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Many students have expressed frustration with ABAC’s Housing Department. The department has been working to improve 2024’s controversial application process to the upperclassmen dorms, Place 100 and 200. While this year’s form omitted the previous year’s inaccurate application counter, debates and disagreement arose over ABAC’s student priorities and technological issues.

Chris Beckham, ABAC’s director of public relations, helped to clarify differences in this year’s application process.

On Dec. 3, ABAC’s Housing Department emailed students about their new priority system split between two groups. Priority one was described as “student leaders” and received individual emails inviting them to a “Housing Renewal event” on Jan. 13 to reserve their spots for housing for the Fall 2025 semester. Priority two had a separate opening for signing up between Jan. 20 and Jan. 31.

Everything was explained more in an email from Director of Housing Trent Hester on Jan. 10 that priority one included “Honors students, Ambassadors, SGA (Student Government Association), and etc.”

Mass confusion came from the use of “etc.,” which pertained to clubs that directly involved ABAC. Some students were also dissatisfied about Housing only referring to students in ABAC’s Honors Program when they mentioned “Honors students.”

Students were still conflicted over who ABAC prioritizes for housing. Some students think that priorities would ideally be those who have disabilities, lack transportation, or who live far from Tifton.

“Students in leadership positions perform very critical functions for the college,” Beckham said. “Offering students in these groups priority Housing Renewals serves as a small way for the institution to recognize their service.”

Jeffrey Holland, a wildlife major, was placed on the waitlist his freshman year due to the inaccurate application counter. Now a sophomore, he is a senator of the School of Agriculture and Natural Resources, making him priority one.

“I understand about the ambassadors and other people that work for the school—that makes sense,” Holland said. “The honors students—I don’t love that they got top priority, but I see why they carried it on.”

Priority one’s private event was held in the Agricultural Technology building at 6 p.m., expected to last until 8 p.m. According to Beckham, roughly 225 students attended. With the new application format, students reserved and chose specific dorms in either Place 100 or 200 and created groups for others to join via password.

Rumors spread about pizza being involved. However, Holland revealed that attendees received numbered tickets, and only a small group of people could apply at once. Thus, he believed the pizza “was to console the crowd” since the process ran through dinner time and the dining hall closed at 7:30 p.m.

Not only did the event go 30 minutes over time, but actions taken in the final minutes made the process seem useless, some students thought.

“At 7:50, and there were about 20 of us left in there, so they said, ‘Everyone just do it on your phones,’” Holland said, “which was kind of annoying, because we had been sitting there for maybe an hour and a half, and we could’ve just done it on our phones.”

Come Jan. 21, it was priority two’s turn to apply. All remaining housing spots were available to reserve through the StarRez Housing Portal at 12 p.m. These spots were reserved within four hours as opposed to last year’s spots being taken in two days.

Some students complained of technological issues. Heavy internet traffic caused other students’ pages to stall or not load, letting some lag behind to where they couldn’t successfully reserve a spot.

“The StarRez Housing Portal can only manage roughly 150 users at a time,” said Beckham. “Students attempting to log in after that limit has been reached will experience an error message until they are able to gain access to the site.”

Jan. 21 was purely for housing reservations only. Room and roommate selection occurred on Feb. 4.

Some rooms appeared missing, causing some students to panic under the assumption no spots remained, even after being told they had housing. As a result, the Housing Department emailed students that night to ease their concerns.

Also worth noting was that rooms priority one reserved weren’t guaranteed to be private.

Holland originally picked a room in Place 200, but his roommates were unable to join the group because of password issues. He emailed Housing about this, but never got a response, and the room was filled with other students. He was later placed with his chosen roommates in a completely different dorm, which he found dissatisfying.

ABAC’s upperclassmen dorms, Place 100 and 200. Photographed by Aileene-Bjork Goodman.

“Why did I go through all of that when I could’ve just signed up normally and got the same result?” Holland said.

ABAC’s SGA opened a petition until Feb. 28, demanding the construction of more housing. The Housing Department welcomed this petition.

If Housing takes these suggestions and issues into consideration and repairs them where necessary, perhaps the application process can reach a state of compromise.

(Writer’s note: the digital version of this article was renamed from “Students have reoccurring housing problems” to match the print version on release).

The Music Club puts on a Songwriters’ Session

Jalen Edmondson

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April 10, 2025

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The Music Club puts on a Songwriters’ Session

Short but engaging, small but proactive was the first Songwriters’ Session by the Music Club. As schedules have been managed and new ideas have emerged, getting the name out hasn’t been easy. But a morning thought by the versatile ABAC student Jha’lin Pittmon helped spark something, which could lead to potential ideas in the future.

There haven’t been many events from the Music Club, as managing both the club and classes can be difficult, and forming the stability of the club can take some time. This was the first actual event.

Pittman is currently stepping out of his comfort zone himself, saying, “I’ve learned to push past the shyness. I try to put myself out there a little bit more, even if I am timid on the inside.”

The Songwriters’ Session was held on Mar. 28 at 12:15 p.m. in the Choral Suite located in Edwards Hall. It was an open discussion with questions including: What makes a good song; how do you go about writing your lyrics; how do you feel like this session has helped you, and what are some things that you took away from it?

Pittman answered the first question, saying, “Making a rememberable hook or melody, and the audience being able to understand the message behind it.”

ABAC sophomore Reagan Funk came to the session to learn more about his interest in music and song writing.

He said, “I really loved coming here and seeing all the different minds of different people who have the same kind of love for music as I do.”

Funk found out about other clubs that are at ABAC pertaining different genres of music.

He said, “The jazz club sounds really interesting because right now I’m trying to learn more augmented and diminished chords.”

“Some of the stuff they said I was able to take home with me, and that’s all it is about: exchanging information with other songwriters and trying to better ourselves,” he continued.

Getting the word out about the Music Club and the music department hasn’t been easy.

Music Club President Madison Crosby said, “We are trying to be a bridge to the music department, so we can find people who interested in singing or playing an instrument.”

As leader of the group, she said, “I try to be open to suggestions to what everybody wants to do, that’s why today we had the Songwriters’ Session because Jha’lin was very bring it to our attention about doing it.”

The goal of the music club—and events like the Songwriters’ Session—is to invite more people to come to enjoy music, as well as to open up the talent at ABAC.

Stay tuned to the many events that are being planned for the future of the music club. Contact Madison Crosby at mcrosby10@stallions.abac.edu for more information.