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Zooming in on Virtual Tiger Days BY GABBY DAVIS Staff Writer
Refuge speaker James Lasley speaks at the second refuge of the semester. Refuge is still being held in JPAC on Thursdays. (Photo by Sarah Dean)
Campus ministries provides safe gatherings for praise BY ASHLYN SEIBERT Staff Writer
As part of their compliance with COVID guidelines, Campus Ministries (CM) has opted to find new ways to continue to serve the Ouachita student population and help give students opportunities to continue to grow in their faith. Refuge is one of the staples of student life at Ouachita. This semester, CM is offering both online and in-person attendance options for Refuge. Students can choose to either sign up ahead of time for an in-person seat, or join via live stream. This allows more people to attend while still following current guidelines. Additionally, CM has opted to change Noonday to Moonday. Berry Chapel has a COVID capacity of 40 people, so Noonday is now only held on Fridays at noon. In order to allow for more students to attend, CM came up with Moonday, which takes place on Mondays and Wednesdays at 9:00 p.m. on the lawn of Berry Chapel.
Student reception to these changes has been fairly positive. According to senior Moonday student leader Kayla Brown, the event has been well-attended and many students have found the time change to be fairly rewarding. “A lot of people have told me that they think it’s really cool that it’s at night time now,” Brown said. “I think it’s gone pretty well so far.” As one of the first Moonday speakers, junior Mitchell Waite was able to see the positive impact of Moonday and its ability to allow students to continue to worship. “It was different, for sure,” Waite said. “But I still felt the Holy Spirit move among the other students while I spoke. I feel like God is allowing this time to be for us, as Christians, to dig deeper in our pursuit of fellowshipping together through all of the restrictions.” These adjustments have allowed students and will continue to allow students different opportunities to worship and fellowship safely together throughout this year.
Every aspect of Ouachita has been re-imagined to fit the new reality of COVID, social distancing guidelines and mask requirements, and student recruitment events are no exception. Tiger Days are one of the largest recruiting events on campus, second only to Explore weekend, which typically takes place during Tiger Tunes and Homecoming weekend. With both of those events looking different this year, Tiger Days will likely exceed Explore in attendance this year. Virtual Tiger Days are an important strategy for student recruitment in the unusual climate of this year. In the past, prospective students would visit campus for the opportunity to hear from Dr. Ben Sells and admissions counselors, chat with current students and explore Ouachita. This year, though, that will all happen on a computer screen. “Our first Virtual Tiger Day was in May and was attended by 30 students, which is a good number for an in-person Tiger Day, so we were pleased with the turnout,” Adam Wheat, guest experience coordinator in admissions counseling, said. “The deans, our faculty and staff, current students and Dr. Sells all were extremely flexible during our first attempt to take an event that we have done hundreds of times on campus and translate it into an equally impactful virtual experience.” Such drastic changes inevitably come with many risks and rewards. Declining student involvment due to technical difficulty, user error or plain confusion as to how the virtual Tiger Days will work are all risks related to virtual Tiger Days. “We are relying on prospective students and their families to nav-
igate from session to session via the web page rather than being led there or directed there by our friendly staff and students,” Wheat said. “That can lead to more moments of frustration that need to be overcome. But I think what is more encouraging for us is that we get to interact and show Ouachita to students from about 12 different states and five different countries who would be less able to make the trip to campus for our typical event. It’s very exciting to get to connect with students we would not be able to otherwise.” Technology may be what makes these events possible, but the dedication and commitment from faculty, students and staff makes them enjoyable, successful and impactful. The admissions staff works hard to prepare for Tiger Days, but they also rely heavily on current students to interact with and relate to the prospective students who attend. “As Dr. Sells often says, what most impacts those who come to Ouachita is what makes Ouachita: our people,” Wheat said. “Well, guess what? Our people are still here. And they are still great. Our traditions give us a strong sense of our identity, and our visionary leadership empowers us to make necessary adjustments. On the whole, this transition has been relatively seamless because our people are so consistently excellent.” Senior communications and graphic design double major Grace Talley stepped up to serve on Virtual Tiger Days because she desired to connect with and relate to prospective students during this time. “As a student who loves Ouachita, I feel like I need to share my experiences and help other students find their reasons to love Ouachita,” Talley said. “I know that these high school seniors are
going through so much right now, between normal college stress and a global pandemic, so I feel like it’s helpful to them to have a friendly face who’s been there and is learning how to roll with the punches right along with them.” For junior English and Spanish double major Cora Saddler, meeting the people on Ouachita’s campus was important when she was a prospective student, so she was eager to connect with other prospective students through this event. “For me, getting to meet the students and professors really solidified my decision to come here,” Saddler said. “You can really tell a lot about a campus by meeting the people, and the fact that we have so many students eager to speak to prospective students during this time speaks volumes to the kind of community we want to embody at Ouachita.” For other student volunteers, participating in a Virtual Tiger Day means shining a new light on the university’s academics. Junior mass communications major Matthew Branch was excited to share his passion for sports media and information about opportunities in the communications department. “I’ve been pretty involved with my major doing the sports media side of things,” Branch said. “So when I got the opportunity to tell some other students who might want to go into that field or aren’t really sure what they want to do with communications yet, I figured it would be a great opportunity because I’ve seen a lot of different sides of our major.” Even while adapting to these changes, everyone from Ouachita who takes part in a Virtual Tiger Day wants to share their exoperiences with anyone who will listen. They want to touch prospective students’ lives in a significant way, even if they have to do it virtually.
