Chapel time to change to accomodate faculty

by Andrew Wilber
Staff Writer

All students returning to Bryan this fall will have a change in their daily routine. Chapel will be held at 10 a.m., an hour earlier than its current time.

The main reason for this change is to accommodate faculty and students by allowing them to have more of a chance to get lunch before heading to afternoon classes, according to Vice President for Spiritual Formation Matt Benson.

In the fall, chapel will be held at 10a.m rather than 11a.m./ Triangle photo by Andrew Wilber

“What we’ve been hearing from faculty is a tension between needing to eat lunch and needing to be on time for class––and wanting to participate in chapel,” he said, adding that the department also felt that students “having to run to classes with sandwiches probably isn’t healthy.”

The change has been in the works since last spring, according to Academic Vice President Bradford Sample.

“The faculty asked last year if cabinet could approve a time change. So I took that request to cabinet, we discussed it and they approved,” he said, also saying that while “the decision was made last spring, we decided it would be too messy to implement it at the time.”

Sample said that chapel was originally at 10 a.m., but was then moved to 11 a.m. for reasons related to class scheduling in 2006.

The new move to bring it back to 10 a.m. comes once again from the college’s academic staff, according to Benson.

“It’s mostly being driven by the academic side of things. We [Spiritual Formation] felt that we can do what we need to do at anytime, so if this change helps people, that’s great.”

Benson also stressed that this is “simply a time change.” Chapel will still be what it has always been and meet in one section on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He said that 11:00a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays will remain open for CLF meetings.

While a few students with only afternoon classes may be unhappy with being forced to start their day an hour earlier, they should be glad that it isn’t being moved back to when it was in the school’s earlier days, according to Karin Traylor, administrative assistant to academic vice president.

“When I was here, it was at 8 a.m.” she said.