Now covered by insurance plans, UroLift implants reduce symptoms of enlarged prostate
By Oliver Fischer
Aug. 4 2019
Nathan Allen used to get up three or four times a night to go the bathroom.
Allen, who will turn 71 this year, was suffering from benign prostate hyperplasia, a common condition men encounter after age 50 that leads to an enlarged prostate and difficulty urinating.
“It’s a process of aging, and if you live long enough, you’re going to have it,” said Dr. Michael Wolff, who specializes in minimally invasive procedures at Alamance Urological PC.
But with a new product called UroLift now being covered by insurance, Allen was able to improve his quality of life.
“When traveling, if you have to stop every hour, that’s not really a good situation,” he said. “Medication works to a certain degree, but the side effects aren’t good.”
Allen underwent the UroLift procedure in April, and it has allowed him to return to normalcy.
“I’m back to just about totally normal with no medication at all,” he said. “This is the way to go.”
Men may experience some discomfort for three to four days after the procedure, but the improvements are instantly noticeable.
“It’s a better alternative than the drugs, and it’s immediate,” said Thomas Moore, another UroLift patient who at first didn’t know he was suffering from BPH. “Drugs take several weeks to work. I lost five pounds that day just losing water.”
Symptoms of BPH include difficulty urinating, frequent visits to the restroom, incontinence, and potential damage to the bladder and kidneys if the pressure becomes too high.
“The prostate is like a doughnut,” Wolff said. “You have to urinate through the doughnut, and as the prostate enlarges, it closes up the doughnut hole.”
UroLift works by pulling the enlarged prostate tissue out of the way so it doesn’t block the urethra.
Although treatments for BPH have existed for a long time, including medications and surgery, they were often accompanied by unpleasant side effects.
“They have to be in hospital, there’s a lot of bleeding, pain afterwards and there are sexual side effects,” Wolff said. “With surgery, there is also a risk, if you cut too much away, that they can develop incontinence.”
Medication side effects can be dizziness, sexual dysfunction and dementia. But one of the most common side isn’t a side effect at all.
“The medications sometimes don’t work very well,” Wolff said.
In the last few decades, one of the less invasive treatments was microwave treatment, in which the prostate is heated up to shrink it. But before shrinking, the heating would make the prostate swell, so patients needed a catheter for about a week.
UroLift puts an end to ineffective medications, invasive surgery and unpleasant side effects. It has been on the market for five years.
“What’s changed in the last year is now we have insurance coverage,” Wolff said. “So we’re starting to do more and more of these.”
The procedure can be done in the office with some numbing medicine, and takes 10 to 15 minutes, saving costs and a trip to the hospital.
“We use a little telescope, and we go in there, and it’s almost like a miniature staple gun, and we put these little stitches in there, and it’s almost like pulling a curtain apart,” Wolff said. “Because there is no cutting, there is very minimal, maybe a drop or two of blood, and there is no sexual dysfunction or long-term side effects. That has really revolutionized how we treat this.”
Wolff estimates that by age 70, about 70 percent of men will have BPH.
UroLift is a FDA cleared treatment. The product was developed by NeoTract, which Teleflex acquired in 2017
While age is the biggest risk factor for men, BPH also has a genetic factor.
“You’re going to get it at an earlier age if your father had it,” Wolff said. “It will affect every man” who lives long enough, he said. “If you are blessed to live long enough, you are going to have this problem.”
A new turning lane on South Church Street between Williams High School and Fisher Street is drawing mixed reactions from business owners.
The lane will broaden the road from four to five lanes. The city foresees completion sometime next year, said Mike Nunn, Burlington’s transportation director.
Ron Jones, senior sales associate at Music & Arts, 1258 S. Church St., thinks adding the turning lane will improve safety for drivers.
“We have heavy traffic most of the day,” he said. “We’ve had people really take chances to turning in because they are afraid that if they stop out there, that somebody is going to run into them or something.”
But not all business owners are happy about the planned turning lane. Some think it might disrupt business.
“It may take up some of my parking space, and I need my parking space,” said Carol Ann McCormack, owner of Christine Valmy Center, 1210 S. Church St.
Some businesses also fear the lane could affect “the customer experience.”
“It will pull traffic closer to me,” McCormack said. “I have enough road noise in here now, and then we got ambulances and fire trucks running up and down, which is not conducive to my business.
“I’m not happy about it.”
Mimi Holt, buyer at Margaret’s of Burlington, 920 S. Church St., worries about how the construction might affect access to the store.
“What we’re unhappy about is that it’s going to disrupt traffic to our store for a long time,” Holt said. “That’s very upsetting. Are they going to take our sidewalk away and go into some of our property?”
Holt’s main gripe is with the time it will take for the construction to be completed and the effect that will have on her sales.
“The main thing is with the holiday season upon us and the way it will affect people coming to the store,” Holt said. “It could be very detrimental.”
Visitors of all ages attend the Elon Cars and Coffee event Saturday. [Oliver Fischer]
By Oliver Fischer
July 14 2019
Young met old on Saturday morning when car enthusiasts gathered at the Elon Community Church parking lot to discuss cars, drink coffee and hang out.
From a 1970 Buick to a 2019 Lexus, cars of all ages were present. The more than a dozen visitors included young adults, parents with their kids and seniors.
“It’s really just about mingling with other people that love cars,” Kathleen Patterson, downtown development administrator and organizer of the event, said. “It’s an easy event. It’s just networking. Nobody goes home with a prize. It’s just come and hang out with people who love cars.”
Visitors check out the engine bay of Rich Pagoria’s 1990 Chevrolet 454 SS pickup at Elon Cars and Coffee on Saturday. [Oliver Fischer]
The event was originally scheduled for April, but had to be postponed three times due to rain forecasts.
“We were hoping that we’d get the one done early so that we could invite the car club that’s on campus to be able to participate so they were really excited,” Patterson said.
Although students are away for the summer, Gary Lanzafame, a member of another local car club called “The HEAT,” was present with his 1970 Buick GSX tribute.
“When I was looking at it, I didn’t know a thing about Buicks, but I wanted something different,” Lanzafame said. He found the car for sale on the side of the road over a decade ago with a bad maroon paint job. It was originally a GS 350 and has since been repainted and rebuilt into a GSX.
