Inspire, Winter 2001

4 Winter 2001 What’s Abuz z z z z z z z z President’s Pen T he theme for the 2001-2002 academic year is “Transforming Culture with Christlike Compassion.” Can you recall the themes during your four years at Cedarville? Certainly this year’s theme was providential, since we had chosen our annual emphasis last spring. Our culture has indeed been transformed since September 11. America has new fears. We also have new heroes and new priorities. We will never forget where we were when the reports came of the planes crashing into the twin towers and the Pentagon. We will never be the same. William Bennett said in a recent article, “In the aftermath of the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, America will be changed politically, militarily, culturally, and psychologically.” He continues to underscore the transformation of American thinking: “We have engaged in a frivolous dalliance with dangerous theories—relativism, historicism, and values clarification. Now, when found with evil on such a grand scale, we should see these theories for what they are—empty.” When our Lord saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion and said, “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field” (Matthew 9:38). There has never been a greater opportunity in the last 40 years for us to eternally transform culture with the gospel of our compassionate Christ. Our students and our alumni are responding to this challenge. The reports to my office, the alumni office, and faculty offices have been thrilling. God is using the Cedarville University family to reach out to the literal “Ground Zero” as well as to people who are at “ground zero” in their lives all around the world. Some of you will remember the Wall of Prayer during Desert Storm. It was located in the old chapel. We now have a virtual Wall of Prayer that can be accessed through our Web site by clicking on the “God Bless America” icon. Osama Bin Laden has said, “I bear witness that there is no God but Allah and that Muhammed is his messenger.” Wrong! Our compassionate Christ said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). With His help, let us take that message to those seeking for answers to September 11. Paul Dixon ’94H President New Residence Hall Underway C onstruction is progressing on Cedarville’s newest residence hall. The 300-bed complex, scheduled to open in the fall of 2002, will provide much-needed living space for a growing campus population. With a floor plan similar to the McChesney-Miter-McKinney and St. Clair- Green-Johnson complexes, the hall will have a men’s wing and a women’s wing connected by a conference center.