Union University Update

As promised, here is my first update from campus. It has been a long 2 months around campus, and we are all looking forward to the end of this semester. It has turned out to be one of the best semesters yet, and in some ways many of us hate to see it coming to an end so soon. But we know that God has big things in store for us as we enter into summer and the fall semester.

Well immediately after the tornado, Union's leaders went right to work. Our schedule was revised to 75 minute classes every day, which is not that much fun. But as a result, we are going to get out on May 15th, the same date we were orignally going to get out. Furthermore, a group went hard to work on our old student lounge. Without our commons, we had nowhere to hang out in the middle of the day. I am staying at the Jett (Old English Inn), and when I go to campus, I never leave. So we needed a place to go besides the library. This group transformed our student lounge into what is now known as Barefoot's Joe, our own coffee shop. It is a great place to go hang out, study, or just rest in the middle of the day. Also, plans were being made to rebuild campus.

We broke ground on the new dorms February 22, 2008 (17 days after the tornado). Since then, 6 of the 14 have 2 stories already built, many with a roof. 2 or 3 more are 1 story buildings right now, and the remainder have the concrete slab and many of the new safe rooms. All in all, there will be 14 dorms, and they are all started in some shape or form. Over the next few weeks, we could see more progress on all 14 dorms, including bricks! By Fall 2008, all 14 will be built, and our 2 commons will be ready Spring 2009. We will start classes about a week later next semester to give the contractors more time to work. God has blessed us with people to rebuild our campus in a timely fashion.

Other than that, campus is running just like always. We go to class and eat in Coburn. Everyone is preparing for signing up for room assignments next semester, and we will soon be signing up for classes.

So there is the latest update from Union. It has been a great semester! God has blessed us and helped us through all of this rebuilding. He has watched over us, and I know that it is going to be a great end to this semester.

Matt