Incarceration in America

In Multimedia Journalism, the class was split into two teams and worked on in-depth journalism research projects for the length of the semester. My team researched several different aspects of incarceration in the United States, and this website presents our research, including interviews, videos and other multimedia elements. Enjoy!

The War Within: A war reporter’s struggle for personal peace

Published by The Pendulum, Nov. 30, 2013.

“I’m leaving the house and there’s a huge explosion that happened just a few blocks from where I live, and it’s a car bomb. I drive there and there are tens of bodies fully burned and there are tens of wounded people and burnt cars everywhere — it’s a daily scene.”

This scene described by Dr. Ahmed Fadaam, previously a local reporter in Baghdad, is what a modern day war zone looks like. While most people’s instincts tell them to run away, a war reporter’s instincts tell them to stay, take photos, count bodies and capture the scene.

There’s an endless supply of war and conflict all over the globe – war reporters are there throughout the entire process, doing what they can to get the rest of the world to see past propaganda and hear all sides of the story.

Fadaam illustrated the burning and looting of his art studio at the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003. See ThingLink for additional links and information. Artwork courtesy of Ahmed Fadaam.

War reporters witness these gruesome sights on a daily basis. The task is high-risk and high-stress, loaded with personal sacrifice. So what keeps a war journalist going back to these hard places?

Los Angeles Times war correspondent David Zucchino said, for him, it’s the story.

“The reason I got into journalism was to put myself at the center of events, particularly with overseas reporting,” said Zucchino. “You’re basically covering history, historic events unfolding before your very eyes, and it’s just exhilarating to be there in the middle of it as it’s happening — doing that on the ground, original, sort of first draft of history.”

“This curiosity that you develop when you start to work as a reporter, it just gets into your blood, you can’t get rid of it,” said Fadaam. “You keep trying to know what’s going on around you all the time even if you’re not working, if you’re not reporting. It becomes like a habit inside.”

Iraqi native Fadaam lived in Baghdad and taught art until the war began in 2003 and his studio was looted and burned. He soon took a job being an interpreter for foreign journalists, and then became a local reporter for several media agencies. Two year ago, he took a full-time job teaching at Elon University School of Communications and moved his family to Burlington, N.C.

Zuchhino is clearly addicted to the excitement of war reporting, as he has been a war journalist since 1982, covering 30 countries, including Afghanistan, Libya and Egypt.

David Zucchino has been a war reporter, embedded and freelance, since 1982 and has reported in 30 different countries.

“There is an adrenaline rush, particularly in combat, where you’re kind of jacked up all the time, and you’re running on a high level of energy and everything is happening fast and is very important and you’re just so focused,” said Zucchino.

“You can hear the sounds of war surround you, like the explosions, the gunfire and everything,” said Fadaam. “Every minute, every second you spend there is full of rush and adrenaline. You reach the point where you start to like it. You get addicted to it. That’s why I think they call the journalism profession as “looking for trouble” profession.”

But even a journalist high off the rush of war reaches a breaking point.

“That’s the thing about war zones,” said Dahr Jamail, war reporter for Al Jazeera-English. “They’re so dehumanizing by nature because for one human to kill another, you have to dehumanize him, and when that’s happening on a daily basis in these streets where you are, you can’t not be affected by that. As a journalist, you come out of that situation you have to figure out, ‘OK, what do I need to do to re-humanize myself and kind of get back down to the basics?’”

Fadaam still describes himself as an artist, even though he said spending so much time in a war zone has hardened him.

“You start to feel you’ve lost part of your humanity,” he said. ” I used to be an artist, someone who thought himself as a soft, gentle guy who appreciates beauty and everything and uses art as a sort of language to communicate with people to make them know what he feels or what he’s thinking. I couldn’t stand the sight of blood, I couldn’t see someone crying, I couldn’t see someone injured or feeling any kind of pain. But after a while all this was gone. I can spend 10, 15 minutes trying to find a good picture of a fully burned dead body in the street with lots of blood and human parts all over the place and don’t feel a thing.”

Zucchino and Jamail compare their experiences to those of a soldier, including the negative psychological effects that follow you home: post-traumatic stress disorder.

War journalist Sharon Schmickle writes in “Reporting War,” a short handbook discussing PTSD, journalists and soldiers are both exposed to combat stress, and news organizations should provide response options, as the military has begun to do.

A war journalist can improve their mental health by following these tips by Sharon Schmickle.

“The primary thing was you just become numb because you’re in this intense situation, and I think what I’ve learned about PTSD is to psychologically cope with it, you just start shutting down all feelings,” said Jamail. “The only thing you can really feel is rage.”

Jamail said other factors of PTSD are troublesome insomnia, nightmares and an inability to fit back into regular society. The situation in Iraq became normal to him, meaning the patterns of home now felt abnormal.

“You just don’t feel like you belong,” he said.

Each journalist finds his own way to deal with the PTSD and begin the healing process, enabling then to return to places of conflict. Jamail said he is now more mentally prepared to go on assignment because he knows to put his “emotional armor” on, and he knows it takes him a few weeks to remove it when he’s back  home.

Zucchino waits until he gets home to process what he’s seen.

“I put it aside at the time you’re under stress, one for danger and one for deadline pressure, because you have to get the story,” he said. “When awful things happen and you see terrible things, I just kind of compartmentalize because you have the job to do and if you start getting emotional, getting upset you’d be helpless and you couldn’t do your job. When I get back, then I start thinking about it, then I get upset and emotional about it.”

