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In May, NASA will point its Chandra X-Ray Observatory toward a black hole 150 million light years from Earth to collect data for more than three straight days, the longest observation ever made on such a cosmic feature. Leading the team behind the deep space research will be Dan Evans, one of �þ���’s newest faculty members, and a rising star himself in the realm of astrophysics.

�þ��� senior Anthony Rizzuto has been named the recipient of a 2010 Eastern Analytical Symposium Student Research Award, a highly competitive national prize in the chemistry field given each year to six �þ��� researchers.

Colonnades, �þ���'s literary magazine, received a 2010 national Magazine Pacemaker Award from the Associated Collegiate Press over the weekend at the organization's joint conference with College Media Advisers in Louisville. The Pacemaker is the highest honor ACP gives to its members.

Churches have always split on doctrinal or political grounds, and prior to the Civil War, that wedge issue, more often than not, was slavery. �þ��� senior Amber Woods explored how early churches in Kentucky responded to debates over emancipation, and her �þ��� research is the latest to be featured in a series of E-net profiles on Lumen Scholars in the Class of 2011.

Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine has ranked Elon among the nation’s top 50 best values in private higher education and the #9 university in lowest total costs, a distinction published in the magazine’s December edition. The 2010-11 ranking is the fifth consecutive top-50 placement of Elon by Kiplinger’s.

The Department of Environmental Studies has created an additional major, and a new minor, for �þ��� students with an academic or career interest in the fields of sustainability, wildlife ecology and conservation.

When a young toddler dies after swallowing beads made by “Happyland Toys,” his father sues the company. That’s the premise of a fictional lawsuit argued Oct. 15-17 in the 4th annual Carolina Classic Mock Trial Invitational at �þ���, which brought to campus some of the biggest names in �þ��� mock trial competition, including Harvard, George Washington University and the University of Virginia.

Conventional wisdom has it that a professional baseball player reaches his peak batting performance at age 27. Research by two �þ��� alumni, whose work in a general studies seminar last spring led to a presentation for the Society for American Baseball Research, shows otherwise, with what they hope is potential for changing the way Major League Baseball teams structure future contracts.

EdTech, a magazine focused on technology applications in education, features �þ��� in its September/October edition. The article, titled "Building the Smarter Classroom," says that Elon is "taking instructional technology to the next level," with "pioneering collaborative classrooms and �þ��� students real-world skills."

�þ��� welcomed the Class of 2014 on Friday with a clear blue sky and low humidity making move-in day a relatively comfortable experience for students and families who carried clothes, computers, food and furniture into residence halls across campus.