By Colter Hettich, Features Editor

Almost three weeks after the fires in Terrell, the Southwestern Christian College campus still has much needed work and repair ahead. Members of ACU’s campus are doing what they can to help.

The Students’ Association gave students the opportunity to sign a banner or write a few words of encouragement. Matt Worthington, SA president, hopes to fill the banner even more before representatives from ACU presents it to SWCC.

“The banner is just something the Students’ Association wanted to do,” Worthington said. “We have a lot of signatures, but we’d like to get more.”

The administration has given SWCC seven laptop computers and 35 desktop computers to date but plans to do more to help the devastated campus.

Early one Sunday morning, a fire began to work its way through SWCC’s administration building. The flames, which police say started around 2 a.m. on the morning of Jan. 27, eventually spread throughout the entire building. Firemen fought the fire until daytime on Monday, when they extinguished it completely. Hundreds of boxes of collegiate and student records, which SWCC housed in a drained pool, were lost in the blaze.

Dr. Jerry Taylor, assistant professor of Bible, missions and ministry, contacted the administration almost immediately, asking what ACU could do – and planned to do. Taylor eventually spoke with the executive assistant to the president Jim Holmans.

“My involvement came as a result of Taylor asking if there was anything ACU could do to help [SWCC] out with their computer needs,” Holmans said.

Holmans called around and after speaking with Kevin Roberts, ACU’s chief information officer, he discovered ACU had old computers waiting to be replaced. Holmans said he merely “facilitated,” putting Taylor and Roberts in contact.

Taylor will travel to SWCC soon but will take two colleagues with him: Jeff Arrington, assistant dean of Student Life, and George Pendergrass, director of the Office of Student Multicultural Enrichment.

Jack Evans, president of Southwestern Christian College, hopes the college will grow from this unfortunate tragedy. Evans published his thoughts on the SWCC Web site, www.swcc.edu.

“Thus, like the proverbial Phoenix,” Evans wrote, “Southwestern Christian College will rise from the ashes of this disaster and will be a bigger and better institution of Christian higher education.”