PAGE 2 // WEDNESDAY. APRIL 13, 2011
NEWS
the pendulum
Convocation panelists encourage students to do what they love
Caitlin O'Donnell
News Editor
Elon University students were
encouraged to discover what they love
and pursue it with passion at spring
convocation April 7.
Brian Williams, managing editor and
anchor of NBC Nightly News, served as
a moderator during the event, which
consisted of a panel of five national
leaders.
The discussion centered around
key challenges facing the world
today including religious intolerance,
partisanship in politics, education, fiscal
responsibility and energy independence.
The panel sought to not only explain
these challenges, but suggest realistic
ways to address them.
Williams was joined by David
Gergen, adviser to four U.S. presidents
and director of the Center for Public
Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy
School; David Walker, former U.S.
Comptroller General and head of the
U.S. Government Accountability Office;
Shirley Ann Jackson, physicist and
president of Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute; Eboo Patel, founder and
president of the Interfaith Youth Core;
and David Levin, co-founder of the
Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP).
“The title of the discussion is ‘we can
be better,’” Williams said. “In this nation,
in this day and age, we sure can."
The panel began with a conversation
about the current state and future of
religious understanding.
Patel, a Muslim American whose
family immigrated from India, said the
ugliness of religious extremism makes
the American values of tolerance and
pluralism that much more important.
The composition of America, of one
people from all corners of the earth
coming together to build a nation, is one
of its strengths, he said.
“I think the first thing we have to do
is get back to the deep values of faith
and action, of service and cooperation,”
he said. “As challenging as it might be
and as natural as frustration and anger
might be at what feels like irrational
intolerance, the path I follow, the path
of Islam, the path of the prophets, the
path of America is a path of trying
to show magnanimity in the face of
intolerance.”
On the topic of debt, and in the face
of a potential government shutdown last
weekend, had a budget compromise not
been reached in Washington, Walker
said the United States has strayed from
some of its traditional principles and
values.
“Today, Washington is arguing over
less than 1 percent of federal spending,"
he said. “It’s like arguing about the
bar tab on the Titanic. Leaders of both
parties need to put country over party
r
^ HEATHER CASSANO | Photo Editor
Eboo Patel discusses the importance of interfaith work in response to a question from panel moderator Brian Williams at Elon University’s spring convocation.
and progress over partisanship and
need to learn from the past."
This means remembering that the
nation was founded on the concept of
opportunity, not entitlement, he said.
Williams also addressed the low
international rankings of U.S. students
in reading, science and math.
Levin runs KIPP, a national network
of 99 schools located in low-income
neighborhoods in 20 states. The schools
have doubled high school graduation
rates, tripled matriculation to college
and quadrupled the college graduation
rate in those areas, he said.
“People want to feel special and like
they belong to something," he said. “As,
as a society, are not taking the promises
to our children as if they were sacred.
We care about our own kids, but not
anyone else.”
Jackson addressed the United States’
“addiction” to fossil fuels. Currently,
the nation is 60 percent dependent on
foreign oil.
Energy security also affects national
and economic security, Jackson said,
and the nation can learn to rely on fossil
fuels less if it is smarter about how they
are handled.
“The situation in Japan, the BP oil
spill, Katrina, issues in the Middle East
and North Africa all tell us that we are
are facing intersecting vulnerabilities
that require a national conversation and
more sophisticated, committed approach
to dealing with energy solutions,” she
said.
These solutions include a transparent
Ban on use of handheld
phones while driving possible
CELL PHONE from PAGE 1
concerned, 1 think a ban needs to be
done because at home, before the
ban was enforced, people were not
taking it that seriously because you
would just get a ticket and then sign
off by paying a fine," Edwards said.
“But, after the ban was enforced, you
saw a lot of changes. I think that
it’s just a little thing, so why don’t
people wait until they get home or
get to somewhere safe instead of
endangering themselves and other
people?"
Edwards said New Jersey’s ban was
passed before she began driving, so
its enforcement was never debatable
when she got her license. Her older
brother experienced the transitional
period before and after the ban, she
said North Carolina residents could
benefit just as he did.
