“Lights will guide you home, and ignite your bones. And I will try to fix you.” These were the heartfelt lyrics from Coldplay’s “Fix You” that were sung by thousands of Penn State University students, community members and fans as they stood together as one for a candlelight vigil on the chilly night of Nov.
This week Justin Veldhuis talks about the Elon men's soccer team winning the SoCon tournament, we get the details on Pottermore, former wake county student and current Elon Teaching Fellow Alyssa Brown shares her thoughts on the Wake County school board elections and Christopher Bosak discusses why Thanksgiving is the best holiday of them all.
One in 10 students at Elon University will be impacted by a recent slash to the National Pell Grants. In response to the cuts in student aid, the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities launched an online petition. There are currently 517 Elon undergraduates who receive Pell Grants, which is why Patrick Murphy, director ofFinancial Planning, said this petition could affect Elon. "A cut in the Pell Grant would affect 10 percent of the undergraduate student body who currently receive Pell," he said.
Although the proposed changes to the General Studies curriculum were voted down, discussion about the proposal and improvements to the current curriculum continue to take place. The General Studies Review Committee has disbanded, leaving the General Studies Council and the Curriculum Committee as the two groups capable of vetting proposals for General Studies improvements, according to Jeffrey Coker, director of General Studies. The council met Nov.
Researchers from Elon University, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the University of North Carolina at Pembroke were given $2.7 million from the National Science Foundation to fund a statewide project called Herpetology Education in Rural Places and Spaces (HERPS). Elon is using the grant to fund a class in herpetology, or the study of amphibians and reptiles, taught at Elon Academy. Deborah Long, director of the academy, said the money from the grant is going toward a variety of field trips, materials, salary for instructors and other costs needed for the class. "The target population for the grant is the rural, typically marginalized people in the area of science," said Terry Tomasek, who teaches herpetology at the Academy. The grant targets demographics such as citizens with lower socioeconomic standing and ethnic minorities. "These are the people that we don't typically find in science type activities," Tomasek said.
More than 20 years after graduating from then–Elon College, Greg Holland continues to be surrounded by students on a daily basis. But it isn't college students he's interacting with, it's the students at Western Middle School, where Holland was recently appointed principal. Holland has lived in Elon his whole life. He attended Elon Elementary and Western Middle. He graduated from Western Alamance High School, received a degree in physical education from Elon and has since then worked in a variety of positions at local schools. "My hometown is Elon; I grew up right down beside the fire department," he said. "It's special to have the opportunity of being principal of a middle school where you attended school yourself." After Holland graduated from high school, he served in the U.S.
On New Year's Eve, the complete renovation of the Gerald L. Francis Center is scheduled to be finished.
Under one of the facets of the 2011-2012 institutional priorities, a committee has been charged with reviewing the current structure of leadership on Elon University's campus and making recommendations as to how to strengthen academic connections and opportunities for leadership development. During the fall semester, the committee has studied the current leadership development programs on Elon's campus, as well as those at other academic institutions.
http://stream.elon.edu/pendulum/2011fall/podcasts/movies/Movies_11.15.mp3 This week, Chris and special guest Zachary Horner talk about the past weekend's box office, Billy Crystal hosting the Oscars and the upcoming weekend's new releases, including the new Twilight film. Immortals Jack and Jill J.
Well, they've done it. Finally, the school board is making a change and turning back to maintaining one of the best school districts in the country. From those of who thrived under the unique policies of nearby Wake County school system, thank you to residents for voting, and thank you for voting sensibly. Two years ago, Republicans were voted into the Wake County school board, creating a 5-4 majority against the Democrats.
While spring break can be a time for relaxation, many Elon students choose to dedicate their vacation time to helping the less fortunate through various Elon Volunteers! Alternative Break service trips. In conjunction with The Kernodle Center for Service Learning and Community Engagement, Elon Volunteers!
A small group of students assembled on the lawn in front of Moseley Tuesday afternoon in their first steps toward establishing an Occupy Elon demonstration.
Several cars parked on Lebanon and East College Avenues were damaged this past weekend, a situation currently being looked into by the Elon town police.
Hollywood producer Bill Badalato provided insight into the ever-changing world of cinema Tuesday night in a taped discussion with students, faculty and staff led by Paul Castro, associate professor of communications.
Residence Life at Elon University has issued a statement of apology and will re-examine aspects of their policy following the removal of two posters from senior Taylor Ferguson's room during a tour of Colonnades Oct.
Mystery has surrounded J.K. Rowling's Pottermore since its creation in June. The website, which builds upon Rowling's world of "Harry Potter," is a way for people who grew up alongside Potter and the rest of the characters to continue their experience.
The LGBTQ Office open house provided an informal and relaxed opportunity for the Elon University community to gather and socialize Nov.
http://stream.elon.edu/pendulum/2011fall/podcasts/opinions/topics_11.14.mp3 Guests and Wake County residents Rebecca Smith, Chris Bosak, Ashley Fahey, Kate Riley and Lauren Ramsdell talk about the recent school board elections in one of North Carolina's largest school districts where Democrats regained a majority and plan to do away with virtual "resegregation" of schools.
The only thing better than the feeling of sitting down with your family to enjoy a delicious Thanksgiving meal is knowing that you worked for this meal.
Writing the article regarding the GST proposal vote required more reporting than I had originally thought it would, but I subsequently learned a significant amount about how decisions like these are made at Elon and why some people are more willing to talk about them than others. It wasn’t until I learned how many years of work were put into the proposal that I realized how big of a vote this was, and the fact that it was put to a full faculty vote meant it was of extreme importance. Although I was hoping to attend the meeting during which the votes were cast, I was informed that the presence of a reporter might affect faculty participation in the discussion. It would have been helpful to see the specifics as to how the meeting was run, who participated in the discussion, etc. Instead, I knew that I would have to talk to faculty the following Monday. I wanted to get a range of faculty opinions on how they felt about the proposal being voted down, but getting clear answers from some faculty proved difficult. I was constantly re-directed to different people to talk to, and some simply said they didn’t want to comment. Although the majority of the faculty who participated in the vote voted the proposal down, no one I talked to would explicitly say they voted no. When it came to writing the story, it proved challenging to not have the story seem biased or one-sided because of the lack of sources I had that were against the proposal. No further discussion was held immediately after the vote, so my first follow-up story consisted of two students’ opinions on the result of the vote. I thought it was interesting that one of the students mentioned an over-arching concern regarding a lack of communication between faculty and students concerning these types of proposals/votes. I think it is true that many students did not know about the GST proposal, which is one of the reasons why I was happy I got to write about it for The Pendulum. I will be doing a second follow up for this weeks paper, which will include the specifics of what was discussed at various meetings following the vote. For more on this subject, check out this week's issue of The Pendulum.
