By Jonathan Smith, Editor in Chief

The ACU bubble. The university’s own Lochness Monster; its own Bigfoot.

The thing that all the experts will say doesn’t exist but many common people will swear is out there.

Then the proof of its existence came Aug. 26, in the form of a pieced-together tarp larger than a basketball court placed over the floor in Moody Coliseum and expanded to reach almost to the bottom of the hanging scoreboard.

This bubble’s purpose: to provide a dry and stable atmosphere to allow dehumidifying fans to extract more than 150 gallons of water that somehow seeped into the floor of Moody Coliseum, warping the wooden gym surface.

This bubble in Moody Coliseum (for this column’s purposes, we’ll call it the Moody bubble) might not be direct proof of the ACU bubble itself. But it proves its existence because the Moody bubble has disrupted one of the main facets of the ACU bubble: Chapel.

For six days now, Chapel attendance in Cullen Auditorium has been voluntary. Or look at it this way: More than one-tenth of your required Chapel credits have been earned whether or not you even have thought about God.

I constantly hear gripes about the ACU bubble — that students here are sheltered too much from the outside world by the university’s rules and requirements — but I have yet to hear one person complain about the bubble in Moody. If anything, I have heard it praised.

It doesn’t make much sense; after all, the Moody bubble’s purpose is not so different from that of the mythical ACU bubble.

It makes me ask: What’s wrong with wanting to provide students a clean and stable atmosphere during the short time they are at this university?

Granted, it is important to realize that the world outside ACU will be much different. I’ve spent the past two summers in Washington, D.C., and Miami, and I will certainly attest to the difference.

But it does not take four years of college to realize that.

If anything, use these few years to form an appreciation for a place where 30 minutes each day is carved out to come together as a community and worship God. Few of us will be so lucky after we graduate.

You’ve got the rest of your life to live without a curfew, required Chapel attendance or university rules stricter than the law.

Personally, I’m ready for the Moody bubble to burst so I can go back to enjoying all the amenities of the ACU bubble for the next nine months before graduation.