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itoriais: International students need support I University’s harsh stance on bias justified The Pendulum Elon, North Carolina • Wednesday, May i6, 2015 • Volume 41 Edition 14 :f_facebook.com/thependuIum www.elonpendulum.com ^ @elonpendulum Moving past mission statements As Elon triples international students, are experiences equal to growth? JANE SEIDEL | Photo Editor Over the past five years, Elon has almost doubled the number of international students, but resources may not be keeping pace. CaroEne Fernandez News Editor Tripling the number of in ternational students on campus by 2020 was one of eight main goals highlighted in the Elon Commitment, a 10 year, $586 million strategic plan approved by Elon University’s Board of Trustees December 2009. When the goal was an nounced, 187 students — 3.3 percent of Elon’s student pop ulation — were considered in ternational. Five years later, the number of international students has more than doubled to 386, or 6 percent of the population. With the rate of interna tional students that have been enrolled over the past five years, it looks like Elon is on track to achieve the Elon Commitment goal of close to 600 interna tional students on campus by 2020. But increased or even rapid growth doesn’t always mean an equally successful experience for international students, es pecially when success requires a large staff to attend to the needs of the increasing number of international students. BiU Burress, assistant direc tor of international programs, said he would advocate for the hiring of a full-time interna tional student life coordinator who could devote all of his or her time to leading program ming and could be available to help students on a daily basis. “It’s a resource problem,” Burress said. “We are very well- staffed in this office relative to other universities, but even with as well staffed as we are, the resources allow for limited expansion of opportunities.” Burress runs the three-day orientation program for inter national students before school begins in August. During international ori entation, students learn about important documents like an 1-20 form — a Certificate of Eligibility for Nonimmigrant Student Status that is crucial for international students when entering and leaving the coun try — purchase cell phones, create bank accounts and even adjust from the metric system. But after orientation week end is over, there are no follow up sessions or meetings for stu dents during the year. “There was definitely a lot of valuable information, but I felt they should have had work shops after Orientation week end,” said Singapore native See INTERNATIONAL page? Campus fed up with racism, not giving in Continued bias incidents dampen minority mood Michael Bodley Editor-in-Chief There are only 333 black students at Elon University, a tight-knit community where whispers of discrimination spread much faster than bias notification emails from the administration to the student body. The latest reported this spring — in which a female black student said she was the victim of a racial slur shout ed from a passing car on N. O’Kelly Avenue two weeks — has led minority stu dent leaders to voice their frustrations of a system they say is too slow too change. A lot of times, people just MICHAEL BOOLEY | Edrtor-in-Chiel Across campus Tuesday, students scribbled phrases such as these. feel like they don’t belong,” said junior Danielle Williams, president of the Panhellenic Council, who is black. “We’re in the shadows.” Williams and others — such as junior Alex Bohan non, president for the Black Student Union — work as both leaders among the black community on campus and as liaisons to communicate stu dent concerns to the admin istrators who control campus initiatives on a larger policy level. “I think that with anything, sometimes we don’t necessar ily understand the gravity of certain situations until we get to a point when we have to say, ‘This is enough. This is too much,” Bohannon said. Though there have been more than a half-dozen re ported incidents of racial bias since 2011, it’s important for Randy Williams, dean of See BLACK STUDENTS pages Coffee controversy brews in downtown Elon Michael Bodley and Leena Dahal Editor-in-Chief and Assistant News Editor Plans by Elon University to bring a Starbucks to campus next fall have been met with fierce grassroots op position, saying the corporate coffee giant will disrupt local business and impede the growing artisan vibe of downtown Elon. Patrons of The Oak House — a lo cally owned and operated coffee, beer and wine shop that opened its N. Wil liamson Avenue doors last fall — take issue with the location of the Star- bucks, planned to set up shop in place of what is now Acorn Coffee Shop, adjacent to the Oak House. While Phil Smith, who owns Oak House, said he’s confident his shop could co-exist with Starbucks, he’s not inviting the chain in with open arms. “I was disappointed to learn that Aramark was putting a Starbucks next door,” Smith said. “As for The Oak House, I believe what we are providing in downtown Elon is exactly the type See STARBUCKS page 10 Campus sustainability slowed by growth Katherine Blunt Senior Reporter Though Elon University’s environmen tal initiatives have earned it praise from a number of its stakeholders, its rapid expan sion has encroached on some of its sustain ability objectives and challenged it to find ways to reduce emissions as the campus expands and enrollment rises. Between 2008 — the baseline year for carbon emission measurements — and 2014, Elon added about 670,000 square feet and about 850 students to its campus. It succeeded in shrinking certain aspects of its carbon footprint during that seven-year period, but its growth has outpaced its overall rate of emissions reductions and highlighted the conflict that can some times exist between sustainable develop ment and building aesthetics. During the measurement period, Elon’s carbon emissions increased by more than 10 percent, according to the school’s most recent greenhouse gag inventory. The uni versity is not on track to reduce net carbon emissions by 5 percent this year, an interim goal set five years ago in the university’s Climate Action Plan.. “In terms of sustainability, a chal lenge today and in the future is chang ing behaviors,” Elaine Durr, director of sustainability, said in an email. “Another sustainability challenge in terms of re sources — personnel, time, financial — is SeeENVmONMENT page 6
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