Southern Adventist University has adjusted the number of enrichment and cultural credits to one credit per credit-qualifying program for the Winter 2022 semester. This adjustment applies to Vespers and convocations, which will now be worth one credit per program instead of two credits.
On January 10, Teri Reutebuch, administrative assistant for Student Development, sent an email to all undergraduate students outlining the adjustments to enrichment credits.
“This semester, Enrichment Credit requirements have changed in response to the COVID epidemic, we have simplified the enrichment credit attendance,” Reutebuch wrote in the email. “All programming will be 1 credit. You will still be required to get cultural credits, and all Convocations (religious and non-religious) will now be considered cultural.”
Dennis Negrón, vice president for Student Development, explained the decision to make these adjustments to enrichment credits.
“This was a decision made from this office to get ahead of the potential problems that might come as a result of COVID again,” Negrón said in an interview with the Accent. “… We decided to get ahead and say, ‘We are going to simplify the system so that students don’t have the troubles they had last semester.’ … A student doesn’t have to worry [if an event is] a double-credit or a single-credit program — everything is single. And then, they don’t have to ask the question: ‘Am I getting cultural credits for this program?’ If you go to convocation on Thursday, you are automatically getting cultural credit. … We are trying to listen to students, who said the system during COVID was just too complicated. So, we just tried to simplify it.”
In addition, Negrón stated that there will only be one Vespers program on Friday evenings instead of two Vespers programs, as has been done in previous semesters affected by COVID-19. Negrón also stated that there will not be online options for Vespers, convocations and other programming. If there are students who are uncomfortable with coming to these in-person events, Negrón said seating arrangements will be made where it is not crowded.
