Volume XVIII, Number 2
Serving the Elon College Community
September 12, 1991
THIS WEEK
■ Come see the battle of
the bands on Friday. The action
begins at 7 p.m. in Whitley
Auditorium.
■ Elon's second football
game of the season is Saturday
night at North Carolina Central
University. If you can't make
it, listen to the game on the
Elon Sports Network on
WSOE - FM (89.3). Kickoff
is at 7 p.m.
■ Mr. James Dunn,
executive director of the Baptist
Joint Committee on Public
Affairs will be on campus
Wednesday to participate in the
Fall Symposium. He will be
speaking at 4 p.m. in the Fine
Arts Theatre.
THE PAST
Five Years Ago:
Former President Gerald Ford
visited Elon. He spoke on the
changes needed in the political
campaign spending, and the
arms race.
Fourteen years ago:
WSOE went on the air for the
for the first time on September
29,1977. Regular broadcasting
did not begin until the next
week. In its early days, WSOE
was on the air five hours a day,
five days a week.
INSIDE
■ Interview with Carter
Smith, president of the S.G.A.
Sec page 8.
■ The Writing Center
help you improve your
papers. See page 5.
® Anthony DeCurtis, a
senior editor at Rolling Stone
f*'agazine discusses rock'n roll
censorship. See page 7.
B Volleyball team starts
the season on a positive note.
See page 10.
5 page 10.
index
^•torials
Commentary
Cultural Connection
Sports
Comics
CARITOV
ft / J*
Work on the Carlton building continues. See story page 8.
Mark Wheeler/The Pendulum
Convocation speaker: Parker Palmer
Page 2
Page 3
Pages 6, 7
Page 10
Page 11
Jennifer Cowman
The Pendulum
Elon’s fourth annual
convocation, to be held September
17 Under The Oaks at 11 a.m.,
will feature one of the hottest
speakers in the academic circuit
today, writer Parker J. Palmer.
Palmer travels the country and
abroad speaking and delivering
workshops in areas of education
community, spirituality and social
change. He emerged onto the
higher education scene after a
celebrated appearance at the 1987
annual meeting of the American
Association for Higher Educauon.
His speech received a standing
ovation, making it one of the
most talked about presentations m
the history of the organization.
Today, Palmer is somewhat
of a legend in higher education,
and if you want to book him for a
convenUon or campus visit, you'll
have to wait until at least 1993.
Palmer’s address at Elon is
titled "Living from the Inside
Out- ’Education, Integrity and
Social Change." His message is a
simple but complex proposition
for educators today. He claims
Parker Palmer
that something is seriously wrong
with higher education. He says
that today, academia values ways
of knowing that are objective,
analytic and experimental.
"Students arc encouraged to
amass facts, to make detached
observations, and to exercise
’power over the world,’" Palmer
said in an interview with The
Chronicle of Higher Education. "1
want to argue that this is a very
backwards notion of how we
ought to live and how we ought to
teach and learn."
Chaplain Richard McBride
was responsible for coordinating
the fall convocation and is excited
about Palmer's appearance on
campus. "I've been reading his
stuff since the early 198G’s...what
he's working on is what the nature
of education at the college level is
- how can learning be exciting and
wake us up to what's really there?"
According to McBride, last
year’s focus at convocation was on
sensitivity to international issues-
this year, it’s "what's the heart of
learning?"
Palmer challenges listeners to
relate their own experiences to
their learning. "The way we know
has powerful implications for the
way we live, " he writes.
All of this may seem a bit
complex, however, some of
Palmer's suggestions are practical.
He encourages professors not to
grade on a curve, and suggests
they encourage students to "rcflect
frequently and publicly on how the
course is going."
Palmer was raised in
Wilmette, 111., attended Carleton
College in Minnesota and majored
in sociology and philosophy. He
See Palmer, Page 12
Vandals
damage
sculpture
Murray Glenn
The Pendulum
On Saturday, vandals dam
aged one of the two freestanding
sculptures that are located behind
the Fine Arts Center.
Campus Security reports say
that the incident happened at
approximately 1:45 a.m. Sunday
morning. Terry Creech, director
of campus security, said his
officers were drawn to the scene
by the noise of the statue hitting
the brick patio.
A witness to the act told the
campus security staff that they
saw three or four white males tip
the sUitue over. The witness went
on to say that they were not able
to get close enough to gel a
description of the vandals.
The damaged piece is a
stainless steel statue that is
rectangular in shape and weighs
between 1400-1600 pounds. The
piece has an appraised value of
See Vandalism, Page 9
New majors
allow variety
Tricia Talbert
The Pendulum
Change is in the air at Elon.
As Carlton is renovated and
Powell Building gets an all new
look, the academic program is also
experiencing a face-lift.
Six new majors have been
added to the academic catalog this
year, allowing students a wider
variety of courses and programs to
choose from.
Spanish and French majors
have been developed, eliminating
the previous generalized major in
Foreign Language.
"The majors in French and
See New Majors, Page 9