As the semester comes to a close, students are coming to terms with their chapel requirements.

For some well-organized students, obtaining 30 chapel credits by the remaining few weeks is a thing of the past. Other Biolans are spending these last weeks completing make-up chapels and looking for any lectures that could count for credit.

Some freshmen have difficulty fulfilling requirements

“I still need 15 credits,” freshman Stormie Knott said. “I know, it sounds like I slacked off, but I only attended chapel 15 times because that’s all that I had time for.”

Some freshmen, like Knott, find it hard to balance the load of chapel requirements along with their load of classes. Knott is in the Torrey Honors program, which she said makes it harder for her to attend chapels.

“This semester, I found it extremely difficult to keep up on my workload while still trying to get to chapel,” said Knott, “I think it was mostly getting into the swing of Torrey that kept me from going to chapel.”

Older students have trouble too

Freshmen are not the only students who find it difficult to balance schoolwork and chapel. Sophomore Gracie Temple and junior Kelsey Gaskins said their school workloads have also kept them from fulfilling their attendance requirements earlier in the semester.

“Being busy has kept me from getting them done sooner,” Gaskins said. “This semester has been a little difficult because it is my first semester in clinical nursing.”

Temple also said that busyness has kept her from fulfilling the requirement sooner. On top of regular class loads, both Temple and Gaskins are RAs in Alpha Chi.

According to Temple and Gaskins, the higher students climb on the academic ladder, the harder it is for them to fulfill the chapel requirement. Temple said that during her freshman year she easily fulfilled the requirement and even had extra chapel credits to her name, but that this year, as a sophomore, it was more difficult to get the credits earlier in the semester because of her increased workload.

Gaskins echoed this statement and said that this year has been the most difficult year to earn chapel credits.

Though some students find it difficult and stressful to fulfill the chapel attendance requirement, many Biolans say that the task is feasible.

Chapel requirement encourages community

“There are so many options,” said Temple. “I think the 30 chapel requirement is reasonable because it challenges the community of Biola. It’s a good thing.”

This semester Biola offered a total of 267 chapels including Singspiration, an all-worship service on Sunday nights, and After Dark, which takes place on Wednesday nights. While the majority of students attend the Monday, Wednesday and Friday chapels, the services on other days and evenings offer students unable to attend the “big chapels” an opportunity to gain credit.

Planning ahead allows for alternate chapel attendance

Temple said that she had commitments this semester that hindered her from attending the Monday, Wednesday and Friday chapels, but that she was still able to complete the 30-chapel requirement by going to the other available chapels.

Gaskins and Temple said planning ahead was the best way to make sure that students took care of the 30 chapel attendance requirements. Gaskins said the best way to make sure students do not need to do chapel make-ups is by being consistent and making time to attend the chapels.

“I probably could get all my chapel credits done if I changed my mindset,” Knott said. “I think creating a chapel schedule would help — picking out what chapels I know I will want to attend, and creating a calendar to plan for those chapels.”