51±¬ÁÏÍø

Location: Koury Athletic Center – Alumni Gym

Intended Audience: Open to all members of the 51±¬ÁÏÍø community. Faculty and staff are asked to bring their Phoenix card to tap in.

Join colleagues for a community breakfast to welcome new faculty and staff to Elon and to celebrate the achievements of the 2026 Elon Medallion recipients. This annual gathering offers an opportunity to reconnect, recognize distinguished service, and extend a warm introduction to those who are newly joining our community.

Location: Koury Athletic Center – Alumni Gym

Intended Audience: Open to all members of 51±¬ÁÏÍø community.

Location: Koury Athletic Center – Alumni Gym

Intended Audience: Open to all members of 51±¬ÁÏÍø community.

President Book will address the 51±¬ÁÏÍø community to mark the official opening of the 2026-2027 Academic Year.

A Note on These Sessions

These breakout sessions are working conversations, not presentations. Each room takes up a question the university is actively wrestling with, and each is led by colleagues who genuinely want to hear from you. Choose the session that speaks to your interests or your curiosity, come with questions, and expect to talk. What we hear in these rooms will shape the work of the year ahead — which is exactly why we begin Planning Week this way.

1. Recommendations from the SOAR Strategic Planning Committee

Facilitators: Megan Isaac and Jim Piatt

Location: KOBC 101 (LaRose Digital Theatre)

What can Elon do now that it could not do before? SOAR, our strategic planning process, has organized its recommendations around six major themes, and each one potentially opens doors: new academic programs, a broader geographic reach, new pathways for students, and new partnerships in research and industry. Join us for a walk through these six themes in one room, focused squarely on the opportunities in front of us. This is a conversation about what we can build together — come ready to consider where your own work intersects with what is now possible.

2. Building the Innovation Hub: Elon as a Regional Center for Creativity

Facilitators:ÌýHaya Ajjan & Bill Squadron

Location: Sankey 308

Elon is developing a hub for innovation and entrepreneurship that would bring existing strengths — the Doherty Center, Maker Hub, Center for Design Thinking, and AI Hub — under one framework and open the doors to regional partners. Join us for an open community conversation about the concept: what it could offer students, how it might serve faculty and staff across every discipline, how it could stimulate and support creative solutions and startup businesses. and what role it could play in Alamance County’s economic future. Your questions and ideas will directly inform the framework now taking shape.

3. Preparing Together for Student Success

Facilitators:ÌýJen Platania and Paul Tongsri

Location: Lakeside 214

What can our incoming students tell us about the year ahead? Join us for a conversation exploring findings from Elon’s 2026 Transition and Wellness Survey, completed by incoming first-year students before they arrive on campus. Together, we’ll examine what students are telling us about their academic confidence, sense of belonging, well-being, and anticipated challenges, and discuss how these insights can inform our collective efforts to support student success, persistence, and a strong transition to Elon.

4. Thriving Together: The Sport Collaborative and the Opportunity in Club Sports

Facilitators: Jon Dooley and Tony Weaver

Locations: Moseley 215

The Sport Collaborative is an emerging umbrella connecting Elon’s sport-related work across academic programs, research, athletics, student organizations, and community partnerships.  One priority this year is strengthening coordination with student organizations throughout the sport industry and across campus.  Within this broader initiative, club sports present one opportunity – and represent one of Elon’s quiet strengths.   At Elon, more than 1,000 students participate across 27 teams that compete against other college teams.  Prospective-student interest is strong, the program has a track record of boosting first-year retention, national interest in youth club and travel sports keeps rising, and peer institutions are investing in club sports as a strategy to enroll academically strong students who want a national liberal arts university without giving up their sport.  Hear a bit more about these initiatives and participate in an open conversation about what we might build together.  If your work touches sport in any way – maybe in ways you haven’t yet considered – we hope you’ll join us.

5. Summer at Elon

Facilitators: Hilton Kelly and Greg Zaiser

Location: Lindner 102

Every summer, thousands of people set foot on this campus who are not yet Elon students — young campers and their parents, high school athletes, conference guests, families touring in June, students in pre-college and enrichment programs. Some of them are our future applicants; many of them are our future applicants’ parents. Join us for a working brainstorm on how Elon’s growing summer programs might do more for recruitment: what already brings people here, what we could offer that we don’t, and how a positive July visit becomes an application in October. Bring ideas from your own corner of the university — this space is meant to generate new possibilities.

6. Changing the Trajectory — Roberts Academy and the Roberts Center for Dyslexia and Engaged Learning

Facilitators:ÌýAnn Bullock & Alicia Tate

Location: Lindner 208

Made possible by a transformational gift, Roberts Academy and the Roberts Center for Dyslexia and Engaged Learning will serve children with dyslexia while creating a distinctive teaching, research, and clinical setting on Elon’s campus. Join colleagues from the Dr. Jo Watts Williams School of Education for an introduction to the Academy’s model, its timeline, and the ways students, faculty, and staff across the university will connect to it. Together, we’ll explore what it means for Elon to serve our region in an entirely new way.

