Five down!

This is my fifth post for Media Writing. This was another “different” type of story. We had to explore the online world of Second Life and write a features story about something that happens there. I chose to write about why people use Second Life and here is what I came up with. Enjoy!

In this age of increasing technology, how a person networks online is just as important as how he or she networks in the “real world.” One such website that allows for this type of contact is Second Life, which people use for a variety of reasons.

Users on Second Life create an “avatar” that can move around the Second Life world, visit different destinations, chat with other users, from relationships, buy things, and pretty much anything else you could do in the real world.

“Abby Crystal” is an avatar for a 20-year-old woman. She said that she has been on Second Life for two years.

“My friend started and she wanted somebody else she knew to be on it,” she said. Abby spends about two hours on Second Life a day.

Not all Second Life-ers commit so much time to the site.

“I come on like an hour a week,” said “Nick Levee,” an avatar who says he’s studying psychology at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

“It’s just a way to get out of the real world for a little while,” he said.

As with many online activities, safety can be a major concern. “Maria Millet” says she is a mother of two teenagers who wanted to use Second Life. She created an avatar to check out the site.

“I was worried about other people on the site and if it was, you know, safe for my kids,” she said. “It’s been OK so far, but they know the rules I have for them on [Second Life].”

Crystal said she doesn’t worry about safety.

“No one actually knows who I am. I could be anyone. They don’t know where I live or anything, so it’s no big deal,” she said.

Crystal is right. Avatars can have any names, look like anything, and go anywhere in Second Life. They can even build homes, open businesses, and get married.

“I’ve made way more in Linden dollars than I’ll ever make in real life,” said Levee. “It’s fun to just like, do stuff I can’t do in real life.”

Crystal and Millet agree that is the fun of Second Life.

“I have a lot of fun on it,” said Millet. “It’s fun to talk to people I don’t know without having to actually talk to them.”

In brief….

This is my fourth media writing post and a little bit different, because this was “made up.” This was an exercise in writing a news brief with a very little amount of supplied information and I found it very helpful. So, out of one paragraph of information, here is the story I came up with. Enjoy!

City employees and members of the Freeport Chamber of Commerce will abandon paperwork for bats and mitts as they come together to play a charity softball game on Sunday.

Admission to the game is free, but donations are welcome to benefit the Chris Hatfield Memorial Fund. Hatfield, who served as the Freeport city manager for three years, passed away in late August from Hodgkin’s disease. He was 31 years old.

Funds raised will go towards cancer research.

Members of the Freeport Chamber of Comerce will play against city employees. Pitching for the Chanber is President Cliff Guzman. The city budget director, Albert Heffner, will take the mound for the city team.

The game will start at 2 p.m. at the Horace Mann High School athletic field.

Loy Center Story

This is my third Media Writing post. This article, about the state of disrepair in the Loy Center on Elon’s campus, also ran in The Pendulum, and actually caused a stir, when the members of the fraternity involved became upset they weren’t given a chance to share their thoughts in the article. In actuality, they had been contacted several times and never returned the emails and phone calls. The day after this ran in The Pendulum, the couches and billiards table mentioned here were taken away. Enjoy!

A walk through the Loy Center offers views of the rocks outside each house and some remnants of glitter on the ground from a weekend party. But recently, the walk has also included some out-of-the-ordinary views.

The Loy Center is home to 11 stand-alone houses and one duplex, which houses 182 members who live in on-campus housing. It is also home to a broken billiards table and couches drenched by rain and snow.

Shana Plasters, director of Greek Life, reported that the couches and billiards table have been visible outside for the entire spring semester as the result of a miscommunication between Pi Kappa Phi and Phi Mu during girl’s recruitment at the end of January.

Freshman Devin Donnelly said prospective students visiting Elon and their parents will be unimpressed by the look of these facilities.

“The people that took it outside and left it there should take responsibility,” Donnelly said.

Plasters said Elon’s Environmental Services are responsible for maintenance and upkeep of the grounds and common spaces of the Loy Center, such as the common areas and kitchens.

