Avery Sloan

Executive Director of Elon News Network, Managing Editor of The Pendulum

Avery Sloan ‘25 is studying journalism with minors in political science and leadership studies. Sloan has previously served as the politics editor. Find more of her work on her portfolio.

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Recent Articles

NEWS 4/23/25 1:36pm

Hundreds of university leaders sign statement condemning Trump administration's 'overreach'; Elon University not included

By Avery Sloan

The American Association of Colleges and Universities released “A Call for Constructive Engagement” on April 22. This was released by university presidents across the U.S. in response to the “unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education.” The statement calls for “constructive engagement that improves our institutions and serves our republic.” As of noon April 23, 320 university and college presidents have signed on — Elon University has not. The AACU is continuing to accept signatures from current leaders of colleges, universities and scholarly societies.

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NEWS 4/23/25 9:47am

Professors, students feel ramifications of federal grant terminations

By Avery Sloan

Many researchers, including Elon professor of art history Evan Gatti, had to find out through an email that their federal grant — which many were relying on to support their dreams — had been revoked. The NEH terminated over 1,000 grants and sent termination notices to 65% of its employees, both of which came about a month after President Donald Trump forced out the head of the NEH. The firings and cuts are in line with Trump’s executive order from Feb. 11, which directed the Department of Government Efficiency to eliminate “waste, bloat and insularity” in the federal government. 

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NEWS 4/23/25 9:47am

Professors, students feel ramifications of federal grant terminations

By Avery Sloan

Many researchers, including Elon professor of art history Evan Gatti, had to find out through an email that their federal grant — which many were relying on to support their dreams — had been revoked. The NEH terminated over 1,000 grants and sent termination notices to 65% of its employees, both of which came about a month after President Donald Trump forced out the head of the NEH. The firings and cuts are in line with Trump’s executive order from Feb. 11, which directed the Department of Government Efficiency to eliminate “waste, bloat and insularity” in the federal government. 

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NEWS 4/18/25 2:41pm

Behavioral Center to open inpatient wing departments for security

By Avery Sloan

Despite Alamance County’s Behavioral Health Center opening its doors June 19, it is still waiting on a license from the federal government to open its 24/7 inpatient care wing, according to Donald Reuss, vice president of behavioral health and intellectual/developmental disability network operations at Vaya Health. The behavioral health center was created in partnership with Vaya Health, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services and RHA Health Services. The goal of this center is to provide people with mental health and substance abuse issues a place they can seek treatment.

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NEWS 4/17/25 10:26am

Internal candidate selected as next dean of students at Elon University after confidential search

By Avery Sloan

Whitney Gregory will serve as Elon’s next dean of students following a confidential candidate search. This was announced to faculty and staff in an email from Jon Dooley, vice president of student life, on April 17. Gregory, the current assistant dean of students, will step into her new role this summer, after current dean of students, Jana Lynn Patterson, begins her new role as the associate vice president and dean of student health and well-being. Patterson has worked at Elon for 39 years and will retire in 2026, after serving in a new capacity. 

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LIFESTYLE 4/10/25 9:34pm

'I'm not hiding out': Transitioning late in life

By Avery Sloan

Crystal Burroughs knew she was meant to be a girl by the time she was 4 years old, before she knew what the word transgender meant. But even though she was sure of her identity from a young age, growing up in the 1960s and 70s without transgender representation and living through decades of normalized transphobia — she never planned to actually come out as a transgender woman. In March 2023, when Burroughs was 60 years old, she came out as transgender, first just to her wife. Now, she is fully out as as transgender to her job and larger community.

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NEWS 4/10/25 11:09am

Elon University announces 2025 Lumen Scholar winners

By Avery Sloan

The Lumen Advisory Committee director Michael Carignan announced Elon University’s 2025 Lumen Scholar winners. The 15 Lumen Prize winners are granted $20,000 to support their mentored research and creative projects. Established in 2007 by former Elon president Leo Lambert, the goal of the Lumen Prize is to give students an opportunity to pursue research and support other experiences such as international travel, service projects and workshops. For the next two years, the Lumen Scholars will work closely with their mentors to complete their research.

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NEWS 4/4/25 9:51pm

North Carolina court sides with Republican Jefferson Griffin in contested state supreme court race

By Avery Sloan

The North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled April 4 that over 65,000 votes casted in the 2024 state supreme court race need to be verified. Democrat incumbent Allison Riggs only won the race by 734 votes — after two previous recounts — meaning that the result of the election could change.  The North Carolina Court of Appeals sided with Republican Jefferson Griffin 2-1, who challenged the ballots in November, claiming that over 65,000 ballots shouldn’t be included in the results because they failed to comply with the state law or the state constitution. This ruling means the North Carolina Board of Elections will ask the contested voters to provide proof of identity within 15 days of being notified in order for their vote to count.   

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NEWS 3/25/25 11:08am

Alamance-Burlington School System Board of Education passes 2025-26 budget

By Avery Sloan

After nine community members spoke during the budget hearing meeting, the Alamance-Burlington School System Board of Education unanimously passed the 2025-26 budget asking for a $5.7 million expansion from this year’s budget — totaling to $59,047,151. The budget will now have to pass through the Alamance County Commissioners. Before the budget hearing began close to 15 community members, mainly a part of the Alamance-Burlington Association of Educators, gathered in the parking lot sharing their own experiences of what brought them to speak out at the meeting.

