The last week of school can bring stress due to final exams, and at Christian schools, the often mad scramble to get those remaining chapel credits.
This semester, chapel credits were reduced from 30 to 25 credits. However, no service credits were allowed (previously, students could get up to five). Thus, attendance at weekly chapel gatherings has been a must for most students.
Lana Zring is the head of the “I Am Second chapel, held every Thursday at 3:30 p.m. in Zebi’s lounge. During this time in the semester, Zring noted they typically see a rise in attendance with their last chapel having over 200 students. Zring credits the chapel’s attendance to the flexibility the chapel gives students.
“I would get a lot of students who would come in and would say this is the only chapel that I have time for outside of regular chapel hours,” Zring said. She also suggested that having chapels that are later in the day such as “I Am Second” would benefit many students.
Student Sarah Pack commuted the earlier part of the semester from Greensboro but found the commute too difficult, which led her to go back on campus. Since then, she has gone to the chapel office to see how she could make up for the credits missed and said she has experienced difficulties.
Pack said the meetings were rescheduled a few times before she got to meet with someone. During the meeting, she was told she didn’t have a “special case,” but she was given the opportunity to watch videos of chapel on YouTube and write papers on each of them in lieu of attending weekly chapel gatherings.
Lumination reached out to those who work in the chapel office, and they declined to comment.
The chapel office will enter the final credits Tuesday at 1 p.m. The office will no longer take credit after that time. If you qualify for probation, there will be an email sent to you on Wednesday.