Updated as of Nov. 11 at 3:45 p.m. to include video.
Elon University President Connie Book and the Vice President of Student Life Jon Dooley answered a multitude of questions from Elon’s Student Government Association about general university inquiries — including the recently announced Roberts Academy at Elon University.
Hal and Marjorie Roberts donated to Elon University to establish the Roberts Academy at Elon University. Book said that the Roberts family is not disclosing the amount of money donated towards the planned private school for children with dyslexia. Book did say that Elon University is not paying for any of the academy’s expenses.
“If you're talking about cash, we're not doing cash,” Book said in an interview with Elon News Network. “We're definitely giving leadership time and the faculty time to help partner to get this set up. So, from a strategic effort, the university is participating in that.”
According to Book, the academy will be temporarily located at Trollinger House, which currently houses the I-House Living-Learning Community. The temporary location, Book said, will need some renovations to accommodate children in third and fourth grades that will be enrolled in Fall 2026.
“We're gonna have to do a few things to Trollinger to get it ready,” Book said. “But it's not too terrible. We should be pretty quick and it'll just be two grades there. So the space will work for what we're trying to do.”
With the academy opening in a few months, Book said that this immediate action was something the Roberts family was ready for.
School of Education senator and Elon junior Dia Haspel asked Book and Dooley about how the new Roberts Academy at Elon University will affect the Dr. Jo Watts Williams School of Education. Book said that this academy will mostly impact special education majors and others interested in learning the Orton-Gillingham approach. The Orton-Gillingham approach is a highly structured approach that breaks reading and spelling down into smaller skills involving letters and sounds and then builds on these skills over time.
“We also imagine more undergraduate research in the School of Education about dyslexia,” Book said. “We've hired an acting director who has been teaching in the special ed program, Alicia Tate. Dr. Tate is planning on some curricular enhancements right away, even before the final school is constructed.”
School of Business senator and Elon senior Noah Biggers asked Book and Dooley about the recent phishing email scams and other technological issues the university has been facing. Biggers inquired about what steps the university is taking to help prevent these problems. Both Book and Dooley responded saying that they receive the same spam emails that students are receiving.
“Somebody was mimicking me and was texting people,” Book said.
Book said that she received text messages from people who were receiving the impersonated messages asking to confirm if she sent them or not. Dooley said that if you are to receive a phishing email, that you should double check with others before responding.
“I would say that anytime you get an email and you're not sure, and it looks like it could be a phishing thing — before you respond to it or start filling it out, to forward that to IT or just check it out with the sender,” Dooley said.
Inclusive Excellence senator and Elon sophomore Ayla Gonzalez asked if the HealthEU building is still on track to being completed by fall 2026. Dooley responded saying that the project is still going according to plan and is on track to being completed by the scheduled time, but Dooley said that bad weather could potentially affect its construction.
“Those projects are really at the whims of the weather with lots of projects we had this summer we thought were according to plan and the rain had other plans for us,” Dooley said. “Our plan is to have classes there next fall and over the course of the summer, move many of the operations that are in different parts of the campus into that space and have it ready to go.”
Dooley said that there will be a new food venue, called The Garden, in the HealthEU building with healthy options for students.
Class of 2029 senator Chris Guider asked about what the Elon and Queens University of Charlotte merger would look like in the next five or ten years and its sprint teams. Book said the sprint teams are matched with their counterparts at each university and they are having side-by-side conversations to gather information — because they are about to launch a strategic planning effort based on the next five years for Charlotte.
Book said that in 2022 they announced a law school in Charlotte and that in 2027 they are going to start a physician assistant program in Charlotte. With the expansion into Charlotte, Book said that she originally did not envision a merger. But now with the merger proposed, Book said that it offsets costs for Elon's original plans.
“Over the 10-year view of it we were gonna be adding things for the students, like a place to work out, dining service — then in 10 years we were going to have this full campus,” Book said. “So having the opportunity to merge with Queens presents a cost avoidance for the university and it creates other opportunities that we are just now starting to really get our head around and imagine.”
In an interview with Elon News Network, Book said that there is always that chance Elon and Queens do not merge, but she is feeling good about this partnership.
“It's not done till it's done,” Book said. “So, you know, we're working very hard. We had a great visit when the two boards came together, so I'm feeling really positive about it.”
Elon and Queens’ Boards of Trustees will review and vote on a definitive agreement to merge on Nov. 20.