Every year, the start of the fall semester is plagued by flyers, emails, social media posts, tables and more filled with students promoting organizations and vying for new members.  Oftentimes, these efforts to reel people in are targeted to freshmen, specifically through events like ACU Fest and Join Week.  While these events are not a bad ... [Read More…]

Experiential learning is the buzzword you hear the most from within the ACU community whether that be from departments, administration or the marketing team.  ACU is advertised to be a small school with a tight knit community that provides more experience than any state school can and to some extent that is exactly right.  However, when ... [Read More…]

Updated Feb. 7, 2022:  To the Optimist Editorial Board: Since December, ACU’s administration has been meeting with sponsors, officers and members of Galaxy to conduct intentional training around diversity, community membership and leadership. Galaxy’s infractions resulted from deeper cultural concerns that highlighted the need for ... [Read More…]

In one semester on ACU’s campus, a total of four students were hit by cars, two of which incidents resulted in hospitalization. After the multiple accidents and consistent, fearful caution coming from all of the students crossing the busy streets each day, surely the university would be working to take drastic measures to prevent this from ... [Read More…]

With rushing season in full swing, students have been faced with the stress of rush events, rankings and the competition that tends to accompany Greek life as they continue to balance their studies and extracurricular activities. Greek life can serve to fulfill an amazing purpose and provide community to students, particularly at ACU, where it's ... [Read More…]

As we look back on a school year that will certainly go down in history, we can see the negative effects that hybrid or online learning has had on students academically and socially. With a considerable amount of classes being either online or hybrid this year and most social events being canceled or modified to fit CDC guidelines, this year ... [Read More…]

With all of the changes surrounding this year's Sing Song, including some of the biggest fraternities and sororities dropping out, it doesn't feel like the Sing Song we're used to. Arguably, two of the things that make Sing Song what it is are community and creativity. With limitations on the number of participants in each act and the new rule ... [Read More…]

Everyone in the ACU community is extremely proud of the men's basketball team for not only making it into the March Madness tournament, but beating the University of Texas in the first round. There is no doubt in anyone's mind that this was an amazing accomplishment for our small program. The mass of students who showed up at the stadium watch ... [Read More…]

Administration made the smart choice by continuing the mask regulations on campus despite Gov. Greg Abbott's removal of the mask mandate this week. Beginning March 10, Abbott rescinded the public mask mandate established in July of last year. While private businesses and schools can still require masks and social distancing, several counties ... [Read More…]

Student Life announced this week that first-year students will be able to join fraternities and sororities next spring. The decision came from administration despite some concerns from officers. Allowing freshman to join means three straight semesters of new classes, with the last class including freshman in the spring. Clubs will be pushed to ... [Read More…]