Cheat Sheet: Oregon Shooting
A shooting at Umpqua Community College in southwestern Oregon Oct. 1 became the most recent and most severe of the more than 40 school shootings that have occurred in the United States in 2015.
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A shooting at Umpqua Community College in southwestern Oregon Oct. 1 became the most recent and most severe of the more than 40 school shootings that have occurred in the United States in 2015.
The Alamance County Board of Commissioners approved a public transit route from downtown Burlington to downtown Graham and Alamance Community College in its Oct. 5 meeting, according to a Burlington Times-News report. The route is one of five in the upcoming transit system.
Most of the academic departments will host Open House sessions with alumni during Homecoming Weekend Oct. 16-18. These are considered an opportunity for networking and creating connections with professionals in respective fields. For more information regarding times and locations, go to the Elon Homecoming site.
The North Carolina Senate voted 41-3 Sept. 24 in favor of a bill that would ban the sale of body parts resulting from an abortion. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Chad Barefoot, also bans family planning funding for abortion providers and the donation of fetal body parts that didn’t come from a natural miscarriage for medical research.
Elon University’s Office of Alumni Engagement announced the five winners of its annual Alumni Awards. Igor Pavlov, ’94, Tracey Nugent, ’84, Matt Belanger, ’05, Melissa Taylor Duncan, ’06, and Darryl Smith, ’86, will be recognized for their awards at the homecoming opening ceremony Oct. 16.
An e-waste recycling event will take place Saturday 9 a.m.-2 p.m. in the Public Works parking lot on E. Summit Avenue.
Burlington residents are encouraged to bring their dogs to the annual Woofstock Dog Festival. Presented by the Humane Society of Alamance County, the event will be held 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Oct. 3 in Burlington City Park. Attendees can enjoy Woofstock-themed T-shirts, raffles and a variety of vendors from the Burlington area. For further information, contact the Humane Society of Alamance County at 336-438-2023.
Pope Francis returned to Vatican City Monday after a six-day trip to New York, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia — his first visit to the United States. Family, forgiveness, the protection of immigrant rights and the eradication of sex abuse numbered among his highlighted remarks during the visit, which was part of an international Mission trip.
Who passed the budget and when was it passed?
1. Luis Vargas earns All-American honors
Elon University boasts about its international population in many of its publications and all over its website, but this population is marginalized even as the university works to expand it.
Elon University administrators did their part in muddying up campus when they chose not to provide hoses outside residence halls for students celebrating Festivus Sunday, April 26.
Meal plans are a waste of money for Elon University students who already have full kitchens and would rather not purchase one. But they’re a source of income for the university. Through their sophomore year, students living on campus are required to spend between $3,129 and $3,971 on a meal plan. For students living in residence halls, these requirements are logical. But it doesn’t make sense for students in apartments with full kitchens to spend thousands of dollars on a meal plan they won’t use. The least expensive meal plan — 200 block — isn’t even available to students on campus until their junior year. Assistant Director for Auxiliary Services Carrie Ryan said these requirements allow the university to keep dining costs down. “By requiring all students in these classes to have a meal plan, dining services can provide more food venues, more food item options and longer hours of service,” she said in an email, noting that the university wouldn’t be able to sustain its current level of dining service if meal plans were issued on a voluntary basis. It’s wonderful that dining services provides all that it does — it’s undoubtedly appreciated by students in residence halls — but those who aren’t going to eat the food in the first place shouldn’t be picking up the slack to keep costs low. Requiring them to spend an exorbitant amount on food they’ll never eat is the university’s way of generating revenue from unconsumed meals. Ryan said the meal plan requirements support Elon’s residential model, which includes housing freshmen and sophomores entirely on campus. She said residential environments include dining facilities and are designed to facilitate social interaction during meals. But a number of sophomores live in apartments on campus with their own kitchens. It’s valid to strive for fostering community in a residential model, but a sophomore living in an apartment has likely already discovered a community and no longer needs those facilities to create one. These students could spend $50 every week for a whole year and not spend as much as they would on the least expensive meal plan. Ryan said some students may be exempt from the meal plan requirements if they have dietary restrictions or specific health needs, but she noted this doesn’t guarantee an exception will be made. At the very least, students with medical restrictions should have the power to opt out of a meal plan that would cause them to have health problems. Under the current system, they can apply to do so but have no guarantee of success. When it comes to purchasing meal plans, not everyone has the same needs. Ultimately, the university benefits more than the students who don’t think they need a meal plan. Those students should be able to forgo purchasing one.
The crunch of the fall leaves and the brisk wind blowing as the sun sets are sentiments usually associated with football season. Not the chirping of birds and spring flowers. Spring football practice has continued to grow across the college and high school game, with spring games at larger schools drawing upwards of 40,000 people. Many teams have begun their annual spring practices that culminate in a spring game — an intrasquad scrimmage. But with the increasing number of concussions and brain-related injuries in football, spring football needs to be limited. At Elon University, the football team opened spring practice Monday. The spring game will be played in a primetime slot of 7 p.m. April 25 — the third straight year it’s been held at night. The purpose of spring football is to keep the players in shape, practice new plays or formations and get an idea of what the depth chart could be in the fall. All of those things can be done without what the NCAA calls “live contact,” which involves tackling to the ground and/or live-speed blocking. Instead, full-pad practices should be the most intense type of practice in the spring. Full-pad practices simply have the players in full pads and don’t require live contact — rather, they’re focused on honing technique and conditioning to prepare for games. The NCAA allows 15 spring practice sessions, eight of them with live contact. Only three of those live contact practices can be scrimmages, or have live contact for more than 50 percent of the practice. The live contact practices can’t happen on consecutive days or more than twice a week. Elon, like all other college teams, mixes in live contact during the spring. The live contact practices should be cut down to include just one scrimmage and no more than two other days. As more and more football players are sidelined because of brain injuries, it’s best to stay away from contact as much as possible, especially considering players go through nearly a month of camp before the season starts in August and many spend the entire summer at school working out with the team. Last month, Chris Borland, a 24-year-old linebacker who led the San Francisco 49ers in tackles last season, retired less than one year after being drafted out of the University of Wisconsin. He cited the potential for brain trauma in the future as a prime reason for the early retirement. For years, it’s become more and more prevalent how football players are impacted by the hits they suffer from playing the game. Borland’s situation shows that players are taking heed of what’s happening to their predecessors. Defensive back Akeem Langham, who was a fifth-year senior for Elon last year, missed the last three games of Elon’s 2013 season after suffering two concussions in a three-week span. As a result, Langham wore a thick, padded cover to his helmet during spring practice in 2014. It’s time the NCAA and its institutions begin taking more measures to protect the athletes. The Elon football team should make an effort to stay away from live contact for the majority of its spring practices and focus more on summer training sessions. Last year, head coach Rich Skrosky was pleased at the team’s progress throughout the summer because nearly the entire team was at Elon working out through June and July. Coaches can’t be present at practices during the summer per NCAA rules, but that doesn’t mean players can’t sharpen offensive and defensive sets. Plus, incoming freshmen are present during the summer — most aren’t during the spring. Spring practice has some benefits, yes. It boosted an Elon team going through a coaching transition. But the long-term consequences outweigh the immediate positives that can be gained from live contact in spring practices. Elon should be wary of that this month, and should use live contact as little as possible.
The Elon University women’s basketball team fell to No. 1 seed James Madison University Saturday, 63-60 in the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament semifinals. The loss marks Elon’s third to the Dukes this year. “I’m very proud of the way my team came out and competed,” said head coach Charlotte Smith. “I felt like we played with a lot of passion, a lot of fire and a lot of heart, and I’m very proud of the way they executed the game plan today.” Things started off well for Elon. Freshman guard Shay Burnett had 10 points in the first half, going five for five from the field and tallying three steals. The Phoenix led by as many as six with 1:46 to play, going into the locker room leading 35-32. After halftime, the Phoenix was able to maintain the lead until the 13:46 mark, when James Madison junior Destiny Jones made a layup to give the Dukes a 41-39 advantage. The Phoenix subsequently tied the game twice to keep it alive, but the Dukes held the lead for the rest of the contest. Elon had another shot with 46 seconds left. Burnett’s layup didn’t fall, and the Phoenix missed two 3-point attempts on a later possession. James Madison missed four free throws in the waning moments, but also recovered its offensive rebounds. Burnett led the offensive charge for the Phoenix with 18 points on the day, but Elon struggled to shoot effectively, making just 29 percent of its shots from the field in the second half and going 0 for 4 from beyond the arc. Elon made a meager 20 percent of its shots from beyond the arc in the contest — senior forward Sam Coffer and sophomore guard Essence Baucom both made one. “We’re just going to build on [our foundation] for next year,” Burnett said. “We’ll keep the tradition going.” Next week the Phoenix will face Georgia Tech March 26 in the first round of the NIT Tournament.
Elon University’s Campus Safety and Police showed commitment to building trust with the Elon community when they outfitted their officers with body cameras in August 2014. Video evidence from body camera footage provides a layer of security for the police and the people they serve, and that evidence should be accessible to the public.
Hillary Clinton has a bigger problem than cleaning out her email inbox. Clinton is under investigation for using a private email account when conducting official state business and not immediately handing over records to the government. In 2014, more than a year after she stepped down from her position of secretary of state, Clinton turned over 55,000 pages of emails from her personal account that the department didn’t have previously. What’s wrong with Hillary’s emails? There are month-long gaps in the email records Clinton submitted, and those gaps have raised concerns. In October 2011, a photo of her on a C-17 going to Libya went viral. In the iconic photo, she has her cell phone in her hand, but there are no emails on record from that trip. Can’t government officials have private email accounts? It is not uncommon for senior officials to use private email accounts in addition to an official government email. This practice is acceptable under Obama Administration policy and the Federal Records Act if officials forward federal emails that are federal records to their federal accounts. Instead of using a government email or even an email host such as Google or Yahoo, Clinton used a self-hosted email system — personal email hdr22@clintonemail.com and private domain “clintonemail.com.” An early March 2015 investigation by New York Times reporter Michael S. Schmidt found that, during her time as secretary of state, Clinton exclusively used her personal email account and did not even set up an official government email. As a result, records of her work-related email correspondence weren’t appropriately archived while she was there. Instead, they were turned over just last year. What’s the legality behind all of this? Technically, all emails and correspondences which involve public and governmental affairs are considered federal records. So, any of Clinton’s emails that contained federal record-worthy content, whether it was one sentence or five paragraphs, needed to be archived. According to 44 U.S. Code Chapter 33, “records” includes all books, papers, maps, photographs and other documentary materials made or received by an agency of the U.S. government or in connection with the transaction of public business as evidence of the organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, operations, or other activities of the government. What’s the latest? Republicans in Congress have begun an investigation into Clinton’s use of private email. They are focusing on whether she appropriately turned over all sent or received emails about government business to the State Department.
The hashtag elicited countless pictures of dogs wearing t-shirts and people clad in maroon and gold, as well as astronomical numbers of donations. But #ElonDay should go deeper than that. As the occasion stands, the crux of Elon Day is an appeal for donations. The birthday of Elon University is certainly something to be celebrated. But the university’s history and accomplishments should come first. Donations are critical to Elon’s financial success, and there’s nothing wrong with emphasizing them. But the event’s marketing relies too heavily on accumulating donors. The underlying goal, enticing people to donate, is thinly veiled by attempts to generate a world-wide community celebration via social media and alumni networks. This year’s campaign asks students, alumni and friends of the university to show they believe in Elon. But Elon isn’t Santa Claus. We already believe. We can feel the bricks with our own hands. Pleading with us to throw more money at the school won’t make it more real. Undoubtedly, a considerable amount of effort and planning went into Elon Day. Those responsible should be commended for what they achieved, given the pressure to exceed last year’s total donor turnout of 1,013 people and total donations of $116,867. And the orchestrators of Elon Day certainly aimed to outdo last year’s shindig. Not only did they up Elon Day’s presence on social media and employ a live stream of the day’s many (22) celebrations, but they assigned 60 faculty and staff members to the task of making the day spectacular. Assistant Vice President of University Advancement John Barnhill said last year only seven or eight people were responsible for Elon Day. Elon Day should be less about tallying totals and more about appreciating the experience and the people who have made it what it is. It’s not that we don’t want to celebrate Elon — we do. It’s our home for four years, and we’re proud to say that. But nothing spoils an occasion like throwing yourself a birthday party and specifically requesting that people give you more presents than last year.
