Teena Piccione, the new secretary of the North Carolina Department of Information Technology and the state’s chief information officer, serves as High Point University’s Data Expert in Residence. She spoke to a large group of business and engineering students inside HPU’s Bertram L. Podell Extraordinaire Cinema Jan. 9.

Enrollment has rebounded at North Carolina's three state universities in the mountainous western part of the state that was slammed by Hurricane Helene last fall.

Months after Hurricane Helene disrupted the academic year for thousands of students and their families, spring enrollment is up at the UNC System’s three mountain universities.