CIU Today Spring 2017

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CIU Fitness Center Weight Room Expanded,
Equipment Upgraded
If the grimace on the face of CIU basketball player Damian Hurta was any indication,
the new weight room equipment in CIU’s Moore Fitness Center is going to be an
effective training tool for CIU athletes.
Hurta was doing some pretty heavy bench pressing on the new equipment during
one of the basketball team’s first practices at the start of the spring semester.
Over the Christmas break, the weight room in the Moore Fitness Center was moved to
a larger room where nine half-squat racks were installed, replacing outdated weights
and benches. The new $18,000 equipment is not only available to the CIU Rams athletic
teams, but all who use the fitness center: students, faculty, staff and alumni.
Moore Fitness Center Manager and Cross Country Coach Jud Brooker describes the
new racks as “all-in-one weight lifting equipment for squats, bench press, with pull-up
bar, and hooks for exercise bands.” The squat racks and additional new free weights
were part of a more extensive renovation totaling approximately $25,000, most of
which was funded through student activity fees.
CIU Soccer Field Dedicated to Alumna
The Columbia International University soccer field now carries the name of a longtime CIU
supporter.
The field was dedicated to CIU alumna Elizabeth Rikard Sessions on Nov. 3 during halftime of a
CIU Lady Rams soccer match. Sessions graduated from CIU, then called Columbia Bible College,
in 1943. She went on to assist in the founding of Rikard Nursing Homes in Lexington County, South
Carolina where she served the elderly for 28 years. Sessions also served on CIU’s board of trustees
for 17 years, and received several honors from CIU including the dedication of Rikard Dining
Room, Alumna of the Year in 1999, and an honorary
doctorate in 2010.
In 2012, after Sessions heard of CIU’s vision to begin
its first athletics program, her financial generosity
made the soccer field a reality.
Elizabeth Sessions smiles
to soccer fans during the
dedication of Sessions Field.
Damian Hurta of the Rams basketball squad gives his all during a workout in the newly
upgraded weight room while teammate Jordan Dillingham assists.
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CIU Congratulates
Ben Lippen Falcons on
State Championship
Congratulations go out from Columbia
International University to Ben Lippen
School after the Falcons earned their
first state title in football!
Congratulations also
to Grace Lehman,
the first to receive
the new Ben Lippen
School Headmaster’s
Award from
Headmaster Chip
Jones. She has served
as a kindergarten teacher at Ben Lippen
for over 25 years.
In Memory
Bob Weeber went
to be with the Lord
on Feb. 8. A 1952
graduate of CIU,
Weeber served at
Ben Lippen School as a teacher and
coach for 44 years.
Ben Lippen School is a Pre-K to 12th
grade Christian school ministry of CIU.
(Photo: )
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