The art of journalism has provided Fadaam a way to help cope with his hardened feelings and “steam out the darkness” he felt.

“Sometimes I dig out some of the old videos and photographs that I’ve done in Iraq and just watch them and try to remember what it felt like back then,” he said. “Why do I feel so sad right now? Why didn’t I feel like this when I was in the spot taking these pictures? What changed? Is it because I’m living far away from that spot right now? Is it because it’s been a long time since I took this picture and something has changed inside? Something is healing inside me? What is it? But in any case, you feel good because you feel like you’re coming back to your human nature. You haven’t lost it.”

Taking a vacation or doing relaxing activities seem to help relieve stress as well.

“My wife and I like to go to music events, go to concerts,” said Zucchino, a North Carolina native. “We do art festivals. We just try to get out and relax. Go to Asheville or go to the beach.”

Jamail said he prefers to take a holiday somewhere ideally in nature in order to unplug from a trip.

“That’s just how I personally recalibrate myself with whatever’s going on in my life,” he said.

Jamail also found that getting a dog was one of the most helpful recovery tactics. He said the military has embraced this method and trained dogs to place with soldiers with PTSD.

“Pets know our mood all the time,” he said. “If you’re sad, the dog will just come up and lay near you and that kind of thing. That’s actually really what helped the most.”

While training and recovery assistance programs may vary between media outlets, the University of Washington has a program specifically for war journalists. The Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, located in Seattle, offers training, fellowships and advocacy for war journalists.

Reporters Without Borders also provides services for war journalists.

The decision to return to a war zone is a personal one. For Fadaam, his choice is between his safe new home or returning to his profession in his homeland.

“Do you prefer being there, where it’s dangerous and there are no services or anything? Or do you want to stay here where it’s nice and beautiful?” he asks himself. “Why do you have these feelings inside you that whenever something bad happens in Bagdad or other places in Iraq, whenever you hear about people that are killed, why do you feel so bad? Why do you feel so sad? Why do you feel this urgency inside you that you want to be there? You have to fight it if you want to stay here. Or you just have to give up and go back. You choose.”

In October 2013, Zucchino will return to Afghanistan for his eighteenth trip since 2001. He wants to return to Syria, currently one of the most dangerous countries in the world.

Why? To tell the story, of course.

“An important story,” said Zucchino. “And understanding it, and helping other people understand what’s happening on the ground, because in a place like Syria, it’s really hard to get firsthand reports because it’s so dangerous.”

Jamail, based in Qatar, struggles between his mental state and the responsibility he feels to go and be a voice to the voiceless.

“It’s a constant tug of war,” he said. “I can’t say that I’ve reached a resolution with it.”

Minor changes might make major improvements in Elon’s dance department

Dance minor Ashley Meerbergen performs at DanceWorks, a student-run organization for any dancer, in a piece choreographed by Rebecca Harrell. Photo courtesy of Rebecca Harrell. 

Elon University’s dance department sends their alumni to dance companies in major cities and renown organizations, recently, The Rockettes. It’s safe to say the program successfully prepares their students for the arts world beyond Elon.

“Our emphasis is on preparing dancers to enter the professional concert world as dancers and choreographers,” said Lauren Kearns, associate professor of dance and head of the Performing Arts Dance program. “We train our majors to be technical, expressive performers, creative choreographers and active artists in their community.”

Despite the program’s overall success and competitive atmosphere, there are some dance students, specifically the dance minors, that feel unsatisfied with what it takes to get the experience and growth they need as a dancer through the department.

Ashley Meerbergen, a senior dance minor and biology major, began dance at age 12, and while she intended to dance in college, she knew she didn’t want to pursue dance as a career.

“I knew I wanted to dance because it made me happy, but I also knew I didn’t want to major in it because I wanted to pursue a different career path,” Meerbergen said. “Actually, one of the reasons I chose Elon was because they had equally strong biology programs and dance programs and I felt like it would be a really good balance for me and I would be able to do both.”

But Meerbergen learned she would have to fight to get the kind of dance experience she wanted. The dance minor degree requires levels I and II technique classes, which seem easy to seasoned dancers. There are about 50 dance minors in the program.

Information from Elon.edu.

“It’s unfortunate they say you only need Ballet I, Ballet II, Modern I, Modern II because then they look at that and say, ‘Oh you only need Ballet I,’ and you’re like, ‘Yeah, but I’ve been taking ballet for the past 12 years of my life,’ or whatever your case may be,” Meerbergen said.

So how can a dance minor push oneself through such a competitive program? Meerbergen said it isn’t easy.

“As a non-major, no, it’s not easy, but if you go from the get-go and you’re like, ‘I’m not going anywhere, this is something that’s really important to me and this is something that I’m going to pursue, then things sort of work themselves out,” Meerbergen said. “You kind of go through this period of proving yourself.”

Rebecca Harrell, a senior dance minor, agrees with Meerbergen.

“It takes a lot of effort, and it takes a lot of drive to get your foot in the door,” Harrell said. “You have to push to get involved and let people know who are you and that you wan to be there.”

The minors seem to get lost in the mix of the talent; they’re free to audition for shows, but aren’t included on the email list, even after persistent requests to be included, and have trouble getting into classes.

