The Echo

The Echo Student News from Warren Wilson College The publication was renamed The Talon in 1976 and later renamed the Common Tongue in 1989.

The Echo student-run newspaper was first published in 1942, just a short time after Warren Wilson Vocational Junior College began admitting women. In early 2000, it reverted back to The Echo until December 2016, when the College decided to stop running it due to a lack of funding. On November 16, 2020, a new chapter of The Echo begins. The Echo encourages readers to respond to issues raised in our

pages via letters to the editor. Letters can be submitted to [email protected] by 3 p.m. on the Sunday before publication (Wednesdays) and should not exceed 300 words. Letters that do not meet the deadline or word limit will be considered on a space-available basis. Anonymous letters will not be accepted. By submitting a letter, you give permission to reproduce your letter in any format. The Echo reserves the right of editorial review of all submissions. Comment Policy
The Echo intends for this area to be used to foster healthy, thought-provoking discussion. Comments are expected to adhere to our standards and to be respectful and constructive. We ask that you refrain from the use of foul language, personal attacks, derogatory remarks or comments that might be interpreted as libelous. We reserve the right to delete comments that do not align with our standards.

Orchids to...Pet Halloween costumesThe whimsical Morse pond koi fish False fallOnions to...People with open containers :...
11/09/2025

Orchids to...

Pet Halloween costumes

The whimsical Morse pond koi fish

False fall

Onions to...

People with open containers :(

No parking on the main campus

Heatless Villages suites

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The Blue Ridge National Heritage Area (BRNHA) is proud to announce a special concert at White Horse Black Mountain, feat...
11/09/2025

The Blue Ridge National Heritage Area (BRNHA) is proud to announce a special concert at White Horse Black Mountain, featuring the acclaimed, Grammy-nominated bluegrass duo Darin and Brooke Aldridge. Proceeds from the show will directly support the organization’s Blue Ridge Music Trails, which preserves and promotes the traditional music of Western North Carolina. The show is part of the historic Asheville Sessions Celebration, a four-day event from November 6 to 9, commemorating the 1925 Asheville Sessions, the first collection of recordings that captured Appalachian music.

The Asheville Sessions Celebration features concerts, historical programs, panel discussions, and the re-release of a historic album. Events in the Asheville area are scheduled across venues, including the Funkatorium, The Grey Eagle, and the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium. The concert at White Horse Black Mountain promises to be an evening dedicated to the rich Appalachian music traditions of the region.

Darin and Brooke Aldridge, both from Avery County, NC, have contributed significantly to the state’s renowned music heritage, leading the way in the Americana, Bluegrass, and Country music genres. They have performed at the Grand Ole Opry and the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Awards. Brooke has won the award for Female Vocalist of the Year on four occasions, and Darin is well-known as an extraordinary singer and multi-instrumentalist, as well as a former member of The Country Gentlemen. The two combined are a strong musical force, having performed at the Grand Ole Opry over 60 times, and by working with other music legends, including Ricky Skaggs, Vince Gil, and the Oak Ridge Boys. The couple is listed on BRNHA’s Traditional Artist Directory.

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Story by Bridget Herbig.

Students at Warren Wilson College (WWC) dressed up and danced their way through the Halloween weekend of 2025, showcasin...
11/09/2025

Students at Warren Wilson College (WWC) dressed up and danced their way through the Halloween weekend of 2025, showcasing their creativity and imagination through costumes of all kinds.

Click the link in our bio or go to wwcecho.news to see more!

Story by Emma Taylor McCallum.

Those who were active on social media in the months leading up to September 2025 may have heard about the latest install...
11/09/2025

Those who were active on social media in the months leading up to September 2025 may have heard about the latest installment in doomsday fearmongering: the Biblical Rapture, supposedly due on September 23 of the same year as prophesied by a South African man named Joshua Mhlakela.

While many have mistakenly labeled Mhlakela as a pastor, he holds no official title, spiritual or otherwise, instead basing his claims on a dream that he had. As a guest on the CENTTWINZ T “I’ve Been Through The Most” podcast, Mhlakela told hosts Innocent Sadiki and Millicent Mashile, “The Rapture is upon us. It is so upon us that if you are not ready for it, it is ready for you.”

The Rapture is a primarily Evangelical Christian belief that was first introduced in the 1830s. It is said to be an end-of-world event where true believers will be spirited away into the heavens while the rest of humanity is plunged into a devastated world of unimaginable horrors. According to Mhlakela, this was meant to happen on Sept. 23, 2025.

This is hardly the first widely rumored apocalypse proved false - in merely the last 30 years, we have survived such impotent disasters such as ‘Y2K’, the supposed end of all electronics that was thought to come at midnight on Jan. 1, 2000, setting humanity’s progress back decades and May 21, 2012, where a misunderstanding of the Mayan calendar convinced thousands that the world was ending. These are just a few of the better known examples. While the type of Armageddon being proposed differed, the panic amongst the masses was the same.

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Story by Beck Welles.

As we turn the clocks back one hour for the end of Daylight Saving Time (DST), one glaring question comes to mind: why “...
11/09/2025

As we turn the clocks back one hour for the end of Daylight Saving Time (DST), one glaring question comes to mind: why “spring forward” to begin with?