Gary Lanzafame shows off pictures of his 1970 Buick GS 350 before it received a new paint job. [Oliver Fischer]
“The bumpers on the front and the engine are from a ’71, so I just cloned it into a GSX just to make it into a hot rod,” Lanzafame said. ”(I) Worked on the engine and built the engine up. It’s about 425 horsepower. Now all I do is clean it and keep it in the garage.”
Rich Pagoria arrived in his 1990 Chevrolet 454 SS pick-up truck.
“Fixing it up is a hobby,” Pagoria said. “If I wanted to I could spend 40 hours a week on it but I spend a few hours a week because lot of the stuff that needs to be done, I don’t do anymore. It’s heavy mechanical work.”
His 454 SS has had major work done to it. From a new interior to engine work, there is barely a part that has been left untouched.
“About everything that could wear or needs replacing has been replaced,” Pagoria said. “The motor’s been out and I put new head in it to let it breathe a little bit better.”
At Cars and Coffee, car enthusiasts like Lanzafame and Pagoria can talk about their passion with like-minded people.
Lanzafame’s 1970 Buick GSX tribute was one of the cars displayed at the Elon Cars and Coffee event. [Oliver Fischer]
“A lot of the people who own cars like that, they have either refurbished them themselves or they just have this passion so you can actually talk to these people about your passion and they’ll actually understand you,” Patterson said.
A Cars and Coffee event would not be complete without the coffee. Patterson worked with Phil Smith, proprietor at The Oak House in Downtown Elon, to provide free coffee at the event.
Patterson’s friends helped start the Greensboro Cars and Coffee and she enjoys attending such events as a car enthusiast herself. She said she hopes to appeal to classic car enthusiasts close to Elon and those who might find the Greensboro Cars and Coffee too crowded.
“Greensboro is really full. They used to have 300, 400 cars every Saturday so if you can’t get into there you can always come here,” Patterson said. She said the Greensboro Cars and Coffee has turned into a car show and strayed away from the essence of Cars and Coffee events. Patterson wants to capture that essence with Elon Cars and Coffee. Anyone is welcome there, whether they bring a car or not.
[Oliver Fischer]
“We are close enough to Beth Schmidt Park so if you bring your kid and you wanna go hang out at the park afterwards you can do that,” Patterson said.
Elon Cars and Coffee is scheduled to take place every second Saturday of the month from April through October. It starts at 8 a.m. and lasts about two hours. It takes place at the Elon Community Church parking lot.
As the largest denomination on Elon University’s campus, Catholicism builds a community but can’t escape stereotypes
Peter Tremblay, associate chaplain for catholic life, preaches a sermon March 7 at Holt Chapel. [Oliver Fischer]
By Oliver Fischer
March 14. 2018
When junior Emily Keller, president of the Catholic Campus Ministry (CCM) at Elon University, wakes up in the morning, she first thanks Jesus for the day. Her faith is a part of her identity and she finds meaning in life through it.
“It’s making those daily, little, monotonous things meaningful,” Keller said.
According to the 2018 Spring Registrar’s Report, Keller is one of 1786 Catholic students on campus — making it the largest Christian denomination at Elon. Catholicism has been the largest religious denomination on campus since at least Spring 2007 — which is the oldest Registrar’s Report on Elon’s website.
However, Jan Fuller, university chaplain, said though the remaining Christian denominations are heavily divided, the 2008 non-Catholic Christian students need to be viewed as one when comparing numbers. The second largest denomination being “Christian – Other” consisting of 450 students.
“When we measure the numbers at Elon, we count Christians and then other people and Christians turn out to be about 60 percent, 30 percent of those are Catholic Christians,” Fuller said. “If you take the rest of the Christian denominations and you add them together, you get about 2000. That’s pretty close — it’s just that the list of those other denominations is very long.”
That list consists of 33 different Christian denominations represented on Elon’s campus.
Junior Emily Keller, president of the Catholic Campus Ministry attends brunch with other members at Holland House on March 11. [Oliver Fischer]
“The Protestant Church is a very denominationally divided church,” Fuller said.
Unlike other Christian denominations, the Catholic Church is unified through a single spokesperson.
“Catholicism is accountable to the pope and the structure all builds its way to the pope,” Fuller said. “What binds it all together is a structure and a long tradition.”
Catholicism as a culture and community
Catholicism stretches beyond being just a religion. There is a culture behind it. One of those cultural norms is abstaining from eating meat on Fridays.
Peter Tremblay, associate chaplain for Catholic life, adheres to this tradition.
Infographic by Oliver Fischer.
“I love having a nice sandwich with meat in it, but there is an experience of community we are trying to build because in a lot of ways, students feel as if most identities on campus are celebrated, except authentic religious identities,” Tremblay said.
One of those students is sophomore Riley McCrossan, who appreciates how CCM brings people together who share common values.
“Being on a college campus, there are obviously lifestyles that are really prevalent and not everyone will want to be involved in lifestyles such as those,” McCrossan said. “Just the hook-up culture and drinking. College can be crazy and while it’s nice to have fun, it’s also nice to be able to lean back on people.”
Though CCM allows students to get away from that aspect of college culture, it is not overly religious and places more value on the community.
“Being part of CCM is not even as much pressure to actually be very practicing Catholic, it’s just a community on campus and it’s not stereotypical of what people would put a label on,” McCrossan said. “I think it’s a really easy thing to get on board with and more people should look into it.”
Keller completely agrees.
“I love that Catholicism is a universal. It’s a beautiful religion that was founded by Jesus Christ himself and it’s something that I’ve really come to appreciate in my travels around the world,” Keller said.
Catholicism may be unified under the pope, but divisions exist regardless. The Pendulum reported in 2002 that conflicting views on social issues existed within CCM regarding women’s roles in Catholicism, divorce, priest celibacy and the use of contraceptives.
Fuller said such divisions still exist, but the issues today will be different.
“In our time, issues of how we relate to the LGBTQ community will be varied, probably here at Elon as well as in all the Catholic churches,” Fuller said.
Speaking up for your faith
According to Tricia McCarthy, coordinator of faith formation, not everyone is willing to accept religion as something legitimate and worthy of their time.