Harrell, who dreams of being a choreographer, speaks of her experience in the dance department and the challenge of getting into higher level classes that meet the established dancer’s skill level.

Rebecca Harrell teaches a class for DanceWorks. Photo courtesy of Rebecca Harrell.

“Overall, I think it’s been great. I mean, I wouldn’t change it for anything, but it’s the dissatisfaction of not getting into classes and really having equal opportunities is definitely true,” Harrell said. “I think it’s possible to get into classes and make things work if you want it enough as a minor here, but it’s definitely hard, especially as a freshman, because all the majors here are automatically put into those classes and they’re filled up. So really only upperclassmen will get those last few spots if any.”

Since Meerbergen is a dance minor and isn’t on the list-serve, her show rehearsal schedules must be forwarded to her by another dancer since she can’t receive her own rehearsal schedules.

“So if you want to hear about auditions and if you want to hear about opportunities through the department, you sort of have to have an in through a major,” said Meerbergen. “You have to know somebody who knows somebody who has the information.”

Senior dance major Sarah Beacham is one of those somebody’s who has the information.

“I have become good friends with many of the minors and because they do not get the department emails, I have sent them audition information in the past,” Beacham said. “I knew these individuals were seeking performance opportunities, and thought I could save them a couple of steps by simply forwarding the information along to them.”

Another one of those somebody’s is Jane Wellford, a professor of performing arts and the faculty advisor for DanceWorks, a student-run dance organization that provides dancing and choreographing opportunities for dance majors and non-majors. Jane is an advocate for dance minors and understands the importance of making required classes more accessible.

“The ones that are always full are I and II,” Wellford said. “And they’re full of dance minors and of the people who are non-majors who want to take dance, and they should because it’s a liberal arts university.”

Wellford wants to see the information be more available to non-majors, beginning when they first express interest in the department.

“It would help if at orientation they could inform students of the next step,” said Wellford. “Or when academic advising starts receiving all those applications that say, “I’m interested in DanceWorks, I’m interested in dance team, I’m interested in that concert group,’ if they say, ‘I’m interested in that,’ and they tell them at that time, “If the classes are closed, go to step B.”

The administration is responding to the dance minors and is indeed trying to make the necessary classes and general information be more accessible. This spring, several changes will be made to increase class availability for the lower-level classes required for dance minors and musical theater students.

“We anticipate having more spaces available in our technique classes for the minors,” Kearns said. “We are also offering DAN101 Dance Appreciation, the pre-requisite for the minor in the spring instead of just in the fall.”

There is also talk of creating a list-serve of minors to update them on class openings, auditions and other news, said Kearns.

Kearns is hosting a dance program interest meeting Tuesday, Sept. 17 at 4:30-5:00 p.m. for students interested in learning more about dance degree programs.

N.C. voter ID requirement creating local controversy

On Aug. 12  N.C. Gov. Pat McCrory signed a bill that requires voters to show their government-issued ID when voting. Though most states have what Gov. McCrory calls a “common-sense law” in place with varying degrees of strictness, North Carolina is receiving a negative response. Law suits have been formed against similar laws in Texas, and the same in happening in North Carolina. Civil rights groups are rallying in protest against the law.

The law has more implications than voters showing their ID at the polls. Professor of History at Elon University Jim Bissett said the law is striking to him because it seems like a historical “throwback.”

“Whites of the democratic party in the 1940s, 50s and 60s worked really hard to disenfranchise black voters, and at a certain point they realized they couldn’t do that by just saying, ‘If you’re black, you can’t vote,’ so they tried to come up with more creative ways of achieving that goal without being overtly racial,” Bissett said.

Prudence Layen, associate professor of English at Elon University, is “not thrilled” about the bill passing, but thinks “the new round of protests is the way we have to go.”

“We all knew it would be a downfall, a slippery slope,” she said. “It’s not just a law, but there are perceptions.”

There is concern the law will decrease the number in voters since it also shortens early voting. Associate Dean at Elon University Maurice Levesque said the law “disenfranchises a bunch of people, because certain types of people who do early voting are usually Democrats or African Americans.”

Levesque is personally an early voter, he said. 

“Even though the Republican party denies it, it seems pretty clear to me this is to prevent not just black voters, but the kinds of voters that traditionally vote Democratic from being able to register to vote,” said Bissett. “From a historic perspective, that’s what’s troubling to me.”

Groups like the Voter Integrity Project of North Carolina hope that the law will decrease voting fraud in the state, but voting fraud doesn’t seem to be an issue.

“It’s an attempt to fix a problem that doesn’t exist,” said Bissett. “If there is voter fraud that’s happened in the past, that voter fraud is not the result of impersonation.”

The U.S. has a history of telling its citizens to prove themselves before voting, such as quoting the Preamble to the Constitution, said Layen.

“Now you have to prove a right they have constitutionally,” said Layen. “Why is it happening? Politics and money.”

https://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?snapid=S981502aFOL

This chart was created via Google Fusion Tables.

MOOCs – the free and online future of higher education

The internet is revolutionizing the way students have learned in universities for hundreds of years. Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs, are increasingly being introduced in schools, especially during 2012. MOOCs are classes that provide lectures, assignments, assessments – all online and all for free.

It’s up to the student to decide his level of involvement and how much he wants to tune in to the class.

