Lincoln University's on-campus population is much larger this fall than a year ago, officials told LU curators Thursday.
Jerome Offord, LU President Kevin Rome's chief of staff, said 924 students are living on-campus this year, compared with 684 last year.
"We are at 100 percent occupancy," he said. "We had to re-open Perry Hall."
Rome later told the News Tribune: "We're headed in the right direction. We're focused on the priorities of student success, and getting students here."
Said Sewell, LU's provost and new vice president for Academic Affairs, told curators that the Higher Learning Commission recently renewed Lincoln's accreditation, through the 2022-23 school year.
Curators approved several changes to the LU Student Handbook.
Gone is a requirement that organizations register activities at least four weeks in advance. School officials were told that mandate was a violation of free speech, Offord explained. "If they want to have a protest or any type of demonstration, registering four weeks in advance can be perceived as squashing their right to assemble and their right to share," he said.
But the handbook restores a requirement that student organizations have at least five members.
"Most institutions have a minimum number," Offord said, "so you don't have a thousand organizations with one member."
The handbook also will require organizations to have at least two advisers on site during parties or events at the Scruggs University Center, and sets minimum experience levels for someone to be an adviser.
And, Offord said, the handbook clarifies the school's "judicial review" process for student issues.
Curators adopted a new policy requiring students who lose their room keys to pay $90 to change the lock and to pay for new keys for the room's other occupants.
LU has been absorbing that cost, but the new policy aims at encouraging students to be more careful about losing their keys.
"As students lose keys over time, re-coring room locks help protect the safety and security of all residents," Offord said, "so folks are not passing keys to one another or holding on to keys from last year."