Ministerial Class
The ministerial class, under the direction of the Director of Ministerial Training, meets each week for instruction from the university president and other leading fundamental religious leaders of the world. Besides specified reading and class work, each student engages in practical ministerial work during the school year and in the summer months. Learn more
Ministry Teams
A musical ministry team and a drama ministry team tour throughout the United States for several months each year representing BJU through unique sacred presentations.
Missions Advance
Missions Advance is a student-led group whose purpose is to stimulate missionary zeal and vision on campus. Missions Advance’s student leaders host collective prayer meetings three times a week to pray for specific needs of the missionaries. They also provide each residence hall group information about a missionary family’s specific praises and needs.
Mission Teams
BJU’s mission teams provide opportunities for many students to minister in other regions of the world. Teams go to various countries spanning the globe using trade skills, aviation ministry, music and preaching/teaching to reach the lost with the Gospel and to challenge the team members to consider their lifelong level of involvement of ministry. Learn more
University Educators Association
The University Educators Association provides programs and activities that complement BJU’s teacher preparation program. It also provides opportunities for all education students to secure leadership training and professional contacts. Student representatives are selected from each education department.
Modern Language Club
The Modern Language Club provides an informal atmosphere of entertainment, discussion, games and reports for student to further their French, German or Spanish skills.
Criminal Justice Association
The Criminal Justice Association exposes interested students of all majors to the American criminal justice system. Active career professionals present their perspectives and discuss items of current interest, emerging trends and other topics. Contact with the forum speakers also provides greater insight into the possibilities for ministry offered by the various jobs in law enforcement, the courts and corrections.
University Business Association
The University Business Association provides a forum for business students’ exposure to successful Christian business professionals who have used their business opportunities to have a ministry and a testimony for Jesus Christ. An Executive Council led by business students organizes various UBA events and directs a fundraiser each year specifically targeted for the Bible Conference offering.
The Collegian
Bob Jones University’s student newspaper, The Collegian, was founded in 1987 as a journalism lab, offering students hands-on experience in producing a weekly publication. Newspaper staff write and edit articles, design the layout and take photographs for the paper. Stories in The Collegian focus on campus personalities and student life, helping to unify the large and diverse student body. The paper is distributed free on campus and is also available online.
The Vintage
The Vintage, “a season’s produce” by definition, is BJU’s yearbook. The staff, whose responsibility it is to produce this annual publication, is composed of students from varied academic divisions and classifications within the University. Uniquely photographed and beautifully bound, the annual mirrors not only classes and activities but also the mission of BJU.
WBJU
WBJU-FM is BJU’s student-staffed radio station that broadcasts seven days a week to provide the student body with a variety of sacred, classical and easy-listening music, as well as informative news and sports talk programming. The staff is also responsible for producing, scheduling, announcing and marketing the station’s content.
WBJU-TV is the student-staffed television station that provides national, local and campus news plus sports highlights, weather and campus announcements throughout the day. RTV and broadcast journalism students can be anchors, reporters, producers and technical crew members on a variety of television programming. Students can watch WBJU-TV at various locations around campus.
Art Forum
In Art Forum students can gain a broader understanding of the art industry. Professional artists, gallery curators, retail art dealers and graphic designers present practical information about their work experiences. The format includes panel discussions, question and answer sessions, video or slide presentations and lectures. Subjects vary and may include art philosophies, artwork pricing, art techniques, minority artists, job opportunities, artist demonstrations and critiques.
Student Leadership Council
One men’s and one women’s president lead 8 other directors and representatives: the Inter-Society Council men’s and women’s directors, a community service director, a council treasurer, the men's and women’s senior class representatives and the men’s and women’s chaplains.
Community Service Council
The Community Service Council organizes service projects in the community such as cleaning up area parks and the Greenville Zoo, collecting funds for the Heart Fund and other charitable organizations, as well as sponsoring an on-campus blood drive. The CSC has received local, state and national recognition for its volunteer efforts in the City of Greenville.
Societies
Every incoming freshman will join a society, a student group designed to encourage productive, cooperative and godly relationships through activities such as weekly meetings, sports, outings, prayer meetings and extensions. Societies are student-run, and officers are elected each semester within each society. Learn More
Pre-Med Forum
The Pre-Med Forum benefits students who plan to attend medical school after completing their undergraduate education. At the semimonthly meetings, current medical students, admission officials, practicing physicians and administrators present valuable information and advice about the medical profession and preparation for it.
University Nursing Association
The University Nursing Association provides camaraderie among nursing students of various academic classifications. The UNA organizes activities and provides both academic and spiritual encouragement for nursing students.
Bands
Concert Band
Approximately 70 players perform literature from the standard concert band repertoire and present at least two major concerts each year.
