Elon University
Established	1889
Type	Private
Endowment	$60 million
President	Leo Lambert
Faculty	310
Undergraduates	4,939 undergraduate
Postgraduates	517
Location	Elon, North Carolina, United States
Campus	575 acres (2.3 km²)
Athletics	Division I 16 varsity sports
Mascot	Phoenix
Affiliations	United Church of Christ
Website	www.elon.edu

Elon University is a private, liberal arts university located in Elon, North Carolina.

The University was founded in 1889 by the Christian Church, which is now the United Church of Christ. Formerly known as Elon College, it became Elon University on June 1, 2001. The historic 575 acre (2.3 km²) campus has been designated a botanical garden and features oak trees, brick sidewalks, fountains and lakes. Elon is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and is ranked as one of the top southern master's-level universities by U.S.News & World Report.

History

Presidents of Elon
President	From	To
William S. Long	1889	1894
William Wesley Staley	1894	1905
Emmett Leonidas Moffit	1905	1911
William Allen Harper	1911	1931
Leon Edgar Smith	1931	1957
James Earl Danieley	1957	1973
James Fred Young	1973	1998
Leo Michael Lambert	1999

In 1889 North Carolina Legislature issued a charter for Elon College. William S. Long was the founder and the first president. The original student body consisted of 76 students. In 1923 a fire destroyed most of the campus, including school records, classrooms, the library and the chapel. The Board of Trustees voted to rebuild immediately. Many of the buildings that were erected in the years following the disastrous fire still stand today and make up the bedrock of Elon's campus.

Elon has changed drastically from its longstanding status in the past 25 years, when it was solely an undergraduate college. Until 25 years ago, students were almost all from North Carolina, and mainly local residents commuting from family homes. Now, about 70 percent of Elon's students come from out-of-state.

Many prominent figures have visited and spoken at Elon, including Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson, Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, and (then-presidential candidate) Bill Clinton, former U.S. Secretary of State General Colin L. Powell, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel, and astronaut John Glenn.

Academics

The university includes Elon College, the College of Arts and Sciences; the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business; the School of Communications; the School of Education; and the School of Law. Master's programs are offered in business administration and education, and doctoral programs include physical therapy and law. Elon operates on a 4-1-4 academic calendar, including a four-week term in January known as Winter Term. There are 48 majors to choose from.

Elon has 310 full-time faculty members of which 84% have a PhD. The average class size is 22 students and the 4-year graduation rate is 71%. As of 2007, Freshman retention rate was 90%.^[1]

School of Law

Main article: Elon University School of Law

The Elon University School of Law opened on August 10, 2006. The School of Law is located in downtown Greensboro, North Carolina in the former city library. Former United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor delivered the Dedication Address on September 19, 2006.

Rankings

• The Education Trust recognizes Elon for excellence in freshman retention and outstanding graduation rates
• The Fiske Guide to Colleges ranks Elon one of 28 "best buy" private universities
• Kiplinger's Personal Finance ranks Elon # 1 in the "total costs category" among the nation's top 50 best value private universities
• Newsweek-Kaplan named Elon the hottest college in the nation for student engagement in its 2006 guide
• U.S.News & World Report ranks Elon # 2 among southern master's-level universities in its 2008 rankings

Student Body

From State	Percentage
North Carolina	32%
Maryland	10%
Virginia	8%
Pennsylvania	6%
New Jersey	6%
Florida	5%
Massachusetts	5%
Ohio	4%

Elon has a student body of just over 4,900 undergraduate students and 517 graduate students. 46 states, the District of Columbia, and 45 nations are represented in the student body. Admitted freshmen have a SAT average of 1220 (critical reading and math) and an Academic GPA of 3.9. Elon sends more undergraduate students to study abroad than any other master's-level school in the nation, with 73% studying abroad. 80% of Elon students complete internships and 91% of recent graduates participated in volunteer service. Students can record their participation on an Elon Experiences transcript, which is issued as a companion to the traditional academic transcript.[1]

Athletics

Elon's 16 varsity sports teams, known as the Phoenix, compete in the NCAA's Division I Southern Conference. Intercollegiate sports include baseball, basketball, cross-country, football, golf, soccer, and tennis for men, and basketball, cross-country, golf, indoor track, outdoor track, soccer, softball, tennis, and volleyball for women. The football team competes in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA).

Campus Recreation offers intramural and club sports programs, such as cycling, lacrosse, flag football, equestrian, swimming, rugby, triathlon, roller hockey and Ultimate Frisbee.

Up until 1999, the mascot of Elon was the Fightin' Christians. The moniker is said to have been coined by a sportswriter covering a contest in the 1930's between Elon and nearby Guilford College, a Quaker school. Prior to the 1930's, Elon was known simply as the Christians. The nickname was chosen due to Elon's proximity to the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, and the Duke Blue Devils. However, many did not feel that the nickname was universal enough for a team making the transition to Division I athletics, so a new mascot was adopted, the Phoenix. The choice came from the 1923 fire that destroyed almost the entire campus. Soon after the fire, the university trustees began planning to make Elon "rise from the ashes". The Phoenix was a mythical creature that rose from the ashes of its predecessors. The Christian symbolism is not lost with the Phoenix, however, which can be seen as a symbol of the resurrection.

Facilities

Elon's sports facilities include two gymnasiums, Walter Latham Baseball Park, Rhodes Stadium, the on-campus football stadium, a field house, six club athletic fields, a driving range and putting green, and an Athletic Center. The Athletic Center features the 2,400 seat Alumni Gym, an aerobic fitness center, a weight room, racquetball courts, an indoor pool, and a dance studio. The Jimmy Powell Tennis Center is a twelve-court state-of-the-art complex and is recognized as one of the finest collegiate tennis complexes in the nation.