Tricia McCarthy (right) attending evening mass at Holt Chapel on March 8. [Oliver Fischer]
“I think for our students, even though it is the majority religion on campus, it’s still very difficult to practice any religion at Elon,” McCarthy said. “Elon is, just like most of the world, very secular and very ready to offer critique of religion, so it takes a lot for students to be willing to give up an hour a week to go to Sunday mass — just as most young adults are still trying to figure out what maybe they want their career to be, they’re also still wrestling with faith and trying to figure that out,” McCarthy said.
Some students are also afraid to speak up for their faith because they aren’t sure if they want to commit to anything yet.
“College is a time of finding out who you are,” Keller said. “College life and faith are sometimes seen as polar opposites, which brings its own set of issues in form of stereotypes.”
Negative stereotypes about Catholics that lead to a misunderstanding about their faith are a further struggle that believers on campus have to face.
“People are often thought of as bigots or prejudiced or out of touch or as indoctrinated into hateful ways of thinking,” Tremblay said.
To fight these untrue stereotypes, Tremblay said that the programming at Elon is aimed at building a community and creating opportunities to go deeper into understanding ones faith. The two main negative stereotypes the Catholic community struggles with are ignorance and bigotry.
“If you are going to believe, you have to be ignorant of science, you have to be ignorant of philosophy and contemporary thought. That couldn’t be further from the truth,” Tremblay said. “Anyone who is devoted to religion is somehow operating out of a place of hatred for people who are different from them or live lifestyles that are different from some of the ideas and teachings we have in the church. That, as well, is completely false. We are not a clan of haters and bigots.”
Combating these stereotypes is not a matter of proving anyone wrong and defensiveness won’t win the argument either. Instead, Tremblay has a different approach to disprove negative stereotypes.
“My hope is you begin with a smile, you continue with a warm invitation, free food and fun,” Tremblay said. “Anyone who stands up and has to proclaim loudly ‘I’m not a bigot,’ seems to already have lost the point.”
The graying church
Catholicism may be the largest Christian denomination on Elon’s campus, but it still faces struggles on a nation-wide basis. One of these is an over-aging population. According to National Geographic, 32 percent of Catholic Church members in the US were aged 50 and above in 1987. By 2014, that number rose to 50 percent. Part of the problem is that young people’s preferences are different when it comes to faith.
“They are not looking for something that’s routine, but something that’s deeply meaningful and has personal significance,” Fuller said. “All the churches are struggling with this phenomenon.”
McCarthy said mass itself is also not always appealing to young people.
“A lot of young adults will say they don’t find mass entertaining. I would argue that’s not the point of mass, but definitely one thing that students would say,” McCarthy said.
According to Keller, picturing grandparents going to church is a stereotype. The Catholic Church is not standing still and churches around the world are starting to cater to youths with a strong faith.
Junior Sydney Forsyth eats brunch with CCM members at Holland House on March 11. [Oliver Fischer]
“Us millennials are on fire for our faith and there are communities across campuses, across the nation and across the world that do foster really amazing, young adult ministries of Catholic kids who are living out their faith and bearing witness to their faith every day in a world that is becoming very, very secular,” Keller said. “I think that is definitely a struggle and definitely this battle that we are facing, but if you have your Catholic faith and you believe God will give you the strength that you need, we have no reason to not live out our faith and bear witness to it every day of our lives.”
There may be ministries catering to youths, but Fuller said the static nature of the church is still an issue.
“The church and Christian organizations all over the world I think have been maintaining themselves as institutions rather than reinventing themselves for new centuries and new generations,” Fuller said.
Turnouts at CCM or Catholic events on Elon’s campus are relatively high according to Keller. Over 400 students attended the Ash Wednesday service this year.
American author Phyllis Tickle argued that the Church has to have a reformation every 500 years.
“What she says is that now is the time,” Fuller said. 500 years ago, the protestant reformation took place. “The way to survive such a reformation is to be flexible and to reinvent oneself.”
The geographic distribution of Catholics in the US has also changed. The concentration has shifted from the Northeast and Midwest to the South and West according to National Geographic.
Fuller believes this is mainly due to immigration. “I think they are settling there when they come from other countries, from South America, from Central America, from places in Europa or even Asia.”
However, it’s not just foreigners who permanently settle in the US bringing about these changes.
“Many of the migrant workers come from Catholic backgrounds,” Fuller said. “The California churches are bursting at the seams because of migrant workers, almost all of them from Mexico.”
Figures from the Pew Research Center support Fuller’s theory, with Hispanic Catholics representing 26 percent of Catholics in the Northeast and Midwest, while making up 33 percent in the South and 44 percent in the West.
Catholicism and beyond
Catholic culture has always placed a high value on education. According to Tremblay, Catholic schools existed in the US before public schools did.
Religious items on a wall in Holland House. [Oliver Fischer]
“Public schools adopted the model of Catholic schools,” Tremblay said.
Prioritizing education has led to economic success.
“When you have economic success, birth rates go down,” Tremblay said.
But low birth rates aren’t keeping youths from Catholic faith.
“In the Catholic church, we do a terrible job of passing on faith to the next generation,” Tremblay said. “They were never deeply brought into the faith, I don’t think. They’re faith often came from a place of obligation — they were told you have to go to church, they were told you have to pray or there were these terrible consequences.”
These older generations made peace with that and went through these rituals.
The Catholic community does not overshadow other non-Christian religions. Tremblay invites other communities, such as the Muslim community, to interfaith dinners where students learn about other religions.
“Having a large Christian population under the leadership of Father Peter and CCM I think is positive for the Muslim community,” Shane Atkinson, Muslim life coordinator said. “I just found their community is very respectful to minority religious populations and very supportive as well.”
As Morgan Bodenarain’s term comes to an end, she reflects on her time as SGA executive president
SGA executive president Morgan Bodenarain sitting in her office. She will be stepping down this March. [Oliver Fischer]
By Oliver Fischer
Feb 15. 2018
Executive president Morgan Bodenarain is stepping down this March, leaving behind greater inclusivity, civic engagement and school spirit, but despite a successful career in student government during high school, her path to success at Elon was not straightforward.
“In my first year, there were a lot of reasons why I didn’t get involved with a lot of things, and I regretted it,” Bodenarain said. “I was having a tough year, not really doing anything, fooling around, just a lot of ambiguity with my place at Elon.”
Becoming executive President
To find more stable ground, Bodenarain decided to run for president in sophomore year but lost. “I was so upset because finally I was putting myself out there. I did student government in high school. Government is something I’m super passionate about,” she said.
