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

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 Student Life 17 ■ • - . -r» - .fr •- ; ,v ‘- , : - ■ •;

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88 Presidential Elections On November 8, many Elon students anxiously awaited the results of Election ’88, which pitted Republican George Bush against Democrat Mike Dukakis. While some students limited their involvement to voting, others took a more active role. Communications students filmed voters at local polling places. Political science majors and election buffs campaigned for favorite candidates, and many students took to wearing campaign buttons and pasting their cars and rooms with bumper stickers and signs. Campus groups sponsored “mock debates” in which democratic and republican students presented the positions of their candidates. The Student Union Board sponsored “Election Watch 88,” which gave students an opportunity to share their elation or dejection, depending on their affiliation. 16 Student Life

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When students arrived they were examined to determine whether or not they should be placed in the college proper or in the prep” or Academic Department. This plan worked well, for a vast difference existed between the qualifications and previous education of prospective students. The Academic Department offered a two-year program. The first-year courses included arithmetic, grammar and composition, geography, elocution, Latin and U.S. history. Those offered in the second year were algebra, grammar, arithmetic, Latin, bookkeeping, and commercial law. In the early years of operation, the ages of students enrolled in this program ranged from one of nine years to those in their teens. At the conclusion of these studies, students were prepared for the college. They could choose between a Classical Course, which could earn them the degree of Bachelor of Arts, or the Philosophical Course, which resulted in the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy. However, little difference existed in the studies required for the two different degrees. Both were designed for completion in four years and included courses in English, Latin, Greek, German, French, algebra, plane and analytical geometry, chemistry, physics zoology, botany, and general history. Students enrolled in this program during the early period ranged from those in their teens to one forty-three years of age. The college was always aware of the practical side of education. In addition to the numerous classical courses, its first curriculum offered a business course, which included bookkeeping, commercial law, penmanship, arithmetic, telegraphy, typewriting, and stenography. On June 2, 1891, the two-day exercises of Elon College’s first commencement began. This was not only a notable event throughout the Christian Church, but also one in which naturally very considerable interest” was felt in Alamance County. Commencement programs of that day were not merely graduating exercises, but the culmination of the outstanding scholastic accomplishments of the entire student body for the year. It was also a time of social conviviality to the extent that the usually strict rules governing student conduct were relaxed in order to permit the men to escort the ladies to the various events. Academic excellence was always the goal of the faculty, and its members strove in every manner possible to assist their students to attain it. Considerable emphasis was placed on public speaking and literary composition. Each member of the graduating class was required to make a speech or write an essay. In preparation for this work, essays or speeches were frequently required in the various courses. This led to the following faculty ruling: A motion prevailed that if a student misspells 40% of his words in a particular essay, that he is required to study spelling for 4 weeks, and further that is spelling be not an excuse for dropping other work.” When the United States declared war against Germany on April 6, 1917, the day was hailed as memorable” at Elon College. On that very day, three of its sturdy sons volunteered in the service of their country. Reacting to the national emergency, the college varied the usual graduating procedure. For the first time in the institution’s history, men were graduated from their platform in Khaki, and for the first time also men in distant training camps were graduated in absentia.” Excerpted from Elon College Its History and Traditions by Durwood T. Stokes Selected by Nan P. Perkins. 18 Academics and the Arts