Peace Corps partners with Elon for new program

The Peace Corps Prep Program will help students gain additional skills and knowledge necessary for international service.

Elon President Leo M. Lambert formalizes a partnership with the Peace Corps as (from left) Steve Moore, Alison Morrison-Shetlar, and Chris Gilson observe.

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Elon University has partnered with the Peace Corps to introduce an academic and service program that even better prepares students for careers in international development.

The partnership was formalized in a Friday morning signing ceremony between Elon University President Leo M. Lambert and Peace Corps representative Chris Gilson. The university is just the sixth school in the nation to host the Peace Corps Prep Program, organizers said.

“At the core of an Elon education is the idea that we are preparing global citizens to work for the common good,” Lambert said after the Feb. 22 signing in the Williams Conference Room inside Powell building. “This new program just embodies that ideal … and we are delighted to deepen our long-standing partnership with the Peace Corps.”

Students taking part in the program will be required to complete courses in environmental science, food security, green design, global awareness and foreign language as well as 100 hours of volunteer service into their degree plans.

Although participation in Peace Corps Prep doesn't guarantee that applicants will be accepted as volunteers, officials said, the specialized curriculum and experience should make them strong candidates for service. There are currently 14 Elon University graduates serving as Peace Corps volunteers worldwide. Since Peace Corps was established in 1961, nearly 100 Elon alumni have served as volunteers.

Elon University President Leo M. Lambert, left, with Chris Gilson, a representative for the Peace Corps

“Elon has been a leading producer of Peace Corps volunteers over the years relative to other schools in the country of its size,” Gilson said. “This is an opportunity to provide students who have an interest in becoming Peace Corps volunteers with a means to work toward that objective.”

In attendance at the ceremony were Provost Steven House, Associate Provost Tim Peeples, and Alison Morrison-Shetlar, dean of Elon College, the College of Arts and Sciences.

Also present and seated next to Lambert was Steve Moore in the Department of Environmental Studies, the faculty member who led the charge to create the Peace Corps partnership.

More than 210,000 Americans have volunteered through the Peace Corps, in 139 host countries, dating to its founding. Today, just over 8,000 volunteers are working with local communities in 76 host countries in agriculture, community economic development, education, environment, health and youth in development.

Peace Corps service is a 27-month commitment and the agency’s mission is to promote world peace and friendship and a better understanding between Americans and people of other countries.

“Elon University encourages its students to make a difference by becoming global leaders through community service and international study,” said Acting Peace Corps Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet. “Elon couldn’t be a better fit for the Peace Corps Prep program. We are thrilled to welcome them as a partner as they continue to encourage their students to consider Peace Corps service.”

For more information about the program, contact Steve Moore in the Department of Environmental Studies at smoore24@elon.edu.

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by Eric Townsend, Staff Last Updated - 2/22/2013

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Professor publishes book on Mideast peace

Fitchburg State University Professor Eric N. Budd’s new volume on the struggle for peace in the Middle East – Conflicted are the Peacemakers: Israeli and Palestinian Moderates and the Death of Oslo – is being published this week by Continuum, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing.

The 1993 Oslo Accords were a key attempt to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, whose failure was largely attributed to extremists on both sides. Budd’s book challenges this conventional wisdom by examining the role of Israeli and Palestinian peacemakers themselves in derailing the peace process.

“The current conflict over the Gaza Strip shows how far apart the two sides remain,” said Budd, a faculty member in Fitchburg State’s department of economics, history and political science. “As the Oslo Peace Process has bogged down, the extremists have been empowered. With the moderates too conflicted to make peace, the extremists don't need to sabotage the peace process because the moderates have already done that for them, so the cycle of violence continues.”

Looking at the role of moderates before and after Oslo, the different agreements and peace proposals they negotiated, and their rhetoric, the book shows that these peacemakers retained an inherent ambivalence toward the peace process and one another. This prevented them and their constituents from committing to the process and achieving a lasting peace.

This unique survey shows how the people who drive the peace process can not only undermine it, but also prevent its successful conclusion. By dealing with such an important aspect of negotiation, the book will foster a better understanding of the role of moderates and why peace processes may falter.

Budd, one of the founders of Fitchburg State University’s Center for Conflict Studies, is the author of Democratization, Development and the Patrimonial State in the Age of Globalization (Lexington Books, 2003) as well as many articles and book reviews.

