab, artifacts go through a 12-step conservation process that includes documenting the artifact, cleaning, desalination, consolidation, drying and final analysis. The lab is a joint venture between the university and the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources.

Large tanks in the QAR lab hold hundreds of artifacts – from anchors and barrel hoops to glass beads and nails – pulled from the shipwreck site of Blackbeard’s flagship Queen Anne’s Revenge in Beaufort Inlet.