By Kyle Peveto, Arts Editor

After Chapel officials made attendance policies more strict in the fall, many new steps were taken to enforce those policies. Some students are taking the brunt of the policies through probation.

Two types of probation are given for disobeying Chapel policies. Students who are caught “sliding and gliding”-sliding into and out of Chapel without attending-are given assigned seating and lose their absences allowed for the semester. This semester 15-20 students have been given assigned seating on the floor in Moody.

Both types of probation include forced resignation from on-campus leadership roles and limited social club involvement.

Each morning Brian England, director of judicial affairs, receives a report of slides and glides for the previous day. Identification cards that are swiped in at the beginning of Chapel and are used anywhere on campus to buy food, get into computer labs or get into residence halls during the Chapel session are listed as glides.

“At the beginning of the semester the report has quite a few names on it, but at the end of the semester there’s not that many names on it,” England said.

Joel Godeau, sophomore graphic design major from Austin, was caught sliding and gliding early this semester and sat in assigned seating until he began to work during Chapel.

“I slid in and sat for 5-10 minutes and decided to go eat and beat the whole line,” he said.

Godeau said missing social club activities like Sing Song and intramurals was the biggest negative to probation.

Probation lasts for 15 academic weeks and rolls over to the following semester. Those who break probation are not allowed to enroll the following semester. Last semester four students could not enroll and so far five have not been able to enroll for next semester because of current violations.

In addition to the students in assigned seats this semester, 70-80 have exceeded their minimum absences.

Since the crack down on Chapel policy, students who exceed the minimum number of absences have decreased by almost half. The number of students who miss 12-15 times a semester has gone up.

“You have to account for students who were exceeding their absences are now in the 12 to 15 range,” England said. “Our opinion is that more people are going to Chapel.”

Changes in policy are being discussed but are not final.