Dan Anderson

In its annual "Year in Photos" feature, the Office of University Relations has collected some of the best Elon pictures from 2009 in a retrospective slide show.

With a winter storm scheduled to hit our area this afternoon and tonight, tonight's Elon faculty/staff holiday party has been rescheduled for 1 p.m. Please gather at the Moseley Center for some festive food and fellowship and feel free to bring along your family members if they're available. After the party, get an early start on the holiday break and take the rest of the afternoon off!

The Elon University Board of Trustees voted unanimously Dec. 14 to approve a $586 million strategic plan that will guide the university's development during the next decade. "The Elon Commitment: Engaged minds. Inspired leaders. Global citizens.," was created over the past 15 months, involving the entire community of students, faculty, staff, alumni, parents and friends in a discussion about Elon's future.

The Daily Beast, one of the leading new Web-based media outlets, has named Elon one of the decade's hottest colleges. The list of 15 colleges and universities ranks schools that make up a "whole new class of first-choice schools" that have "transformed the collegiate landscape" during the past 10 years.

The Office of University Advancement has launched a new online Honor Roll of Donors as a companion to the print version of the Elon Society Honor Roll that appeared in the fall issue of The Magazine of Elon. All donors who made a gift to Elon during the past fiscal year (June 1, 2008 – May 31, 2009) are included in the searchable database.

Plan to celebrate the season this week with Elon's annual Holiday Celebration at 6:30 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 3, on Scott Plaza. The traditional event includes sidewalks lined with luminarias, carol singing, hot chocolate, a train ride for children of all ages, and the festive lighting of thousands of lights along Elon's central quad from Alamance Building to Moseley Center.

Hundreds of Phoenix fans made the trek to University of Richmond Stadium Saturday to watch the Elon football team square off against the defending NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision champions. While the result wasn’t quite what they were hoping – a 16-13 loss to the fourth-seeded University of Richmond Spiders – fans young and old enjoyed a thrilling game on a beautiful fall afternoon.

John Sullivan, Elon's Maude Sharpe Powell Professor of Philosophy emeritus, was featured in a Nov. 2 front page article in the Raleigh News & Observer on the role that aging adults can play in nurturing spirit and community. Reporter Thomas Goldsmith wrote about an upcoming conference on the issue sponsored by Second Journey. Sullivan will be one of the main speakers at the event on Nov. 7 at North Carolina State University.

Elon School of Communications student Eugene Daniel told an audience of Internet experts from around the world that there needs to be more education on how the Internet operates and is governed. Daniel presented his views on the role youth play in Internet governance Nov. 16 at the Internet Governance Forum in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

Elon's Terrell Hudgins became the FCS career leader in receiving yards on a 44-yard grab on the first play from scrimmage as the Phoenix knocked off the Western Carolina Catamounts 42-17 in Southern Conference football action on Saturday.