About the Presidential Task Force

In August 2015, President Leo M. Lambert formally appointed a task force to examine social climate and out-of-class engagement at Elon, with the charge to “examine the student experience and recommend ways for all students to be fully connected to the university’s academic, intellectual, and social opportunities in a manner that is healthy, engaging and meaningful.”

Throughout the 2015-2016 academic year, the 29-member task force collected data, analyzed findings, and developed a series of recommendations to address the charge. In 2016, President Lambert appointed a 10-member implementation team to provide strategic leadership and accountability for the completion of these recommendations over a five-year timeline.

Recommendations and Reports

The task force delivered a final report to President Lambert on April 29, 2016. This report and subsequent reports on implementation of the recommendations can be downloaded here (elon.edu account required). The 42 recommendations of the task force can be viewed below, grouped into five categories. 

Managing expectations, messaging, and the transition of first-year students

  1. Support the proposal from the Elon 101 Self-Study Work Group to revise and redesign Elon 101 with a more holistic advising model and an emphasis on student self-authorship.
  2. Identify and incorporate strategies to link the admissions process, “Are You Ready?” summer communications, New Student Orientation, and Elon 101 into a more seamless process of helping students construct and connect their Elon experience.
  3. Develop and implement messaging for New Student Orientation and the beginning of the year to align perceptions with reality and remind students that (1) not every student has everything figured out and (2) finding their place and sense of belonging will be an ongoing and sometimes challenging process.
  4. Implement strategies to direct students to resources and develop their skills in navigating relationships with peers, faculty, and staff; finding mentors; overcoming adversity; and building resilience.
  5. Improve the process for students to learn about and join student organizations and develop strategies to help students engage in co-curricular activities with intention, depth, and meaning, rather than with a superficial and burdensome checkbox mentality.
  6. Investigate the feasibility of expanding the current First-Year Summer Experiences (Adventures in Leadership, Pre-Serve, etc.) for as many first-year students as possible to have a cohorted, common experience led by upper-class students and faculty/staff mentors in the summer before they matriculate.
  7. Continue to improve the transition and orientation experience for transfer students, student athletes, international students, spring-admitted students, and participants in the Gap Program.

Increasing access to high-quality mentoring experiences

  1. Develop specific strategies to expand and communicate a clearer pathway for non-fellows students to access undergraduate research, professional development, and mentored experiences.
  2. Strengthen faculty involvement in student organization advising and mentoring (academic, social, and cultural organizations) in order to deepen the intellectual climate of organizations and out-of-class experiences.
  3. Explore lateral entry options for fellows programs and/or create more high-impact post-enrollment experiences for students.
  4. Enhance the culture of peer mentoring at Elon by developing a mentor training/education program, investing in student mentor positions across multiple areas/departments (including bringing stipends for residential peer mentors up to the level of national benchmarks), and considering a merger of the Orientation Leader and Elon 101 TA positions into a stronger social/academic peer mentor role to serve first-year students.
  5. Develop more regular, structured opportunities for mentoring conversations between faculty/staff and students, including allocating resources to support for faculty and staff to host students in their homes for meals, and for students to invite faculty and staff for meals on campus.