Bodenarain ran again in junior year and received a position on the SGA senate as a chief of staff to former executive president Kyle Porro. “I realized not only how much I loved SGA and that was something I really wanted to do,” she said.
As a member of senate, Bodenarain, together with a friend, founded the SGA student inclusive campus committee, which is dedicated to creating the most inclusive Elon possible. This project served as motivation for her to run for executive president.
“There were things that I was working on my junior year that I knew from a platform of executive president of SGA, I would be able to do it on a bigger scale and implement it in ways that I see fit that I couldn’t necessarily do from the position that I held.”
Bodenarain joined the student government in her junior year of high school. Having gone to a predominantly white school, she thought her chances of winning the presidential election were slim.
She won.
“That was pretty surprising,” she said. “When I won it I realized ‘wow, student government is where I want to be.”
Despite having found her passion, Bodenarain had troubles navigating Elon with its more than 250 clubs and organizations. She said she became involved with the student government too late. “When I came to Elon, I knew I wanted to do student government, but no one tapped my shoulder and said this is something you should do.”
Spencer Wagner, executive vice president, said that, apart from their friendship, their passion for Elon is what unites them and has created a productive working environment. “You can think about SGA as separate, but I like to think of it as very much a part of Elon, its identity and where it’s going. We are both very eager to work for SGA.”
Inclusivity
Bodenarain focused on three issues as executive president but gave priority to inclusivity as an extension of the SGA student inclusive campus committee project.
Infographic by Oliver Fischer.
“I could very clearly see that there was a line of students who loved Elon and loved being here and loved everything about it and were flourishing and there were students who may have also loved Elon but who were not,” Bodenarain said. “To me that had a lot to do with whether or not they found their place here.”
Bodenarain made the committee permanent to cement inclusivity on campus and ensure it would always remain a priority after she leaves.
Wagner said her ideas struck a chord with Elon students and upcoming candidates are setting similar priorities as Bodenarain. “Now that we have this election going on, I’ve seen some of those same themes reflected in candidates. People are starting to think about SGA as a partner with the institution and the community.”
Inclusivity week was another initiative to promote inclusivity on campus. It contained panels, conversations and a movie screening. Junior and expected successor of Bodenarain, Kenneth Brown Jr. said that inclusivity week was beneficial for the Elon community.
“I think it’s really important that students have access to resources and programs to be able to talk to people who don’t look like them to be able to engage with materials and films and discussions that challenges their world view,” he said.
“It’s not just enough to be diverse, it’s not just enough to showcase how many students of color you have,” Brown Jr. said. “We also have the responsibility to make sure that those students have the ability to contribute to the dialogue at the table.”
Civic Engagement
Bodenarain said she cared about political conversation on campus but felt that the execution was not ideal. “In some ways I appreciate them, in other ways I felt like they needed some guidance or amplification.”
SGA has been partnering with Elon Publics Forums (EPF) for their student debates and integration panels. “Since EPF is the non-partisan political organization on campus, I knew I wanted to establish a relationship with them early on.”
EPF provides spaces on campus where students can discuss and become more knowledgeable about civic engagement. “When I think of civic engagement, that’s even as local as Elon’s student government association,” she said.
To Bodenarain, improving civic engagement includes increasing the number of students who run for student government and increasing the number of people who know what SGA is doing.
Last year, none of the executive positions were contested, partially due to the requirement of collecting 300 signatures to run for executive office. “It sounds just as hard as it was,” Bodenarain said. “This year, we got rid of the signatures required to run for an office.”
“It was still, I think, a very successful term and I think she did a lot of work putting that together and a lot of work into making myself feel that way where I feel proud of what we’ve done.”
Spencer Wagner, executive vice president
Bodenarain focused on inclusivity and school spirit, so civic engagement is an area that still requires additional work. “Going into this election year, that’s something SGA could easily do more with, but unfortunately, it is hard to think of civic engagement-focused things,” Wagner said.
School Spirit
Students wanted a campus that not only had a lot of school spirit internally, but off-campus as well. Some students felt like this was limited to their organization. “That’s just something that has kind of lacked at Elon, but everybody wants it,” Wagner said.
A special tent at student tailgates was one initiative to improve both school spirit and inclusivity. Bodenarain recalled her own first tailgate experience. “I had literally no idea where to go because there were so many tailgate tents, so I wanted to create a space where any student could come, eat food and talk.”
Bodenarain said she didn’t want to associate it with the SGA. “I was a first year and I thought there would be an SGA tailgate tent I would be like ‘I don’t want to go there because it’s probably just for senators.’”
“I know football games seem so small but I remember, even the most insignificant place where you feel like ‘oh students aren’t really paying attention,’ I remember feeling just being reinforced whether or not I really belong at Elon by doing something as simple as going to a football game.”
“My first year, I didn’t go to any,” Bodenarain said. I think I attended more football games this past year than I have in my three years at Elon.”
Both Bodenarain and Wagner said that despite being happy with their accomplishments and sad about having to leave, there will always be a feeling that more could have been done. “It was still, I think, a very successful term and I think she did a lot of work putting that together and a lot of work into making myself feel that way where I feel proud of what we’ve done.”
The U.S. saw 58 people die as a result of the Las Vegas mass shooting on Oct. 1. 26 died 35 days later at Sutherland Springs when a gunman opened fire at a church. According to Mother Jones magazine, the number has of mass shooting deaths has risen in recent years. The question of preventing gun violence is old, yet the problem is as timeless as ever.
Political leaders remain divided on gun control, but the Republican party does support background checks while the National Rifle association supports limiting devices called bump fire stocks, which were used in the Las Vegas mass shooting to make non-automatic weapons behave like automatic weapons.
However, Jeffrey Smythe, Burlington police chief, said that such devices are red herrings in the discussion. “A violent man or a woman, with a firearm, I don’t care what accessory they have, they’re going to go kill people,” he said. “I think we get lost in the discussion of ‘we shouldn’t have a magazine with this many bullets, we shouldn’t have a bump stock.'”
“The gun is the problem, in the hands of a person with a tainted mental capacity or a violent tendency to use that firearm,” Smythe said. That’s the problem, not the bump stock.”
Burlington police chief Jeffrey Smythe shares his thoughts on how much guns contribute to the safety of American citizens.
