Current junior here. Sewanee has devolved so much from when I first began as a freshman. Student-administration relations have gone downhill so much, and our new Vice-Chancellor is quickly losing popularity with the student body — for a number of reasons, beyond just the new zero-tolerance drug and alcohol policy. This has fomented distrust with most other offices on campus, and have left us in a much worse place than we were several years ago.
Since COVID became an issue, we have been lucky enough to be one of the few schools to make it an entire semester of on-campus learning. Weekly testing, mandated masks, strict social gathering rules, and the concept of “protecting the bubble” have allowed this to happen, however, many students are growing weary of the bubble. If you have visited campus, you know that there is capital-N Nothing in the town of Sewanee, aside from three independently owned restaurants, all of which are fine, but overpriced. In order to leave campus for any reason, including drive-thru prescription pickup, you must wait 2-3 days for the Dean’s office to approve your request to go to CVS in the next town over. If you defy these rules, you are facing being sent home, or suspension. Fast food drive-thrus, curbside grocery pickup, etc. are all prohibited. This did create an issue this past semester, especially when on-campus dining options are not great, expensive, and have shortened hours. I’m not sure of the best answer to this problem, as much of Sewanee’s year-round residents are older, and naturally higher risk for Coronavirus complications, but it has been difficult for students to manage.
As far as social life, it is the best fun you will never want to have again. The campus social sphere revolves heavily around drinking/greek life/drugs, which leads to a lottttt of substance abuse on campus. Those who don’t end up rushing often feel left out — several of my friends struggled with this greatly and ended up transferring as a result. The campus is tiny as far as enrollment goes, and everyone truly knows everyone. This can be great or absolutely terrible. People don’t tend to stir up drama for sport though, which is nice.
The campus location, while absolutely beautiful, has become more and more isolating, particularly during COVID. My friends and I have become more of hermits, and our lives revolve around smaller, insular friend groups which frankly isn’t healthy. Pretty much everyone seemed to experience this this past semester.
I hate that I turned to this forum to express my frustration with how Sewanee is changing, but that is what it has come to. The overbearing rules (pre-covid), distrust of adminstration, aggressive police force, limited food options and dissolution of what was once a great Admissions office have all changed the culture greatly, and at this point, I am so ready to graduate. Many of my friends and I have even considered taking this coming semester off or doing remote school as a result. It’s just not what it used to be, and much of the magic, community, and trust that drew me to Sewanee in the first place, is gone. Beware of what you are getting into if you choose to enroll here.