Enhancing traditions and campus social experiences

  1. Create a university-wide process (including senior leaders and students) to develop an institutional vision for the role and relationship of fraternity and sorority life within the broader Elon community as well as a consensus on the way forward with a shared understanding and accountability.
  2. Expand late-night weekend activities (student-driven events after 10pm) to be routinely/consistently available on and off campus, open to all students.
  3. Provide incentives for student organizations to collaborate on late-night activities and other campus programming.
  4. Continue to support prior task force recommendations and/or other initiatives for students of color, first-generation students, and LGBTQIA students.
  5. Create intercultural competence programs for students, faculty, and staff and provide intercultural learning experiences that are essential to the development and effectiveness of leaders through student organizations, athletic teams, fellows programs, etc.
  6. Identify, create, and promote events and traditions available to the entire campus on a routine basis, encouraging broader inclusion of all students (not just those affiliated with a student organization) in existing events, and developing new large-scale campus celebrations/events that bring the entire campus together.
  7. Emphasize a “We are One Phoenix” notion as a unifying commonality for all students, faculty, and staff, including attention to Elon gear in the bookstore and giveaways at athletic contests, campus events, prospective student events, etc.
  8. Improve communication with and among students about campus events and activities.
  9. Create more/better ways for students to get connected in the first six weeks, with a focus on non-alcohol activities and opportunities for students to meet each other (retreats, recreation activities, and events held on and off campus)
  10. Support cohorted opportunities to bring them to a level of visibility similar to fraternities and sororities; examples might include well-funded student-interest housing, dining clubs, enhanced club sport participation opportunities, service and performance-based clubs, etc.
  11. Invest funding in the residential campus initiative across all neighborhoods to support the stated goals for mentoring and intellectual climate, community building and relationships, and facilities that support the program.
  12. Tap into the community-building potential of Campus Recreation; expand weekend hours in recreation facilities, support “Fridays on the Commons” events on Friday afternoon/evenings, increase marketing of club sport events to student fans, and expand campus waterfront utilization.
  13. Enhance atmosphere at athletic contests, expand/strengthen the student fan experience, and support the rejuvenation of Phoenix Phanatics.
  14. Strengthen the class identities, and enhance the class officer position to work with class councils and be more active programmatically for class events, perhaps with a more explicit connection to the alumni experience.

Enhancing the physical campus environment

  1. Enhance and develop informal, student-friendly, predictable spaces to hang out/meet – for example residential commons spaces, usage of Moseley and the Great Hall, renovation of Tap House, and enhancement of dining spaces.
  2. Explore the development of active pub/bar environments (on or off campus) that serve as places for students to hang out without organization affiliation.
  3. Investigate the feasibility of new fraternity/sorority residential neighborhood and repurposing the existing Loy facilities as a learning community neighborhood.
  4. Expand and strengthen late-night food options and spaces to gather.
  5. Develop a long-range plan for a student center that meets the needs of the students for social gathering space and is responsive to student feedback in its design.
  6. Maximize use of outdoor spaces for activity – for example residential neighborhood gathering spaces, Young Commons, Lakeside Terrace, the area north of McEwen, and the campus crossroads (area between Moseley/Koury/Lakeside), to include a reconfigured Speaker’s Corner.
  7. Improve and expand transportation options on and off campus.
  8. Place kiosks throughout campus to communicate information about upcoming events.
  9. Create a student advisory board to be part of decisions about interior design and furniture to ensure student-friendly environments.
  10. Allow and support signage/symbols (way-finder program) that highlight signature Elon experiences, as well as student-led programs such as residential “houses” and learning communities, student media organizations, intellectual clubs, performing arts groups, club sports, etc.

Reviewing and revising institutional policies and practices

  1. Review policies for student organization events and the use of spaces by students, develop/simplify a process for non-student groups to organize events, and investigate whether SPACES is the best facilities management system for the future.
  2. Develop strategies to increase the number of third- and fourth-year students living on campus to enhance the campus community and the residential experience.
  3. Transform the Office of Student Activities to an Office of / Center for Student Involvement that includes a focus on campus programs, student organization support, campus event awareness/publicity, student involvement, and campus-wide traditions.
  4. Investigate the merits (and the drawbacks) of both removing priority for first-year housing assignments based on deposit date and assigning students randomly to courses embedded in campus residential neighborhoods and buildings.
  5. Ensure that institutional policies encourage robust and constructive student communication and expression on campus, including reviewing the posting policy and other processes students use for student expression and communication about events (chalking, etc.).
  6. Create a university-wide process (including senior leaders and students) to examine the progress since the 2007 report of the Presidential Task Force on Alcohol and Other Drugs, and create an updated set of recommendations to continue to address the negative effects of alcohol and other drugs on individuals and the community at Elon.