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Campus community 'locks arms for peace' in silent walk

Students, professors & staff took part in a Friday walk to honor the civil rights struggle while pledging to combat remaining oppression.

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The latest in a series of Elon University events honoring the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. took place Friday when students, professors and staff members joined in the "Lock Arms for Peace" Beloved Community Peace Journey through campus.

Called a "symbolic burial of violence and oppression," walk participants held small rocks they were asked to inscribe with words describing burdens they faced. The route looped from Boney Fountain by the side entrance to Moseley Center, down to Haggard Avenue, and back along Young Commons to the main entrance of Moseley.

Originally scheduled for late morning, the walk was moved to mid afternoon due to inclement winter weather the night before that had delayed the opening of the university.

"We wanted our students to have an experience where they walk away and can effectively lead these kind of demonstrations and conversations that oftentimes can be difficult," said Leon Williams, director of the Multicultural Center at the university. "And we want them thinking about the burdens that wear you down, and the trying times we've had as a nation and as a people."

Once back inside, the group formed a circle in Hearth Lounge, and the 18 participants placed their rocks on the floor before them. University Chaplain Jan Fuller encouraged the group to begin thinking of ways to transcend the words of burden written on the rocks.

"It's one thing to know about (the burdens) and share them, but what we want to do is move to the hope for this pile of stones, the hopes for this world," Fuller said.

Moments later, in a show of optimism, walk participants pledged on bright note cards ways they would seek to better the world. Pledges included broad ideas like "pray" and "love one another" to specific actions like "petition against laws that promote sexism" and "volunteer at local shelters and kitchens."

Those pledges were posted to a board in Hearth Lounge for passersby to read.

The Peace Journey was among several events scheduled from Jan. 15-21, 2013, to honor King, an American civil rights pioneer slain in 1968. Programs earlier in the week included a special College Coffee and a commemorative program featuring remarks from a professor of social justice from Vanderbilt University.

A service day is scheduled for Monday. Interested volunteers are invited to McKinnon Hall inside Moseley Center at 9 a.m.

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by Eric Townsend, Staff Last Updated - 1/18/2013

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Campus community 'locks arms for peace' in silent walk

Students, professors & staff took part in a Friday walk to honor the civil rights struggle while pledging to combat remaining oppression.

*****

The latest in a series of Elon University events honoring the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. took place Friday when students, professors and staff members joined in the "Lock Arms for Peace" Beloved Community Peace Journey through campus.

Called a "symbolic burial of violence and oppression," walk participants held small rocks they were asked to inscribe with words describing burdens they faced. The route looped from Boney Fountain by the side entrance to Moseley Center, down to Haggard Avenue, and back along Young Commons to the main entrance of Moseley.

Originally scheduled for late morning, the walk was moved to mid afternoon due to inclement winter weather the night before that had delayed the opening of the university.

"We wanted our students to have an experience where they walk away and can effectively lead these kind of demonstrations and conversations that oftentimes can be difficult," said Leon Williams, director of the Multicultural Center at the university. "And we want them thinking about the burdens that wear you down, and the trying times we've had as a nation and as a people."

Once back inside, the group formed a circle in Hearth Lounge, and the 18 participants placed their rocks on the floor before them. University Chaplain Jan Fuller encouraged the group to begin thinking of ways to transcend the words of burden written on the rocks.

"It's one thing to know about (the burdens) and share them, but what we want to do is move to the hope for this pile of stones, the hopes for this world," Fuller said.

Moments later, in a show of optimism, walk participants pledged on bright note cards ways they would seek to better the world. Pledges included broad ideas like "pray" and "love one another" to specific actions like "petition against laws that promote sexism" and "volunteer at local shelters and kitchens."

Those pledges were posted to a board in Hearth Lounge for passersby to read.

The Peace Journey was among several events scheduled from Jan. 15-21, 2013, to honor King, an American civil rights pioneer slain in 1968. Programs earlier in the week included a special College Coffee and a commemorative program featuring remarks from a professor of social justice from Vanderbilt University.

A service day is scheduled for Monday. Interested volunteers are invited to McKinnon Hall inside Moseley Center at 9 a.m.

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by Eric Townsend, Staff Last Updated - 1/18/2013

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