Mount Mercy College Cedar Rapids, Iowa USA

The flood waters that overtook Cedar Rapids last week have begun to recede, leaving in their wake innumerable challenges - and many opportunities.

Mount Mercy was proud to house more than 600 Air and Army National Guard members deployed to fight the rising flood waters, and to serve as a command post for the 185th Air Refueling Wing of the Iowa Air National Guard. Approximately 100 Mount Mercy staff, faculty, and students volunteered to provide a myriad of support services - both visible and behind the scenes - to ensure that the National Guard was able to perform its duties without interruption or distraction. Mount Mercy volunteers were scheduled in shifts on campus 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to offer technical and logistical support including communications, laundry and sanitary services, food delivery, switchboard duties, and facilitation of supplies.

Mount Mercy's reaction to the catastrophic flooding is a powerful example of the College's mission to serve those in need. Volunteering with flood relief efforts and housing National Guard members is not a diversion of our mission, but a sad fulfillment of it. The flood relief organized by Mount Mercy volunteers highlights the values of gratitude and hospitality, upon which Mount Mercy prides itself.

We must remember, however, that as an institution of higher education, our primary action is to educate, and even in these times of crisis, that function must continue. The best way for Mount Mercy to serve the Cedar Rapids community is to provide its unique brand of high quality education, and the College moved as quickly as possible to resume normal operations so that we could continue to serve the needs of our students. It is this dual commitment to education and service that sets Mount Mercy, and its students, staff, faculty, and graduates apart from others.

Those of us who hold Mount Mercy College dear to our hearts were blessed that the flood waters did not reach our Hilltop campus. Unfortunately, the same is not true for the homes and businesses of many of our colleagues, students, and alumni. It is clear that the days, weeks, and months ahead will be spent patiently and thoughtfully re-building our city, its infrastructure, and the lives of its many residents.

One silver lining of the flood was that Mount Mercy's business continuity planning and emergency preparedness training was implemented. On June 11 the College activated its Emergency Operations Center and began twice-daily briefings. This crisis has been an extraordinary - although unwelcome - opportunity to put our campus emergency plan into practice. We look forward to debriefing once the crisis has passed, but the indication is that we succeeded in implementing our plan with flying colors.

Last week I was asked whether I thought that prospective students would be dissuaded from enrolling at Mount Mercy because of the damage to our city. I never hesitated in responding, "absolutely not." Throughout this crisis, the city of Cedar Rapids and Mount Mercy have truly worn the values of faith, goodness, hospitality, and gratitude on our sleeves. Many students considering Mount Mercy as their college of choice will be more attracted to our institution because of our help with community-based flood relief - we truly do offer our students a practical education grounded in mercy!

Please keep the city of Cedar Rapids and those people impacted by flooding - including Mount Mercy faculty, staff, and students - in your thoughts and prayers as we look forward to another successful year of education on the Hill.

Godspeed,
Christopher R.L. Blake, President