After Tough Year, MACU’s President Anticipates Brighter Days

By Chris Moon

John Maurice is looking forward, not backward.

“It’s been a year I wouldn’t want to repeat,” said the president of Mid-Atlantic Christian University in Elizabeth City, N.C.

While the rest of the world has been navigating the COVID-19 pandemic, MACU has been dealing with that challenge . . . and many others.

Like many colleges, MACU sent students home when the pandemic first broke out in March 2020. Students returned to campus in the fall. But it was a school year unlike any other.

On Sept. 5, 2020, a roofing project at MACU’s main classroom and cafeteria building, Heritage Hall, turned sour when the building partially collapsed under the weight of the new shingles that had been stacked on top of the building.

“Thank God it took place on a Saturday morning instead of a Friday morning,” Maurice said.

With Heritage Hall suddenly out of commission, MACU had to scramble for classroom space, putting students and faculty in every available nook and cranny in the remaining buildings on campus.

And that’s when COVID-19 made itself known again. In October, the college suffered an outbreak. Twenty-two students tested positive for the virus, and 60 were forced into quarantine after contact tracing, Maurice said.

“We survived that,” he said.

But the blows kept coming.

In April 2021, MACU was forced to call off classes for a couple of days; the school sent students home in anticipation of the possibility of violent protests after the killing of a Black man by local sheriff’s deputies.

Fortunately, the protests never affected the campus.

“Where the protests begin is two blocks from us,” Maurice said. “They make a left turn into town proper instead of over into our neighborhood.”

‘PROBABLY THE HARDEST YEAR’
The college now is heading toward the 2021-22 school year with a significantly reduced enrollment. An all-time high student body of 213 a few years ago has been reduced into the neighborhood of about 140.

It is hard to show off the campus to prospective students when there’s no classroom building to show them—or even a cafeteria.

Morale at the campus, for obvious reasons, took a hit during the past year. Students and staff have had a difficult time connecting. They haven’t even been able to come together for college athletic events, due to COVID-19.

“Your strategic plan kind of goes out the window when you’re dealing with crisis,” Maurice said. “Our strategic plan was to make it through the year.”

Maurice is a retired Navy chaplain who deployed to multiple wars during his 24 years of service.

“It’s been probably the hardest year that I’ve ever dealt with,” he said.

It’s one thing to combat an enemy you can see and identify, according to Maurice. It’s another when the enemy is invisible.

“When you are a university and you are dealing with these things, you rely on each other, and you rely on God,” he said.

DISCOVERING THE BLESSINGS
And God has provided blessings during all the hardships.

Maurice has joined with two other college presidents, including one serving with historically Black Elizabeth City State University, in urging for racial reconciliation and peace in the community following the April shooting death.

“Standing with other leaders in solidarity was a good thing,” Maurice said.

MACU also is looking to bolster diversity in its staff. About one-third of its student are African-American.

“We’re trying to be responsive to the needs of our students,” he said.

Meanwhile, a local Methodist church has made its commercial kitchen available to the college, which uses it to prepare food to bring to campus for students.

“It’s a labor of love on their part,” he said.

Maurice is convinced even brighter days are ahead.

He continues to remind himself and others that “God has got us. He is faithful, and we are going to get through this together. . . . This is not what’s intended for us. God has something bigger, and there is an adversary that is trying to destroy what [God is] trying to do.”

NEW BUILDINGS COMING SOON
And things are, indeed, looking up.

MACU is renovating its two dormitory buildings, with new furniture and carpet, along with fresh paint inside and out.

The university also is close to breaking ground on two buildings that will replace Heritage Hall. One will serve as a classroom and office structure. The other will be MACU’s new cafeteria building.

Maurice is optimistic both will be completed by the end of 2022. He said MACU continues to receive generous financial gifts from individuals for its building projects.

“I’m not one that’s very easily discouraged,” Maurice said. “There are things that you wish [were] very different. I guess through it all, I’ve been encouraged by the way God’s people have been faithful to us.”

Chris Moon is a pastor and writer living in Redstone, Colorado.