As one reflects on the 136-year history of the college, nearly 100 as Greenville College, a few conclusions emerge:

• The Christian college dream of founders White and Morse, plus Hogue and other Free Methodist leaders, has won the hearts and minds of thousands. The body of Christ has been built up, and human kind worldwide has been served by alumni with care and competence and commitment that are unexcelled.
• An institution designed, developed, and operated to serve those previously excluded from college (women, first-generation college attenders, veterans) remains true to that calling today. Sons and daughters of Hispanic immigrants and the great-great-grandchildren of ex-slaves are enrolling in increasing numbers. These mix with majority culture students who come from alumni and church homes, thus helping create on campus today an educationally and spiritually rich learning environment. The opportunity is great, therefore, for those faculty who expend themselves in the witness of teaching and serving for Christ in a student field that is "white unto harvest."
• The missionary-like calling of faculty to serve at the college for modest salaries, supported fully by their families, has been the prime example of faith and commitment which students and alumni honor to this day. Also, commitment by the faculty to a teaching, counseling, researching, administering, and praying has been a powerful role model preparing students to become unselfish leaders who serve with distinction in all walks of life.
• A college of no buildings, then one, forty years later, two, and three more during the next thirty years, has been developed into an adequate and attractive campus of more than twenty buildings, with equipment and fields valued at $20 million. There is only a modest debt on these buildings. One new building was completed just this year, the Irvin L. Young Memorial Library Tower. This addition to the Ruby E. Dare Library more than doubled the size of the facility. Another capital improvements project is now under way, a 17,000 square foot health and recreation center.
• While most colleges in America have departed from their academic and spiritual moorings, Greenville today -- I say it to the praise of Christ -- is a vital center of warm-hearted Christian liberal arts education. While the tides of a secular culture have beat relentlessly upon the college, all those associated with her have set their faces like flint toward God. To this day, to walk across the campus is to walk on holy ground. May it ever be so is my fervent prayer.