Campus

Main article: Elon University campus

Elon's historic campus is located in the Piedmont region of North Carolina, adjacent to Burlington, a city of 50,000. Elon is just 20 minutes from Greensboro and within a one hour drive of major universities — Duke, NC State, UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC-Greensboro, North Carolina A&T State University, and Wake Forest.

Princeton Review has recognized Elon University for having one of the nation's most beautiful campuses. The wooded grounds have been designated a botanical garden. Elon's 525-acre campus is divided into seven major sections: North Area, Central Campus, West Area, East Area, South Campus, Danieley Center, and Elon West. Each area consists of different services and facilities. There are 29 residence buildings on campus and 12 major academic buildings. Elon also has numerous lakes and fountains throughout its campus.

Campus Life

The university has more than 150 campus organizations and programs, including ten national fraternities and eleven national sororities.

The Pendulum, Elon's independent undergraduate weekly newspaper is published every Wednesday. WSOE, the University's student-run noncommercial radio station, has been airing since 1977. ETV (Elon Television) is the student-run television channel and features numerous student-created and -run programs in addition to its nationally-recognized news program, Phoenix14News Tonight, produced by ESTV (Elon Student Television)

Numerous student government, special interest, and service organizations are represented on campus, including Elon Volunteers, Habitat for Humanity, Model UN, Elon Volunteers, the Student Government Association, and the Student Union Board.

Several cultural groups exist on campus such as the Black Cultural Society, Catholic Campus Ministry, Hillel, Intercultural Club, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, and Spectrum (Gay-Straight Alliance).

Greek Life

Elon University recognizes 21 social Greek organisations. 43% of women and 26% of men on campus belong to one of the following campus-chartered organisations. Other Greek organisations are ΑΦΩ, ΕΣΑ, and ΣΑΩ. The first national fraternity at Elon was Tau Kappa Epsilon founded in 1968, and the first national sorority was Sigma Sigma Sigma founded in 1969. TKE is no longer recognized at Elon.

Interfraternity Council	National Pan-Hellenic Council	Panhellenic Council
Κ Α	ΑΦΑ	ΑΧΩ
ΚΣ	ΚΑΨ	ΑΟΠ
ΛΧΑ	ΩΨΦ	ΑΞΔ
ΠΚΦ	ΦΒΣ	ΔΔΔ
ΣΧ	ΑΚΑ	ΦΜ
ΣΦΕ	ΣΓΡ	ΣΚ
ΣΠ	ΖΦΒ	ΣΣΣ
		ΖΤΑ

The Elon University Poll

Elon students conduct statewide polls on issues of importance to North Carolinians. Formed in 2000, the non-partisan polls' results are shared with various media outlets, citizens and researchers to facilitate representative democracy and public policy making through the better understanding of the opinions and needs of North Carolina citizens.

Some recent polls conducted dealt with Presidential Approval Ratings, capital punishment and the Iraq War.

Alumni

• Kerrii Anderson - Chief Executive Officer and President of Wendy's International, Inc.
• Rich Blomquist - Emmy Award winning writer on The Daily Show
• Ward Burton - NASCAR auto racer
• Isabella W. Cannon - former Mayor of Raleigh, NC
• Wes Durham - radio play-by-play announcer for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and the Atlanta Falcons
• Frank Haith - Head basketball coach at the University of Miami
• Bunn Hearn - Major League baseball pitcher
• Hugh Holliman - North Carolina House of Representatives Majority Leader
• Jack McKeon - Major League Baseball Manager (Kansas City Royals, Oakland Athletics, San Diego Padres, Cincinnati Reds, and Florida Marlins)
• Robert Model - great-grandson of Standard Oil co-founder William Rockefeller; Director on the boards of CapMAC, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership and Piggly Wiggly
• Jim Morris - Head baseball coach at the University of Miami
• Marvin K. Moss - former Provost and Vice Chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington
• Chad Nkang - Linebacker for the Jacksonville Jaguars
• Martin Ritt - director, actor, and playwright (Hud, Norma Rae, Stanley and Iris)
• Jim Schlossnagle - Head baseball coach at Texas Christian University
• Patrick Singleton - Bermudan Olympian in skeleton and luge
• Kenneth Utt - actor and producer (The Silence of the Lambs, Midnight Cowboy, Philadelphia)
• Joe West - Major League Baseball umpire
• Kiki Willis - Major League Soccer player for D.C. United
• Patrick Mahoney- UPS

References

External links

• Elon University - Official Site
• SGA - Elon's Student Government
• The Pendulum - Elon's Student Newspaper

•  • [ e] Southern Conference
Appalachian State • Chattanooga • The Citadel • College of Charleston • Davidson • Elon • Furman • Georgia Southern • UNC Greensboro • Western Carolina • Wofford

•  • [ e] Universities, colleges, and seminaries of the United Church of Christ

Andover Newton Theological School • Bangor Theological Seminary • Catawba College • Chicago Theological Seminary • Deaconess College of Nursing • Defiance College • Dillard University • Doane College • Drury University • Eden Theological Seminary • Elmhurst College • Elon University • Heidelberg College • Huston-Tillotson University • Illinois College • Lakeland College • Lemoyne-Owen College • Lancaster Theological Seminary • Northland College • Olivet College • Pacific School of Religion • Pacific University • Piedmont College • Rocky Mountain College • Talladega College • Tougaloo College • United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities