Eric Townsend

It’s been a while since North Carolina has seen a lengthy warm spell, so at noontime on Wednesday, how did a crowd of Elon University students take advantage of the January weather? By jumping into Lake Mary Nell, naturally, as part of the seventh annual Polar Bear Plunge.

Many students, faculty and staff at Elon University have expressed concern for the people of Haiti following a massive earthquake on Tuesday that killed tens of thousands and devastated much of the Caribbean nation. A current student and a 2009 alum on the ground in Haiti have made contact with their families in the United States, while another two current students and other alumni have started hearing from their own relatives still in the country.

A winter tradition returns to campus Wednesday at noon when dozens of students brave the cold waters of Lake Mary Nell in the seventh annual Polar Bear Plunge sponsored by the North Area Council and the Resident Student Association.

In the course of writing her New York Times bestseller, former Clinton Administration spokeswoman Dee Dee Myers arrived at a simple conclusion: “More women in power would make the world a better place.” Myers elaborated on that theme Tuesday to a packed Whitley Auditorium in her second lecture of the month as Elon University’s sixth Isabella Cannon Distinguished Visiting Professor of Leadership.

A meeting for student groups, classes and individuals that have an interest in raising money, or providing other assistance to the people of Haiti in the wake of the recent earthquake, is scheduled for Tuesday as the university coordinates relief efforts on campus. Read this post for a message from Smith Jackson, vice president and dean of Student Life at Elon University.

Gary Palin, executive director of the Doherty Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership and senior lecturer of entrepreneurship in the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business, was one of three judges this month for the 2010 National Model Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Program at a conference hosted by the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

Former Clinton Administration Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers will deliver her second of two public lectures Jan. 19 as part of her role as Elon's sixth Isabella Cannon Distinguished Visiting Professor of Leadership. The professorship brings nationally recognized authorities to campus to share insights about the nature, potential and responsibilities of leadership.

Dozens of Elon students turned out Monday morning for a “Freedom Journey” community march, followed by service activities at Elon First Baptist Church and Kopper Top Life Learning Center, which served as reminders of how civil rights pioneer Martin Luther King Jr. shaped a movement a generation ago to advance equality for all people.

On the eve of a national holiday to honor the life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., members of the Elon University community gathered Sunday evening for an intimate candlelight ceremony in which guests shared stories of how the slain civil rights leader's message touches them today.