News

---

NEWS 3/2/25 3:52pm

Elon University’s 11th annual Black Solidarity Conference spotlights legacy, impact

By Tariq L. Johnson

For the 11th year, the Center for Race, Ethnicity and Diversity Education at Elon University hosted the Black Solidarity Conference on Feb. 28. An event welcome to all students, this year’s message focused on how the Black population creates a legacy and inspires a sense of community. The words “influence, innovation, and legacy” were draped across the front of McKinnon Hall which summarized the essence of the conference.  

---

NEWS 3/2/25 12:05pm

New Charlotte PA program set to open in 2027

By Avery Sloan

This week, the new program director and medical director will begin working to create Elon’s future physicians assistants program coming to Charlotte. The program has a tentative launch date of January 2027 and will be Elon’s second PA program — with its first program currently operating on Elon’s main campus. 

---

NEWS 3/1/25 6:17pm

CHEAT SHEET: Economic professor details how tariffs raise the price of foreign goods

By Trista Panagakos

Throughout his 2024 presidential campaign to take back the White House, President Donald Trump outlined how tariffs would be used in his economic goals as well as his political ones. While on the campaign trail, Trump promised to put 60% tariffs on goods being imported from China, and 10% tariffs on goods from all other foreign countries. Elon professor Brandon Sheridan has provided an insight on how tariffs affect consumers and the price of their goods, how tariffs have been used in the past and how retaliatory tariffs may affect consumers.

---

NEWS 3/1/25 5:25pm

Some Elon email accounts out amid Microsoft Outlook issues

By Elon News Network

Some of the Elon community are experiencing issues with their Microsoft Outlook due to a widespread outage, according to an Elon E-Alert sent at 7:29 p.m., the Microsoft outage has been resolved. In the Elon E-Alert sent at 5:01 p.m., Campus Information Technology is aware of the issue, however, Microsoft is working to resolve the widespread problem. According to the status checker sent in the technology update email, almost 38,000 users reported outages at 4:08 p.m. Elon IT is closed and did not respond to Elon News Network’s immediate request for comment.

---

NEWS 3/1/25 1:52pm

Elon Relay for Life raises over $50,000 for American Cancer Society

By Abigail Hines

After 12 hours of relays, activities, performances, and guest speakers, the executive board for Relay for Life at Elon revealed the final number of money raised for the American Cancer Society, totaling $54,155.76. Leading up to the grand reveal, more than 700 participants relayed around the Phoenix Activities and Recreation Center and listened to members of the community talk about their personal experiences with cancer. Some of those speakers were familiar faces for Elon students.

---

NEWS 2/28/25 5:50pm

Elon President Connie Book says Elon will not be affected by recent executive orders

By Ruby Burckle

Elon President Connie Book said Elon University will not be impacted by recent executive orders that propose cuts to funding for higher education and diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Elon’s Student Government hosted a fireside chat event with Book and Vice President for Student Life Jon Dooley to answer questions regarding recent executive orders and accessibility issues on campus.

---

NEWS 2/27/25 3:17pm

SGA Elections 2025: Executive changes, rising candidate interest

By Liya Rike

This year’s Student Government Association elections bring changes to the process, including the addition of an executive vice president role, expanding the executive positions to five. Forty total candidates are running — an increase from recent years. Historically, voter turnout has been low. To address this issue, the SGA has increased outreach efforts, using social media campaigns, campus-wide events and measures such as the Phoenix Five Weekly email to raise awareness. Vice President of Communications Ella Kucera said student awareness of elections varies, with some students informed and others possibly forgetting. 

---

NEWS 2/26/25 9:44pm

Simply Oak to close after 8 years in Elon

By Nia Bedard

After eight years in business, Simply Oak, a boutique in downtown Elon announced through its Instagram on Feb. 25. Melissa Troutman ’13, who attended Elon University for both undergrad and graduate school, said Simply Oak started because of Elon. “This was a school project.” Troutman said. “Last semester of grad school, we had to write a business plan so I did it on a boutique, just because I always love the idea of owning a store and owning my own business.” Simply Oak will reside in its space at 108 W. Lebanon Ave. until March 31.

---

NEWS 2/26/25 5:53pm

Elon University's Student Government Association cuts down travel funding

By Fiona McAllister

In the previous Student Government Association financial bylaws, travel for conferences and other off-campus events covered the cost of hotels, meals and mileage for personal vehicles. However, those expenses are no longer covered by SGA. SGA will still cover the cost of registration fees, flights and mileage for university vehicles. As for covering those non-included fees, such as hotels, Cote said SGA is looking to help organizations raise their own funding According to SGA’s Finances website the first funding requests for quarter one, June 1 to Oct. 31, will be due April 11.

---

NEWS 2/26/25 9:55am

New Alamance County library label brings LGBTQ+ controversy

By Avery Sloan and Abigail Hobbs

Books containing violence, underage drinking and drugs or sexually explicit content at the Alamance County libraries will be labeled with a parental guidance suggested sticker, if the Alamance County Commissioners vote to approve the label. The Alamance County Library Committee voted at its Feb. 11 meeting to bring the issue to the commissioners. The label brought controversy after the committee considered labeling LGBTQ+ content in books, according to the minutes from the Nov. 12 meeting.  The American Library Association recommends against labeling books with LGBTQ+ themes as it can draw negative attention. 