“If there are excessive things that need to be done, outside of normal cleaning, then a fee might be assessed,” Plasters said.

“Elon maintenance should definitely not have to take the initiative to move the furniture,” freshman Sophie Biggar said.

Plasters said that when excessive cleaning or maintenance is needed, residents of the area are fined, just like in other campus housing.

“They are taking care of the situation,” Plasters said.

Plasters also said each Greek house in the Loy Center, and the Greek suites, located in Maynard Hall, has a “house manager” that is responsible for overseeing the use of the space and for enforcing university and chapter rules.

Environmental Services can report any misuse or excessive mess to the house manager.

“The houses in the Loy Center see a lot more traffic than most student housing so I think they could be better maintained,” said Amy McLeod, Alpha Xi Delta president.

She also said she thought the houses should be cleaned by the same staff members who clean all other campus housing areas.

“Physical Plant and the staff who work to maintain the houses do an amazing job,” she said.

Not all Elon students are bothered by the furniture sitting outside in the Loy Center.

“I think that the whole area is really clean and well-maintained,” freshman Brooke Babb said.

President Leo Lambert announced last week the construction of five new units in the Loy Center. The new expansion will include four stand-alone houses and another duplex.

“Hopefully there will come a time when all of the (Greek) organizations can live in the Loy Center together,” McLeod said.

Multi-Faith Center Story

This is my second Media Writing post. This article also ran in The Pendulum. Enjoy!

A committee of Elon students, faculty, and staff are working towards the building of a new facility on campus where everyone can learn about, practice and celebrate their religion.

As part of Elon University’s strategic plan, The Elon Commitment, a new multi-faith center is in the works and will be constructed within the next 10 years.

The committee was co-chaired by Smith Jackson, vice president and dean of student life, and Todd Coleman, assistant professor of music and chair of the religious and spiritual life committee.

“This year, President Lambert charged a new committee to come up with a good solution,” said Coleman. Previously, the university had looked into sharing space with a local church, but decided that this was not the best solution because of the unique needs of Elon’s campus.

Coleman said Elon University’s religious community includes people from a wide range of faiths, and the center will need to be able to meet the needs of all of them.

Members of the architectural subcommittee, including associate professor of communications Anthony Hatcher, spent time visiting other colleges’ multi-faith centers, including those at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“We saw everything from chapels to a large chaplain’s office,” said Hatcher. “We found no one model that fit Elon University.”

This means that Elon is starting from scratch in terms of design, layout and building use.

Coleman said a great deal of consideration is being put into every aspect of the planning process.

“We want to make sure the spaces will be utilized,” he said. “We don’t want a trophy building.”

Hatcher said their visits taught them about the various needs of a multi-faith center, including a large amount of storage for various religious idols, kosher areas for preparing food and space for Islamic worshippers to perform ritual washing.

“The biggest struggle we’ve had is what the main spaces should look like,” Hatcher said. “We’ve tried to develop something architecturally that would fit our needs.”

Both Coleman and Hatcher said that there was a possibility the multi-faith center would be built in the sixth building that is going to be added to the academic pavilion, which would create additional design limitations.

“The building has to be functional,” Hatcher said.

Currently, he said the plans include 12 offices that will hold the university chaplain, the religious life office, Catholic Campus Ministry, Hillel, and other organizations.

One of the most recent steps the committee has taken was the distribution of a survey about the potential construction of a multi-faith center via email. Coleman said about 600 surveys were returned

“The vast majority said it was a good idea,” said Coleman. “The vast majority of students said they were either religious or felt that spirituality was an important part of their life.”

For now, there are no definite floor plans to be revealed for the multi-faith center, since the exact location on campus is yet to be confirmed.

What We’ve Learned

This is the first of five posts of my work produced during this semester in Media Writing. This is an editorial I wrote for my groups new “newsmagazine,” “One Down.” It’s called “What We’ve Learned.” Enjoy…
It’s been nearly nine months since we unloaded our parents’ minivans. Nine months since we bought our books from the campus bookstore for the first time and started college classes. Nine months since we heard our drunken hallmates come home for the first time. Nine months since we learned the value of a well-stocked care package.