A higher education is harder to come by with rising university prices, but many universities are exploring the ideas of higher education via the internet.

Alberto Cairo is an employee of the University of Miami and is currently teaching a six-week MOOC course that introduces information graphics and visualization. The class has about 2,000 followers.

“I wanted to see if this is something the University of Miami would be interested in adding to their program,” he said.

Cairo predicts a couple of different futures for MOOCs. He can see traditional classes combining with MOOC styles. Half the class would be online and the students would do the exercises with the professor in the classroom.  Or, the MOOC classes would substitute traditional lecture classes and the online.

“Teachers give the same course and lectures year after year and this would change that,” he said.

Cairo also teaches traditional classes and said there’s a massive difference between the two.

“The situations are very different,” he said. “In traditional classes, you can get into discussions and have face-to-face lectures. Also, MOOC is free. My expectations were that eight to ten percent of students who follow the courses wouldn’t complete it. And I’m fine with that. But actually 15-20 percent of students are completing the assignments.”

Elon University is looking into MOOCs and what they would look like on Elon’s campus.

“Elon is not ignoring this revolution of MOOCs,” said Tim Peeples, associate provost. “We’re considering the questions of MOOCs and where our position is in that and how they play out on a residential college campus.”

“The classes are highly effective for someone who is highly motivated to learn the information,” said Peeples.

“For someone who isn’t highly motivated, the courses can be “a little like watching television,” said Peeples.

“MOOCs are taking the class and making it accessible to the world” said Peeples. He mentioned an article by Inside Higher Education that compared MOOCs to the first public libraries.

“This is the video version,” he said.

Students at Elon have already started integrating the internet into their everyday classwork. Moodle provides a discussion forum for students to post what they write. Photo by Kristin Martin.

Elon’s classes already integrate online elements through requiring blogs, having guest speakers via Skype and using online discussions, like posting responses on Moodle.

Connie Ledoux Book, associate provost, serves on a committee that researches the future of online education at Elon. The goal of the committee is to “remove barriers from good ideas being texted and piloted,” said Book.

“The terms ‘engaged learning’ and ‘online’ aren’t mutually exclusive,” said Book. “Online courses can be engaging. It’s a blended education. You measure engagement differently. Teachers engage differently, like through email, just not in the traditional ways we’re used to.”

Book is currently taking a MOOC course, and said the class is indeed engaging.

“I just did it to see how hard to was to register, the video quality and to get a better understanding of the MOOC environment and if it’s something Elon should think about joining,” she said.

Book references a traditional chemistry class taught at the University of Missouri that has 1,000 students.

“To go to an online version may not be such a big difference,” said Book. “It could be more engaging.”

Until its first online class in 2004, Elon restricted online courses to summer school. The online education committee supported the idea that online education is not a passing whim and is here to stay, said Book.

“We don’t have a robust offering of online courses,” Book said. “We’re just dipping our toe in.”

Book said the second summer session in 2013 at Elon may offer some online courses, as students are requesting them. A new special admissions status could allow outside students to enroll in classes with open seats.

“Our summer enrollment is not an economic decision and we’re not pursuing this to create a new revenue stream,” said Book.

While MOOCs are free, online summer courses are still less expensive at Elon. Graphic by Kristin Martin.

Her reasons are Elon is looking into how to add online aspects into its courses, and online courses are more flexible for schedules if a student wants to use the semester to do other things beside take classes on campus.

Students at Elon are used to a 13:1 ratio with faculty, and many students said an online experience just wouldn’t be the same.

“You might learn the same amount, but the experience is different, like knowing your teacher personally and answering questions,” said Alli Wittenberg, freshman. “My motivation would depend on the class, but not having the teacher to motivate me may give me less of a motivation.”

Greg Krzysiak, a senior, said the classroom experience provides things that the online experience cannot.

“Hearing other students opinions is valuable, like having discussions in class,” he said.

Her greatest performance – Amber McKirgan’s House of Dance and her ‘underlying love’

Amber McKirgan proudly displays her students’ trophies throughout the studio. Photo by Kristin Martin.

Amber McKirgan’s life has always been dance.

The dates and times of when she began each team or went to what school is a blur to her, but one thing has always been there – dance.

Now, dance is present in form of her own studio, Amber’s House of Dance, located on Williamson Avenue in Burlington.

McKirgan began dancing before age four at her cousin’s studio, then continued at her mother’s studio, where she assistant taught classes starting in middle school. As a junior at Western Alamance High School, she started a dance team at the school, and later started another one at the middle school.

“We started the dance team at Western when I was in high school, which is really dating me, like 1995 — holy moley– and then when I was 20 I started the Western Middle dance team,” said McKirgan. “I graduated, went away for a year to Western Carolina – and it’s like fly fishing and planting flowers and pitching a tent – so I came to Elon to dance. When I came back is when I started the Western Middle School team.”

McKirgan’s mother Tracy Swangin said the middle school team was her daughter’s idea.

“I had nothing to do with anything,” said Swangin. “It would help the high school team be a better team having a base. So she trained the sixth grade through eighth grade girls, and then they would go on, and it did make the high school team a lot better.”

McKirgan did between 800-1,000 volunteer hours a year for 12 years there.

In the late 90’s, McKirgan came to Elon to dance, when a major in dance was not offered. She has nothing but praise for the dance program at Elon, and several Elon dance students, graduates and instructors teach at the studio, including Sara Tourek, Guy Mannick, Kristen Sandler and Karena Parks.

