Campus Update from President Michael Thomas

Dear Concordia Students,

We are eagerly anticipating your arrival on campus. I wanted to share some exciting developments awaiting you on campus.

CAMPUS REBRANDING

Concordia University Irvine just revealed our new university brand last week. We are now the Golden Eagles!

Starting with extensive market research conducted last year, engaging focus groups of diverse stakeholders, and working with an exceptional marketing and brand partner, Concordia is prepared to tell our story more clearly, more boldly, and more widely! The specific elements of the new brand—new logo, academic seal, athletic mascot, and the new Freedom to Explore campaign—highlight and enhance our commitment to providing an outstanding Christian education in southern California and beyond.

Explore the new brand

THEME VERSE: “TRANSFORMED” (ROMANS 12:1-2)

One of the traditions I most love here at Concordia is that student leaders and Campus Ministry are empowered to pick the theme verse for the year. The Spirit certainly worked in that room as the students turned to Paul’s letter to the Church in Rome. Paul writes:

I therefore urge you, brothers and sisters, through the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice that is living, holy, and well-pleasing to God; this is your reasonable worship. And do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may test and discern what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God. (Romans 12:1-2)

From this text, the students picked the theme for 2022-2023: Transformed. If you’ve seen the new campus ministry shirts for the year, you’ll note that the image is that of a butterfly, an apt symbol of transformation, but perhaps more importantly, it is a poignant symbol of the resurrection of our Lord.

This verse calls us to remember that by God’s abundant love and mercy, we have been given newness of life through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. While we often are burdened and shaped by a broken world around us and the brokenness of sin within us, God’s Word invites us to walk each day in the renewing transformation Jesus seeks to work in our lives.

It’s a fitting theme verse for this coming academic year, as we focus on myriad transformations that are afforded by a fresh start in the gospel.

CAMPUS RENOVATIONS

Several campus buildings have undergone their own transformation over the summer months. Thanks to a generous donation from long-time campus supporters, the Library is now the Paul & Cathy Schroeder Library and Learning Commons. We invite you to walk through this amazing new building when you return to campus.

The new library space includes a new Welcome Center that will serve as a “first stop” for all visitors on campus. The top floor of the Schroeder Library and Learning Commons provide a central location for all student success offices, including Academic Advising, Disability Access Services (DAS) and Testing, Tutoring, the Writing Studio, the Office of Career Development and Vocation, and a new Unity Center where students can meet and relax. The bottom floor has been renovated with new automated stacks for the Library’s book collections, new offices for the library staff, and plenty of individual and group study areas.

All the residential lounges have been remodeled with air conditioning and new furniture. The Bookstore has been remodeled, a second Engineering classroom has been added in the Library, Arts, Theatre (LAT) building, and the CU Arena now has air conditioning, as well!

More projects are underway. A new Softball stadium will be under construction soon. The finished field and new bleachers are anticipated to be ready by January 2023. A new retaining wall is currently in construction and should be finished by Christmas. You can expect traffic along Dorm Road to be impacted periodically in the next few months.

Finally, campus signage reflecting the new branding will be installed throughout the upcoming semester. We will have new signs at each campus entrance, wayfinding signage, and new athletics branding in the CU Arena, the Baseball stadium, and the Soccer, Track & Field area. New campus banners have already been installed with the new logo and seal.

COVID GUIDELINES EASING

We look forward to a year minimally affected by COVID-19. In line with the CDC’s relaxing of most health guidelines, there are no masking or social distancing guidelines in place on campus. Students will still have access to testing in the Wellness Center, and isolation rooms are available for students who test positive. The new guidelines also eliminate the need for close contacts to quarantine.

GRATITUDE FOR THE YEAR AHEAD

As you embark on this new journey of the 2022-23 academic year at Concordia University Irvine, I want to encourage you to stop and reflect with hope and gratitude. We have so much to be thankful for, and I hope and pray that you’ll take the time to reflect on our Lord’s many blessings, for family, friends, faculty, staff, mentors, etc.

Allow me to close this note to you with some blessings for the year:

May our Lord richly bless your coming weeks and months as you begin your courses! I know that you are in very good hands, as the faculty and staff dedicate themselves fully to your development into wise, honorable, and cultivated citizens. And may God even more richly bless you as you make new friends, reconnect with other Golden Eagles, participate in many extra-curricular programs, and of course as you work towards earning your academic degree at Concordia!

For His Students,
President Michael A. Thomas