On February 23, President Brien Lewis hosted the virtual town hall meeting for the winter semester. Lewis addressed important items from the February Board of Trustees meeting, as well as providing updates on ongoing and future facilities projects on campus, new grants that have been received by the university, Transylvania’s ongoing financial picture, and many more topics. 

While coming later in the town hall, the likely topic of most interest for the general student body is ongoing facilities projects. The clear elephant in the room in regards to campus facilities is Hazelrigg Hall, which has sat empty for nearly two years. President Lewis restated his recommendation to the Board of Trustees that Hazelrigg be redesigned as a technology center with “flexible classrooms and lab spaces.” President Lewis spoke to his hopes that Hazelrigg could show Transylvania’s commitment to technological advancement, stating, “[Hazelrigg] will be a real visual beacon for anyone who comes to the campus to see that we are engaging with innovative and cutting-edge technologies for the benefit of our students.” Lewis also claimed that a top priority would be getting what he called the “Hazelrigg diaspora,” that being professors who once had offices in the hall, back in Hazelrigg. Beyond Hazelrigg, President Lewis also announced refurbishments and renovations to the Cowgill Center and the Rosenthal apartments that will be completed over the summer, the addition of card-access to all buildings on campus that don’t currently support it, and continuation of land-use planning for the open 4th Street lot. 

When summarizing the events of the Board of Trustees meeting on February 17th, which was called “a historic day,” President Lewis specifically highlighted a proposal by the Bingham Trust for Excellence in Teaching, a proposal that “enthusiastically endorsed and accepted” by the Board. The Bingham Trust, an organization that has former Transylvania president John Norton Williams Jr. as its executive director, has had a relationship with Transylvania since its founding in 1987, and has provided support through awards that shine a light on excellence in teaching. The Bingham Trust Board, in an effort to deepen the relationship with Transylvania, has approved a grant of up to $25 million over the next 15 years to fund teaching excellence awards. President Lewis acknowledged that not every detail of the new program was set in stone and that more questions would be addressed in a future forum. But he also assured that the program was reflective of proposals from the Faculty Concerns Committee, and that more details would be coming the way of faculty in the near future. President Lewis finished by calling the grant, “a very historic and exciting step for Transylvania and our commitment to excellence in teaching and excellence in education.”

However, not all topics brought up in the Town hall were nearly as positive. This was especially true of the tone when President Lewis moved on to discussing the financial situation of the university, which he contrasted to the earlier exciting news by calling it a “not-so-fun thing.” President Lewis emphasized that while enrollment had remained steady over the past few years, even out-performing some national trends, tuition revenue had not. This is because due to, as he put it, “increased competition for a shrinking pool of students,” there have had to be increased discount rates on tuition for prospective students. While President Lewis was confident in the short-term financial health of the university, he stressed the importance of addressing long-standing structural issues. The university has had to restructure its long-term debt, and when combined with other pressures such as wage increases, health care costs that work on a different calendar, and rising inflation, the university’s net cash deficit for this fiscal year is approximately $2.8 million. Some of this is covered by Covid relief funds, but that is far from a permanent solution. President Lewis reiterated the need to address these issues, stating, “We need to take action now in building our budget for the coming year to maintain as much stability and flexibility as we can going forward.” This involves reducing spending in the next three fiscal years by roughly 2.3% a year, which President Lewis described as “not draconian, but something we need to be serious and thoughtful about.” Lewis acknowledged that it was possible that “we will see some positions go away over this period of time,” but claimed it would mainly be through retirements and “recalibrating” positions once they become open. But overall, the university is counting on increased revenues from increased enrollment and retention, areas which have seen positive growth in the past few years, as well as enhanced fundraising.

Many topics were addressed by President Lewis, ranging from rankings and admissions to fundraising and community support, all with an eye to building towards Transylvania University’s 250th anniversary in 2030. If you wish to watch the Town Hall for yourself, a link to the recording was posted in the February 24th edition of the Daily TNotes that are emailed to all students.

Students traveling to and from class this morning were met with a surprise as a moon-landing denier and flat-Earther was flagging down passersby with a quick lecture on his beliefs. 

