Stephanie Bauer

I jumped into my second year as News Editor bright-eyed and excited. Although I was News Editor last year, this year the entire staff came in with a vision for the role our newspaper should play in providing the facts and insight behind the big stories on campus. With a year’s worth of experience, I felt as though I had a better sense of how I wanted to go about achieving this goal in the News section.

Last week, two Furman students were able to help the Furman Police Department arrest people responsible for a series of thefts from motor vehicles on campus. Two students were walking back to their apartment and observed suspicious behavior. They called FUPO and helped the police chase down and arrest one of the people involved.

The Common Application, or Common App, is supposed to make the application process easier for students by allowing them to apply to several schools at the same time, including Furman. This year, however, it’s made the application process a nightmare for many high school seniors.

It’s that time again, time for students to start picking out next semester’s classes. That means that it’s also time to start using ARMS, a program that, while functional, is not exactly the most user-friendly way to survey courses. But a new website gaining popularity among students aims to change that.

When Furman switched to Office 365 a few years ago, it upgraded to a more advanced email client that significantly increased the storage space allotted to all students, faculty, and staff. But in the switch, Furman also lost a forum feature from the previous email client that had been a central part of university communication.

Earlier this semester, Interim President Carl Kohrt announced that Furman is running a projected budget deficit of $6.4 million for the upcoming fiscal year and would need to find ways to cut costs in order to fill the gap, a surprising announcement that once again raised questions about how the university can achieve financial stability during a turbulent time in higher education.

Furman inaugurated a new partnership with the Greenville Health System at a signing ceremony last Thursday, Sept. 26 that names Furman as the system’s primary undergraduate institution.

It was well-accepted when it started, but the First Year Seminar Program, which has been in place for five years and has received mixed reviews from faculty and students, is up for a review that could lead to significant changes by the next academic year.

Since becoming the university’s new Chief of Police in June, Tom Saccenti said he’s noticed that most Furman students don’t know any of the names of their campus officers. It’s a problem that Saccenti, who came to Furman from Marietta College in Ohio to replace the retiring Bob Miller, aims to change.