“It’s great,” McKirgan said of Elon dance. “For the East Coast it’s absolutely phenomenal. Their ballet instructor teaches here and I’ve got a couple of Elon students that teach here that are just great.”

With three classes left at Elon, McKirgan decided not to finish school, but instead to start her studio. McKirgan said her biggest accomplishment would be making that decision and starting her own studio at such a young age.

“Do you just take out a bunch of loans, cross your fingers and pray to God that you’re going to have enough kids here?” said McKirgan. “So yes, starting my own business that young. Because it wasn’t easy. At all.”

This is the studio’s thirteenth year of business.

Amber’s House of Dance sits on S. Williamson Avenue in Burlington, NC. Photo by Kristin Martin.

“And of course I’ve had some competition kids win nationals in Texas and all over this side of the country, but that’s great for them, that’s an accomplishment for them,” she said. “I just yell and they listen. They’re the ones that have to go through all the hard work. Those are great accomplishments, but those are more for those girls.”

Swangin said it was truly her daughter’s love of dance that pushed her to make these decisions.

Along with dance, Swangin exposed to her daughter to music and sports, and McKirgan played varsity volleyball and softball all through high school. McKirgan is still an “avid” sports and Peyton Manning fan, her mother said.

“She did really well in sports, but she always had that underlying love for dance and she expressed that from day one,” said Swangin. “That was a priority in her life. It was something she loved to do from a little girl, every week throughout high school.”

McKirgan was a great dancer herself, specifically a talented tapper, Swangin said. Swangin raves about her daughter and how proud she is of her, and she agrees that opening the studio was her proudest moment.

“I remember another time when she had been teaching for a couple years, I asked her, ‘Do you miss dancing yourself?’” said Swangin. “We were watching the kids perform, and she said, ‘Yeah, but I much prefer watching the kids that I’ve taught.’ So, that as a parent, really touched me to know that your child was in a profession she loved, because when you work you need to love what you do.”

Swangin said that McKirgan has a special touch in her heart for dance and truly loves what she does and the kids she teaches.

“It makes me proud every time I come in the door,” she said, tearing up. “It really does.”

Swangin co-owned a dance studio for 15 years, which provided McKirgan with the model of how to run a studio. Swangin ran the business side while her business partner was the creative director.

“Since this is all I’ve ever done, I learned the creative side of it from her partner and learned the business side of it from her,” said McKirgan. “It’s extremely not easy owning your own business, but I think I’m better at being in charge of things then having somebody tell me exactly what I should do, to be honest.”

McKirgan’s mother Tracey Swangin helps with administrative needs at the studio every afternoon. Photo by Kristin Martin.

“I went out of the dance business when we both left at the same time,” Swangin said. “She left to open her own studio and I signed a three-year no compete clause, so I couldn’t do anything with her for three years. She was very much independent. I did outside of the dance business for three years. And since then, I’ve been back just helping her a little bit.”

Tracy Swangin helps her daughter by working the studio’s front desk in the afternoons, and by making an occasional Starbucks run and bringing her daughter a tall black coffee.

The studio has around 250 students, and about 40 of those compete each year. The talent developed in the studio is obvious; trophies line the pink and black walls in the lobby and studios. McKirgan has a long list of studio graduates who have gone on to dance on university dance teams.

“She is a role model to her kids, definitely,” said Swangin said of McKirgan. “Kids that graduate from here come back whenever. They’re always calling — her phone is ringing constantly — inviting her to ball games to see them dance. When they come in to town for Christmas or Thanksgiving, a group is always calling her wanting to go out to dinner with them.”

At McKirgan’s Sept. 1 wedding, the floor was crowded with her students and they even organized a flash mob for their teacher.

“It was a real surprise, and she was really touched,” said Swangin. “And it’s hard to pull something off on her!”

Karena Parks graduated from Elon a couple years ago and is in her third year working with McKirgan, whom she said is easy to work with.

“Her and Tracey are awesome,” Parks said. “They are on it with scheduling, they’re on it with organization, they get newsletters out, they plan their classes, everything is to a T. They know how to organize and run a studio for sure.”

McKirgan’s students had good things to say about the studio as well.

“I love learning lots of new moves,” said Madison Cannon, 10. “Of course I love hip hop. Jazz, tap and sort of ballet. I like ballet, but – no offense — the music is so slow!”

“None taken,” said McKirgan.

Coffee handy, McKirgan warms up her afternoon class with simple stretches and movement. Photo by Kristin Martin.

McKirgan deals with her business, the students, parents and teachers with professionalism and a smile.

“You’re a mother and of course you’re proud of your children no matter what they do, but she’s very humble too and that’s a lovely trait to have,” said Swangin. “And she loves what she does and that’s the most important thing.”

In McKirgan’s humility, she declared herself “boring” during the interview, as if her accomplishments were average and her influence wasn’t far-reaching.

“She’s touched a lot of lives,” said Swangin. “She’s a ‘backseater,’ she’s not a front row person. She wants her kids to be the front row. She promotes her children. And I love that aspect of her. I think that’s a lovely touch.”

 

Elon Alternative Break Trips fundraising for 10 trips this year

Written for The Pendulum in October 2012. 

