A few weeks ago I visited my boyfriend at University of Illinois for a long weekend.
Mental illness is an issue that affects many students on Elon University’s campus. While not everyone suffers from a mental illness, mental health still affects us all and it deserves to be taken seriously and respected as a real problem students are consistently facing. Too often, Elon students use mental illness terminology flippantly in casual conversations, speaking phrases such as “Sorry, I’m so OCD” or “Oh I’m so depressed.” For students who actually suffer from these mental illnesses, using this terminology is perfectly OK.
When I signed up to live in the Alpha Phi Alpha house for next year, I knew it would be eventful. I didn't know it would geographically be at the middle of two controversies. This week proved me wrong.
When I read the Elon News Network article about a black man being called the N-word by the former president of Sigma Phi Epsilon, I wasn’t surprised.
Dear Elon University community, Our fraternity wants all students at Elon to feel welcome at our events and within our membership.
With the increasing cost of college and the imminent rise in competition for positions after graduation, it is even more important to take advantage of our options for both semester and summer–paid or unpaid–internships.
On April 2, Elon News Network released a staff editorial entitled, “Racist themed parties and costumes should not be tolerated.” At first glance, I was excited.
Four summers ago, I was on a two-hour bus ride to the Malnutrition Center in San Juan, Guatemala, belting out Christian songs with my church group.
The world and all of its inhabitants loves to use millennials as the punching bag for blame — other generations tend to pin fault on this young, innovative and self-concerned sector of society for its handful of flaws. We have been perceived as lazy, stubborn, arrogant and resistant by other generations, and these allegations can be fought and challenged in numerous ways.
A Google image search for “professional woman” returns hundreds of millions of results of the same thing. That’s not a picture of me.
Part of the reason I was initially interested in attending Elon was to get away from Chicago winters.
It’s safe to say Elon University brings to mind a specific kind of person — typically someone way over-involved, over-committed and who responds to the question, “How are you?” with “You know...I’m alive.
Of Elon University’s 15 people on senior staff, 13 are white, 11 are men and 10 are white men. These 15 people who sit in the highest positions at our university are simply not representative of our student body, which is 59 percent female and 20 percent racially or ethnically diverse. Though Elon prides itself on its unprecedented commitment to diversity, if our university’s highest held offices are still primarily filled with white men, then we are not truly amplifying the voices of diverse perspectives. The university has come a long way in its efforts to not only recruit students of diverse backgrounds, but also make them feel like they belong at Elon.
After six months of protests and peaceful and prayerful resistance, the Oceti Sakowin (Seven Council Fires) Camp has largely been evacuated.
In the current media landscape, consumers can very easily feel overwhelmed. Our CNN apps notify us about every one of President Donald Trump’s executive orders, our Twitter feeds refresh with breaking news stories and our Facebook friends are constantly sharing articles that frustrate them. For many, the news today is consistently negative and at times scary, and the need to consume it is as constant as it is exhausting. This constant stream of negative news is resulting in a phenom now being referred to as resistance fatigue, or the tendency to become exhausted by the feeling of constantly needing to protest against unpopular government policies. In the first few weeks of his presidency, Trump has already passed a number of executive orders that will directly affect many marginalized groups in our nation, causing students and people across the country to march or protest in resistance.
I remember covering a Donald Trump political rally earlier this year and walking into the media box.
Ever since President Leo Lambert announced his plan to step down from his role as president, the Elon University community has been wondering who will fill his role. While some students are campaigning for former president Barack Obama to become our next president, many have already begun thinking of people they would like and qualities or characteristics they hope for. The next year is going to be a challenging and transformative time for Elon as we prepare to recruit and choose a new university president.
If you are a woman, please consider wearing a hijab on Thursday. It might not be comfortable, but being an ally rarely is. Last year was the first year Elon University participated in Hijab Day.
After posting on Facebook just last night about the void left by the loss of our dear Dr. Earl Danieley, I was jolted this morning by the news that Dr. Leo Lambert is stepping down as President of Elon University. I am deeply happy for Lambert, his wife Laurie and their family.
Eighteen years ago Elon College waited anxiously for the arrival of our new president. We had taken a few tentative steps in the right direction in the nineties, but now Elon had hired a person we hoped would guide us into the future. Still, the ground felt shaky under our feet.