Peter “The Moon Guy” Jarvio arrived on campus this morning, Friday the 24th, with his posters and flat-Earth models hoping to “spread the truth” to students here at Transylvania. Rambler Editor Seth McKinney and I took the time to interview him and see what this was all about. 

Over the past 3 years, Jarvio has independently traveled to college campuses across Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, and other states to share what he believes is the truth. “It’s kind of a hobby,” he stated. Transy marks the 31st university he has visited to “expose the lies” of the moon landing and the spherical Earth. He gives a minute-long speech, along with 3D-printed flat-Earth models, to everyone willing to listen. He also provided a list of “educational sources” on a YouTube-alternative website called BitChute.com, which is known for containing far-right ideologies, conspiracy theories, and hate speech.

His presence caused quite a stir and seemed to be the talking point of Campus today. By request, he even made an appearance in Dr. Partain’s FYRS class called “Stalking the Weird,” which discusses conspiracy theories and the spread of false information. Freshman student Asa Thomas recounted the event, stating that Jarvio “gave [the class] a more in-depth talk about flat-Earth and his belief in it.” Thomas found some of his statements harmful. For example, Jarvio reportedly claimed during his moon-landing lecture that NASA, referring to the American Space Agency, is also the Hebrew term for deceive, which Thomas said, “raised a lot of red flags in [his] mind.”

Other students found his presence uncomfortable too, as he was flagging down anyone who walked by. He was strategically located by the crosswalk between the Campus Center and the academic side of campus. This choke point sees more human traffic than any other spot at Transy. Since he was located on the sidewalk, which is considered public property, Jarvio was free to do what he was doing, though DPS asked him to move out of the way of the crosswalk early on into his setup so that he was not blocking the path.

Jarvio remained at his post for many hours, and many students took the opportunity to discuss, debate, listen to, or even mess with him. He may not have changed many, if any, minds today, but he certainly raised some eyebrows.

From February 1st to February 15th, Students Against Hunger and Homelessness teamed up with the Student Government Association for a campus-wide food drive to benefit the Lexington Rescue Mission. At the conclusion of the food drive, the Rambler sat down with the co-presidents of SAHH, junior Transylvania students Aubrey Knop and Maggie Whaley, to discuss the origins of the club, the results of the food drive, and future opportunities for students to get involved. 

Students Against Hunger and Homelessness, which has been limited the past two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, was relaunched and rebranded this year by Knop and Whaley as a way to give back to the Lexington community. The club has consistently met weekly to make sandwiches and deliver them to the Hope Center, a support center for the homeless located close to Transylvania’s campus.“Sometimes as college students we forget about the people around us in the Lexington community,” said Knop. “So we like to take people to the Hope Center to show who we’re helping directly. Our main goal is just to help others around us.” Whaley agreed with the benefits of making the sandwiches, saying, “I think it is really eye-opening to be able to see the impact that you are having on the people there. It made me very appreciative of what we do.”

Starting on February first, SAHH would work with the Student Government Association to host a two-week food drive, with drop-off stations for non-perishable food items being placed in nearly every dorm. The food drive would benefit the Lexington Rescue Mission, a long-standing charitable organization in the Lexington community. “Lexington Rescue Mission is very local to us,” said Knop. “We thought it was very important to help people around our Transy community because they do so much for us.” The exact totals for the food drive were not known at the time of the interview, but both Knop and Whaley were confident that they had collected 150-200 food items, with even more on the way. Both gave a special shoutout to one student who led the way by single-handedly donating 82 cans. Based on the success of this food drive, Whaley left the door open for future events and partnerships, saying, “If this drive is successful, which it seems like it has been, we’ll definitely consider doing things with other organizations again to get the whole campus involved and not just our members.”

Students Against Hunger and Homelessness meets every Wednesday at 5:30 P.M. in Rosenthal Commons to make sandwiches for the Hope Center. To get involved with the club and look out for future events, you can follow the SAHH Instagram account (@transy_sahh) and join the GroupMe chat that is linked in the bio, and any future events will also be announced in the Daily TNotes.