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NEWS 3/12/25 3:08pm

ABSS grapples with staff shortages, prioritizing budget

By Avery Sloan

The bus driver shortage in ABSS has grown since the COVID-19 pandemic, with more bus drivers choosing to retire. This can be a larger problem in some weeks for the county when multiple drivers call out sick. There are between 30 and 35 open positions for bus drivers in the county. But, this is not just a problem unique to Alamance County; school districts across the state and country are facing similar challenges. As of September 2024, there were 12.2% fewer school bus drivers on the road than September 2019, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute.

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NEWS 3/6/25 9:26am

40 candidates running in Elon’s Student Government Elections

By Avery Sloan

Elon’s Student Government Association election season is underway. Voting begins starting at 8 a.m. March 10 and ending 5 p.m. March 11. Students can place their votes on PhoenixConnect. There are a total of 40 students running across all positions, including two candidates for each elected executive position — executive president and executive vice president. Last year, no student initially applied for student body president. The election results will be announced at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 11 at Medallion Plaza. 

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NEWS 3/2/25 12:05pm

New Charlotte PA program set to open in 2027

By Avery Sloan

This week, the new program director and medical director will begin working to create Elon’s future physicians assistants program coming to Charlotte. The program has a tentative launch date of January 2027 and will be Elon’s second PA program — with its first program currently operating on Elon’s main campus. 

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NEWS 2/26/25 9:55am

New Alamance County library label brings LGBTQ+ controversy

By Avery Sloan and Abigail Hobbs

Books containing violence, underage drinking and drugs or sexually explicit content at the Alamance County libraries will be labeled with a parental guidance suggested sticker, if the Alamance County Commissioners vote to approve the label. The Alamance County Library Committee voted at its Feb. 11 meeting to bring the issue to the commissioners. The label brought controversy after the committee considered labeling LGBTQ+ content in books, according to the minutes from the Nov. 12 meeting.  The American Library Association recommends against labeling books with LGBTQ+ themes as it can draw negative attention. 

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NEWS 2/25/25 2:45pm

Elon Poll finds continued division across party lines

By Avery Sloan

New Elon Poll shows partisan division on public opinion regarding immigration enforcement and consequences of tariffs. Respondents were split on approving or disapproving the job President Donald Trump is doing, with 45% approving and 41% disapproving. However, when split up by party, 88% of Republicans said they approved of his job and 75% of Democrats said they disapproved. Survey respondents were also split on their opinions of the consequences of tariffs on the price of goods and impacts on businesses. 

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NEWS 2/25/25 11:04am

Alamance-Burlington School System board member Chuck Marsh announces retirement, residents speak out for classified employee raises

By Avery Sloan

Chuck Marsh, Alamance-Burlington School System board member, announced his resignation at the Feb. 24 Board of Education meeting in a letter read by Sandy Ellington-Graves, ABSS Board of Education board chair. Marsh has previously had health issues, causing him to miss meetings, and he is planning to spend more of his focus on the four businesses he runs, he said in his resignation letter.

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NEWS 2/12/25 11:45am

Immigrants in Alamance County adjust to evolving policies

By Avery Sloan

In the less than 30 days Trump has been in office, Trump has tried to pass an executive order to block citizenship for children in the U.S. born to undocumented immigrants and has significantly increased ICE enforcement. Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson said the sheriff’s department has had a contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement since 2007 and has been holding ICE detainees in the county jail since 2012. In 2022, ICE released a press release saying it would no longer use the county’s detention facility for long-term detention, only short periods of custody.

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NEWS 2/11/25 8:44pm

Elon Town Council approves two new downtown sponsorship programs

By Fiona McAllister and Avery Sloan

Elon is launching two new downtown sponsorship programs, one allowing residents or businesses to sponsor an event and the second allowing sponsors to pay an annual fee. Elon Town Council unanimously approved this fundraising program on Feb. 11 at its council meeting. The downtown Elon event sponsorship opportunities have four levels of sponsorship, ranging from a platinum sponsorship costing $3,500, a gold sponsorship costing $2,500, a silver sponsorship costing $1,500 and a bronze sponsorship costing $500. These sponsorship levels will be for individual events, but for a series with multiple occurrences the sponsorship will last for individual occurrence. 

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NEWS 1/31/25 1:08pm

Undergraduate tuition, housing, meals to increase by 3.81% for the 2025-2026 academic year

By Avery Sloan

Elon’s tuition and fees will increase by 3.81% for the 2025-26 academic year. This is the total cost of attendance at Elon and is an increase of about $2,300, according to Janet Williams, Elon’s vice president of finance. The increase in tuition will go toward hiring more faculty members to maintain Elon’s 11 to one faculty to student ratio, increasing pay for faculty and staff and student focused initiatives such as free laundry across campus. 

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NEWS 12/11/24 5:36pm

Student Perceptions of Teaching survey results sent early to professors in error

By Avery Sloan

Elon’s Student Perceptions of Teaching, a survey sent to students to provide feedback on each course and professor, provides data that is made available to faculty members for all semesters the survey is completed. This data, while names have been removed, has previously been released to faculty after the deadline for submitting grades has passed, to avoid any grading bias. This semester, data was sent to faculty members this week, while finals are being administered and grades are not finalized. 

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NEWS 11/26/24 3:44pm

Elon uses peer institution as a benchmark, has one mutual peer

By Avery Sloan

Elon has 15 peer institutions and 47 colleges and universities chose Elon as one of its peers, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics’ Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. Yet, none of Elon’s peers deemed Elon as one its peers, as of data from IPEDS for 2022-23. Many colleges and universities have not updated their peer institutions since then, with the exception of Furman University, where Elon is now one of its peers, according to its website. Elon selected its peers in 2022, Jason Husser, chair of Elon’s Long Range Planning Committee, said.

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