Olivia Murray, a sophomore at Elon University, believes that mental illness is the underlying cause of gun violence and policies directed at mental health as well as stricter background checks could help alleviate the problem.
“The restriction of people with mental illnesses to not be allowed to have guns would definitely prohibit gun violence,” she said. “Asking if you’ve ever been prescribed drugs for any sort of mental illness, things like that would definitely help.”
Murray said that the current administration under Trump is not actively doing enough to address gun violence. “Right know, we are in a thoughts and prayers kind of motion where no one really wants to take action but instead just give thoughts and prayers and blame mental illness, but not fund anything,” she said.
“President Trump just says ‘oh I’m really sorry for Las Vegas and its’ more of a mental illness issue, not a gun issue,’ but he won’t do anything for mental illness,” Murray said.
Elon sophomore Clarissa O’quinn working on her laptop. [Oliver Fischer]
“Donald Trump is in office and he definitely does not speak out against gun violence, ever,” Clarissa O’quinn, a sophomore at Elon, said. She too believes that stricter background checks would help.
“I think with stricter gun laws, you are really reducing the amount of people who own guns,” Stephanie Hays, a senior at Elon said. Hays said education is also helpful. “If people know how to use them properly, that’s also going to reduce gun violence,” she said.
However, according to Rena Zito, an assistant professor of sociology at Elon University, it may already be too late to focus on reducing the number guns being sold.
“As far as gun violence goes, in the US, the cat is largely out of the bag at this point. Even with new restrictions on gun purchases, there are so many guns in circulation in the U.S., it is unlikely that new laws would have a substantial impact on gun availability and violence,” Zito said.
Although it is not possible to accurately estimate the number of guns that are owned legally and illegally, a Congressional Research Service report from 2012 stated 310 million firearms were in civilian hands in 2009.
Research into the gun violence has been limited as well because of the lack of funding. A 20-year-old policy called the Dickey Amendment bans federally funded research on gun violence. 2,000 physician from the Doctors for America group gave the U.S. Congress a petition requesting that the Centers for disease control be allowed to use federal funding to study the effects of gun violence, but opponents said this would spur an ideologically biased effort that would threaten the second amendment and American’s right to bear arms.
In a interview with CNN’s Piers Morgan, Ben Shapiro, an American conservative political commentator, said that the second amendment is about protection from a tyrannical government.
“[Americans] need them for the prospective possibility of resistance to tyranny,” Shapiro said. “It may not be a concern today, it may not be a concern tomorrow,” he said, but “it could come from the United States because governments have gone tyrannical before.”
Elon University admissions building. [Oliver Fischer]
By Oliver Fischer
Dec. 1 2017
As tuition and fees for higher education continue rising, aids and tax benefits are unable to keep pace with the increasing costs.
Inside Higher Ed reported the average tuition fees at private non-profit 4-year institutions increased by 1.9% in 2017-2018. Adjusted for inflation, the average is now $34,740, just above Elon University’s $34,273 fees. At these private institutions, rising costs have been an 8-year trend. At this rate, is it still worth investing in a college education?
Kathie Guthrie, a junior and public health major at Elon, believes so. She wants to become a nurse.
“Technically, I didn’t need college degree but I decided to get one anyway because it’s very hard to get into nursing school,” she said. “I’m definitely getting my money’s worth.
“It pays off in the long run to have a college degree,” freshman Meagan Harris said.
“I think today for most jobs you need a college education,” freshman Allison Arthur said.
In the following video, assistant professor of economics Steven Bednar, explains why a college education is a worthwhile investment in the long run.
Assistant professor of economics Steven Bednar talks about the long term benefits of a college education.
According to Greg Zeiser, vice president of enrollment at Elon University, efforts are being made to maintain the lower costs compared to other universities.
“Elon is working to keep cost increases to a minimum. Our total cost is often $10,000 less than schools to which our students also apply,” he said.
Professor of religious studies, Brian Pennington, talking to Elon students about strategies for encountering religious diversity on Nov. 29. [Oliver Fischer]
By Oliver Fischer
Nov. 29
When traveling abroad, encounters with foreign religions and cultures are bound to happen, but how to correctly respond to them? How do you conduct yourself in the face of the unknown? Brian Pennington, professor of religious studies, led a one-hour session titled “Where in the World is Religion? Strategies for Encountering Religious Diversity from Australia to Zimbabwe,” to answer some of these questions. It was aimed at Elon University students that would soon study abroad.
“There is no set of rules to cover all situations, but there are some guidelines that we can follow,” Pennington said.
Shaking hands is a common greeting gesture in America and other western countries, but there are cultures in which it might not always be appropriate to do so.
“In certain cultures, people of opposite genders would just generally not touch one another,” Pennington said. “Shaking a woman’s hand or shaking a married woman’s hand would be inappropriate.”
“Bowing is typically how people greet each other [in Japan],” a student said to the group.
Cultural rules about interacting with children can differ as well. In western cultures, people tend to interact with children by touching or playing with them. In other cultures, this is not always the case.
“In some cultures, interacting with children is looked down on,” Pennington said.
International foods were served by Aramark for all attendees of the session. [Oliver Fischer]
Children are not the only demographic treated differently from what Americans might be used to. On the opposite end of the age spectrum, there are certain understandings about how to conduct yourself when seniors are present. Pennington, who has taught in India, said all the students there stood up when he entered the room.
“It’s a little bit breathtaking but you can get kind of used to it,” he said.
This respectful attitude extended beyond first encounters.
“People will not leave a room if you are still there,” Pennington said. “They will ask your permission if they can leave because you are a senior to them.”
“We are so casual with our elders in this culture,” he said.
One student pointed out that t-shirts with graphics printed on them that are otherwise acceptable, could be interpreted as offensive in certain contexts. Evan Getti, associate professor of art history, used the example of entering a Mosque to elaborate this point.
“If you go into a Mosque with an image on your shirt, you are rivaling the creator,” she said. “You are honoring the creation more than the creator.”
A student reads out the responses of students on how they expect to encounter religion.
Pennington had prepared several scenarios that students might encounter when traveling abroad. In one example, he told students to imagine coming across an eastern-looking temple and asked them how they would find out whether or not to enter the temple if they didn’t know how to conduct themselves.
The room filled with laughter as one student suggested to google for the answer.
If there is no internet access, Pennington said following the lead of other people by watching and studying their actions is another alternative.