---

NEWS 2/25/25 2:45pm

Elon Poll finds continued division across party lines

By Avery Sloan

New Elon Poll shows partisan division on public opinion regarding immigration enforcement and consequences of tariffs. Respondents were split on approving or disapproving the job President Donald Trump is doing, with 45% approving and 41% disapproving. However, when split up by party, 88% of Republicans said they approved of his job and 75% of Democrats said they disapproved. Survey respondents were also split on their opinions of the consequences of tariffs on the price of goods and impacts on businesses. 

---

NEWS 2/25/25 11:04am

Alamance-Burlington School System board member Chuck Marsh announces retirement, residents speak out for classified employee raises

By Avery Sloan

Chuck Marsh, Alamance-Burlington School System board member, announced his resignation at the Feb. 24 Board of Education meeting in a letter read by Sandy Ellington-Graves, ABSS Board of Education board chair. Marsh has previously had health issues, causing him to miss meetings, and he is planning to spend more of his focus on the four businesses he runs, he said in his resignation letter.

---

NEWS 2/24/25 4:37pm

Annual vigil commemorates the 155th anniversary of Wyatt Outlaw’s lynching

By Lilly Molina

Feb. 26th marks the 155th anniversary of Wyatt Outlaw’s lynching that happened right in the middle of Graham. The Alamance County Community Remembrance Coalition hosted its 6th annual vigil outside Graham’s courthouse to commemorate Outlaw’s life and legacy, along with two other lynching victims, William Puryear and John Jeffress. At these events, attendees have the opportunity to place the soil where each lynching took place into a jar and the coalition then keep it in the African-American Cultural Art and History Center in remembrance of these tragedies.

---

NEWS 2/21/25 10:30pm

Elon University sees disabled campus account access

By Elon News Network

All Elon University campus account access is disabled following an outage Feb. 21. Due to the disabled account access students cannot access their Ontrack, Moodle, email and other services that require them to log in with their Elon account. According to an E-Alert sent out at 10:07 p.m., Elon University Information Technology Services is aware of and working to resolve campus account access issues. Elon IT is closed and did not respond to Elon News Network’s immediate request for comment. 

---

NEWS 2/21/25 4:42pm

Elon prepares for federal DEI changes amid UNC repealing requirements

By Abigail Hobbs

A memo was sent out to all University of North Carolina system chancellors announcing that all course requirements related to diversity, equity and inclusion taught at UNC System schools are suspended on Feb. 5. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Jan. 21 titled “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,” or Executive Order 14173, which requires removing all diversity, equity and inclusion programs and requirements from federally funded organizations. This includes all universities, public and private, that accept federal aid, which includes Elon University. 

---

NEWS 2/21/25 3:37pm

Fellows programs double in applications; Scholarship Weekend is now 2 separate dates

By Fiona McAllister

As Scholarship Weekend, also known as Fellows Weekend, approaches Elon University has scheduled two separate weekends for potential fellows to come. The first Fellows Weekend will be Feb. 21 to 22 and the following is March 7 to 8. The changes made to the process resulted in having a separate application available in the Acorn Account after a student applied, making it available in the freshman application. New this year, the Fellows applications were embedded in the Common Application where students submit their general college applications.

---

NEWS 2/21/25 1:37pm

Bird flu raises concerns for poultry industry, public health

By Charlotte Pfabe

Cases of bird flu around the nation are on the rise, hitting 28 states and Puerto Rico over the past 30 days. In just the first five days of February, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported over 20 outbreaks. In January, the CDC reported three outbreaks of bird flu in North Carolina. The outbreaks were reported in Hyde County and Sampson County. There have been no reported cases of bird flu in Alamance County. As of Feb. 20, over 162.7 million poultry birds have been impacted by the virus according to the CDC.

---

NEWS 2/20/25 6:14pm

Elon to resume normal class schedule, campus operations after winter storm

By Charlotte Pfabe

Elon University will resume normal campus operations and class schedules on Friday, Feb. 21 according to an email from Vice President for Student Life Jon Dooley. This latest update comes after disruptions to Elon’s campus operations due to a winter storm that initially hit campus on Wednesday, Feb. 19. In the email, Dooley said Elon Facilities Management will continue to address any on-campus impact from the storm, and advised students, faculty and staff to exercise caution while driving or walking across campus. Dooley wrote that Elon expects this most recent update to be the last for this storm.

---

NEWS 2/20/25 4:15pm

Burlington resident dead after fatal 53 vehicle collision, adds to snow-related wrecks

By Fiona McAllister

Blankets of snow have piled up all over Alamance County, flown in by a winter storm on Wednesday. This weather has caused a string of vehicle collisions near the I-40 and I-85 split. Approximately 50 vehicles were reported piled up at this interstate split, leaving one person dead and multiple others with non-life threatening injuries. North Carolina State Highway Patrol said the deadly crash was caused by a tractor-trailer colliding with another vehicle from behind.

---

NEWS 2/20/25 4:12pm

Elon hit with partial power, Wi-Fi outage

By Charlotte Pfabe

Elon University is experiencing a partial campus-wide power and Wi-Fi outage affecting the east side of campus including buildings near Danieley and East neighborhoods, as well as Crest. According to Duke Energy, the outage was first reported at 3:15 p.m. Feb. 20, and power is expected to be restored by 10:30 p.m. The outage has impacted traffic lights at Oak Avenue and Haggard Avenue to stop working, according to an E-Alert. This area should be treated as a three way stop for all traffic, according to an Elon University E-alert. 

---