Eric Townsend

Events leading up to Commencement 2011 take place this week as Elon prepares to graduate its 121st undergraduate class, its MBA and Elon Law class, and its second class in the iMedia graduate program. Activities for seniors start May 18, with a class picnic, an evening gala, receptions and dinners on the agenda.

Members of the Class of 2011 and their parents can now download customized news releases for distribution to hometown newspapers that publish information on academic achievements.

Vice Adm. William E. Gortney, director of the Joint Staff at the Pentagon and the public face of the U.S. Navy during the rescue of the Maersk Alabama ship captain taken hostage by Somali pirates two years ago, will deliver Elon University’s 121st Commencement address on May 21, 2011.

The Rev. Andrew More O’Connor, a parish priest for Holy Family in the Bronx in New York City and founder of a nonprofit apparel line that provides a living wage to Mayan Indian weavers in Guatemala, will deliver Elon University’s 2011 Baccalaureate sermon on May 20 in Alumni Gym at 3 p.m.

Two Elon University faculty members have received Fulbright grants for 2011-12 to teach and conduct research overseas. Associate professor Glenn Scott was awarded a Fulbright lecture grant to teach at the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa, Japan, and assistant professor Kim Jones will be collecting and analyzing oral histories in Brazil regarding the origins and development of the nation's universal national health care system, as well as supervising graduate research and helping to develop a Brazilian university's first Ph.D. program.

Jeffrey C. Pugh, the Maude Sharpe Powell Professor of Religious Studies and author of the newly released Devil's Ink: Blog from the Basement Office, was a featured guest on WUNC's "The State of Things" noontime program on May 17. Pugh spoke about his book.

Twenty-three rising sophomores from the Alamance-Burlington School System have been selected to join the fifth class of scholars in the Elon Academy, a college access and success program for academically talented students, on the Elon University campus.

Elon University finished third in the nation in the 2011 Bateman Case Study Competition, a national contest established by the Public Relations Society of America to give university students an opportunity to exercise the analytical skills and judgment required for public relations problem solving.