News
Wednesday, September 16, 2015 • page 2
New programming communities join The Loy Center
LIVE, Service Learning-Corps now occupy Pi Kappa Phi and Sigma Pi houses
Leena Dahal
Senior Reporter
After the Epilson Theta chapter of
Sigma Pi and the Epilson Alpha Chapter
of Pi Kappa Phi were suspended for haz
ing last year, the empty houses in the Loy
Center served as reminders of the string
of suspensions and citations associated
with fraternities at Elon University last
year.
In an effort to improve the image of
fraternity and sorority life at Elon out
of a situation that shed negative light on
it, the administration decided to fill the
spaces with initiatives to strengthen the
community within and around the Loy
Center.
Leaders Impacting Value-based Expe
riences (LIVE) and The Service Learn
ing-Corps, two newly created communi
ties, now occupy the previous Pi Kappa
Phi and Sigma Pi houses, respectively.
Comprised of members of several so
rorities, LIVE is centered on promot
ing and fostering a sense of community
within the Loy Center. The Service learn-
ing-Corps is made up past members of
the Service Living Learning Community.
good for the future of fraternity and so
rority life at Elon,” she said. “Especially
with what happened last year, I think
these group activities will help connect
this part of campus with the rest and
hopefully make it portrayed in a more
positive light.”
SLC-Corps promotes service
Shaping Greek Perceptions
“It started with trying to fill the hous
es,” said Ginna Royalty, a sophomore and
member of LIVE. “And then we tried to
figure out the ways we could build more
of a community within the Loy Center
because it often gets labeled as a separat
ed part of campus.”
Royalty said their introduction to the
area is an important way to shape percep
tion around fraternity and sorority culture
at Elon.
“I think [the new communities] are
The Service Learning Community
(SLC), the oldest LLC on campus cur
rently housed in Virginia Hall, is specifi
cally open to freshmen. When they begin
the next year as sophomores and a new
freshman class moves into the SLC, the
upperclassmen join the SLC Corps (the
community’s version of alumni). The
SLC-Corps run a mentor/mentee pro
gram for the freshman SLC members.
Over the summer, SLC-Corps mem
bers were invited to move into the Loy
Center as a physical space for these ac
tivities.
They also serve as a way to promote
service in the Loy Neighborhood by
making everyone aware of different ser
vice opportunities that Elon Volunteers!
has to offer.
“There are a lot of service opportu
nities on campus that we do not think
people are always aware of,” said Dan
ielle Satterfield, a junior and member of
the SLC-Corps house. “We would like
to advertise these events and make them
known in this community.”
Satterfield said the group is planning
to host a variety of events in the neigh-
’ borhood to promote philanthropy, in
cluding a Trick-or-Canning project to
collect canned foods for Allied Churches
during Halloween.
As for next year, Sutterfield said the
decision on whether they will remain in
Members of LIVE, sophmore Ginna Royalty and Junior Madeleine Ker, study together in their
Loy Center house. The new LLC has brought together a variety of Greek-affiliated women.
the house is not theirs but that they hope
they can remain where they are.
“We think it would be a cool oppor
tunity to build a lasting relationship be
tween fraternity and sorority life and the
SLC,” she said. “Also, since the house is
so close to the hall that the SLC lives on
it makes the SLC alum in the house more
accessible to the current SLCers.”
Generating new ideas
Walk into the former Alpha Kappa
Alpha house and you find a desk cluttered
with sticky notes of ideas for future pro
gramming events. Plastered on the walls
are long white sheets of paper — places
for members to elaborate on these ideas.
The nine girls behind these ideas are
each responsible for a designated section
of “programming” — targeting specific
areas or offices on campus.
Though each of them are affiliated
with a different sorority on campus, they
hope to leverage their experiences in so
rority life to generate new ideas for build
ing a sense of community within the Loy
Center.
Madeleine Ker, Elon junior and a
member of LIVE, said while it may take
time for the group to get adjusted, she al
ready feels a sense of community — espe
cially within the house.
“Even though it’s confusing when f
describing to people where I VwePshc
said, “Being here is just a cool oppoum-
ty to be part of uniting the Loy Center to
a greater part of campus.”
Elon shows well in U.S. News rankings, but falls short in diversity
Max Garland
Assistant News Editor
Diversity has once again been identi
fied as a weak point for Elon University,
this time from a national point of view.
U.S, News and World Report released
the 2015 edition of its annual college
rankings Sept. 9, and Elon placed first in
three categories among master’s-level uni
versities in the South: best overall school,
undergraduate teaching and innovation.
