Coronavirus – TrevEchoes Online

Admissions pushes through pandemic to bring in new students

25Feb

By Grace BecknerNo Comments

Admissions pushes through pandemic to bring in new students

Next year's freshman class is on track to surpass the numbers of the freshman who came to Trevecca in 2020. “Based on what I am seeing, it looks like the pandemic may have affected us more in the fall of 2020, than it is going to affect us in the fall of 2021,” said Melinda Miller, executive director of traditional admissions. Trevecca admissions officials say they have admitted 985 freshmen as of Monday, Feb. 22, while at the same time last year they had admitted 765 freshmen. They attribute this increase of admitted students to their test optional policy adopted for the fall of 2021. This fall, 350 freshmen and 66 transfers enrolled at Trevecca. That's about 61 fewer than the 392 freshmen and 85 transfer students in the fall of 2019, the year before Covid-19. For the coming f...

Adjustments made to spring semester plan after fall feedback

24Feb

By trevechoesonlineNo Comments

Campus News, Coronavirus

Adjustments made to spring semester plan after fall feedback

by Kaylee Franklin With the spring semester nearing the midway point and less than 100 days to go until summer break, students are feeling the weight of this pandemic school year. For Erica Wigart, associated student body president, her number one priority has been making sure that students feel heard and advocated for. “My main goal this year has just been to listen to people if they ever come to me with different concerns and just advocate for them,” said Wigart. “If I’m experiencing something a lot of other people are probably experiencing that as well.” When it came down to evaluate the efforts of the fall semester, Trevecca administrators sat down with the COVID-19 student advisory board, a focus group of students working with administr...

Students work to host modified Friday Night Live event

23Feb

By trevechoesonlineNo Comments

Campus News, Coronavirus, Events

Students work to host modified Friday Night Live event

By Isabel Landers A small group of students on campus are meeting every week to try and figure out how to still host the university's most popular social event of the year. Friday Night Live, an event based on the popular TV show Saturday Night Live, typically draws more than 200 students a year. After canceling last year's show because of COVID-19, organizers are in the process of figuring out how to host the event this year in line with restrictions on crowd gatherings. Rachel Thompson, social life director, hopes that the show is similar to how it has always been. She knows that there will be a few minor differences but thinks that from an audience perspective it will look the same. Thompson said there will still be live components and video components. Th...

Student retention holds steady despite pandemic

16Feb

By Grace BecknerNo Comments

Campus News, Coronavirus

Student retention holds steady despite pandemic

When COVID-19 sent Trevecca students and faculty scrambling to figure out online learning last spring, Megan McGhee, the director of new student programs, said student development went into crisis mode. “In the spring, I think it was all so new that, to a certain extent, we were all just trying to survive,” she said. The crisis in question? Convincing students to return to Trevecca in the fall. Jeff Swink, the coordinator of retention and assessment, defines this problem as “trying to make sure that every student is retained at the university each semester.” Across the United States, the average student retention rate at four-year institutions is 81 percent. Trevecca’s average retention rate in the past has been 87 percent. This year, largely because of the pandemic, the ...

Freshmen face unique challenges during pandemic

16Feb

By trevechoesonlineNo Comments

Coronavirus, Features

Freshmen face unique challenges during pandemic

By Isabel Landers Gathered around tables in the cafeteria and sand volleyball courts, jumping in the car with nowhere to go: This is how Trevecca freshmen have found community amidst a global pandemic. Freshmen students have learned to make traditions of their own. Ending their high school career with canceled proms and high school graduations prepared them for the things they would miss out on coming into college. “It's not really difficult to adapt to the situation we are in because it's not like we have known anything different,” said Adam Newman, a freshman. Trevveca’s 336 freshmen are among the 3.2 million high school graduates to start college during a global pandemic, according to educationdata.org. College administrators nationwide have struggled...

Counseling Center still operating virtually

9Feb

By trevechoesonlineNo Comments

Coronavirus, Mental Health

Counseling Center still operating virtually

By Diana Leyva Jacob Caitlin Lassiter, a Trevecca senior, sits in her bedroom, careful not to disrupt her roommates, and prepares for her online counseling session. Lassiter is one of many students to access counseling remotely on campus since August. To lower the risk of contagion and abide by COVID-19 regulations, counseling services have moved completely online. Students can request a session and meet with a counselor via Telehealth. Sarah Hopkins, director of counseling services, said since COVID began she has seen an increase in loneliness and people struggling with how to access good resources and support during this time. “Anxiety and depression are typically the number one causes of counseling referrals on any college camp...

Religion professors shift course content to equip students for ministry in COVID-19 era

9Feb

By Caitlin LassiterNo Comments

Coronavirus, Features, Spiritual Life

Religion professors shift course content to equip students for ministry in COVID-19 era

As Tim Green sits down to plan the syllabus for his Fall 2020 Old Testament Theology class, there’s one thing he knows with certainty: he can’t teach this class the same way he has in previous years. Green, dean of the Millard Reed School of Theology and Christian Ministry, said a Zoom conversation with other Nazarene Old Testament professors across the country confirmed his feelings that the course needed to be redesigned from the ground up in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and other 2020 tragedies. “Can we ignore the elephant in the room and teach this like we would any old time?” Green asked himself. Immediately, he knew he couldn’t. So the redesign began. “For the group that made up our class, the elephant in the room was that their spring semester ended in March and the...

Chapel Redesign Moves Services Across Campus, Online for Spring 2021 Semester

28Jan

By Caitlin LassiterNo Comments

Campus News, Coronavirus, Spiritual Life

Chapel Redesign Moves Services Across Campus, Online for Spring 2021 Semester

Trevecca chapel is back to meeting in-person this semester and requirements and fines will be enforced again. After a semester of no required attendance and all virtual chapels, a return to previous chapel plans and requirements is underway. Students will be required to wear masks and socially distance and the number of required chapels is 14 this semester, instead of the usual 24. Online viewing was down last semester when attendance wasn’t a requirement, so a shift back to mandatory chapel credits is necessary to get students to engage with the content on a regular basis, University Chaplain Erik Gernand said. With more than 24 options for attendance this semester, Worship & Witness chapels will be held Tuesdays at 9:30 a.m. in Boone Convocation, Benson Audito...

12Nov

By Maci WeeksNo Comments

Coronavirus, Features, Sports

Navigating cold and flu season during a global pandemic

Alumni won’t be at Homecoming: Events planned for current students

2Nov

By trevechoesonlineNo Comments

Alumni, Campus News, Coronavirus, Events

Alumni won’t be at Homecoming: Events planned for current students

By Diana Leyva Jacob Alumni won't be able to come to the hill for homecoming this year. Instead, campus officials are planning virtual events to attempt to connect with alumni in the midst of a pandemic that makes gatherings like homecoming impossible. “I think for our emotional well-being, it is important to try to capture as much of a sense of normalcy, so that's what we hope to do by sharing these virtual events,” said Michael Johnson, director of alumni and church engagement. An online kit is available for $25, which includes access to the virtual live stream, a Trevecca mask and t-shirt, candy, and popcorn. Ten dollars from each purchase will go towards the Fund for Trevecca Scholarship. While university officials aren't allowing anyone on campus other tha...