Elon’s Alternative Break Trips give students the option of service opportunities in the U.S. and abroad during vacation weeks, and have the goal of raising $50,000 this year to support the program.  

“This is my first year being involved with Alternative Breaks, but I’m excited to be a part of this wonderful organization,” said Junior Mitchell Mayer, international director.

“I have loved having the opportunity to experience Alternative Breaks as a participant, coordinator and now domestic director,” said Carling Andrews, junior. “It has been interesting to see the trips from a variety of different perspectives.”

The Alternative Break program came from the mission trip tradition and has become more service-oriented over the years, said Evan Small, special programs coordinator. Habitat for Humanity helped with its Spring Break Collegiate Challenge, and then in 1991 a national alternative break organization called Breakaway was founded for schools across the country. 

“Elon has been a chapter member of Breakaway for years, and we rely on them for training and resources,” Small said. “At Elon, the program in its current form started with Hurricane Katrina in 2005. There were trips before 2005, but in the years since, we’ve gone from one or two a year to 10 trips offered annually.”

Small oversees the program and advises the two directors and the financial coordinator. Together, the four hire student trip coordinators and train the coordinators throughout the year. The trip coordinators are duos that plan and lead the trips and select participants and faculty advisors.

“We also lead weekly meetings with all coordinators and teach them what true service is all about and how to make their participants get the most they can out of the trips,” said Mayer.

“We have a great group of coordinators this year and I am excited to see their trips develop over the year,” Andrews said. “There is a lot of planning and preparation that goes into each of these trips and I am happy to be working with such a motivated and positive group of individuals.“

There are 10 trips planned for this year. The Fall Break trips are to Turtle Island and the Appalachian Mountains. The team is also developing a first-time Fake Break trip to New Orleans. 

“Elon has a long-standing commitment to disaster relief in the New Orleans and Bay St. Louis areas, and we are continuing that work this year,” said Small. “Hurricane Isaac recently caused additional damage to the area and we are looking forward to assisting in new ways.”

The trip also ties to Elon’s Common Reading, “Zeitoun,” and contains an interfaith component as well as service, said Small. 

Spring Break trip locations include: Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Honduras, Atlanta, Washington D.C. and New Orleans. The three international trips center themes of educating and rehabilitating youth and housing and repair projects.

This summer, a group will also be traveling to Malawi, Africa. 

Andrews has been on three Alternative Break trips: New Orleans, Turtle Island and her sophomore year, she planned and led a trip to Atlanta during Spring Break.   

“The individuals I have had the opportunity to meet through all of these experiences is what drives my passion for Alternative Breaks,” Andrews said. “Learning about another individual’s culture, a different way of life and hearing personal stories is inspiring to me.  I love having the opportunity to learn from the people living in the communities I’ve visited and the other wonderful participants from Elon.” 

The Fall Break trips received such a high number of applicants that the coordinators set up interviews with their potential participants. The trips overall are increasing in popularity on campus. Mayer said the international trips are usually the most sought after, but every trip is receiving attention this year.

“The response to the trips thus far this year has been amazing,” said Mayer. “We had record numbers of people stop by to sign up for information about the trips at the Org Fair this year, and the email account has been full for the past two months with emails about trips.”

“We had a great response to our two Fall Break trips and a huge number of applicants for our open coordinator positions,” said Small. “Students occasionally propose new trips and we have changed our locations to meet the needs of the local community.”

Neither director is going on a trip this year, but both said they are looking forward to hearing about the experiences.

“Everyone who I have talked to who has been on a trip has absolutely loved it!” said Mayer. “Most of them loved it so much that they come back the next year as coordinators. For example, this year we have two coordinators that will be going to Honduras for the third time.”

Alternative Breaks has a fundraising goal of $50,000 to fund the trips. Mayer said they’re making progress and that all the funding goes into the overall Alternative Breaks fund, subsidizing the cost the student will have to pay.

 “My personal goal is $64,000,” said Alternative Breaks Financial Coordinator, Frances Hamilton. “We are working with different areas on campus and hoping to collaborate with the Multicultural Center and Center for Leadership. We have many profit shares and are hoping to have several large fundraising events.”

 “Our fundraising goal is ambitious, but is designed so that the trips become as affordable as possible for all students,” said Small. “We believe in the importance of these trips and want all students to have the opportunity to participate in an Alternative Break trip. Whether international or domestic, we never want cost to be a barrier to student participation.” 

Their profit shares include Spirit Nights hosted by Aramark, Local Yogurt and the Letter Writing Campaign, their biggest fundraising push. Program participants, coordinators and directors gather together to write letters to their friends and families in order to help find support for the trips. Elon alumnus Andrew Somers created the campaign two years ago.

 “It is an extremely successful fundraiser, and we are hoping for positive results this year as well,” said Hamilton. “It is an afternoon of fun, entertainment and group bonding.”

This year, the first of two Letter Writing campaigns will be Nov. 11 from 1-4 p.m.

Alternative Breaks is so smoothly run that other universities call and ask how they can model it.

“Elon needs to take pride in what we accomplish every year on the service front and this was a prime example of how others perceive this program and what the university stands for,” said Mayer.

Alternative Break Trips is now accepting applications for Fake and Spring Breaks.

Marijuana legalizations happening, despite uncertain benefits

In a country where selling alcohol was illegal less than 100 years ago, the legal recreational use of marijuana is beginning to be a reality.