The university also earned high marks in
percentage of students studying abroad.
“This year’s rankings by U.S News,
which are partially based on the results
of a national survey of higher education
leaders, demonstrate the reputation Elon
has for excellence in teaching and innova
tion,” said Dan Anderson, Vice President
of University Communications.
Elon fell short, though, in rankings of
diversity.
Its campus diversity index, which can
range from zero to one depending on the
percentage of ethnic minorities on cam
pus, was a 0.27, below the average among
similar colleges. The highest score on this
year’s index was a 0.68 tie between Mary-
mount University and University of North _
Carolina-Pembroke, while the lowest was
Hampton University’s 0.10.
Additionally, Elon placed last in its
category in economic diversity. U.S. News
criterion for the category was the per
centage of students receiving Pell Grants
during the 2013-14 school year, and only
9 percent of Elon students received Pell
Grants that year. The grants are dispensed
by the federal government — not the uni
versity — but can indicate the number of
low-income students at a school.
ELON UNIVERSITY
PLACED...
First in undergraduate
teaching
First in innovation
Last in economic diversity
Last in percentage of
international students
...among Southern regional
universities in U.S. News &
World Report’s 2015
college rankings.
KATE BRAUNSTEIN | Design In
Elon also tied with 25 other universi
ties for last in percentage of international
students with 2 percent. St. Thomas Uni
versity in Miami placed first with 18 per
cent of its student body made up of inter
national students.
Dean of Multicultural Affairs Randy
Williams, Jr. said in an email it was not
a surprise Elon topped the list in under
graduate teaching and other areas, but he
added that the rankings are “no indication
of perfection.”
“Our student ethnic and economic di
versity are areas for improvement,” Wil
liams said. “Though many of the schools
ahead of Elon in the rankings are public
institutions, which tend to be more di
verse than private ones, we are ambitious
in creating a more diverse community for
the richness it brings to the enterprise of
education and not simply for rankings.”
According to Williams, Elon’s Class
of 2019 is more than 1 percent higher in
terms of ethnic diversity than the previ
ous class, and international enrollment has
also increased.
As for economic diversity, Anderson
said Elon is attempting to increase sup
port for Pell-eligible students through the
10-year Elon Commitment strategic plan,
and will focus on building its endowment
in its next fundraising campaign to pro
mote those efforts.
“The size of Elon’s endowment, relative
to peer private universities, limits Elon’s
financial aid resources,” Anderson said.
“This makes recruiting PeU Grant-eligible
students and international students more
difficult.”
Anderson said “good progress” has
been made in Elon’s goal of tripling inter
national student enrollment through the
Elon Commitment plan.
The U.S. News and World Report has
been ranking colleges in terms of academ
ics since 1983. Diversity rankings have
been a recent addition. The rankings are
geared toward prospective students rather
than a way for universities to size up their
competition.
“Taking into account how well a school
supports its students from freshman year
through graduation is important,” said
U.S. News’ chief content officer Brian Kel
ly in a press release. “To find the best fit,
students should consider a range of factors,
from financial aid offerings and location to
campus size and majors. The process can
be overwhelming, but our rankings and
advice content are a great place to start."
Freshman Graham Kulig said people
he knew brought up Elon’s rankings to
him once he made his college decision, but
it wasn’t a factor to him before that.
“It’s nice to hear people say, T heard
Elon was ranked the most beautiful cam
pus’ or that they saw it was ranked the best
college in the South, but I didn’t really
look into it,” he said.
Sophomore Ben Driscoll said he pri
oritized the reputation of the School of
Communications above the overall rank
ing of the university, since he’s a commu
nications major. He added that U.S. News
measures of diversity don’t account for in
dividual experiences.
“Diversity isn’t only based on socioeco
nomic background or something similar,
Driscoll said. “All of us come from differ
ent places and have different perspectives
on things. I think that can also be consid
ered diversity.”
The rankings have not been immune to
criticism from the media, either. In a 2013
article for The Atlantic titled “Your An
nual Reminder to Ignore the U.S. News
& World Report College Rankings,” John
Tierney wrote that much of an institu
tion’s ranking comes from a reputational
measure through peer assessments fro®
college presidents and provosts instead o
hard data.
“Critics say this component turns the
rankings into a popularity or beauty con
test, and that asking college officials to rate
the relative merits of other schools about
which they know nothing becomes a pat'
ticularly empty exercise because a
school’s
reputation is driven in large part by
guessed it — the U.S. News rankingSi
Tierney wrote.