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Hurricane Updates from President Crockett

October 2, 2024

Watch this update from President Crockett on how the BJU community has been impacted by Hurricane Helene and how the best student body ever is showing joyful resilience by God’s grace! Thank you for your prayers and support!

To see how you can help, visit give.bju.edu.

September 30, 2024

Dear Students,

We are preparing for a return to full campus operations and the resumption of classes on Wednesday, Oct. 2.

  • Academics: Classes will resume on Wednesday, Oct. 2. Due to the widespread power outage in the Upstate, the majority of our faculty and staff are without power at their homes. They will respond to emails as they are able but please understand there may be some delay.
  • Access: (Tuesday)
    • Den: 10 a.m.–10 p.m.
    • Davis Field House Side Courts: 5–8 p.m.
    • Dining Common:
      • Breakfast: 9:30–10:30 a.m.
      • Lunch: 12–1:30 p.m.
      • Dinner: 4–5:30 p.m.
    • Fitness Center: 1–4 p.m. and 5–8 p.m. Monday and Tuesday
  • Attire: Casual dress (jeans) is appropriate for faculty, staff and students Monday through Friday of this week.
  • Communication: Our main line, (864) 242-5100, is operational. A major carrier is having issues outside of our system. Feel free to contact [email protected] or [email protected] with questions.
  • Day Students: Day students who would benefit from staying in the residence halls to attend classes or utilize campus resources can contact Student Life at ext. 2501.
  • Facilities: Power has been fully restored to campus. A professional restoration service and our facilities team have begun addressing areas impacted by the storm.
  • Food Service: Aramark, our food service provider, has assured us they will be able to serve our student body. (See dining common hours above.)
  • Residence Halls: Students who live in the residence halls should plan to return to campus by 11 p.m. on Tuesday.

Your safety and well-being are our top priority. We will all need to extend grace to one another as we seek to navigate the unique challenges we face at this time. By God’s grace, we will continue to have a great academic year. We look forward to having you all back on campus soon!

Dr. Josh Crockett

September 28, 2024

Dear Parents and families,

We trust each of you and your families in the path of Hurricane Helene are safe from the storm. Safety of our students, faculty, and staff has been our immediate priority.

Here is an update on the student body as we work to resume campus operations:

  • The administration convened an emergency meeting Friday morning to assess the situation and formulate a plan to care for the students. We have been working non-stop to restore campus to normal operations.
  • Praise the Lord for a resilient student body. The students have responded with maturity and understanding, and they are already helping with campus-wide clean-up efforts. Thank you for raising resilient young adults!
  • A commercial generator arrived overnight and will be online soon to restore power to the residence halls. This will give our students some relief while crews work to restore electricity to the rest of campus.
  • It appears the earliest we can resume classes is Wednesday. We will provide another update to the students after we receive an update from Duke Energy.
  • We have instructed our faculty to provide students maximum flexibility with assignment due dates during this power outage.
  • The dining common is offering meal service with modified hours for our students, including a plan to resume hot meals today.
  • We will have an optional chapel on Monday and Tuesday at 11 a.m. for students, likely at Alumni Stadium.

We appreciate your patience as we work to restore operations on campus. Please pray with us that God will use this time in each of our lives and the lives of our students to increase our dependency and trust on Him and ultimately use this for His glory.

Thank you,

Dr. Josh Crockett
BJU President

Originally Published September 28, 2024