A recent email was sent to all Southern students announcing that 25 percent of enrichment credits are now required to come from “Cultural Convocation Credit.” This change was prompted due to the drop in convocation attendance over the past three years.
Dennis Negrón, vice president of student development, said the purpose of this change is to encourage students to attend convocation.
“The genesis of the change comes from the reality that three years ago we made a change to the way we did attendance at programs on campus,” Negrón said.
Previously students were required to earn set amounts of credit from each individual section- convocations, vespers and residence hall worships. Negrón said the elimination of this system caused the decline.
Only vespers attendance grew while convocation and all other cultural program attendance fell.
“We had predicted that convocation and vespers attendance would go up,” Negrón said. Student Development feels the lower attendance does not compensate for the amount of time and money invested in selecting presenters for cultural convocations.
The email sent to students defined “Cultural Convocation Credit” as “non-religious.”
“Non-religious is not really the best term. It doesn’t really reflect what we’re looking for,” Negrón said. “There was a huge mistake in the way the email was written. It did not give out the full definition [of Cultural Convocation Credit].”
Departmental convocations, performing art events and convocations which, discuss secular ideas, qualify as Cultural Convocation Credit.
Image credit: Joseph Hyde