As it turns out, the history of DST and time zones in the United States is closely tied to the history of transportation, and both are relatively recent concepts for Americans. The time zones we know today (Eastern, Central, Mountain, Pacific and Alaska) were adopted in 1918 in an effort to coordinate time across the nation due to railroad concerns, while DST was only instituted in 1966 following the creation of the Department of Transportation (DOT) through the Uniform Time Act. While DST had existed prior to this in other countries, this was the first time it was adopted in the United States.

DST is also commonly associated with the conservation of energy, as it allows for longer hours of sunlight. The starting and ending dates of DST have fluctuated over time to reflect the United States’ concerns about energy consumption, and the starting and ending dates we use today were first adopted in 2007 following the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

The issue of reducing our collective energy consumption via DST could be debated. There is inconclusive evidence that we use less electricity during DST, as electricity use is also impacted by geographic, climate and economic conditions. In fact, while we get more light during the evening while observing DST, we lose a lot of morning light, which is arguably more important in a society that prioritizes early start times for school and work.

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Perspective by Clara Shirley.

Warren Wilson College (WWC) is no stranger to a peaceful protest; it’s especially no stranger to folk music. Combine the...
11/04/2025

Warren Wilson College (WWC) is no stranger to a peaceful protest; it’s especially no stranger to folk music. Combine them, and you’re met with Mon Rovîa, an artist who has recently gained traction for his Afro-Appalachian folk songs about love, resilience and resistance.

Born Janjay Lowe, Mon Rovîa spent the first years of his life in Monrovia, surviving the Liberian Civil War. After his mother died in childbirth, Rovîa, along with his sister and brother, was left in the care of their grandmother. Soon after, Rovîa was dropped off with a missionary family in the community, not knowing he wouldn’t see his birth family again for years.

Rovîa describes this experience in an interview with Mel Robbins.

“[My aunt] picked me up and said, ‘You’re going to go live with this family,’ so from that day on, I lived with them,” Rovîa said. “We lived through the war before we went back to the States. I don’t think I realized how much it did to my mind, being pulled from the land, the language, the similarity of people. I didn’t speak for a long time.”

Rovîa’s adopted family settled down in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he still resides today.

Having experienced such violence just to be whisked away to a completely different world before the age of seven, it makes sense that one of the themes of Rovîa’s music is acceptance of the past. Songs like “Whose Face Am I” and “City on a Hill” address the feelings of grief and confusion that come on the other side of pain.

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Photo by Zyne Isom.
Story by Mallory Wallace-Usry.

Situated across from the Warren Wilson College (WWC) farm stands the facilities building, home to the handful of crews t...
11/04/2025

Situated across from the Warren Wilson College (WWC) farm stands the facilities building, home to the handful of crews that keep essential operations on campus running. These crews share a large amount of responsibility for the appearance and functionality of WWC, but have been met with a persistent lack of resources leading to overworked staff, delayed repairs and general inefficiency.

“Facilities has a lot of different crews,” Taylor Smith, the director of WWC’s motorpool and manager of the work order system, said. “It kind of just does the general maintenance of the entire campus.”

Maintenance Services Crew tackles repairs, event setup, plumbing and lightbulb replacement. Construction Crew undertakes both minor repairs to dorm rooms and roofing projects. Paint Crew, which handles interior and exterior paint projects along with graffiti removal. Carpentry Crew’s supervisor Andy Denison manages furniture repairs, gutter cleaning and vehicle maintenance. The newly created HVAC Crew is responsible for maintaining all of the HVAC systems on campus.

Smith, who graduated from WWC in the spring of 2025, was hired in a full-time role to help streamline the system for processing “work orders,” the broad term used to describe all maintenance requests submitted to facilities. While her guidance has helped the system work more smoothly, facilities crews still face challenges that can make their work difficult and extend wait times for repairs.

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Story by Ryleigh Johnson and Clara Shirley.

When scrolling through social media, it’s hard to escape the plague of the “iPhone face” and carefully curated appearanc...
11/04/2025

When scrolling through social media, it’s hard to escape the plague of the “iPhone face” and carefully curated appearances. One cannot avoid trudging through the endless posts about the hottest product you NEED to look 10 years younger, or the new plastic surgery you can get to elevate your appearance. Feel good about yourself? Don’t worry, 15 minutes on Instagram Reels will change that!

According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), plastic surgery originated in India over 4,000 years ago, with procedures like skin grafts and nasal reconstruction. Its modern name, coined by Edward Zeis, emerged in 1838, stemming from the Greek adjective Plastikós, meaning moldable. In the early 1900s, plastic surgery focused on reconstruction services spurred by military injuries. With the industrial revolution and the creation of synthetic plastic, the options provided by plastic surgeons expanded.

What we think of as plastic surgery today began in the late 1900s with surgical advancements in procedures like liposuction, fat grafting and breast augmentation. In the blink of an eye, plastic surgery was covertly being performed on the famous and normal alike. Kylie Jenner popularized the plump lips of the late 2010s, Kim Kardashian popularized having a large butt and many celebrities helped to “normalize” plastic surgery. Now, through social media, influencers can use a false sense of relatability to shape the current global landscape by setting the beauty standards and creating viral beauty trends.

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Story by Emily Cobb.

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701 Warren Wilson Road
Swannanoa, NC
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