As ACU continues to grow both on campus and in national rank, campus life as we know it is changing rapidly.

ACU grows in enrollment every year, even this year during a worldwide pandemic. Since our rise to Division I athletic status in 2013, the Wildcat name has spread throughout the country through competition in the NCAA tournament.

While we were far from winners, people around the country are learning the name of Abilene Christian University, and it’s clear that this is the first milestone of many to bring ACU to a nationally renowned Division I program.

With the university’s continuing improvement to campus like the creation of Freshman Village and renovations to Cullen and Moody, ACU will look completely different in a few years than we ever experienced it.

In ACU’s 21st-Century Vision published in 2010, ACU aimed to be the “premier university for the education of Christ-centered, global leaders.”

The report detailed goals to create permanent facilities for Study Abroad programs, build a cutting edge recreation center, enhance and build science and technological facilities, renovate our student center and dining services, create additional community spaces and start distance education programs. Ten years ago, ACU administration hoped for ACU to look completely different for us than it did for them, and they accomplished that.

As we look on renovations and improvements made over the last ten years to today, you can see how ACU has accomplished nearly all of these goals. With expanded study abroad experiences, the Royce and Pam Money Student Recreation and Wellness Center, new science and research buildings, the creation in the works of Freshman Village and ACU Online, the university is making moves to becoming a nationally prominent university.

Within the next few years, ACU may look nothing like it does now and every change in the works is a change to student life. As freshmen enroll in the coming years, they will experience a university worthy of its Division I status. Future students will live in a closer community in brand new dorms, take part in Greek life and have even more access to accredited programs.

With each decision ACU makes to bring in more students, grow programs and expand campus, the university is getting closer to its goal of being the premiere Church of Christ universityand changing student life as we know it. From ten years ago to ten years from now, ACU student life is changing before our very eyes.