Who are the Israeli Defense Forces? The Israeli Defense Forces are the military forces of the State of Israel. They were founded shortly after the states est. in 1948. The group’s security objectives are to defend the existence, territorial integrity and sovereignty of the State of Israel, deter all of Israel’s enemies and curb all forms of terrorism. The October 2014 issue of Business Insider Magazine listed the IDF as the most powerful military in the Middle East and the world’s top air force. Who serves? Israel is the only country in the world where military services make it compulsory for both males and females to enlist. Women constitute approximately one-third of the conscripts and close to 20 percent of the standing professional army. Males serve for three years and females for just less than two years. Israel also has one of the highest recruitment rates in the world — nearly 80 percent of those who receive summons serve. People from all over the world, including Thailand and Indonesia, have served. Those who are exempt from service include most minority groups, those who are not physically or psychologically fit, married women, women with children, religious males who are studying in an accredited Jewish Law institution and religious females who choose to pursue national service and community work. What about leadership? After 38 years of service, Lt. General Benny Gantz recently finished his term as the IDF chief of staff. A new chief is to be appointed within the coming weeks. In recent news? Recently, the IDF’s dropout rates have come under media attention. Currently, one out of every six men drafted into the IDF drops out before completing his three-year term. Almost 50 percent of soldiers who drop out of the army do so for psychological reasons. In an effort to get a dropout rate of less than 13.5 percent for men and 4.5 percent for women, IDF has recently added provisions to what is defined as “mentaly unstable to serve” and have increased services available for soldiers during their service. So what? The Israel-Palestine conflict continues to cause millions of deaths and displaced people. Understanding significant players in the conflict, such as the IDF, is essential in remaining part of the conversation.
Don’t shoot the messenger, or emailer, of snow day decisions With one notable exception, Elon University has made the right decision when it came to closing school for weather over the last couple of weeks. But students have harshly misdirected their bellyaching about these decisions toward Smith Jackson. Please, lay off. It’s not his fault. Jackson, vice president for student life, is a single cog in a complicated mechanism that has the power to declare a snow day. That power is great. But it is also distributed among individuals at the top tier of Elon’s administration. While the majority of students and faculty members are still tucked into bed with spoons under their pillows, it’s not uncommon for University Provost Steven House to hop in his car and test out the streets leading to Elon. At the same time, Physical Plant workers fight through the night against the plague of snow, sleet and ice sent down upon the people of Elon by The Big Phoenix in the Sky. Gerald Whittington, senior vice president for business, finance and technology also weighs in on the decision. Together, Jackson, House, Whittington and Physical Plant make up a Fantastic Four. But, like the rest of us, they’re not perfect. With great power comes great responsibility. When sidewalks are a mess and streets have yet to be plowed, staying open for business is a big mistake. The decision for Elon to remain open Feb. 24 was a smear on the record of the Fantastic Four. As a wintry mix pelted down throughout the morning, Elon administrators made the decision to stay open. This led to at least one hospitalization and reports of other minor injuries. It also prompted an outcry from students that leapt out of social media feeds and into the classrooms of disgruntled professors and students. To be fair, the snow last week caught much of the state by surprise. The wintery weather didn’t even make the weather for the evening news the night before. But university officials should have adapted and closed campus early in the morning. That being said, Jackson deserves neither your finger-wagging nor your admonition. Sure, he sent out the email notifying you that the day would continue as usual despite the North Carolina tundra surrounding campus. But he didn’t cause the snow, and he certainly didn’t make the final call. So cut him a break. Don’t shoot the messenger. The decision to cancel school is not an easy one. Safety remains a large concern, as does adhering to the academic calendar.