Incoming freshman Peter Wolcott walks across a yard at Southern Adventist University on Friday. Faculty and students have embraced SAU’s recent selection as Tennessee’s “tamest” college campus.When students arrive at Southern Adventist University for fall classes, they’ll be attending what’s been dubbed the “tamest party school” in Tennessee.
The website ecollegefinder.org recently released a list of the one campus in each state least likely to have a “raging party scene,” and the private, Christian university in Collegedale ranked first in the Volunteer State.
Students and officials at Southern Adventist University didn’t seem to mind the “tamest” label. Seventh-day Adventists don’t drink or smoke, and about half are vegetarian — so the news wasn’t news to them.
“I’m proud,” said Hannah Kelsey, a freshman from St. Louis. “I think it’s a good thing. I like it because I like to focus on my studies.”
Kelsey was shopping with friends at the Village Market, a supermarket across from campus that has a wide selection of Adventist-friendly items including nonalcoholic wine, meat and milk substitutes and nut butters.