Symphonic Wind Band
This band has approximately 50 players who are devoted to performance of the finest concert literature, both secular and sacred, for winds and percussion. The Wind Band performs at least four concerts each year, in addition to recording and touring regularly.
Membership in both bands is open through audition to all students.
Learn about our music performance groups
Choral Program
The choral program is composed of eight choirs: University Singers, Conductor's Chorus, Collegiate Choir, Concert Choir, Lyric Choir, Men's Glee Club, University Chorale and University Chamber Singers. All students are welcome to audition and are placed according to their classification and abilities. Singers are re-auditioned periodically to determine proper placement. Performance venues include concerts of standard choral literature and church music, Sunday morning worship services, and the annual opera and oratorio performances.
Instrumental Ensembles
Several permanent chamber ensembles provide performance opportunities for qualified instrumental students. These include a woodwind choir, flute choir, trombone choir, horn choir, tuba-euphonium choir, trumpet choir, handbell choir, concert band, percussion ensemble and several smaller chamber groups.
Opera Association
An opera is presented each spring semester. The University hosts guest artists to sing the principal roles. Supporting roles and chorus parts are taken by students who show requisite ability. Past performances include world-famous works such as:
- Aida
- Tosca
- The Barber of Seville
- Rigoletto
Orchestra
The University Symphony Orchestra presents concerts each semester and works with oratorio and opera productions as well. Membership is open to all students through audition.
Every semester, BJU students take their communication skills beyond the classroom and challenge students from other schools in student legislature, intercollegiate debate and mock trial. In addition, students have an opportunity to participate in a Shakespearean repertoire group on campus.
Good communication skills—whether in making an airtight case or speaking to someone about the Lord—are essential in upholding BJU’s testimony and making an impact for Christ.
Student Legislature
Each fall, BJU’s Student Legislature team travels to South Carolina’s state capital, Columbia, to join with students from 10 to 15 other major colleges and universities in the state. Together they form a house and senate, presided over by officers elected from among their members. Students use their extemporaneous speaking abilities, persuasive powers and knowledge of current events to pass legislation they themselves have written.
“We use the actual South Carolina Chambers, which gives it a real air of authenticity,” says Mrs. Linda Abrams, the team’s faculty advisor. “It really mirrors as close to anything I’ve seen the true legislature experience.”
The process is so authentic that at times the real S.C. Legislature adopts student-proposed laws. South Carolinians can thank a BJU team for August’s tax-free shopping weekend!
Although winning is not as important to them as maintaining a good testimony, the BJU team has been named “Best Mid-sized Delegation”—the highest award in its category—about 7 of the 16 years it’s competed. Many team members have also received individual awards over the years, including the Carlisle Award, given to the student who best represents student legislature ideals.
Intercollegiate Debate
Three or four times a semester, BJU’s Intercollegiate Debate team heads to states such as Kentucky and Ohio where they compete in tournaments hosted by the National Educational Debate Association (NEDA). In each round, debate partners work together to present a case for or against a policy. Their opponents try to catch flaws in their arguments and to promote their own case. Once the team has finished defending one position, they head to the next round where they’ll argue the exact opposite!
“Debaters learn to think carefully, to treat evidence seriously, and to respond in a Christian manner while under intense pressure,” says Dr. DeWitt Jones, the team’s advisor.
Though they’re up against competitive schools such as Ball State University and Patrick Henry College, the BJU team holds its own. For the past 7 years BJU teams have finished first or second in the open or novice divisions at the national end-of-the-year tournament. BJU also received NEDA’s President’s Award 3 years in a row in recognition of our school’s “outstanding debate program.”
It’s clear they take debate seriously, but team members often talk about the fun they have, including the excitement of travel, the great friendships they develop and of course, the interesting conversations that happen when you put a group of debaters in a vehicle together.
Mock Trial Team
True to its name, mock trial mimics the court process; but because time is limited, it’s more intense. At the beginning of the academic year, the American Mock Trial Association gives all participating college teams the facts of a case and descriptions of fictional witnesses. Each team pores over case details, develops a strategy and starts rehearsing in order to prepare for the tournaments that begin in October.
During a trial that mixes debate with drama, each team presents its side of the case using 6 students, 3 as lawyers and 3 as witnesses. As in debate, the team must defend opposite positions from round to round, so lawyers have to be able to argue effectively for both sides. Witnesses put their acting skills to the test as they switch roles between rounds and must stay in character no matter what opposing lawyers throw at them.
“It’s like a play without the script,” says faculty advisor Sid Silvester. “You have a general idea of who you are and what you know about the crime,” he explains, “but you don’t know exactly what your opponent’s take on these is going to be.”
Classic Players
The Classic Players, an outstanding college Shakespearean repertoire group, is open to students who show the requisite ability in public tryouts.
Two major productions are presented each year, including Shakespearean plays such as:
- Hamlet
- Henry V
- Macbeth
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream
- Othello