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

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cliche. Administrators use it. Pro- fessors use it. Students use it. Without exception, it seems, every- one agrees that caring is Elon ' s es- sence and its greatest asset. I if now you ' ve heard it 1,000 times, but absolute caring really is the nature of this entire institu- tion, said Linda Weavil, a busi- ness administration professor. Al- most anything I can say is so up- beat it sounds corny, but it really is the truth. Thanks to caring, Elon ' s stu- dents are, by and large, thrilled with their college experience. Sur- veys of recent graduates show 95 percent would return to Elon if they could relive their college years. Asked what made their time at Elon so fulfilling, 97 percent mention their relationships with their professors. In an unscientific survey of stu- dents encountered on campus, the result was the same. Everyone of them, asked what they liked best about Elon, mentioned personal at- tention from their professors as the primary benefit. But a surplus of care and pro- tection, particularly in relation to their social lives, is also a com- plaint students voice about Elon.

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Nan Perkins, assistant to the president, also is tlie mother of an Elon sophomore. As a parent, it ' s very important to me that the word gets out about how good this school is, Perkins said. We don ' t need to promote it to attract more students or to show off. We ' re trying to give it more respectability. Those students in the middle deserve an education that has a respectability, just as the top students do. Elon . . . promotes itself as a caring place, a college where every student receives personal attention and where every professor is a po- tential friend and mentor. Now that we ' re turning more students away, we ' re getting nega- tive feedback from parents whose children weren ' t admitted, said Joanne Soliday, the school ' s direc- tor of admissions. They say, ' We thought this was a place that cared, ' which really translates, We thought you took anybody. When you put yourself up front as a caring institution and you start turning so many down, it ' s difficult to communicate. Former president Danieley is one of those for whom Elon was the golden door. I could not have gone to col- lege if this place was not here, Danieley said. If I hadn ' t gone to college, I would have ended up in a mill or on a farm. I have so much appreciation for what this place does in the lives of people. Even now, although none of us knows all of the students, the relationship is very much like that of a family, Danieley said. The week before classes started this fall, I had a student from La Paz, Bolivia, call me at 10 p.m. from the airport. He said he ' d get a hotel room for the night and asked if I could pick him up in the morning. I told him absolutely not, got out of bed and went to get him. He stayed the night with us and had breakfast with the family the next morning. I don ' t tell that sto- ry to brag. I tell it because it is typical of this place. Caring is a word used so often at Elon that it almost becomes a

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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