We’ve learned several dozen credits worth of classroom and book knowledge…but what else? What have we learned in the 75 percent of the time we spend outside of the classroom?

Well, we’ve learned that Daniely Center is a bad place to go to drink. We’ve learned that if we go to the hospital because we didn’t know our limits, Smith Jackson will tell the entire campus about it.

We’ve learned that toilet paper is a precious commodity, and that it runs out a lot faster in college than it did at home, and that toilet paper theft is a common crime.

We’ve learned that our definition of home can change. Strangers can become like family overnight, and the friends from high school that truly mattered are the ones we still stay in contact with.

We’ve learned that Facebook, Twitter and email can consume a lot of hours in a day if we’re not careful.

We’ve learned that Chik-Fil-A must be carefully rationed, and that Colonnades brunch is way better if you get there right when it opens.

We’ve learned that 1889 runs out of food before 7, but that ARAMARK had all of our best interests at heart when they salvaged the famous Killer Cookie.

We’ve learned that the ducks will stalk you. And geese poop. A lot.

We’ve learned that trains are loud. Especially when we’re catching up on much-needed sleep.

We’ve learned that college is hard, and hard in ways that we didn’t think it would be. It tests your mental strength, your emotional strength and your physical strength. It tests your commitment, your compassion and your ability to compromise.

We’ve learned that we can do it. We’ve learned that in three years, we will be under those oaks just like we were almost nine months ago. One down…

The Finish Line

We’ve done it. Three weeks and countless photographs and videos later, we’ve reached the end of DMC Winter Term 2010.

This is a link to my final video project on my YouTube page. It’s a short video about living in a dorm. A big thank you to Allison, Katie, Lindsay, and of course my assistant, David, for their help with this project.

I started with just the stop-motion, because it was a technique I really wanted to try, and then this whole concept of a short video about dorm life just sort of evolved from there. I think that’s one of the best ways for creative development…something springboards a whole bunch of other ideas and they all mash up into one big piece.

I’ve gotten to practice that a lot in DMC, and it’s been quite a bit of fun. You don’t realize how much you miss creating until you come back to it again. In high school I did a program all about creativity called Odyssey of the Mind, I created dances as a teacher and student, and made videos on a nearly daily basis for Media Broadcasting. My whole first semester at Elon was almost completely devoid of all of that, so this January was like a breath of fresh air (granted sometimes I was breathing in gasps, and often hyperventilating).

But really, I’m glad I got this class out of the way over Winter Term. I can’t imagine having to deal with these projects on top of a full course load. Plus, it was fun hardly focusing on anything by my work for a few weeks. Just me and the computer and a camera…with a little help thrown in on the side.

The point is that it was a marathon of a class, but it was completely worth the time, effort, and headaches.

Let’s get together…and do some reasearch

When you’re in college, undergraduate research is more than normal nowadays, it’s almost expected. And here at Elon, there’s a special program for 15 students in each graduating class called the Lumen Scholar Program. Each selected students receives 15,000 dollars to spend over several years in a research projects that they present to a panel. J told us on Friday that of last years awards, none went to Communications or Business students, which is really just plain sad.

J challenged us to think of what we would like to do if we could do a research program, and funnily enough, the project that first comes to mind is one that would fit well if I were an Arts and Science/Education student, rather than a communications student.

My research would revolve around integrating arts into normal education programs, and the academic benefits that an integrated program can produce, particularly in low-income areas. I went to an arts school in grades 2-8, and that school is still going strong and producing very talented kids, both in test scores and in artistic ability. The schools near Elon, which have lots of low-income students, would be perfect for testing out a program like this.

However, I can’t really think of how this might incorporate into my studies as a Print Journalism major. I am a theatre arts, dance, and creative writing triple minor, though, so that opens my options up a bit. I suppose another potential  research project would be to examine the way that  journalistic coverage of the arts has changed in the digital age. How  have digital trends like blogging, online newspapers, and video helped or hurt the arts world?

My goal as a journalist is to write about what I love (the performing arts), so that other people can learn to enjoy it and appreciate it just as much.