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A vote to trigger Article 50, which would make the United Kingdom depart from the European Union, passed the British parliament today by a wide margin. Article 50 must be triggered by the end of March next year, setting up the "Brexit" once and for all. While this is certainly a step in the right direction for those in favor of leaving the EU, the move is largely symbolic and is not actually binding or a certainty that anything will happen. Britain has taken a significant, although largely symbolic, step closer to Brexit after the MPs voted by a...

An analytic chemistry professor at public, taxpayer-funded East Carolina University (ECU) has failed miserably in his bizarre effort to prevent students from thanking God in personal statements, which will be read during a departmental graduation ceremony on Friday. The professor, Eli Hvastkovs, explicitly banned students from giving any credit to God in an email obtained by Campus Reform. He ordered students to “provide me something written in the third person” in a personal statement that discusses future plans or “thanks someone.” However, Hvastkovs wrote: You can’t thank God. I’m sorry about this — and I don’t want to have to outline the reasons...

A professor at a public university in North Carolina forbade his students from thanking God in personal statements that will be delivered during their departmental graduation ceremony on Friday. In an email obtained by Campus Reform, Assistant Professor Eli Hvastkovs, who teaches chemistry at East Carolina University (ECU), instructed his students to prepare a “family friendly” 35­ word personal statement that mentions future plans or “thanks someone.” The students, however, were explicitly forbidden from thanking God. “I've had some submissions that needed to be edited. so [sic] here are some guidelines,” the email reads. “1. You can't thank God. I'm...

COROLLA, N.C. A shipwreck exposed on the beach by winter storms could date to a time of commerce between England and Jamestown in the early 1600s. Possibly the oldest known wreck on the North Carolina coast, the timbers and construction of the ship are very similar to the Sea Venture, the 1609 flagship of seven vessels that carr ied people and supplies to Jamestown, said Bradley A. Rodgers, a professor of archaeology and conservation in the maritime studies program at East Carolina University. Remains of the Sea Venture rest off the Bermuda coast after it ran aground there in 1609...

In just a few weeks we will all celebrate Easter. Easter Sunday is the Christian festival honoring Christ's resurrection and is considered by many people the world over to be the most important religious observance. It is a day of rejoicing for all Christian faiths. This is a fun time to look back and see how some of the Easter celebration came about. The word Easter first came into use in A.D. 735. Eostre, or Eastre, was the Teutonic goddess, the deity of both the dawn and spring. The word was transferred to the holiday we now celebrate when the...

With 41 percent of Tech's traveling roster having never played a college football game, the Hokies' opener against East Carolina this Saturday could be a tough match-up. "We're dressing 10 true freshmen and 15 redshirt freshmen," Virginia Tech head football coach Frank Beamer said. "It's a little bit scary ... We lost a couple kids from last year, but we are very impressed with our freshman class." That is not to say Tech has no veterans on the team, but with only a few at each position, the freshmen will need to step up quickly in order to fend off...

GREENVILLE, N.C. — East Carolina University football fans are buying tickets to their team's bowl game in Hawaii, but they are donating them to military personnel who expect to spend time there during the Christmas holiday. Assistant athletic director for ticketing and marketing Scott Wetherbee said ECU wants to be sure someone will sit in its seats for the Sheraton Aloha Bowl on December 23 in Honolulu by buying tickets and donating them to active members of the service. "We know were not going to take 5,000 fans to Hawaii," Wetherbee said. Hawaii Bowl Executive Director Jim Donovan had contacts...

Suspicious Package On ECU Campus Oct 14, 2005 Jennifer Coates WNCT-TV9 Police were called to campus around 11:30 this afternoon, near the art building. ECU Police tell Nine on Your Side a construction worker left a bookbag full of copper pipes near a construction site. The Cherry Point Bomb Squad was called in. They detonated the six pipes. Four buildings were evacuated during the scare.

The Senate Chambers in Witherspoon Student Center were overrun Wednesday night with the ever-expanding ranks of scurvy dogs and scalawags as Elections Commission Chair Bonnie Pierson revealed the results of the remaining offices of the 2005 Spring General Election. Although candidate Will Quick almost doubled his votes from last week's election, Whil "The Pirate Captain" Piavis clinched victory in the runoff for the position of student body president. Student Senate President candidate Forrest Hinton was also elected, along with Senior Class President candidate Carla Babb, who triumphed over Hisham Salama by a mere 32 votes. Quick's small show of supporters,...

Letters to the Editor October 21, 2004Dear Editor,Peter Kalajian's editorial, "Confederate Flag still an issue?" would be more appropriately titled :Confederate Flag now an issue?" The issue of the Confederate Flag on display is only a recent phenomenon in America. However, young Mr. Kalajian's ability to draw upon points of historical reference, probably only as far back as the beginning of the second Clinton administration, undoubtedly handicaps his ability to appreciate the depth of American and Southern culture, the significance the pantheon of Southern Civil War heroes has had in supporting Southern morale through two world wars, a great depression,...

In less than an hour Sunday morning eight people walking in Greenville's university area fell victim to a group of armed robbers, police said. Before sunrise, Greenville police officers had arrested four Martin County men they believe were responsible and had taken into custody a 15-year-old girl they also believe was involved.