Amy Allocco, associate professor of religious studies, reminded students that hosts in foreign countries will normally have a certain degree of understanding for a lack of understanding of local customs, as long as the willingness to learn is there.
“You will always be interpreted as an outsider, as a visitor, as a respectful learner if you’re presenting yourself that way,” she said. “People will go out of their way to make you welcome.”
Showing disrespect and apathy toward other cultures can quickly lead to confrontations with local law enforcement. ABCNews reported that two American tourists were arrested in Thailand two days ago after exposing their buttocks as they posed for a photo at the Temple of Dawn in Bangkok.
A student writing down how they expect to encounter other religions. [Oliver Fischer]
In another hypothetical scenario, Pennington described an angry monk attacking one’s own religion and explaining why his is superior. The room agreed that fighting back was not the answer.
“Stay calm first,” one student said.
Instead, asking questions and talking to the attacker is a better option.
“You learn something and hear where the people are coming from,” Allocco said. “You get to hear a perspective that you weren’t familiar with.”
“Asking questions is the way in,” she said.
Sometimes however, the benefit of the doubt goes to the local and when they decide to unload a story on you that criticizes your country, it is best to listen to their story and take it in.
“If there is somebody angrily waving their fist at me and they want to lecture me about something you gotta say I’ll listen,” Janelle Decato, assistant director of study abroad, said. “Don’t jump and be defensive.”
“You don’t have to hang out in pods of 33 Elon students as you walk down the street.”
Brian Pennington, professor of religious studies
Decato once complained to an Omani man about having difficulties with her Visa, but the man interpreted that as an insult to his government.
“You just have to sit there and then you listen and be like ‘oh yes Oman is great, this is great, yes,'” she said.
When encountering something that is baffling or puzzling, students studying abroad should remember that they have peers, course instructors and tour guides to rely on.
“Engage with them directly,” Pennington said. “Let the experience be as cool as it can be. You don’t have to hang out in pods of 33 Elon students as you walk down the street.”
Sigma Phi Epsilon chapter at Elon University. [Oliver Fischer]
By Oliver Fischer
Nov. 27 2017
Dangerous and possibly deadly behavior in Greek life, such as hazing or binge drinking, is an issue that several universities across the U.S. face, but their standard response – suspension of problematic fraternity or sorority chapters – may not be the solution to the problem.
“I don’t think that this is effective,” Ahmed Al Fadaam, assistant professor of communications at Elon University said. “They cannot control such behaviors that are happening off campus.”
“Suspending Greek life here on campus will not prevent future incidences like these.”
Earlier this month, CNN reported that Florida State University had suspended all fraternities and sororities following the death of Andrew Coffey, a 20-year old pledge at Pi Kappa Phi.
Elon News Network reported suspensions at Elon University last a minimum of four years. Following multiple violations of sanctions imposed on the Lambda Chi Alpha chapter at Elon, the fraternity was suspended at the beginning of this month.
Freshman Hanna Meyers talks about why hazing is unfair.
Elon University student life administrator Eleanor Finger said a temporary suspension can help straighten out chapters as they reflect on their actions.
“It does help to have chapters take time away to re-evaluate their priorities, values and purpose in order to realign,” she said.
“When they return with new members, they have a fresh start to move forward rather than remain stuck in the ‘old ways’ that were unproductive, misaligned and potentially harmful or dangerous.”
Emily Ford is a sophomore at Elon and part of the Alpha Phi Omega service sorority. She hasn’t experienced excessive alcohol consumption in her chapter because of the atmosphere of her organization.
“We have really strict laws,” she said. “We don’t do mixers. We don’t host parties because we don’t have a house, so for us it’s a very different nature.”
Ford believes that suspensions have a limited effect.
“It helps a little bit but it ignores the main problem which is the amount of alcohol that’s consumed by teenagers and fraternities in general,” she said. “It’s kind of a Greek cultural thing.”
“You have to ask yourself the question: was it the Greek system that caused it or would the students have been doing that anyway?”
Vic Costello, associate professor of communications
Elon junior Kyle Dobbs also mentioned the cultural influence in potentially deadly behavior like binge drinking or hazing, but he widened it from Greek life to American culture and laws in general.
“The restrictions on drinking are so high for young people that it creates this aura of rebellion and it increases the chances of binge drinking. I think that’s where hazing really stems from,” he said.
Vic Costello, an associate professor of communications said the Greek system encourages irresponsible behavior to some degree, but students seeking parties or alcohol don’t need to rely on Greek life for that.
“You have to ask yourself the question: was it the Greek system that caused it or would the students have been doing that anyway?”
Assistant professor of communications Ahmed Al Fadaam sitting on a bench in front of Schar Hall at Elon University on Nov. 27. [Oliver Fischer]
Instead of addressing the symptom and suspending chapters, it is students themselves who need to be educated in order to prevent deadly incidences at fraternities and sororities.
“I think that there should be more advising, more focus groups, more awareness spreading among students that you have to act responsibly when you are part of such gatherings,” Fadaam said.
“There are a lot of different responses that Universities have had over the years nationally,” Jordan King, interim director of fraternity and sorority life at Elon said.
“It’s difficult to give a blanket response because it’s multifaceted but I think some of the most effective things you can do is try to be proactive, try to educate students on the dangers of these types of activities.”
When former Duke University professor Stuart Rojstaczer handed out grades for an undergraduate class he taught in 2003, there were no C’s. Or D’s. Or F’s. Only A’s and B’s.
Duke University average undergraduate fall semester GPA from 1977 to 2012. Infographic by Oliver Fischer.
But unlike his students, this was no reason for him to celebrate. Rojstaczer was likely experiencing signs of grade inflation, commonly defined as giving out higher grades for work that would have previously earned students a comparatively lower grade.
According to data collected by Rojstaczer, the average GPA of undergraduates during the Fall semester at Duke increased from 3.08 in 1974 to 3.51 in 2014. This trend of rising GPAs can be observed in 4-year public and private colleges and universities across the U.S.
At Elon University, the average GPA in 1977 was 2.48. The most recent figure that Rojsctaczer acquired was 3.29 in 2013. Higher grades and GPAs do not automatically equal grade inflation, but if the current trend continues, Elon is projected to hit an average GPA of 4.0 by 2037.
