Elon University - Phi Psi Cli Yearbook (Elon, NC)

Page 11 text:

keeping good minority faculty is our greatest challenge, our most persistent concern, Young said. We ' re not satisfied with our re- cord on that point, but we ' re con- stantly working on it. Ironically, another of Elon ' s problems is its cost. In North Carolina, where public education is such a bargain, parents balk at paying $3,300 a year for tuition. The reaction is almost as extreme in the Northeast, home of increas- ingly more Elon students each year. We ' re so much cheaper than the Northern private schools that parents look aghast at me when I tell them the price, Soliday said. You can see them thinking that if Elon is that cheap, it can ' t be as good as we say. Vice-President Williams said Elon officials have even discussed raising the college ' s costs to better

Page 10 text:

There are times when they ' re a little too protective, one student said. They should let us stumble and pick ourselves up a little more often. That ' s a learning experience too. Young dismisses the complaint saying: Students on any campus, if you asked them, would say they should be given more freedom. They ' d probably even say that in Chapel Hill. That ' s just students. The essence of caring, Elon offi- cials agree, is personal attention. Providing it, though, isn ' t always easy at a college where the stu- dent-teacher ratio hovers on the high side at 20-to-l and where the average annual teaching load is 27 hours. At most colleges, the average is 24 hours and the student-teacher ratio closer to 17 or 18-to-l. The high ratio and heavy teaching load account in large part for the college ' s financial stability, Young said. It is made possible, though, by the college ' s dedication to hiring good teachers. There can be no credibility for an Elon faculty member who is not an effective classroom teacher, Young told the faculty at the opening convocation of the 1985-86 school year. Good teaching has been and will con- tinue to be our most pervasive characteristic. Teaching is the first and foremost consideration in grant- ing promotions and raises, said Chris White, vice-president for academic affairs. A teacher who can ' t teach won ' t last long at Elon. For teachers who want to teach, White said, We ' re about the top of the line. Above Elon and a few schools like us, you get into the research game. That ' s why we ' re so popular with teachers who really want to teach. Like all colleges that emphasize teaching, though, Elon walks a fine line. To be outstanding, its teachers must stay current in their fields. Research is the best way to stay current, but research and a heavy teaching load don ' t mix well. Elon ' s biggest personnel problem is one shared by countless other colleges. It has only three blacks and one American Indian on its faculty, far too few to adequately balance the faculty or act as role models to the students, 9 percent of whom are black. I would say that hiring and

Page 12 text:

reflect its improved quality. If you don ' t need to raise costs to tceep tilings going though, she said, It just doesn ' t seem right to do it for image. Ironically, Elon ' s image appears to be poorest in North Carolina. It is best in Virginia, which once sent Elon 40 percent of the college ' s student body, and climbing rapidly on the Eastern seaboard to the north. The farther away from North Carolina that we get, the better the students we get because we aren ' t fighting the image prob- lem, Soliday said. Added White: They say that in academics, whether you ' re going up or you ' re going down, our repu- tation is a basic meat-and-potatoes school although that stopped being the reality about six years ago. The world just hasn ' t figured it out yet. We ' re gonna see if we can ' t change that. 8