One of my stories of this week led me to attend my first SPECTRUM event. SPECTRUM, Elon's gay-straight alliance, is one of those clubs I overzealously subscribed to in the midst of the sensory overload of my first Elon organizational fair. Although I didn’t attend meetings or events, I couldn’t bring myself to unsubscribe to the mass email notifications. I suppose I just wanted to know what they were up to. So I was pleased that this coverage assignment for The Pendulum gave me an excuse to explore what the organization is about.
I think that SPECTRUM, an organization whose core principle is the understanding and embracing of differences, is indeed one of the most instantly welcoming groups on campus. As I entered the small library conference room where the event was held, I was warmly greeted by a couple of faculty members. The informal nature of these individuals really set the stage for the free-form nature of the following discussion. Those people in attendance evinced a feeling of excitement, that this was something they were looking forward to - an atmosphere that allowed them to voice any musing or campus observance without judgment. The ethos of the event was that everyone in attendance, just by attending, wanted to glean from different perspectives. And I think that that is a beautiful thing.