Newspapers / Elon University Student Newspaper / May 19, 2018, edition 1 / Page 6
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6 SATURDAY MAY 19, 2018 COMMENGEMEII TOP STORIES Of M Ym CONNIE BOOK NAMED ELON’S NINTH PRESIDENT Eight months after Leo Lambert announced he would be stepping down as Elon University’s president, the Board of Trustees selected Connie Book to become Elons ninth presi dent on Oct. 9, 2017. This day marked the end of Book’s time at The Citadel, The Military College of South Caro lina, where Book was a provost and dean. For Book, taking on the role of university president meant coming home. Prior to her role at The Citadel, Book spent 16 years as a member of Elon’s faculty. In 1999 she joined Elon as a professor of communications. In 2004, Book was promoted to associ ate professor and department chair. She was promoted again in 2006 to associate dean before working under F*rovost Steven House as the associate provost for academic affairs in 2010. Becoming the first female to hold the title of president is a daunting task, but Book is up for the challenge. “We’re starting to have that sense of spring,” Book said. “It’s something new, and it goes very well with having a new president. I’m looking forward to all of it. I am so excited.” COUNSELING SERVICES STRECHED TOO THIN Of the college students who bat tle mental health issues, almost two thirds of them never seek treatment, and one in 12 will make a suicide plan at some point in their college career. Elon University’s Counseling Ser vices is struggling to meet the needs of ns siudems. At Elon, 846 students used Coun seling Services during the 2016-2017 school year — 13 percent of the un dergraduate student population. This percentage has risen 4 percent over the past ten years. But some students said they do not feel like Counseling Services is equipped to serve a large amount of patients.“I don’t think we’re meet ing the needs of the students,” Dys on said. “If were going to encourage people to use mental health resourc es, we also have to ensure that the re sources they need will be there.” El UNCOVERING IDENTITY Seniors Bear Tose, Arielle Wat kins and Xena Burwell may be leav ing Elon, but they are leaving behind a legacy our campus will never for get. Tose, Watkins and Burwell are three of the eight students on cam pus who identify as “American Indi an,” according to the Elon Factbook. When the three were freshmen, the Center for Race, Ethnicity and Di versity Education held a meeting for the Native American Task Force. Members of the community had the opportunity to come together and speak on their experiences, a privi lege this minority group doesn’t al ways have on campus. “There is no club or resource rooms like there are for other iden tities,” Burwell said. “We wanted to create a space for Native-identifying students to have that sort of space where they can have that camara derie and resources to talk to other people who are going through the same experience as them.” Throughout the semester, the three seniors worked to establish a place on campus where Native American students can speak their truths. Burwell, Tose and Watkins successfully formed the Native American Student Association as a developmental organization on cam pus and got Indigenous People’s Day formally recognized by Elon in place of Columbus Day. u ELON MOURNS THE LOSS OE TWO STUDENTS IN TWO MONTHS On Oct. 31, 2017, the Elon Uni versity community came together to mourn the loss of junior Breslin Wiley, who was found dead in his home on Oct. 28, 2017. Just a little more than a month later, the Elon Community joined together once again to mourn the loss of anoth er student, 23-year-old senior Harri son Durant. As students, faculty and staff gath ered in the Sacred Space in Numen Lumen Pavilion for the second time in as many months. University Chap lain Jan Fuller said the death was “far too soon.” • Miff. On Jan. 5, 2018, President Connie Book and former President Leo Lam bert released an email to the commu nity announcing changes coming to Elon in regards to suicide prevention. Lambert and Book said they will be expanding Counseling Services, open ing three new counselor positions. This is done in the hopes that a higher number of counselors means students will be able to receive the individual counseling they need. Book is current ly working to further expand other mental health service options, taking notice of how counseling services has since struggled to meet student needs. ■ ‘ k I I t i ' I T f.l ' . . 'Y.i , , « ^ WURENDUNGANIELONNEWSNMI® THE ELEPHANTS IN THE ROOM A year after Donald Trump was announced the 45th president of the United States, po litical views were still highly polarized on Elon University’s cam pus, and Republicans sought out open dia logue. Junior Maddie Pierce, public rela tions chair of College Republicans, felt she could not voice her happiness about the 2016 election results. “As a female Repub lican, I was confront ed by a new kind of judgment for being a Republican that I nev er faced before,” Pierce said. “We just want to show people we are not the current adminis tration,” Pierce said. “Republicans on this campus are not mon- sters.” , U yf like Pierce, ju nior Katherine Evans, vice president of Col lege Democrats, has felt a greater need to have meaningful civ ic discourse about her political views. To Ev ans, the first step in mending bridges be tween the two sides is to remove emotion from the conversation and understand that not everyone has the same perspectives, “You can’t real ly live your life in a bubble surrounded by LAUREN BUNCAN lELONNtWSDf** like-minded Evans said people,” “It keeps you from seeing other viewpoints and other ways of thinking.” While their opin ions may not align. Pierce and Evans both agree to reach out to the other side and be open to discussion, aiming to encourage dialogue on campus. stephSehEelE**®,, )'/•'/ - ( ,1, L.A , c l l)'' "
Elon University Student Newspaper
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May 19, 2018, edition 1
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