This video is part of a series of videos that document J. Earl Danieley lecturing during the class he teaches each winter term at Elon University called “Elon: Past, Present, and Future.” In this video he discusses a number of topics that relate to the history of Elon University. Specifically, he discusses major topics that include: the Senior Oak tree and Leon Edgar Smith’s Administration. J. Earl Danieley begins his lecture with discussing how in 1931 Leon Edgar Smith (5th President of Elon) was a minister and attended Southern Christian Convention (SCC) to obtain votes unanimously in becoming Elon’s 5th president; Smith’s fundraising efforts in Alamance County during the Great Depression; Smith’s efforts to raise money for Elon College with pastors and alumni; during the Great Depression, faculty teaching at Elon College without pay until years later; Atlantic University in Virginia Beach, Virginia going bankrupt, and Smith finding this opportunity as another possibility to increase student enrollment by 37 students; by 1932, Elon College had a student enrollment of 257 students; Smith’s tuition and fee maneuvering to keep the cash assets on campus to prevent the banks from collecting the cash for Elon College’s debt; Smith had the Elon Board of Trustees pass a resolution that stated, “Smith had control over all the finances of the college to get the college out of debt;” in December of 1931, Smith and Professor Thomas A. Amick attended a SCC meeting and while they were at the conference, they learned that Elon College was losing their accreditation; Danieley states that the Elon faculty complained to the SCC about the administration holding wages to support Elon College (this was not “in keeping of the SCC rules”); the second strike from the SCC against Elon College was the faculty members inflated higher education degree’s in the Elon College catalog; Smith went before the SCC and stated that he was the new president of Elon College and was willing to have William A. Harper take the blame of the lack of faculty degree transcripts; the SCC agreed to put Elon College back into suspended accreditation membership pending straightening out the faculty degree transcripts and salary financial situations; the SCC approved Elon College with full accreditation in 1946; in the spring of 1932, Smith received an anonymous message that the banks were going to be at Elon College on registration day to collect the student’s tuition and fees to repay the Elon College debt when Smith came up with a scheme to take the cash to the treasurer’s home across the railroad tracks; the banks went into the Elon vault to get the money and there was no money; Elon had $30,000.00 in bonds; the sheriff was coming to Elon College to get those bonds for the bank, Smith asked his secretary, Verona Daniels (Danieley) to take the bonds and put them into a depository where he did not know where they were located; the sheriff arrives to arrest Smith and he responded “you must arrest the board of trustees” because that is what the warrant states; other fundraiser's from Smith’s administration include: College Arce Campaign, Elon College Day Campaign, and Elon-Dollar-a-Month Campaign; returning back to the SCC, as Smith became Elon’s 5th President, Alfred W. Hurst was the pastor of the Elon College Community Church and he felt the notion that Smith wanted to become the full pastor, Hurst resigned; Smith became pastor of the church on the condition that he would only have to preach once a month and the remaining Sunday’s would have visiting preachers; Smith would live in the church house, just north of where the church stood; the Smith’s had two children (Rebecca (Becky) and Leon Edgar) that were ready for college and attended Elon College; Smith was very interested in an Athletics program being established as a means to increase Elon’s enrollment; during World War II, many male students went to war and Danieley, as a student, was asked to play football; in 1942, Elon’s Board of Trustees suspended Elon’s intercollegiate football and baseball programs until the end of World War II; returning to Elon’s finances, Elon College owned $6,000.00 to the First National Bank of Burlington, North Carolina; Elon College could not pay the $6,000.00 debt, but Elon had $600.00 to pay First National Bank of Burlington if the bank dismissed the debt, and the bank accepted Smith’s deal; due to the debt, three of Elon’s faculty and community members felt Smith was going to take Elon College into bankruptcy; these three individuals (J.A. Hunter (Elon Faculty), Mrs. J. Allen Hunter (a local teacher), and Frank Johnson (Class of 1931) set up in Raleigh, North Carolina, a charter school called North State College; Smith fired Hunter right away when the secret of the North State College charter came out in the local newspaper; the Hunter’s had one daughter, Marjorie (Maggie) Hunter, who attended Elon College and became a woman who broke new ground for the New York Times as the National Congressional and White House journalist in the 1960’s. Some notable names: J. Earl Danieley, Leon Edgar Smith, M.J. Patrick, Verona Daniels (Danieley), Rebecca (Becky) Smith, Leon Edgar Smith, Jr., Alfred W. Hurst, J.A. Hunter, Mrs. J. Allen Hunter, Frank Johnson, Marjorie (Maggie) Hunter, and James Hendrickson.