The states of Colorado and Washington voted Nov. 6 to legalize the drug for recreational use. The new law conflicts with U.S. Law and the DEA, but marijuana has already been legalized for medicinal purposes in almost 20 states.

In Colorado, individuals 21 and up can buy an ounce of dried marijuana at regulated retail stores, and Washington has similar instructions.

Wilson Hester, a sophomore at Elon University, called legalizing marijuana a touchy subject.

“I don’t have experience with the effects or how much it costs, but raising taxes on it may help in a rough economy,” he said.

Freshman Kate Nichols was indifferent about legalizing marijuana.

“I don’t think it should be as big of a focus as other drugs,” she said.

Both students were unclear about the direct effects of marijuana on personal health.

“Some people have benefitted from a medicinal aspect, but I don’t know how beneficial it would be recreationally,” said Jennifer Uno, an assistant biology professor. “It certainly can alter your state of mind. It can be like alcohol – everyone’s reaction is different, which makes it unpredictable.”

Brian Nienhaus, a business communications and management professor at Elon, was open to the idea of legalization in light of helping the economy.

“It’s just in the part of the economy that’s not seen very clearly,” he said. “If it’s just an economic questions, it might be worth getting it out in the open and having it regulated.”

The Nov. 6 votes in both Colorado and Washington are seen as a success to groups working toward legalization.

“We’re encouraged and more convinced than ever we will eventually prevail,” said David Sloane, spokesman for the Dallas-Forth Worth branch of the advocacy group National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana laws, as reported by UPI. “Prohibition is far more harmful to our communities than marijuana ever will be, and taxpayers are sick of their money being used to support failed drug policy.”

“It wouldn’t just affect our economy, but it would affect Mexico’s economy tremendously, and I’m not sure to what extent,” said Nienhaus.

Nearly two-thirds of Canadians and legislators in Mexico are considering decriminalizing and legalizing marijuana, according to a poll done in November.

Title IX Training: A duty to report – How Elon proactively moved to protect the campus

Talk concerning Title IX on college campuses these days is no longer just about women’s sports.

Since the Penn State University child abuse scandal in November 2011, it has come to the attention of universities to make their environments safer for children. Coincidently, earlier that year, the Office of Civil Rights mailed a letter to all universities reminding them of “students’ right to receive an education free from discrimination,” sexual violence and related crimes and the duty of the universities to promptly report all related incidents. This “Dear Colleague Letter” explains changes in Title IX policies and processes universities were expected to make.

“Colleges and universities just can’t ignore it anymore,” said  Jana Lynn Patterson, assistant vice president of student life of Elon University.

Elon University has reacted to both the Dear Colleague Letter and Penn State scandal by requiring students, faculty and staff to take an hour-long Title IX training session.

“Elon has chosen to implement this training because colleges and universities, following the Penn State scandal, have been challenged to create a safe environment for children, both on our campus and for anyone who serves with youth organizations,” Patterson said.

Patterson and the Office of Student Development are the main force behind the initiative.

“Elon will act quickly because we have a duty to protect the community,” Patterson said.

Patterson and Elizabeth Nelson, Elon’s assistant director for health promotions, began training coaches, athletes, teachers and others this summer. Patterson expected that around 1,000 people at Elon were trained between June and September, and another 1,000 will have been trained by the end of the semester.

“Hundreds and hundreds of students went through the training, and I think it was a good thing to do, the right thing to do,” said Mary Morrison, director of the Kernodle Center for Service Learning and Community Engagement. “We’re very appreciative to the staff members that helped do the training. I believe that Elizabeth Nelson and Jana Lynn Patterson did the bulk of the training. They accommodated faculty members and student groups. They really worked hard to make sure it wasn’t a bottleneck.”

Jana Lynn Patterson begins a Title IX training session in November in Moseley at Elon. The training sessions focus on professionalism as a student volunteer and the duty to report sexual violence. Photo by Kristin Martin.

The training encourages students to protect themselves by being professional and aware of the situation when volunteering, and explains the university’s and student’s responsibility and duty to report sexual violence. Anything as simple as inappropriate joke can create an “offensive environment,” and the parents determine what offensive is. A couple tips Patterson shares are to always have another adult present and not to interact with minors you work with over social media.

“Electronics make it that much harder,” Patterson said. “This is a game changer. You have to think differently.”

Students are also required to complete a background check before they can work with children on or off campus; this is not due to the Penn State scandal, but a requirement of many youth-serving organizations.

The Sandusky Scandal at Penn State

It’s now been a year since Penn State’s Jerry Sandusky, an assistant football coach, was charged with sexually assaulting eight boys between the years 1994-2009. Within days, more Penn State officials were arrested, including the school president, Graham Spanier and Joe Paterno, head coach and  Penn State football legacy, for not reporting what they knew about Sandusky. 

Joe Paterno died of lung cancer January 2012, and his statue was removed from campus in July.

Louis Freeh, a former FBI director who investigated the scandal, said in his report July 12, 2012, that the late Paterno and other Penn State officials “failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children who Sandusky victimized.”

The NCAA fined the school with $60 million and stripped it of more than 100 wins during the years Sandusky had committed his crimes, to start.

Sandusky was sentenced with 30 to 60 years Oct. 9.