Different authorities cite different reasons for the gradual but consistent increase in grades at four-year U.S. universities. At Elon, provost and executive vice president Steven House said students got significantly better between 1980 and 2010, coming in with higher SAT scores and GPAs from high school.
“During this period of time, I’m not convinced you can conclude that we had grade inflation,” House said.
Associate professor of communications, Glenn Scott, has experienced what House observed.
Glenn Scott teaching a COM250 (Journalism in a free Society) class at Elon University. [Oliver Fischer]
“There’s no question that I’ve seen an improvement in the intellectual abilities of our students in the 14 years I’ve been at Elon,” Scott said.
Scott recalled the type of low-performing student that used to attend Elon.
“There would be four or five guys at the back of the room in their flannel shirts and their ball caps pulled down over their eyes, who were likable guys, but had no intention of working very hard. They would turn in their work, it wouldn’t be terribly good, but it would be passable and they would generally get C’s and they would happily take their C and leave. They had no greater aspiration,” Scott said.
“Today, we just don’t have those students.”
By contrast, students entering Duke University have been consistently outperforming Elon students in terms of GPA. “The difference now is that their students are still better than ours, but they’re not as dramatically different,” House said.
House attributes the change in the type of students coming to Elon and changes in the direction of the University as a whole to the rise in average GPAs. “I think Elon students are better now then they were back then. I think faculty are better teachers now,” he said.
On his website, Gradeinflation.com, Rojstaczer also takes into account that the type of student entering certain universities has changed over time, resulting in GPA increases.
Infographic by Oliver Fischer.
“At private schools like Duke and Elon and at public schools like Florida and Georgia, the caliber of student enrolled is higher than it was 30 or 50 years ago,” he wrote.
However, Rojstaczer notes that more lenient grading is still the main driving force behind grade inflation at these schools. “Rises in average GPA are mainly due to the same factor found at other schools: professors are grading easier year-by-year by a tiny amount,” he wrote.
“You could probably conclude that maybe grade inflation is a problem.”
Steven House, provost and executive vice president at Elon University
Although the general notion of students becoming smarter remains unfounded according to Rojstaczer, Jesse Stommel, executive director of teaching and learning technology at the University of Mary Washington, does think this is the case.
“My anecdotal experience over 17 years of teaching is that my students are getting better and better and smarter and smarter,” he said. “They are working harder and harder and I honestly believe that my students are performing better.”
House doesn’t deny the possibility of grade inflation taking place in the last decade, when SATs and students entering Elon were not getting better compared to past decades.
“You could probably conclude that maybe grade inflation is a problem.”
House is still skeptical because grade inflation remains difficult to prove. “To really conclude and say that that’s definitely what’s going on, you’d have to hold all other variables constant,” he said.
“You can’t do that.”
Two eras of grade inflation
A 2010 research paper called “Grading in American Universities,” written by Rojstaczer and co-authored by Christopher Healy, an associate professor of computer science at Furman University, looked at grades from over 160 U.S. colleges and universities. The authors suggest two different eras of grade inflation, one that correlates with the Vietnam war in the 1960s and one that started in the 1980s.
Healy said that the Vietnam war, although not the only cause, was partially to blame for the sudden rise in higher grades being given out during the 1960s.
Christopher Healy in his office at Furman University. [Oliver Fischer]
Students that got drafted in the 1960s were able to get a deferment. They would not have to join the Army if they went to college and maintained good academic standing, meaning they could not fall below a certain grade boundary.
“There are anecdotal cases where a student would say, ‘If you give me an F, I’ll have to go to Vietnam,’” Healy said. “Supposedly, the professors would take pity on these students.”
However, Healy remains skeptical about the extent to which the Vietnam war can be blamed for the initial wave of grade inflation because the same spike was not observed in World War II, the Korean War or the Gulf War.
“I really question how extensive that thinking was,” he said.
The consumer-era of grade inflation was more subtle. On his website, Gradeinflation.com, Rojstaczer wrote that it was the “equivalent of every class of 100 making two B students into B+ students every year and alternating between making one A- student into an A student and one B+ student into an A- student every year.”
“It’s so incrementally slow a process that it’s easy to see why an individual instructor (or university administrator or leader) can delude himself into believing that it’s all due to better teaching or better students,” he wrote.
Expectation inflation
Healy offered his own definition for grade inflation.
“Grade inflation is a system that rewards faculty for evaluating student work inaccurately. It also is a system that rewards students for taking classes in which their work is going to be evaluated inaccurately,” he said.
“The student gets a high grade and the professor gets good marks for being a good teacher,” Healy said. “I think it speaks to what is really happening.”
Grade Inflation according to Christopher Healy. Infographic by Oliver Fischer.
According to the office of the registrar, an A at Elon is described as “distinguished.” House said as a faculty member, he is bothered by the amount of A’s that are given out. If too many students receive A’s, the distinction, and therefore value, of the grade is lost.
“We have too many people that are ‘distinction,’” he said. “I think it’s unfair to the best students.”
House said students come into Elon expecting similar grades as they received in high school. “There is more pressure on faculty to give good grades from students,” House said. “It doesn’t come from the administration.”
“For most of our students here now, a C is hard on them,” Scott said. “It is a shock to suppose that they get a C. Most of our students today aren’t happy with a C, at all.”
This shift in expectations is a phenomenon that associate professor of physics Ben Evans has also observed.
Definitions of letter grades at Elon University. Infographic by Oliver Fischer.
“Back in the 70s, people were happy with a C,” he said. “Back then, you had a C in physics and they were like ‘Hey, nice job passing that physics class.’ Now a C is read more like a D-minus or an F would have been back then.”
“Students expect higher grades,” Evans said.
The expectation of high grades may seem like a recent development, but Healy said that it has always been present.
“I think this mentality has always existed for a certain percentage of the population, but that percentage has grown.”
Students near the top of the class have always been very sensitive to the grades they receive.
“There are more and more people becoming hypersensitive to that sort of thing,” Healy said. “If you’re a C student, you’re not going to be disappointed in making a C, but if you’re an A student, you are going to be shocked.”
“You are going to be shocked at making a B+ sometimes,” Healy said. “The more people that are at or near perfect, the more there is a mentality that if you’re not perfect, there’s something wrong with you.”
