President’s Post: Welcome Back to the Mountain, Alumni

Alumni, I would like to welcome you back to the mountain. 

Homecoming is a time to reconnect with old friends, make new acquaintances and reminisce the many memories and experiences that made Liberty University your home. It’s also an opportunity to observe your successors, our current students, in motion. They are preparing to be, as Dave Ramsey pointed out in Convocation last week, world changers in their fields. 

For many of you, Liberty’s campus has changed a lot since your time. New dormitories, academic buildings and athletic facilities dot the campus. We are blessed beyond belief to house students in such an environment. Liberty has grown in every possible way — different in size but not in its purpose. 

Shortly after I became president, a Liberty Champion reporter asked me what my vision for Liberty University was. Some probably thought that I would reshape Liberty to fit my own vision, but I made my intentions crystal clear: the small Bible college that my friend Jerry Falwell Sr. founded in 1971 is the same university you see today. It is — and will always be — a training ground for young people to hone their aptitude and grow spiritually in preparation to impact the world.  

Each one of your experiences was unique to you.

While the bleachers you once stood in during football games are now higher and the campus more vast, it is important to recognize other areas of growth. 

Through LU Serve Now, students and staff now have the opportunity to temporarily step away from academics and answer the call of local and international disaster response. Through this ministry, we are bringing the gospel message and acts of good works to hurting communities. 

Through our growth in academic majors and concentrations, we’ve prepared exponentially more students to bring the gospel message across the industrial spectrum. The Lord continues to bless the academic pulse at this beacon of truth with accomplished professors, trainers and leaders like Michael W. Smith who recently joined our School of Music. 

Through our financial growth and partnerships, we’ve maintained tuition rates in the lowest tier of Christian university costs. 

I could go on about the continued growth and ministerial advancement of Liberty University, but the Liberty Champion’s editor-in-chief has limited my word count. 

I’ll close with this. Throughout our 50 years of training champions for Christ, there are two points that run complimentary to each other: public scrutiny and God’s faithfulness. Almost every one of you can look back on your years here and remember some form of adverse public focus at Liberty University. But whether this adversity was merited has no influence on God’s plan to use this university, as is evidenced by a historic freshman class joining our ranks this year. 

God has been faithful to Liberty University. Oh, that we would be so faithful to God. 

Prevo is the President of Liberty University.