“The ban was before I started
driving because I’m only 19, but my
older brother drove before the ban
was enforced, and he never really
listened to it," she said. “But after, he
could see why it was that much more
important because kids would get
into accidents in the parking lot just
from talking on their cell phones."
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and well-functioning energy market,
consistency of regulation, a sound
infrastructure and innovation, she said.
At a time when 66 percent of
Americans are not confident in the future
and believe the nation is in decline,
according to an NBC and Wall Street
Journal poll, Gergen encouraged the
audience not to give into pessimism.
“The hope is you all, as students,
won’t buy into that and accept it as
an answer,” he said. “The call to the
generation is whether you can rally this
country and help revive and rebuild it."
Part of the problem, Gergen said, is the
lack of response to issues as they arise.
Instead of responding immediately, the
nation tends to “let them grow and
fester.” To counteract this trend, it is
necessary for people to put the good of
the country first, he said.
“There are too many people who
think of themselves as strong Democrats
or Republicans first and foremost and
the country is secondary,” he said. “We
need to get over that, we need to get your
generation involved.”
To find the will to address these
challenges, Walker said people should
focus less on today and more on building
a better tomorrow.
“The country does not have a plan
that is future-focused, results-oriented
around threat, risk and opportunity,"
he said. “And all too frequently, we wait
until there is a crisis at our doorstep
before we act. We have to recognize this
is a great country but we’re not as great
as we think we are. We need to have a
plan."
Jackson said solutions could come
not only from the young people of today
but also from those outside the realm of
politics.
“We spend a lot of time talking
Washington-centric things but the truth
is, there are a lot of great people in the
country," she said. “There are leaders in
business, the non-governmental sector,
academia and in government at multiple
levels."
Although Williams admitted the
future may look bleak, he encouraged
students to stand up and change the
world they are inheriting.
“Imagine what you can do with that
Elon energy and Elon brain," Williams
said. “You know the stakes, we just laid
them out for you. Are we going to go
forward and act the way we know we
can? Are we going to get along or are we
going to fight?”
Patel closed the discussion by
addressing how it’s possible to put the
ideas into action.
“Ultimately, when it comes to who you
are in the world, you have to do what you
love to do," he said. “How do you find
what you love to do and how do you give
it away?"
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Town begins construction
LUKE LOVETT | Graphics Edrtor
CONSTRUCTION from PAGE 1
new project will enhance the Town of
Elon.
"Anything that generates retail sales,
we get some retail tax off of that," he
said. "It’s not tremendously significant,
but it will help try to get the town more
well rounded."
Construction on East Haggard also
demonstrates the collaboration between
the town and the university.
“On East Haggard some of (the
projects) are university funded and
the others are joint projects involving
the university and other people,” Dula
said. “The sidewalk is a three partner
project with the town, the university
and the North Carolina Department of
Transportation."
Dula predicts that the project will be
completed by the end of the summer.
A sidewalk project along East
Haggard would extend the sidewalk to
Gilliam Road, in turn passing the new
Gerald L. Francis Center, which will serve
as the home of the physical therapy and
physician assistant program.
The Town of Elon has had its own
construcUon projects, too, including
the addition to Elon Community Church
and the widening of Cook Road, which,
although not a university project, also
influences students in addition to Elon
residents.
“One of the main reasons for the
Cook Road project was to create heavy
traffic off Williamson Avenue,” Tolley
said.
Cook Road, which is off University
Drive, will be expanded to four lanes.
The project involves an expansion of the
railroad tracks and the installation of a
ramp.
“You don’t have that big traffic coming
down the middle of the town,” he said,
“and, of course, with all the students it’s
good to take that traffic off.”
The widening of Cook Road is part
of the state thoroughfare plan, and will
develop a road connecting the more
used roads, such as 1-85,1-40 and NC-70.
“It will take traffic around the urban
areas instead of through the urban
areas,” Dula said.
Despite the number of construction
projects, Tolley doubts the construction
will disrupt the functionality of the
town.
“It’s a lot of building,” he said, but
each building area is just so focused.
Still, Tolley identified parking and
traffic as a concern until the construction
of the buildings and roads is complete-
“Any time you build something its
going to have an impact on what was
there before, but it’s a normal impact,
Dula said.