by Page Forrest
Junior Editor
Believe it or not, The Purple isn’t the only publication writing about Sewanee. The University of the South gained attention this year on Inside Higher Ed, an online publication founded in 2004 by Kathlene Collins. The website focuses on news relating to colleges and universities, and is based in Washington D.C. On September 3, Inside Higher Ed featured an article written by Colleen Flaherty praising Sewanee on the new class registration system for freshmen. The praise comes early in the year, as the article was published just days after classes started. However, Flaherty seems sure that the system will continue to work. Her positive feelings were influenced by interviews with Professor Lauryl Tucker (C’99), and Terry Papillon, Dean of the co-chair Professor Richard O’Connor, started working on the new system last year. With the changes in class registration also came re-structuring how students interact with their advisors, and modifications to the Finding Your Place program. Inside Higher Ed details the changes to class registration. Over the summer, incoming freshmen were asked to select twelve classes that fell into three categories of “clearly new and intriguing,” “[classes] you recognize may challenge you,” and “[classes] in which you have confidence and experience.” However, Flaherty didn’t seem too interested in student responsiveness to the registration system, as her article featured no quotes from members of the freshmen class. Fortunately, students of the class of 2018 seem to be responding positively Clark (C’18) said “I really liked how they tried to pull different classes from our strengths and weaknesses, which made it really interesting.” However, it seems as though there are still some areas to be worked on. “I liked it for the most part, but I didn’t like how with most of the classes I was put into, I had already fulfilled the general requirements for the subject,” explained Alexa Euan (C’18). It will be another few weeks before Sewanee truly has a sense of how the changes to the class registration system have impacted the students. However, Inside Higher Ed’s article brings a valuable outsider’s look on the changes, and calls attention to Sewanee’s shifting programs. In semesters to come, Sewanee will only continue to grow and adapt to better serve its student body.