From the advisers' desks

Advisers of The Pendulum

Mary Ellen Priestley, 1974-1981
Robert Nowell, 1981-1987
Jerry Adams, 1987-1989
Brad Hamm, 1989-1993
Joey Senat, 1993-1995
Deborah Durkee, 1995-1996
Byung Lee, 1996-2000
Janna Anderson, 2000-2005
Glenn Scott, 2005-2007
Colin Donohue, 2007-2016
Kelly Furnas, 2016-

'The first issue of the paper on the internet'

"Before the internet, the managing editor would drive to a commercial printer out of town, carrying a disk that contained the entire issue. When the internet was introduced at the university, the paper was assigned a fixed IP address, but there was no WiFi connection. The newspaper staff researched this new technology to figure out how to access it from multiple desks. We also published the first issue of the paper on the internet after spending two days preparing it."

— Byung Lee, adviser of The Pendulum, 1996-2000

The Sept. 13, 2001, edition of The Pendulum covered the campus community's response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Staff of The Pendulum in 2004. Photo courtesy Janna Anderson

'One of the most significant events of our time'

"During Fall 2001, one of the courses I was teaching was Advanced Reporting. I had arranged for the top two editors of the Burlington Times-News to visit our classroom in the basement of McEwen (a writing lab was where WSOE is now) Sept. 11 to talk about community journalism and assign each of the students to write a story for the Times-News to publish. We had a great session, class ended, and just before 9 a.m. we all walked upstairs to the first floor — the Times-News editors and our students and I — and on the screen in the lobby area, was live, breaking coverage of the first of the two towers, the North Tower, on fire just after it had been hit. We couldn’t believe what we were seeing.

"The Times-News editors ran out the door, solemnly discussing putting out an extra edition in print to distribute that afternoon. Then later, the SECOND tower was hit and next we heard that a hijacked plane had hit the Pentagon in DC. Soon nearly everyone in the world heard began following the live television coverage. Manhattan became enveloped in smoke and ash, and photos and video showed people who worked in the towers were falling out the windows and the public became paralyzed by the horror of the live carnage they were witnessing. The attack on the Pentagon and the dramatic, foiled attempt to fly a plane into the U.S. Capitol or White House came soon after.

"Everyone on campus was glued to the television coverage all of that day, watching first responders from everywhere – and not just fire, police and medical but journalists in New York, D.C. and Pennsylvania as well – were rushing toward the centers of impact to help out.

"It was a Tuesday. Deadline day. We had to put next weekly issue to bed that night and get it to the printer. In the Pendulum newsroom the television was on. The Twin Towers were still on fire, and we knew hundreds, maybe thousands of lives were lost there, at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania, where another terror attack had been taken into the ground by its brave passengers, and we had no idea what might come next. Maybe even more attacks, possibly anywhere in the country.

"The newsroom was a somber place but the students overcame their shock at the magnitude of all of this and worked to get out a special edition. We had a rousing conversation about coverage. Even here at Elon, so many miles from the devastation and death, it was our duty to get out there to talk, listen and gather and tell the vital stories of this day. Are any students, faculty or staff impacted by any of these attacks – by death of a person they know. Are they related to or do they know a first responder - any sort of connection? Are any Elon-associated people there in the region of these attacks right now, in those locations, interning or working, are their parents there, their siblings there, any of their family there? Are there any current students whose family or friends were directly impacted in any way, or any to talk with who are from these places and have been struck with the horror of all of this? What have they heard from their families? What will the university do to respond – counseling services for those on campus who have loved ones there? Possibly sending some sort of volunteer assistance later, when things are more clear? Will this impact the university’s class schedule for the week, will events be canceled? Is the university prepared for the possibility that more attacks might take place; since North Carolina is the home to a number of important military facilities are there any concerns there may be an attack in this state?

"The students dug in immediately and doggedly pursued the stories they could find. It was difficult for them because it was the evening of a long, horrible day for everyone in the Elon community, and the entire country was knocked back on its heels, wondering what might happen next. Editors Taresa LaRock and Jennifer Guarino rallied the troops, and they stepped up and did some of the best work of their young lives, taking on the challenge, not only the day of the attacks but in the days and weeks that followed. One of the toughest jobs in reporting is talking to people who have had to suffer a great tragedy, especially those who have lost loved ones.

