» PAGE 9 I
‘Many Sparrows’ delivers wide range of emotions I
FLYING HIGH: ^ ^
. MEN’S TENNIS CLINCHES
REGULAR SEASON TITLE»pace,5
ThFPENDULUM
ELON, NORTH CAROLINA | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 201 1 | VOLUME 37, EDITION 12
www.elon.edu/pendulum
Neutrality is negativity: LGBTQ community
says Elon student body is apathetic to cause
r
¥
Kassondra Cloos
News Editor
Among Elon University's many commitments
to greater success and diversity as an institution,
efforts to expand and improve the experiences of
LGBTQ students are a priority for many students,
faculty and staff. But despite continued work to
increase awareness of LGBTQ issues on campus,
many say the Elon community as a w hole remains
apathetic to the cause.
“It’s neutral but that neutrality is perceived
as negative by the LGBTQ community," said
junior Jess McDonald, president of SPECTRUM
and a Lumen Scholar researching the history
of LGBTQ student organizations on college
campuses. “The university isn’t supporting that
kind of diversity.”
Richard Baker, assistant director for
Residence Life, minored in LGBT studies as an
undergraduate and said he has seen much more
open support for LGBTQ students on other
college campuses.
“At every campus I’ve been a part of, I’ve
seen more obvious symbols of LGBTQ pride
and support," he said. “It’s different being on a
campus that is so obviously heterosexual and 1
think that can wear on you after a while."
Opressive language
There are few overt signs of homophobia
on Elon’s campus, Baker said, but more people
should step up to interrupt more subtle messages
of hate, such as language used in jest that has
the potential to be offensive.
Sophomore Ben Poole said his friends were
extremely supportive of him when he came out
to them during Winter Term of his freshmen
year, but the casual use of “gay" as a synonym
for “stupid" is one that significantly impacts his
perception of people.
“When you’re in a situation where there’s
mostly men, you know there’s going to be jokes
like ‘that’s so gay,’” he said. “It makes me feel a
little uncomfortable. It makes me not want to tell
them as much, or get as close to them.”
Simply promoting tolerance of the LGBTQ
community is a step, said Ann Cahill, chair of
the philosophy department, but should not be
the ultimate goal. Society should work toward
recognition and appreciation of gender identity
and sexual orientation diversity, she said.
Drag Queen Shlrll Stevez was the emcee
TRACY RAETZ | Staff Photographer
for the drag show hosted by Spectrum. The event was the culminating point tor Pride Week festivities.
See LGBTQ I PAGE 4
emergency response system this fall
Elon to test
Eva Hill
Copy Chief
Elon University administrators
are planning routine emergency
notification tests once a semester
during College Coffee starting next
fall. The planned tests stemmed from
technological problems with the
university’s text messaging system
during the tornado warning April 5,
according to Chris Fulkerson, assistant
vice president for technology,
“We had a delay in the text
messaging we sent out," Fulkerson
said. “If we test the system on a
regular basis, we would catch these
problems. We agreed to test once a
semester during College Coffee, so we
can publicize that this is just a test
and everyone will know about It.”
Sirens, television and computer
screens, and phone systems are among
the forms of communication that will
be tested during the drills, according
to Smith Jackson, vice president and
dean of Student Life.
“We can find kinks in the system,
and we found that some of the
cell phone companies had to make
correction in their systems because
the messages were delayed so it has
to integrate back into our system,”
he said. “So we need to do this every
semester to make sure."
There are two sirens, one on
Alumni Gym and one on East Gym,
and they are used to notify students
in the event of an emergency. The
sirens were installed about three
years ago and have been used and
tested, Jackson said.
He said the university also uses
E-Alert, a notification system powered
by Omnilert, to send urgent news to
cell phones. Omnilert recently had to
make corrections to its system because
the messages were delayed, according
to Fulkerson.
Some SMS messages destined for
major carriers experienced a delay of
10 minutes or longer after the tornado
warning April 5, and a significant
portion was delivered late, according
to Scott Howard, Omnilert, LLC.
“The gateway engineers at Air2Web
are taking steps to regularly optimize
the routing database and reviewing
the practices on how often this
must be performed,” Howard said.
“Omnilert has been informed that this
issue will not recur as measures are
now in place to detect database issues
like this before they cause delays in
the SMS delivery chain.”
Jackson said the administration’s
next step is to hardwire E-Alert and the
siren system so the two notification
processes will be initiated and emitted
simultaneously.
“We have 3,216 people who use
E-Alert, and that’s a pretty good
number," Jackson said. “But if you’re
not on it, you won’t get it.”
Fulkerson said the text messages
sent out during the tornado warning
April 16 went through much faster,
and most people received the message
in less than one minute. The sirens
were also set off, and an “all clear”
See EMERGENCY I PAGE 3
FOR THE LATEST
IE
■ ?