Eric Townsend

The Elon University Mock Trial Team completed the 2009-2010 season with a breakthrough performance at the American Mock Trial Association’s 2009 Opening Round Championship Tournament from March 13-15 in Easton, Pennsylvania. This tournament marked the first time in the six-year history of Elon Mock Trial that the team advanced beyond the Regional Tournament round of competition.

Through the first five official weeks of RecycleMania 2009, Elon University has collected nearly 44,000 pounds of material, which, like most university campuses taking part in the contest, is slightly lower than at the same point in last spring's nationwide contest.

Pamela Winfield, an assistant professor of religious studies, presented a paper, "Religion and the State in Japan: The Case of Shinnyo-en," and served as moderator and panel respondent to a panel on Orientalism and "The Pull of the East" at the annual SECSOR / regional AAR conference in Greensboro, N.C., from March 13-14.

Nancy Mairs, a contemporary nonfiction writer whose works have received national acclaim, visits Elon University on March 17 for a 7:30 p.m. lecture in Whitley Auditorium sponsored by the Liberal Arts Forum. Mairs will also spend part of her visit to Elon working with students in a creative writing/nonfiction class.

In another sign of its commitment to teaching ethical values, the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business has formally adopted the Principles of Responsible Management Education, which connects the university with an international group of business schools that encourage social responsibility in the creation of a sustainable global economy.

With the 2009 POWERless Energy Competition approachings its halfway mark, the Chandler and Danieley C residence halls continue to lead in a contest that measures which buildings can best reduce their electricity use. Four weeks remain in the competition.

A new book by Elon University professor Jeffrey C. Pugh interprets the thoughts of a German theologian executed by the Nazis in the final weeks of World War II. As Pugh writes, Dietrich Bonhoeffer remains relevant today, for political and religious figures continue to cite his writings – often incorrectly – in justifying their own agendas.

A March 12 story on NPR's "Marketplace" program featured research into biomimetic cilia by Benjamin Evans, an assistant professor of physics who started his work as a graduate student at UNC Chapel Hill.