09 Spring Wrap-Up

Can you believe that it is almost May?  

 With the end of the Spring Semester rapidly approaching here at  Elon, I thought it would be most appropriate to recap some of this spring’s happening as well as mention an upcoming campus event!

• March 29th- Matt Matheny named new men’s basketball coach:  Coach Matheny comes from rival Southern Conference school Davidson.
• March 31st- Madeline Albright speaks at Elon University:  The former U.S. Secretary of State was the featured speaker at the Convocation for Honors. 
• April 7th – Anderson Cooper visits Elon University:  The host of CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360″ spoke to a sold-out audience in the Koury Center.
• April 10th-  Belk Library reaches a major milestone:  The campus library reaches the 300,000 mark.
• April 23rd – Results from the campus-wide and nation-wide Recyclemania competition:  Elon’s participation in the nation-wide Recylcemania competition has us placing 2nd among Southern Conference Schools!  Also, results of the campus-wide POWERLESS competition are announced.
• May 1st – Elon’s Spring Show sponsored by Student Union Board:  Featured artists:  Lupe Fiasco & Girl Talk

There is much more to come as the semester winds down for the 2008 – 2009 school year!

25 Random Things About Elon

Good evening ETA readers!

Many of you have probably seen the note that is going around Facebook these days – “25 Random Things about Me”. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this, it is a questionnaire that you can list 25 facts or habits or goals and then “tag” 25 of your friends. Thus in the spirit of Facebook, I present to you…

“25 Random Facts about Elon”

1. The first graduating class from Elon had only 3 graduates! (That was in the year 1891).
2. One of Elon’s traditions is the weekly “College Coffee” where students, faculty, and staff get together on Tuesdays from 9:40 – 10:20am to eat free food and have a chance to chat.
3. Elon’s Belk Library is open 24 hours from Sunday – Thursday (which is helpful for any last minute papers that need to be written!)
4. The Alamance Building (which houses a number of classrooms, faculty offices, both the Bursar’s and Registrar’s offices among other things) is designed so that the front of the building and the back of the building are identical.
5. 51 different countries are represented in Elon’s student body in the 2008-2009 school year.
6. The Princeton Review and USAToday named Elon one of the nation’s top 100 “Best Value Colleges”.
7. Famous speakers that have come to campus include: Jane Goodall, Colin Powell, Ehud Barak, Queen Noor, former President Bill Clinton, Benazir Bhutto, Desmond Tutu, Elie Wiesel, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, among others.
8. The state with the smallest number of Elon alums is North Dakota. (North Dakota has 1 alum living there!) For perspective, North Carolina has the largest alumni population with over 12,600 alumni!
9. Recycling started at Elon University in the late 1980s.
10. Elon’s “Phoenix Cash” (money put onto a student id card) can be used at over 60 different off-campus locations.
11. Through the “Burst the Bubble” program, students can TEACH other students in free, non-credit courses offered during Winter Term. Learn how to clog, study the history and culture of surfing or movie marketing – all from fellow students!
12. In the Elon Admissions office, of the 29 staff members in the department, over 50% have undergraduate and/or graduate degrees from Elon as well!
13. Elon men’s basketball is celebrating its 100th season in the year 2009.

And more to come in my next post…

Where Have I Been?…

Reading your applications for admissions and getting to know each of you

No, in all honesty ETA Readers, I do apologize for not writing sooner. Like many of you, I am currently busy with reading application files, answering emails, and other work obligations. Plus it is NCAA basketball season so I have started attending many of the basketball games on campus! I am sure that many of you are currently working on getting through your 1st semester classes or 2nd trimester classes or for some of you (particularly those of you who attend school in Central & South America), you may even be finishing your final year of high school/ secondary school. Whatever you may be doing, I hope all is going well for you during this busy time of year!

As I mentioned before, I have been reading lots of applications these days – which means I’ve been working on getting to know each of you a little bit more. Some of you…:

• Have lived in multiple countries and can speak several languages.
• Have won championships with your high school athletic teams.
• Are incredibly talented artists/musicians/performers – thank you for sharing your artistic talents with us!
• Have overcome some tough obstacles along your life journey.
• Wrote essays that were so creative and funny – thank you for the good laugh that I had!
• Take fascinating classes – how do I sign up to take “Campaign 2008″or “Out of Tune: Music and the State in the 20th Century”?
• Are very passionate about things like the economy, the environment, your community, dancing, your family, etc.

And most importantly, all of you have been fascinating to get to know in this application process!

Of course, before I go any further, I definitley need to offer my CONGRATULATIONS to our students who were accepted to Elon under Elon’s EARLY DECISION deadline! Those decisions were released on Monday, December 1st and thus we already have several hundred students who are coming to Elon next fall! To those who were not offered admission to Elon under the Early Decision deadline, feel free to contact me if you have questions about your admissions decison (cborden2@elon.edu).

And finally, I leave you with some photos from one of Elon University’s annual traditions: The Holiday Lighting Event. This event takes place every year around this time and is when much of the main part of campus is lit up by lights in the buildings & trees and luminaries along the brick walkways. Elon is absolutely gorgeous on this evening – be sure to check out the photos from Elon’s professional photographer by visiting: http://www.elon.edu/e-net/Note.aspx?id=933691.