Training sessions now and their future

The Sept. 6 training, one of the earliest sessions offered, was held in Belk Library 201, which is the size of an average Elon classroom. About 50 students filled the desks, lined the walls and sat on the floor to hear Patterson’s presentation. By November, the training sessions were less crowded and moved to bigger spaces, and the students were mostly volunteers.

Elizabeth Decker, a sophomore Teaching Fellow, doesn’t mind the training, but would like the convenience of taking it on her own time.

“I really like that the university has started doing this because it’s really good for the protection of younger students,” Decker said. “I really wish it had been an online class to work with our schedules better so we don’t have to come be packed in a classroom like this.”

Decker’s wish is expected to come true this spring. Molly Shoop, a senior Human Services intern, is working to put the training course online. Just after fall break she started attending the training sessions and breaking the information down into sections like Sexual Harassment, Duty to Report and Bringing Title IX to the Workplace. Shoop said the online training will look something like “read a section, then take a quiz.” She’ll soon be trained in how to work Moodle, and the training will be online by the beginning of December.

“I expect that in the spring it will be part of a Moodle course and people will enroll and they’ll have to successfully complete the test to be able to do this,” Patterson said in September. “This was just our 1.0, so our 2.0 will be a Moodle version of the course to be able to have students, faculty and staff do certification online.”

Morrison said the online training will expedite the process for future semesters. Also, once a student is trained, he doesn’t have to be repeated every year.

Few delays in Elon programs

The training sessions have caused few delays in areas involving volunteering and service through the Kernodle Center and the education department.

Morrison said it set academic service learning courses back a few days, but it usually takes time at the beginning of the semester to decide where to volunteer and then connect with that site.

“Our community partners were very willing to accommodate that slight delay because they also felt this was very important,” Morrison said. “They value this Title IX training as well and the fact that we’re doing it so systematically. It was a slight delay, but it wasn’t anything that kept anybody from accomplishing what they needed to accomplish.”

Despite the mad rush, the delays were not as severe as anticipated.

From Elon’s Title IX information.

“In actuality, we were more concerned than what the reality became,” said Morrison. “I think that’s in large part because of Elizabeth Nelson and Jana Lynn Patterson just bent over backwards to accommodate people.”

Janelle Rouse, director of education outreach, said the School of Education skated through Title IX training. She went through the training herself in June, and knew it was likely the students would have to take it as well. Education students complete 70-90 hours in classroom placements during their sophomore and junior years, before they complete a semester student teaching, so getting into the classroom early into the semester is key.

But the education students were trained ready to go into their placements within the first couple weeks of school. This was due to Patterson and her group coming into the school and doing workshops for several classes at a time.

“That really helped,” Rouse said. “We were able to get large clusters of students in together, several classes, so they could get the training done, get that approved and signed and get them out into the classroom.”

Rouse said the required training sessions had “little to no effect on getting our students out” since they knew it was coming. Elon students were working in schools before public schools even started class, helping their host teachers with back-to-school orientations.

“We were grateful not to have any setbacks,” Rouse said.

Elon’s reaction: A willing community or too much?

The students were very willing participants in the Title IX training,” said Morrison. “I was very pleased to see that Elon students really understood why it was important. There were a lot of training sessions offered and so there were some delays, but it wasn’t as impactful as we had anticipated.”

Morrison doesn’t think that the training and background checks have caused Elon students not to volunteer.

“It hasn’t come to my attention, and I think it would have,” she said.

Julianne Beck, a freshman psychology major, took the training in order to volunteer with the Avalon Community Center in Greensboro.

“Especially with Penn State, it’s important the kids are safe, and that the people that work with them understand and act appropriately,” said Beck.

Faith Shearer, associate athletic director, also thinks the training is good idea.

“Yes, it can cause coordination issues, but by and large, it’s definitely worth it,” she said. The training gives good information. We have a good model.”

Shearer said people have all different levels of experience working with kids, so giving guidelines for professionalism and our responsibilities is a helpful in protecting the community.

The reactions of other universities

While every university received the Dear Colleague Letter, not all schools have made changes to their systems due to Penn State.

Benita Peace, Title IX coordinator at UNC-Greensboro, said the university hasn’t made any changes due to the Penn State scandal, and they always do background checks for volunteers, but not for students.

“Student employees don’t get them either,” she said. “This isn’t because of the Penn State scandal, but just because. I don’t believe they will.”

UNC-G does not offer Title IX training sessions to students or employees.

Kathy Bray is the Title IX coordinator at Davidson College and said their school made changes in their policies due to the Dear Colleague Letter, but not the Sandusky scandal.

“We have made revisions to sexual misconduct policies and procedures that we have rolled out to the community this fall,” she said. “We made changes due to the letter issued to all universities from the Office of Civil Rights. That laid out pretty specific guidelines to how colleges are supposed to respond to student sexual assault.”

Bray was also interested to hear about the training Elon holds.

Joanne Woodard, North Carolina State University’s Title IX coordinator, said the university also has not implemented changes due to Penn State, but she feels confident their bases were already covered. They have an online training process for employees, members of Greek life, student athletes and others.

“We were pretty comprehensive before and fairly diligent to make sure everyone on the university’s campus knows about their obligations concerning Title IX,” Woodard said.

NCSU will be holding events this week to celebrate the 40^th anniversary of Title IX. Title IX is part of the Education Amendments passed in June 1972.

No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance …