COMMENCEMENT CEREMONY SUCCESSFUL DESPITE CONSTRUCTION
Over 300 students participated in Biola's two Commencement ceremonies on December 17. Both ceremonies were held in the University's gym, which was in the midst of an expansion project that will add additional seating, new restrooms and offices to the building.
Because of construction delays, the gym was still undergoing construction the week of Commencement. Biola's Facilities Services Department worked round-the-clock in the days prior to the ceremony to disguise the unfinished facility.
"We used pipe and drape to conceal any unfinished walls and tall plants to dress up the new lobby," Joe Grossman, a manager in the Facilities Services Events Department. "We also had to install wood barricades along the second-floor balcony for safety reasons."
The gym expansion project comes at a time when the University's enrollment is increasing at record rates. Spring enrollment for 2005 is projected to exceed 5,000 students, a figure that will surpass the enrollment numbers of every spring semester in Biola's history.
Dr. John Bechtel, the former director of international ministries at the Arthur S. DeMoss Foundation, served as the Commencement Speaker for both ceremonies.
In his message, Dr. John Bechtel challenged the students to consider how they will invest the talents God has given them. He cited a powerful example in his own life, when a girl's donation of one dollar was used to purchase the Suen Douh camp in Hong Kong, which in the past 33 years has been attended by 1.25 million children.