What's BA|BS?

Elon students are a smart, diverse bunch, nurtured by an intimate community that engages us in and out of the classroom. Our small campus is bursting with big dreams. To that end, we need a vehicle for true, open student expression.

BA|BS serves as a forum for all Elon students.

Elon College, the College of Arts and Sciences, unites our diverse interests and remains the backbone of the University. Within the values of the liberal arts, all disciplines can establish common ground.

BA|BS celebrates the bond that unites the Elon community.

Our generation faces a paradigm shift—technology has allowed us to explore a new frontier of social connectivity. We recognize the importance of developing a critical ear and eye. It is time that we infuse liberal arts ideals with 21st-century experience.

Our education urges us to change the world rather than just observe it from behind a desk. In a time of political uncertainty and social instability, we understand the need for global awareness, grounded by strong liberal arts values.

So, What Is BA|BS?
It is time that we let our voices be heard; our generation faces a paradigm shift that enhances communicative technology to a new frontier of social networking, decentralizing our individual identities as we breach the isolated barriers that used to stand in our way. We recognize the importance of developing a critical ear and eye, influenced by an education that urges us to seize the world rather than just observe it from behind a desk. It is time that we shed our insight, infiltrating the liberal arts mission into the 21st century cyber-world with the power of our voice.

BA|BS will be our loudspeaker, an online publication that serves as the conversational haven that we desire, housing an atmosphere of ideas driven by a healthy tension that fuels enriching conversation and vitalized thought.

Where Did BA|BS Come From?
BA|BS was initiated in Fall 2008 by the ENG 311 Publishing class and was supported by a grant from the Fund for Excellence written by three dedicated CUPID interns and Dr. Pope-Ruark. This Spring, a group of Professional Writing & Rhetoric and English majors have worked hard to bring you the first version of BA|BS which will premiere during Celebrate! week as a soft launch, the initial version of what will become a regularly-updated online publication during Fall 2009.

How Can You Contribute?
So, fellow Collegian, we need your help. As a student-run publication, it’s imperative that Elon students from across all disciplines participate in BA|BS.

There are many ways to contribute. You can write articles and take photographs. You can help design our website or work on the layout of our print publication. You can interview other students. You can suggest topics that you would like to see covered and comment on the site. It’s as much of a commitment as you’re willing to make, but in order for the publication to be effective, we need your input.

We need you to join in the conversation, uniting the College identity coming together across disciplines and showing how the liberal arts curriculum brings opportunity to information. Topics are inspired by its range of disciplines in the liberal arts and sciences, drawing from experiences on campus and off campus that define who we are and what we are about.

What We Publish

Here at BABS, we publish clever, tasteful, and insightful articles. We give you the chance to do anything from writing your Newsworthy reactions to sending us E!on concert reviews. BABS can even help you recycle your academic writing into new and exciting articles for the In Theory section. When you send us an article, submission of a related photograph you have taken is much appreciated. We reserve the right to make edits and suggestions, but you will always see a final version from us before it is uploaded to the website or published in any way. If you have a recording or short YouTube video of a musical or dance performance by an Elon student, please submit it and we will post it in the E!on section. We cannot accept any fiction or visual art submissions at this point, so please work within our content restrictions. Thank you!

How To Get Published

So, you have a written work of nonfiction, a photograph or a piece of artwork that you’d like to get published with us. What now?

All you have to do is email babs@elon.edu with an attachment of your work. It really is that easy! We will process your request and keep you posted throughout the editing procedure. Once your article, photograph or artwork has been approved, we will send you an email with the final edits to make sure you approve of them; then, we’ll publish it!

If you have a preferred section of BA|BS where you’d like to see your work published, include that in your email. If you do not have a preference, we will put it where we feel it fits best. Similarly, if you have a photo you have taken or (legally) found that you’d like to see posted with your article, please attach it in your email to us.

How To Become a Staffer

Interested in becoming part of the BA|BS staff? We’re always looking for new fresh faces. Whether you’re expertise lies in writing, editing, or design, we are always in need of new talented students. And becoming involved is easy!

If you’d like to join the team as a writer or editor, please email BA|BS (babs@elon.edu) with the following:

Your name:
Your class year:
Your major/minor:
How you heard about BA|BS:
And a sample of your writing

If you’d like to get on board as a designer, please email BA|BS (babs@elon.edu) with the following:

You name:
Your class year:
Your major/minor:
How you heard about BA|BS:
Your skill level/experience with Adobe design programs:
And a sample of your work

Hope to hear from you soon!

Comment Guidelines

So dear reader, you’ve finished reading, and you’re moved to respond! Where can you respond to our articles found here? Well, luckily for you there is a space for comments on each of our articles in order to spark discussion. We here at BA|BS are interested in what you have to say, or what thoughts our articles provoked from you, the learned reader. But with this power comes much in the way of personal responsibility. Though we at BA|BS do not condone censorship but we also do not condone the following: slander, “your mamma jokes”, no comment fails (epic and otherwise), gross profanity, and comments that do not pertain to the articles on which you are commenting on. BA|BS reserves the right to delete or not post any comments that we feel violate our comment policy without any explanation.