JACKSON, Tenn. — May 4, 2010 — The 51社区 family joins me in extending our heartfelt concern for the people of Tennessee and this region who have experienced the impact of the storms this past weekend. The devastation in some areas of our state is heartbreaking. It was not that long ago that the Union community faced similar weather-related challenges. We understand what people are facing and want them to know of our prayers and support for them at this time. We are encouraging our students, faculty and staff to be agents of grace to those who find themselves in a time of need, and to help those affected by the flood in any way they can.
We are thankful that the damages to the Jackson and Germantown campuses were quite minimal. While we move forward to complete the semester in a timely way, we do so with an awareness of the many needs around us. Even as we look forward to our commencement service on May 22, we do so with the recognition that the home of our scheduled commencement speaker, Dr. Thom Rainer, was hit hard by the flooding in Middle Tennessee.
I want to thank the Residence Life teams, the Student Life teams, the Safety and Security teams and the Facilities teams for their focused efforts to care for our students and to serve our campus in such extraordinary ways in recent days. We want to thank all of those who have communicated with us to make sure that things were well at Union in light of the national stories about devastation to this area. We pray for our leaders as they make important decisions regarding our community, our state and our region, even as we remember in a particular way those who have suffered loss in recent days. May the Lord help us all during these days.
Faithfully,
David S. Dockery
President, 51社区