SouthernAccent The student voice since 1926 Collegedale, Tennesse Thursday, September 10, 2015 Vol. 71, Issue 1
Enrollment Numbers Drop natalia Perez STAFF WRITER
Freshmen enrollment appears to have fallen about 40 students short of the university’s incoming goal of 590 students for this fall. The number of transfer students is also down by 36 from the goal of 220 students, said Adam Brown, director of recruitment. According to a report distributed Aug. 23 by Joni Zier, director of Records and Advisement, the head count of undergraduate students in general on campus has dropped by 59 students from last year’s count of 2,625 students. However, this excludes students abroad and student missionaries. “This is just a tentative report,” Zier said. “The numbers are changing all the time; we don’t know for a fact whether enrollment will stay down or not.” Brown said, “With these figures, along with an unmet retention goal of 80 percent, Enrollment Management is planning its next course of action.” Initial enrollment numbers are not as high as Southern budgeted for, said Tom Verrill, senior vice president of Financial Administration. “Southern remains financially strong and university administrators have been meeting to assess what adjustments will address the budgeted financial shortfall in a way that best allows Southern to continue to meet its mission,” said Verrill. “The university administration remains fully committed to providing a valuable and affordable Adventist education to every student who made Southern their campus choice this year and who will attend Southern in the future.” Brown said they don’t want to raise tuition. “It’s not the students’ fault we didn’t reach our enrollment goals.”
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Students gather for the first convocation of the year.
Photo by Marketing and University Relations
ONE BUCKET, MORE OPTIONS; WORSHIP AND CONVOCATION REQUIREMENTS CHANGE Cassie MatChiM NEWS EDITOR
Southern Adventist University’s new worship and convocation program aims to give students more choices. The previous program required students to attend worships, vespers and convocations and get a certain number of each. Now students can attend any of the three and get credit towards a grand total. “That was a huge motivator for me,” said Chaplain Brennon Kirstein, chair of
the Spiritual Life Committee. “I wanted to give students more choices, more options, more freedom with the ultimate desire that we want students to own their own spirituality.” The Spiritual Life Committee made recommendations last year for the new system to University Senate, who implemented it after much discussion. The new system brings several changes. It allows students the flexibility to get credits at the most
convenient times for them, between classes, work and intramurals. The second change incentivizes longer meetings. “We feel as if convocations and vespers are important traditions on this campus,” said Dennis Negrón, vice president of student services. By making vespers, convocations, LifeGroups and performing arts events worth two credits, attendance is strongly encouraged at these programs. Residence hall Continued on page 4
CAMPUS SAFETY OFFERS FREE PARKING PERMIT saMinta hean STAFF WRITER
Campus Safety is providing free parking permits for community students. The permit is referred to as the “O” permit. Permits are required for all Southern Adventist University students, staff and faculty. The letters on the permits represent where the students reside and where cars are allowed to park. For example, community students have a “C” on their
permits and must park in areas with signs clearly marked with a “C.” According to Campus Safety, the “O” permit is an alternative option to the “C” permit. The purpose of the permit is to save community students money by offering parking in less populated areas of campus. Some of these locations are the Collegedale Seventh-day Adventist Church parking lot and the parking lot
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on Morningside Drive near the Biology Trail behind the university’s Upper Stateside apartments. However, some students argue that the free permit is not worth the distance. “Compared to other schools,” Zachary Dye, senior accounting major, said, “Forty-five dollars isn’t a bad price to pay for the ‘C’ permit, considering I’d be late to class if I had to walk to Brock Hall from the church.”
WOMEN’S ORDINATION VOTE SEE RELIGION PAGE 6
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