According to Jennifer Zinchuk, assistant professor of English at Elon University, U.S. schools do not accurately convey to students what college is like. “I think there are a lot of systems in the U.S. that tell students what is expected for college, and those are not the same things that students do in college.”
Jennifer Zinchuk explaining how the U.S. school system creates inaccurate expectations about college.
Trevor Keith, a junior at Elon University, has observed an attitude in some students in which they expect a high grade based on the amount of time they put into a project. Rather than thinking only about the quantity, Keith pointed out that students should consider quality too.
“The more you challenge yourself on things, the more you progress as a person.”
Keith used an art student working on a painting as an example to elaborate his point.
“If they worked a lot on it, they weren’t challenging themselves and sort of mindlessly working on it, that work is not really worth much compared to the person who worked on it for half the time but did a lot of focused work on it.”
Trevor Keith holding up a map as he prepares to go on a hike. [Oliver Fischer]
“They need to realize when too much time is not going to help anything,” he said.
Keith also noted that the natural abilities of students differ. Some are simply more capable than others.
”Some students can get an A without trying while other students will get a B and they are trying twice as hard,” he said
Staying fair under pressure
It’s not just expectations from students putting pressure on professors when they grade. Scott said scholarships that come with minimum GPA requirements can drive grade inflation too.
“If you’re going to require someone to have a B average to keep an important scholarship that allows you to go to school here, then that puts a lot of pressure on the students but it puts some pressure on the professor as well,” he said.
“The effect of that is, I don’t want to give a B minus to anybody if I think it’s going to have that implication,” Scott said. “It worries me, and it worries me to give somebody a C if they’re in that situation.”
The act of grading is not without its hurdles either. “Grading is a notoriously difficult thing to evaluate,” Healy said.
Rubrics are a popular scale to create clearer criteria for grading and are used by both Elon and Furman, but they are not perfect either, leaving some room for interpretation. “When you read the descriptions of A, B, C, D and F papers, they are not precise,” Healy said. “It’s not quantitative at all.”
“I think we’ve been more resistant to grade inflation because we tend to be more quantitatively focused.”
Ben Evans, associate professor of physics at Elon University
While rubrics alone don’t guarantee fair grading, it can be even more difficult in the humanities and subjects like English, where subjective essays are the norm. At the Elon University English department, some professors, including Zinchuk, use a contract-based grading scheme to ensure fairer grading.
“All students who participate fully in the class, do all of their work, turn it in on time, they are guaranteed a B,” Zinchuk said. “We’re finding that all of a sudden the conversations in the class are not about ‘How do I get an A on this paper,’ she said. “It becomes ‘How can I make this paper better.’”
The quality of a students’ writing in their edited final portfolio, handed in at the end of the semester, gives them the opportunity to earn a grade above a B.
Despite more quantitative grading measures, Evans said that grading pressures extend to the science department as well.
“I feel the pressure and as a scientist I don’t let it influence me,” he said.
According to Evans, grades in the natural sciences are generally lower compared to other departments at Elon. “Would we have more physics majors if our GPAs matched?” he said. “I think we’ve been more resistant to grade inflation because we tend to be more quantitatively focused.”
Evans says quantitative grading has helped him maintain a fair evaluation scheme, and his classes have consistently had an average GPA of around or just below 3.0, which he said was only slightly higher than 70s grades.
“You get the right answer, you get the wrong answer,” Evans said. “You only get 100 percent if you get it right, that makes it so much easier in the sciences I think.”
Tackling grade inflation
In 2004, Princeton University became a pioneer in combating grade inflation by introducing a policy capping the number of students who could receive A’s in a class at 40 percent. The policy was successful in lowering the average GPA and keeping it steady. It broke the decades-long trend of slowly rising grades.
Infographic by Oliver Fischer.
According to the New York Times, other universities did not follow Princeton’s example and what appeared to be a promising policy soon became criticized for putting Princeton students at a disadvantage compared to their peers at other Ivy-League universities.
Although Princeton did not find that their policy affected the acceptance rate at top medical and law schools, it did find a drop in job placements. Students became increasingly frustrated with the policy until it was abandoned 10 years later in 2014.
House said that imposing a grade distribution requirement on faculty like Princeton did is not the right approach to combat grade inflation, particularly when the professor uses a rubric to grade students. “It’s not fair to the students,” he said.
At Elon, faculty receive the grade distribution in their department at the end of every semester, as well as the distribution across the University. Faculty can use this information as a benchmark and adjust their grading to avoid straying too far from the average.
“Every once in a while we will tell every department how their grades compare with the other departments in the university and that will help them go as a department ‘Oh wow our grades are too low or our grades are too high,’” House said.
Tim Harford, a columnist for the Financial Times, proposed an economic solution to grade inflation, wherein the top grade would continuously be superseded by an increasingly higher grade. “As long as everyone understands the game, what harm if the typical student of tomorrow is awarded an AAA grade?” Harford wrote in his Financial Times article.
However, introducing higher and higher grades wouldn’t ultimately solve the problem according to Healy. “I think that would be a short term solution,” he said. “Just like in money, it’s a never ending increase.”
“Choose classes that are meaningful to you.”
Christopher Healy, associate professor of computer science at Furman University
“Let’s say somebody creates a 5.0 grade, and initially it will be promised ‘Only the very best students will make a 5.0’”. But no, after a generation that will be forgotten and everybody will start making fives.”
A class rank would make more sense to Healy, such as indicating which percentile the grade point average achieved by a student is a part of. A similar system is used by Cornell University and Dartmouth College for their transcripts.
It would also solve the problem of the varying standards of difficulty that every teacher has.
“Some are more rigorous than others,” Healy said. “We’ve always had this problem.”
Crafting a meaningful experience
Some students try to avoid rigorous professors, but students shouldn’t choose classes that have a reputation for an easy A.
James Buchanan Duke Library at Furman University. [Oliver Fischer]
“You’re only a college student for five percent of your life,” Healy said. “Some students play the game to maximize their GPA.”
There are some students who may need to play the game and choose easier classes to avoid flunking out, but these are more marginal cases.
Even if students choose an easy class, there is no guarantee they will receive a high grade. “Just because that course over there gives 60 percent A’s, how do I know that I’m one of the 60 percent?” Healy said.
“Unfortunately, people take classes for the wrong reasons sometimes. Choose classes that are meaningful to you,” Healy said. “People should follow their calling, not the A.”
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