September 24,1998
'yiewjjoint
All right, that’s it. We can’t take this crap one minute longer.
If we hear one more word about President Clinton, Monica
Lewinsky or Kenneth Starr, we will collectively wet ourselves.
The majority of The Pendulum staff is made up of journalism and
communications majors. Some of us are political science^ history or
international studies majors or minors as well.
This means that the Clinton Affair is the only thing we have
discussed in our classes over the last few weeks.
Now that the smutty reject Danielle Steele novel they’ve been
trying to pass off as the Starr Report went public, and the President's little
televised squirm-fest aired on Monday, can’t it Just end?
Bill Clinton has suffered enough, Hillary Rodham Clinton has
suffered enough, Chelsea Clinton has suffered enough, and by God, the
American public has suffered enough.
At this point, we don’t care if the President gets impeached. We
don’t care if he gets censured. Hell, we don’t care if they shake his hand,
toss him a can of Henie and laud him for scoring. Isn ’ t getting nookie part
of the American dream anyway?
So he cheated on his wife and lied about it; that is not excusable.
[However, it is a matter for him to settle with his family now. It’s not
something in whichsome nosy independent counsel or a couple hundred
million Americans should be involved.
The whole world is laughing at us right now. The simple fact that
we can’t deal with a public official who’s been gettin’ some is hysterical
to the press and governments of other countries.
Among those watching the President’s testimony on Monday
morning» the most prevalent feeing was not anger or indignation, but
rather embarrassment. ^'
Here we are, the next generation of leaders for our country,
watching our President sweat, fidget and funnble with papers while
questions, which seemed apropos of the fmt house on a bad nighty poured
from the mouths of the independent counsel
Yet we the American people, for all our supposed apathy over the
situation, still titter over suggestive cigar jokes and roll our eyes at the
media’s hyper-analysis. It is perhaps our quiet judgment of the man and
his actions which is really making him sweat.
• The Pendulum editorial staff
Informing the Elon College Community
Editor in Chief
Michelle Cater
News Editor
Julie Koch
Features Editor
Giselle Pole
Sports Eklitor
Chrissie Taylor
Asst. Sports Editor
Troy Adams
Opinions Editor
Carrie Lancos
A & E Editor
Erik Akelaitis
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Jenny Jamecke
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Cathy Woeifel
Advertising
Andy Dietnch
Office Manager
Melissa Pasternack
Online Editor
Bill Monken
Adviser
Byung Lee
Reporters
Alison Abbey
Brian Ashmore
Lauren Bigge
Marie Blackett
Katie Bonebrake
Ashley Brown
Patrick Donovan
Stefanie Fox
Suzanne George
Carolyn Lampila
Johannah Lawrence
Letitia Lee
Lisa McChristian
Alan Medeiros
Bree Myers
Josh Phoebus
Jonathon Rutan
Stephen Ryan
Tammy Tripp
Brad Turnage
Jessica Vitak
Photographers
Megan Anderson
Emily MacDonnell
Crystal Pape
Jennifer Swink
Kristy Wolfgang
Columnists
Rich Blomquist
Stephan Dignan
Andrew Hludzenski
Ethan Pell
Chris Rash
Anna Thysell
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and entertain the Elon College
community. The Pendulum
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their ideas and opinions.
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Opinions
Presidential search no easy task
Anytime change occurs,
people tend to get nervous, ask lots
of questions and start thinking about
their future.
This is no more apparent than
when there is a change in the Chief
Executive, in our case, the college
president.
On Dec. 31, 1998, Dr. Fred
Young will retire. As much as we
love him, it’s time for him to step
down after twenty-five years of ser
vice. Then, Leo Lambert or Tho
mas Flynn will be named the eighth
president of Elon College.
Believe it or not, the
Presidental Search Committee,
which helped to bring these two
candidates to Elon, worked dili
gently, made many tough decisions
and still got criticized.
Can you believe people got
mad when we wouldn’t tell them
who applied? Can you believe
people wondered why these gentle
men came from Millikin University
and University of Wisconsin-
LaCrosse and not from Harvard and
Princeton?
It is amazing when you hear
people discuss their own conspiracy
theories about the search.
Let me give you a little in
sight into the makeup of the com
mittee. Trustees, staff, parents, fac
ulty, alumni and of course me, a
student.
A diverse crowd with one
common bond: The love for Elon
College.
Not one person had their per
sonal agenda. Nobody dictated who
would be the new president, and
most shocking of all, I
even got to be a fully
participating member of
the committee.
Mark Richter
SGA Executive
President
richm5s0@elon.edu
At first I thought,
“What do these Trustees
care about Elon College?” Boy was
I wrong!
I have never seen a collective
body of people who cared so much
for Elon College.
Noel Allen brought the group
together in a way where everyone
had equal input. Mel Palmer and
John Sullivan brought great wis
dom to the group when we thought
a decision was never going to be
reached.
Don Lopes, who helped with
another search committee at Bryant
College, gave valuable advice. Nan
Perkins, Gerald Whittington and
Nancy Midgette brought a wide ar
ray of insight from their collective
years in higher education.
The bottom line is that this
committee has done an outstanding
job. The next time you see Gerald,
Nancy, Nan or John or one of the
Trustees on campus, thank them for
all the hard work they have done
because, believe me, it’s something
you would not want to take
on by yourself.
January 1, 1999 will
mark a new beginning for
Elon College. Although it
will be a new beginning,
please remind Dr. Flynn and
Dr. Lambert of what makes
Elon a special place.
Please do not criticize
these gentlemen until you
have a chance to meet them when
they come to Elon next week. They
are wonderful individuals.
I was reminded of something
last week by a professor I once had.
She told me, “Mark, is doesn ’ t
matter if in the end these people
turn out to be the wrong choices for
Elon College, just so long as the
process was fair, honest and open.”
That made me think that even
if we made the wrong choice (which
I suspect we didn’t), the process
that we used to select these indi
viduals was right.
I know Dr. Lambert and Dr.
Flynn will be reading this, so I’d
like to extend a warm welcome to
them from the Elon College com
munity. We hope you like it here.
Presidential Search
What characteristics would you like Elon's new president to have?
Stacey Henderson, senior:
I think she should be someone who
listens to the students, one who
pays attention to what needs to be
done around campus and one who
will keep the Vision going. We
need someone who will carry it on
and not let it go to pieces.
Travis Morrow, sopho
more: The new president should
look to keep the vision that we have
now and look to strengthen it as we
come into the new millenium. And
he should be a nice guy.
Burton Kesler, sopho
more: He has to be interested in
the progress of the school, he has
to be able to interact with the stu
dents and he has to be friendly, of
course.
Andrea Henderson, freshman: It should be someone who is sincere and someone who means what they
say. Someone who will bring some life into Elon College. It should be someone who is interested in our social
life, not just academics.
Cris Montalvo, freshman: They would have to be approachable, somebody you can talk to and someone
who gets out there among the students.