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Commencement exercises begin May 23 and continue through Saturday as Elon prepares to graduate its 118th class. Activities for seniors begin even earlier in the week with a class picnic, an evening gala, receptions and dinners.

University leaders conferred 40 degrees to MBA students in the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business on May 23, 2008, during a Commencement attended by faculty, staff, family and friends.

If you look back far enough – 130,000 years, to be exact – people today share a common ancestor. For the Right Rev. Michael B. Curry, who delivered the sermon May 23 at Baccalaureate, that bond requires Elon graduates to leave what he called this “sacred place” and to always treat others as family.

After an extensive national search, campus leaders have announced that Jodean Schmiederer will join ¸£ÀûÑÇÖÞ¹ú²ú¾«Æ· as its new assistant dean of students, with overall responsibility for the Moseley Campus Center, Greek Life, Student Judicial Affairs, Student Activities, Summer Conferences, and Family Weekend.

Four professors were honored for superior scholarship, teaching, mentoring and service at the annual faculty-staff awards luncheon on May 14. Those recognized included Jim Bissett, Chalmers Brumbaugh, Brian Digre and Earl Honeycutt.

How did early American white plantation owners justify slavery when they worshipped every Sunday in the same churches alongside the black men and women whom they claimed to own? ¸£ÀûÑÇÖÞ¹ú²ú¾«Æ· history professor Charles Irons examines that question in a new book published this spring.

Student leaders from a variety of academic disciplines were honored May 1 during the annual Omicron Delta Kappa awards ceremony in Whitley Auditorium and in individual departments throughout campus.

A River's Reach, a new film involving students and staff from the School of Communications and Project Pericles, debuts next week at the Paramount Theater in downtown Burlington.

He loves ¸£ÀûÑÇÖÞ¹ú²ú¾«Æ· so much that he told his parents not to make donations to the school. Instead, senior Andrew Bennett wants to be the one to give back, and this month he made a gift so generous in support of Safe Rides that organizers have been able to expand the nighttime program with the addition of a new van.

Robert Buchholz, a professional engineer with more than 29 years of facilities management experience, has been named the new Director of Physical Plant at ¸£ÀûÑÇÖÞ¹ú²ú¾«Æ·. Buchholz comes to Elon from Temple University, where he has served as associate vice president for facilities management since 2002.