Concordia, Selma, passes halfway mark in campaign

Two years into its five-year, $20 million “A Time to Build” campaign, Concordia College Alabama in Selma, Ala., already has raised nearly $13 million in cash and pledges.

Concordia College Alabama students relax in the refurbished lounge in the Kreft Campus Center — one result of the school’s “A Time to Build” campaign that has raised nearly $13 million for academic programs, capital projects and scholarships. (Concordia College Alabama/Christine Weerts)

The campaign — which runs through 2016 — is the school’s largest and is intended to fund academic expansion, capital projects, student scholarships and endowment growth.

“Our number-one goal is to offer promising students from Alabama and around the world the ability to pursue the dream of a Christian college education,” said the Rev. Dr. Tilahun Mendedo, the school’s president. “Thanks to generous friends and alumni, ‘A Time to Build’ is on track to be transformational — allowing us to develop leaders intellectually and spiritually who make a difference in the world for generations to come.”

Campaign funds are being used to:

add new academic programs, new faculty and staff, and new technology, labs and classrooms “to support academic excellence,” according to the college. A Criminal Justice program has been added to course offerings as a result of the campaign and a cooperative arrangement with Concordia University Wisconsin, Mequon. More programs are planned.

develop athletic facilities, complete a connecting road between the west and east campuses, and update and renovate buildings “for better student service.” Most of those plans already are in progress, according to a Concordia, Selma, spokesperson, who said that the Kreft Campus Center has been completely renovated, a new soccer/football field is finished, and the connecting road is “nearly complete.”

In addition, both women’s dormitories — flooded in 2012 — have been completely renovated and updated, an under-used utility building has been converted into a student lounge called “The Hornet’s Nest,” student residential cottages have been remodeled, and the gym floor and indoor swimming pool in the Jenkins Center have been refurbished.

increase scholarships and build the endowment to “make the dream of a Concordia degree a reality for both current and future students.”

To learn more about Concordia College Alabama (CCA) — the only historically black Lutheran college in the country — visit its website. CCA is part of the LCMS Concordia University System of 10 schools nationwide.