"They successfully shifted gears from focusing that week's paper on pleasant, descriptive stories about the opening of Elon’s new football stadium, Rhodes Stadium, on Sept. 8, to, instead, covering one of the most significant events in modern U.S. history on 9/11. A personal note: My birthday is 9/11/55, and prior to this particular day in 2001 the meaning of 9/11 was simply that it was my birthday. It had no other meaning to me and certainly had no meaning to others who weren’t also counting it as their birth date. It was nothing special. It then became the day that nearly 3,000 people died in four highly coordinated attacks in the deadliest act of terrorism in history. I'd been so excited and happy to have two Times-News editors (back in the days when local newspapers actually had large staffs of writers and reporters) in my class on my birthday to give the gift to each student of a story assignment and the promise that their work would be printed in the paper by the end of the term. Then we emerged from the basement and were totally rocked by what later became known as 9/11. Our students stepped up in the ensuing hours, days and weeks and worked to report and write local stories for The Pendulum about one of the most significant events of our time."

— Janna Anderson, adviser of The Pendulum, 2000-2005

'Our main jobs are to act and publish, not to worry and complain'

"In my first year as adviser, around 2006, the Pendulum newsroom on the second floor of Moseley had some decent equipment – a few newer but well-used Macs, for instance – but not enough. The key staff members, who were editors as well as the most productive reporters, took turns on the computers. This was a talented and durable group. They squeezed in at tables, elbow to elbow, to knock out the final stories. It was usually an hour or two past midnight before the group finished the final pages.

"The copy editing, meanwhile, involved marking up stories on paper for editors to then fix corrections on screens. All this meant that the most important piece of equipment on production night – more valuable even than a new Mac – was the one and only printer, a large rectangular box that clicked and rattled as it shot out copies for proofing.

"One night, well after the sun disappeared but long before stories were ready to be forwarded for the press run, the printer emitted a metallic sigh and stopped. We were by then among the last humans in Moseley for the night, aside from a custodian and maybe a DJ locked deep inside the WSOE space down the hall. Nerves were already tense from the usual spats and contests for computers in that tight little room. (Even nice students get a little testy on deadline, right?) Once the printer failed, the activity stopped. The level of panic intensified.

"How are we going to do this?

"I had no idea how to fix a printer let alone know who to call. We couldn’t exactly send stories to the printers in the library, if the building were open at all. We were stumped, frustrated. Could one worn out HP machine keep the paper from publication?

"Suddenly Justin Hite sprang up. Justin had lots of roles on the staff. He might have been an assistant sports editor. But on those uncomfortable nights when every little detail became a bother, and everyone was wishing to work with far better journalists, he carried a more useful role. He was the one who never lost hope. He never reacted to the barbed comments that ricocheted around the room. He was our captain of encouragement.

" 'I’ll go get mine,' he blurted as he hurried out the door.

"Ten tough minutes later, he was back carrying a black box half the size of the broken machine. He pushed chairs out of his way as he plugged his printer into a wall socket. To our relief, it kicked on and the computers connected. In a few minutes, editors were back at work. They pushed Justin’s printer hard that night. It spun out a lot of news. The ink cartridge held out. The group regained their rhythm knowing The Pendulum would reach its readers again, possibly with few if any typos.

"For the next few weeks, we relied on that personal printer until, through some miracle of requisition forms and account numbers – all still a mystery to me – a new machine arrived to take over as the centerpiece of the news operation.

"Justin’s resourcefulness saved the night, reminding us as journalists that our main jobs are to act and publish, not to worry and complain. His act fit the moment; it might not have worked today. Students rarely own their own printers anymore. But the need to take initiative, to seize the moment, continues more reliably in our business – even more so than overused printers."

— Glenn Scott, adviser of The Pendulum, 2005-2007

'I was excited to serve as The Pendulum adviser and teach journalism'

"I was a reporter and then a section editor and then the editor-in-chief of The Pendulum, and those latter roles gave me the most personal fulfillment because they allowed me to work with editors and reporters to strengthen their writing. I didn't know it at the time, but I was helping teach young writers about ledes, about how to get interviews, about how to ask questions, about how to structure stories.

"So when I returned to work, I was excited to serve as The Pendulum adviser and teach journalism. The lessons I learned coaching writers when I was a student in a leadership position I was able to put into practice professionally, so my time on the paper was formative in how my future unfurled."

— Colin Donohue, adviser of The Pendulum, 2007-2016