3 minute read
Letter from the President
LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT
It is spring break on The Hill as I write this, and as we approach Easter and my first spring graduation, I wanted to begin this letter with a word of thanks. The Mars Hill University community has risen to the occasion. The community has welcomed a new president and his family and a new provost to lead the university. Dr. John Omachonu and I appreciate the outpouring of goodwill and support as we go through our first year together. We both feel incredibly blessed to have been invited to come here. Your enthusiasm for this special place stands out in my mind. Your enthusiasm has become contagious and is spreading! Last week, we completed a record-breaking Day of Giving as the university raised $100,329 in one day. In one day! That eclipsed the prior record by over $80,000. Your social media posts and the posts of our students were heartwarming as many expressed their love for MHU and their love for their professors, each other, and this place. Thank you! We asked the community to break records and that is exactly what happened. We are absolutely determined to continue to break records here. We want to do more than set fundraising records here. We want to set records for internships; we want to set records for being involved in the local community; we want to set records for graduation rates; and we want to set records for transforming the lives of our students. To do this we need your continuing help. It is about more than money. It is the Mars Hill Lion spirit. Come back to campus; go to an alumni event in your area; post on social media your love and support for this beloved place; and help us to recruit students. We need you now more than ever. Our inaugural theme was Scaling New Heights. That is exactly what this campus is determined to do. We are going to work to lift up our students with a vigor and effort the likes of which have never been seen here before. We are going to do everything within our power to help them graduate, succeed in the world, and to find a place to do their life’s work to make western North Carolina and the world a better place. Our energy and determination is renewed in a world that sorely needs Mars Hill Lions. Our Board of Trustees will be meeting in late April to plan the future of MHU. It will be a future that embraces the new generation of Lions coming our way, a future that invests in our people and their development, a future that invests in our campus, and a future that embraces the power of technology as we enter a modern era in learning, living, and serving. Thank you, again; our future is bright and exciting! Go Lions!
Advertisement
Tony Floyd, J.D. President
MHU Celebrates MLK Holiday with Full Day of Events
by Mike Thornhill Director of Communications Mars Hill University scheduled a full day of events to commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, January 21, 2019. Classes were canceled for students, with a series of educational and service activities happening on- and off-campus. The day’s events, coordinated by the university’s Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, included: Peace March: Students gathered to make posters to display at Asheville’s MLK peace march and rally, then traveled to the march. Alaysia Black-Hackett, director of MHU’s Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, was the emcee for the event. “At the River I Stand: King’s Final Days,” a documentary screening and discussion led by Sociology Professor Brett Johnson.
“Helms vs. Gantt - The 1990 N.C. Senate Election; Voter
Suppression Then & Now,” a presentation and discussion led by History Professor Jonathan McCoy. “Beyond Vietnam” a presentation and discussion about Dr. King’s revolutionary and prescient views of poverty, militarism, and racism, led by Political Science Professor Heather Hawn. Community Service Project: led by MHU’s Center for Community Engagement at Mars Hill Methodist preschool. MLK Peace Candlelight Vigil: held on the Upper Quad (Lunsford Commons). In addition to events on Monday, January 21, the university’s Gospel Choir was the guest musical group at the 2019 MLK Prayer Breakfast in Asheville on Saturday, January 19.
MHU students, faculty, and staff participate in the MLK March for Peace.
Prof. Jonathan McCoy leads the “Helms vs. Gantt” program
Dr. Heather Hawn leads “Beyond Vietnam.”
