Welcome Week: Prepare to Launch Into the New Year

by   |   [email protected]   |   August 10, 2020

You already know the novel coronavirus pandemic is changing the fall semester. Check-in is only the beginning. Welcome Week, too, will not follow its normal pattern.

Class of 2024, you can find comfort in the fact that you’re not the only ones who are a little overwhelmed. “In some ways this pandemic levels the playing field for students,” said Rebecca Weier, director of student engagement and success, “because it is new to all of us.”

What will be the same?

  • President Steve Pettit will welcome new students at 4:30 p.m. Friday.
  • Music auditions and placement tests will take place Friday (new students only), Saturday and Monday.
  • New students will have a welcome activity Friday night and will have the opportunity to preview societies on Saturday morning.
  • First-year Advisors will be available in the Academic Resource Center on Saturday and Monday afternoons.
  • Opening exercises will occur but with changes.
  • New students will attend the Major Meet & Greet at 8:30 a.m. on Monday.
  • The Student Seminar is at 10:15 a.m. on Monday followed by either residence hall meetings or day student meetings.
  • The evangelistic meetings are Monday and Tuesday evening, but the services will be modified.
  • Chapel, discipleship groups and society will take place, but with adjustments.

What will be different?

  • The first Ignite kicks off the academic year at 9 p.m. Saturday.
  • Residence hall students will attend a campus worship service Sunday morning instead of attending local church services. Freshmen and seniors will attend at 9 a.m. while sophomores and juniors will attend at 10:30 a.m.
  • A required campus community meeting will be held Sunday afternoon. Freshmen and seniors will attend the 2 p.m. meeting; sophomores and juniors will attend the 3:30 p.m. meeting. This meeting will cover the COVID-19 protocols and procedures in place to keep the BJU community healthy.
  • Opening exercises will be at 7 p.m. Sunday, and you will be required to sit in your assigned chapel location.
    • Freshmen — FMA main floor
    • Sophomores — Rodeheaver Auditorium
    • Juniors — FMA balcony/Stratton Hall
    • Seniors — FMA main floor
  • The evangelistic meetings will be held on Monday and Tuesday evening at 6 and 7:30 p.m. Freshmen and seniors attend the 6 p.m. service; sophomores and juniors attend the 7:30 p.m. service.
  • Classes begin on Tuesday. Double check your class schedule Tuesday morning. Classrooms may have changed.
  • Chapel, discipleship groups and society follow a new schedule.
    • Tuesday
      • Discipleship groups
    • Thursday
      • Women: discipleship groups
      • Men: society
    • Friday
      • Women: society
      • Men: discipleship groups

Other welcome week events (such as academic department events) are listed at bju.edu/calendar.

So, fill in your planners with pencil and remember that “the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing” (James 1:3–4).

More information on the policies and procedures BJU has in place to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 can be found in the Campus Life Plan.

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