7. HealthEU, the Slattery Center, and Our Research Coalitions

Facilitators:ÌýAnu Räisänen, Anne-Marie Iselin, Scarlett Ruppert, and Evan Small

Location: Sato Commons 103

Research coalitions and communities of practice bring together colleagues with shared interests to collaborate, exchange knowledge, and spark innovation — and interdisciplinary conversation tends to produce more creative approaches to hard problems. These networks advance Elon’s goal of becoming a national leader in programs and research that cultivate student, faculty, and staff well-being and resilience. Join us to learn how the new Slattery Center will support curriculum and collaboration, and how to get involved. You do not have to be a researcher: these networks are open to any faculty or staff member interested in developing programs and resources.

8. Mentoring in Meaningful Relationships Implementation Gallery Walk and Next Steps

Facilitators:ÌýNaeemah Clark, Peter Felten, Kam Taylor, Tierza Watts, Whitney Gregory, and Qian Xu

Locations:ÌýMcBride Gathering Space

Join colleagues for an interactive gallery walk showcasing the data and resources produced during the 2025–26 Mentoring in Meaningful Relationships (MMR) implementation and a preview of priorities for 2026–27. Learn how excellent collaborations have advanced mentoring through faculty advising, holistic advising, peer mentoring, graduate student mentoring, student employment, and faculty/staff development to create a more equitable, sustainable, and impactful mentoring culture. Not only will attendees gather information that may help them weave meaningful relationships into their work, but they will also be able to share initial thoughts around the next phase of the MMR implementation.

9. Wise Moves During Higher Education Pressures

Facilitators:ÌýRebecca Kohn, Patrick Noltemeyer and Randy Williams 

Location:ÌýBelk 208

Federal policy is shifting, public confidence in higher education has declined, and families are asking harder questions about return on investment. Join us for a direct conversation about the pressures facing our sector and what they mean for Elon specifically — where we are genuinely well-positioned, where we face challenges, and how institutional decisions are being made in an uncertain and chaotic environment. Together, we’ll talk candidly about the landscape and about what steadiness and adaptability look like in practice.

10. School of Engineering and Computing

Facilitators:ÌýJohn Walz, Duke Hutchings and Jonathan Su

Location:ÌýLakeside 212

This fall, Elon opens the School of Engineering and Computing, bringing engineering and computer science together in a single school built for growth and collaboration across the university. Join inaugural dean John Walz and program faculty for an open conversation about what the new school will offer: its programs and priorities in the first year, opportunities for partnership with departments and offices across campus, and its ambitions for the years ahead. Come meet the dean, share ideas, and consider how the school’s work might connect with your own — whether or not your work touches engineering today.

Location: Winter Garden & Lakeside Patio

Intended Audience: Open to all members of the 51±¬ÁÏÍø community. Faculty and staff are asked to bring their Phoenix card to tap in. 

This picnic allows all members of the 51±¬ÁÏÍø Community to gather for food and conversation. Picnic will begin by tapping in at Winter Garden. Seating options also include the Moseley Student Center and McKinnon.

Location:ÌýLong 102

Dean Bullock will meet with school’s faculty.

Location:ÌýLakeside Meeting Rooms 212, 213, and 214

Dean Kelly will meet with CAS faculty.

Location:ÌýFrancis Center 178

Dean Lund will meet with school’s faculty.

Location: Koury Business Center 101 – LaRose Digital Theatre

Intended Audience: Full time LSB faculty.

Dean Ajjan will meet with school’s full time faculty.

Location: Innovation Quad 201

Dean Walz will meet with school’s faculty and staff.

Location: Jane and Brian Williams Studio – McEwen 117

Dean Gaither will meet with the school’s faculty.

Location: Trollinger House (enter through side door off the parking lot)

Join us for a tour of the new Roberts Academy, opening in fall 2026. As part of the Dr. Jo Watts Williams School of Education, Roberts Academy is a specialized school designed to support children with dyslexia. We invite you to explore our beautifully renovated building and meet members of our community as we prepare to welcome our inaugural class. We look forward to sharing this exciting milestone with you!

Location: Lindner 206

Chairs of 2026-27 Standing Committees will meet with Academic Council leaders and University Parliamentarians to discuss the chair’s roles and duties. All Standing Committee and Academic Council members are welcome to learn more about parliamentary procedure and shared governance.

Location: Hunt Atrium – Founder’s Hall

This reception welcomes faculty and staff who joined the university on or after August 7, 2025, an opportunity to connect with one another and begin building community at Elon. Email invitations, including RSVP instructions, will be sent by the Office of the President.

RSVP: By invitation only.

Location: Online – Complete survey in

Intended Audience: Faculty & Staff with faculty rank

The Line of March survey for New Student Convocation will be shared with faculty on or before August 1. See Saturday, August 22 for more information regarding the ceremony and faculty meeting location.