Seventeen years ago, Lianne Kowiak’s life changed forever.
On Nov. 17, 2008, Kowiak got a phone call at her home in Tampa from one of her son’s fraternity brothers at Lenoir-Rhyne University’s Theta Chi chapter. Kowiak said she was told Harrison, her son, had been hurt in an accident.
“He had said they were playing football on campus,” Lianne said. “Harrison tried to catch the football and landed down hard and he hurt himself.”
During College Coffee on Sept. 16 Elon University President Connie Book announced that Elon University intends to merge with Queens University of Charlotte.
This announcement shocked Elon sophomore Sophie Willen, who attended her first College Coffee on Sept. 16 and transferred from Queens this past spring.
“My jaw dropped, actually, and my roommate was standing right next to me,” Willen said. “I remember when I was at Queens, there was a lot of talk about financial issues.”
Over 200 protesters gathered at 11 a.m. on June 14 at the Hillsborough courthouse to protest President Donald Trump and his policies as a part of the nationwide No Kings protest.
The protest in Hillsborough is one of over 60 happening in North Carolina and over 2,000 happening across America. Concerned Carolinians, an unaffiliated grassroots political action group, hosted the demonstration, with member Bob Conrad calling the event one of the largest demonstrations in Hillsborough’s history.
Colleen Collier’s favorite part of her job is seeing the smiles on everyones’ faces as they ride the Dentzel Carousel at Burlington City Park.
From small children to older adults and even her own grandkids, it’s been the highlight of her job at Burlington Recreation and Parks for the past two years.
“My grandkids come, they're 8, 9 and 10, they’re the youngest ones and I got a 14 year old, but she does ride the carousel,” Collier said. “I love the people. It's so much fun to see the little kids with smiles on their faces, and it just lightens them up.”
Senior Aubrey Spicola will never forget the first time she watched a star being born.
She was taking astronomy during the fall semester of her freshman year and one of the first labs she participated in was looking at nebulae, giant clouds of dust and gas that are remnants of dying stars and beginnings of new stars, and she was in awe of what she witnessed.
“We looked at the Orion Nebula through the telescope,” Spicola said. “I could make out this little blue and pink smudge in the lens and I was like, ‘Oh my God. Stars are being born in that thing.’”
Former president Donald Trump has held multiple rallies in North Carolina in the weeks leading up to election day. On Tuesday, Oct. 22, Trump made a campaign stop in Greensboro at the Special Event Center in Minges Coliseum, with attendees gathering as early as 11 a.m.
Trump gathered in the Tar Heel state as early voting began last Thursday, Oct. 17 and election day two weeks away. North Carolina is a swing state with 16 electoral votes, and polls have shown Trump and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris virtually tied in North Carolina.
It wasn’t until their mid-20s that Luis Garay said they understood the depths of two of their identities.
Garay identifies as a queer Latinx person and is a doctoral student at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro pursuing a degree in Educational Studies.
“Sometimes the best research is me-search” Garay, who is also the director of Elon University’s Gender and LGBTQIA Center, said. “For me, my research is based on my own personal experiences.”
Conservative political activist Charlie Kirk has died after being shot in the neck at an event at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10, according to a statement from Turning Point USA.
President of Elon University College Republicans Andrew Cochran said that he believes the rise in violence toward political figures and activists does not fall in line with American beliefs.
“This is America. You have the constitutional right to think what you believe and to be able to have those beliefs,” Cochran said. “That does not excuse anybody, regardless of either side, to commit acts of violence.”
Less than one week after Elon University’s 135th Undergraduate Commencement, recent graduate and former Odyssey Scholar Kai Whiteside ’25 said he felt like he was blindsided.
On May 29, Whiteside and other recently graduated and current members of the Odyssey Scholars program received an email from Marcus Elliott, the former director of the Odyssey Scholars program, stating that he was terminated effective immediately the day prior.
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Since the start of 2025, 869 bills regarding transgender people have been filed across 49 states and 37 bills are active at the national level, according to Trans Legislation Tracker, an independent research organization tracking bills that impact trans and gender-diverse people across the U.S.
This is a 23% increase in bills filed compared with the entire year of 2024.
Of those 869 bills presented at the state level, there are 12 active in the North Carolina Legislature. The LGBTQ Center of Durham, are ramping up efforts to help and educate those who walk through its doors.
Jim Young fell in love with coffee when he was 18 while he was in Germany.
After joining the military in 1983, he shipped out to Germany during the Cold War. He was a sturdy boy, raised by a single mother who spent her whole life earning an hourly wage.
Before going to Germany, Young didn’t think much about coffee, except when he made it every morning for his first sergeant in infantry school in Columbus, Georgia.
“Whoever had fire watch that morning, at 0330 the first sergeant would come in and he had to have his coffee ready,” Young said.
Forty-one million members of Generation Z will be voting in the 2024 election, including 8.3 million new eligible voters since the 2022 midterm election, according to Tufts University.
With this influx of new voters, candidates are now allocating large amounts of money into digital advertising to reach Gen Z voters using social media. It was predicted that digital advertising for the 2024 presidential election would increase 156% compared to the 2020 presidential election, making the total spending $3.46 billion, according to a report released by Insider Intelligence predicting the amount of money that will be spent on U.S. political advertising.