2
May 1,1997
Editorials
Viewpoint
Sitting around a table talking with other campus leaders last
Wednesday afternoon, I found that I wasn’t the only one putting at
least SOhoufs a week into my organization. It’s good to know that I am
not alone.
For every lazy, selfish, beer-thirsty, join nothing, think-of-noth*
ing-but-myself student at Elon (and there are plenty), there are many
working insane amounts of hours to make sure that Elon is the best it
can be.
Elon hired an outside organization to interview students and
research how Elon can sustain its competitive advantage through
marketing changes. Last week myself and about 30 others made up a
group of campus leaders for one of these focus groups. Definitely a
group of people who had a narrow, but positive view of Elon,
These students spend many hours to make life easy for others.
Believe it or not there are even editors at The Pendulum who arc on this
list.
Sometimes we are appreciated, sometimes we aren’t. But day
after day, we are still there, bettering ourselves and our group or
groups.
That’s why I salute Omicron Delta Kappa, the SGA and other
organizations that honor students at the end of the year for outstanding
service to the campus and community.
Winning an award is not the reason why these leaders get
involved in the first place, but it's positive feedback for a job well
done.
I want to thank campus leaders for their commitment and courage
to put their names on the line. It’s not always an easy Job, but it’s one
that needs to be done. It’s also the part of life that you’ll probably
remember the most when you leave Elon for the real world.
Since this is the last issue of The Pendulum this semester, 1 would
like to wish students a relaxing, fun, profitable and educational
summer.
• Jeff Wirick
Editor-In-Chief
THE
Ml
Pendulum
Informing the Elon College Community
Editor-in-Chief
Jeff Wirick
Managing Ekiitor
Tracey Stark
Asst. Managing Editor
Michelle Cater
Chief Photographer
Andrew Brickey
A & E Editor
Giselle Pole
Asst. A & E Editor
Erik Akelaitis
Sports Eklitor
Colleen Herndon
Asst. Sports Editor
Bob Gnmmie
Online Editors
Jon Campbell
Patrick Singleton
Letters Editor
Andrea Stoffer
Advertising
Amy Lemer
Adviser
Byung Lee
Reporters
Jason Dennis
Leann Alfred
Josh Briskman
Jessica Chatham
Tricia Ziegler
Kelly Allen
Sports
Reporters
Chrissie Taylor
Troy Adams
A&E Reporters
Brie
Bittenbender
Lesley Siler
Warren Brannon
Cartoonist
Jamie Robertson
Columnists
Chuck Buckley
Erik Helsley
Photographers
Allison Poinsett
Emily Feinsod
Online staff
Geoff Tomes
Jennifer Jamecke
The Pendulum, founded
in 1974, is published by
Elon students.
Address all
correspondence to;
The Pendulum
5412 Campus Box
Elon College, N.C.
27244.
Phone:(910)584-2331
Fax: (910) 584-2467
E-mail:
penduium@numeiiekxi.edu
Web page:
http://www.elon.edu/
users/o/pendulum
It Was the Best of Times...
Two more weeks. Two more
weeks until many of us will be
home waiting for the full force of
the summer to hit us.
Others will have graduated and
will be prowling through the job
market looking for a career.
And yet still others will be in
school here at Elon. Doing their
best with what they have.
Graduation, summer and clo
sure. Another rotation on the wheel
of life will end while another starts
its long journey.
All of us will move on. In two
weeks, summer will be here. Two
weeks. Two weeks is how long
Shawn had until graduation. But he
won’t be at the ceremony.
“TO: All Elon Students, Fac
ulty and Staff
FR: Dean of Students
DT: April 29, 1997
RE: Death of a Student
On Monday, April 28, Will
iam Shawn Russell, an Elon senior,
was struck by a car. He died on
impact and suffered no pain.”
All of us got one of these. A
little sheet of paper with his name,
major and hobbies. One of our class
mates is dead. Some of us never got
a chance to know him. Some of us
have lived right next to him for a
year and still never said more than
a word.
He was in our classes, we
passed him on the way to work, he
was our best friend. He was just
like anyone else on campus. He
was just like you and me.
A freak accident that
no one could have any con- ;
trol over, and because of
Chuck Buckley
buckaScO @ numen.elon.edu
that the world must now be
deprived of what Shawn
had to offer.
It could have been any of us —
you, me, anybody. It’s frightning
to think of life being nothing more
then a long game of Russian rou
lette, with delirious heights and
knuckle-whitening lows.
We could go at any second. All
it would have taken is being in the
wrong place at the wrong time, like
Shawn was.-
It’s really pathetic don’t you
think? An entire lifetime, four years
of college, countless numbers of
friends, victories, accomplish
ments, challenges, everything that
makes a human being a person, all
of that can be summed up in three
paragraphs on half a sheet of paper.
It’s sickening that twenty-one years
of life can be justified to all of Elon
by just a couple of sentences. It
makes me sick. But what can you
do, right?
Death is funny like
that. Folks like Shawn
here have friends that
love him and people
who will remember
him. But there are oth
ers dying every day
who are no less impor-
I tant then Shawn but will
not be remembered.
The human body is so fragile.
I mean all that it would take to end
a life is tripping and landing wrong.
I must confess that I didn’t
know Shawn as well as I could
have. We were both in Crossroads
and he lived two doors down from
me. I’m sorry that he can’t live out
the rest of his life.
Even though Shawn is in a
better place, all of us left here must
continue on. I wish all of you a safe
and happy summer. I’ll see you
next year.
SpeakUia • • •
AIDS Quilt
What impact did the AIDS Quilt have at Elon?
Jeff Myers, sophomore: “It added
a somber awareness of the AIDS
population and also added campus
awareness on STDs.”
Amanda Harding, sophomore: “It
opened people’s eyes to what a se
rious problem it is in our age group.
Hopefully, it will stop the amount
of casual sex.”
Brad Cook, freshman: “There
was not a large impact because not
a lot of students took advantage of
it.”
Heather Lancaster, junior:
“There was a tremendous impact
because people could actually see
the lives taken, instead of reading
statistics in a book.”
Heather Doss, freshman: “Hope
fully it scared some people to use
their minds and realize that it can
happen to anyone,”
Kimberly Tucker, sophomore: “It
opened people’s eyes to the reality
of how it can happen to anybody.”
Alecia Pynn, freshman: “It was
really sad because it makes you
realize how personal it was and
how it can happen to families or
anyone,”
Carrie White, senior: “It was great
because many people had the op
portunity to see it and open their
minds to the reality of the disease.”
Lee Clark, junior: “It made a lot
o'f people aware of the problems by
reading the panels and it hit home,”
compiled by Lisa Roark with photos by Andrew Brickey