into two. We didn' t know at the beginning of the semester that it would last as long as it did. We hoped to move into the Benson before Christmas ," said Dr. Ganus. President Ganus, Dr. Joseph Pryor, Dr. Ted Altman, and Dr. Jimmy Carr rotated announcement responsibilities. The song leaders signed up with the Music Department for dates to direct singing. They were encouraged to sign up for more than one day; there were always song leaders available. The Bible Department, however, responsible for arranging daily devotionals, had a more difficult duty. The academic departments were called on to plan a week's chapel more often than in the past. By midNovember some had already donp three week's of devotionals. Freshman chapel had numerous speakers , because there was usually only one chance for an American Studies or Timothy Club guest to speak. President Ganus explained, "If a speaker can be here only one time, we put him before the largest number of students. the Main Auditorium. Also, this is primarily the freshman and transfer audience and it's good for them to become acquainted with the speakers provided by.the Timothy Club, campaign groups, and American Studies." The American Heritage chapel suffered in this area, however. Carolyn Ainchum, a sophomore who had Heritage chapel said, "It appeared that they had trouble getting a program together, so we had a lot of hymn-sings or just no program at all. It's better and I enjoy it now in Benson because it is organized and everyone is together, but we have yet to see if it will be taken more seriously. " 'The worst attendance was in the New Gym," related Mrs, Diana Morris of t~e Student Personnel Office, who was responsible for keeping computer records of all absences and recording excuses that were turned in by students. A male junior confirmed Mrs. Morris' statement in this account of his attendance in the fall semester New Gym chapel, "I hiked over there for chapel for the first two weeks of school. and after that I went maybe a total of one week the whole semester. I turned in no excuses to the Personnel Office, and at the end of the semester I had only eight absences logged," he said. Strong negative reactions came often from the upperclassmen who had to walk to the New Gym for the assembly each morning. "It's a big hassle having to walk to the gym in dresses when it's cold, and especially in the rain ," commented senior Dani Trammell. President Ganus announced at the first of the year , "It 's a makeshift situation, but we just have to live with it and do the best we can. " The best the administration could do . however, was not enough to keep some students coming to chapel. As the semester began, students quickly settled into a pattern of attendance or often of non-attendance. Another student somewhat acidly expressed his opinion concerning first semester's chapel when he quipped , "Chapell Last semesterl Did we have chapel last semester?" He continued that the walk to the gym, the early morning hour and the lack of relevant programming combined to influence his decision - an unconscious one that evolved into a habit - not to attend. "I'would hate to have this used as a standard by which to measure the tradition of chapel at Harding. The semester was bad. It was hard on the students - especially those in the gym," defended Mrs. Morris. She knew how things were. Besides keeping attendance records, she periodically sent letters from Dr . Altman to those students who exceeded their cut quota for the semester. "I try to deal with attitudes about chapel. Some people resent the fact that its a daily thing, " said Vice President for Student Mfairs Ted Altman. "This semester, for example, I think chapel hit an all-time low. At the beginning of the year when we were first meeting in three places, people enjoyed the change. But when the newness wore off it wasn't like chapel at all, " said the man,whose office handles attendance problems. "When there were two chapels at 11:00 and 11:45. it was a time to go and find out what was going on and get together r to see friends and eat lunch, aside from whatever the program for that particular day might have been," remembered sophomore Karen Hinton. "I hope we can establish traditions that will be meaningful in the new setting of Benson, to help make up for the loss of that time together when chapel was at lunch," said Altman. "Something we considered before making the change to morning chapel was that when it coincided with lunch it made two hours of the day when the student body could just enjoy being together. We' ll have to work in Benson to develop that spirit. " Aware of the less-than-ideal conditions provided by the three-chapel situation, Mrs. Morris said that the Student Personnel Office did relax its restrictions during the fall. "We were less strict last semester. We cautioned students more . Those in the gym who contested the number of absences on~ .their computer sheets were usually given the benefit of the doubt . It really was difficult to decide who was and who wasn't there in the gym, when the chapel checker stood in the end of a long row of bleachers. "We had students who accumulated such a number of absences that they were not allowed to register in January until they had spoken to Dr. Altman about it. Others were allowed fewer absences for the spring semester as a result of having been habitually absent, " she continued. "I hope the -attitude of aU of us in the office was to encourage students to attend; we do believe in the worth of chapel." Commenting on Harding's past attendance, Mrs. Morris recalled , "In the past Harding always had good attendance, considering the number of students and the number of absences allowed. A certain number of students in any group would have a bad attitude about rules and thus about chapel , but I believe from the students I talked to and watched that everyone was looking forward to the move to the Benson Auditorium so that students could again enjoy attending and being aU together ." Before mid-term, Mrs. Morris said that the records confinned that students were making more of an effort to attend during second semester. 'This fal1." said sophomore Urain Mangrum, "there was no unity at all. In fact. I felt resentful sometimes that I should have to spend my time in chapel with what I considered a worthless program when my friends who were in the gym cut as they wished and didn't get counted absent. That feeling was about the way things were this last semester, though. "On those days when I didn't worship in the most reverent sense of the word, more often than not I came away thinking that the speaker did have a good point . Maybe the value of chapel for me wasn 't in the reverence of the moment , but in the good I got from 'relating what some speaker mentioned to what I did later in the day. As for the practice of requiring chapel, I agree with it. It's part of why I came here . Harding would not be Harding without it. " tEl - Patti Farmer 49 Chapel
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