BY CORBIN MCGUIRE, OPINIONS EDITOR
While Bellarmine students celebrate the university’s 65th birthday this year, alumni and long-term faculty reflect on their years spent at the institution built on land previously used for an orphanage and a seminary.
“Sometimes I think about going back a hundred years and there would be nuns and children walking around,” said Bellarmine University Historian and Archival Coordinator Fr. Clyde Crews.
Crews graduated from Bellarmine in 1966 and later returned in 1973 to teach theology and history at Bellarmine.
In 2007, Crews retired after teaching for nearly 35 years and was appointed as Bellarmine’s historian and archival coordinator that same year.
Crews said: “It [Bellarmine] really has transformed over the years. When I went here as a student we had three buildings. Now, I think we have 25 or 26.”
While former students are surprised by leaps Bellarmine has made over the years, current students are looking forward to even more progress in the future.
“I’m only in my sophomore year so not a lot has changed here other than the addition of Centro. I hope to see more RSO collaboration and Centro finished,” sophomore Mariah Creason said.
Creason is a co-chair of the Comedy/Novelty Committee of the Bellarmine Activities Council (BAC) and is coordinating the BU Birthday Extravaganza on Oct. 7 with fellow co-chair, junior Austin Clark.
“There will be food and larger lawn games, weather permitting. Instead of celebrating with cake we decided on fall-related items such as pies,” said Creason.
Students will gather to enjoy a relaxed evening to honor the founding of the university and the life of St. Robert Bellarmine, the school’s namesake.