Dear William Carey students:

First off, I just wanted to say how sorry I am that you guys lost everything in the recent tornado that ripped through Hattiesburg. While we are a campus down the road, through it all, we have your back.

I know that many of you have been displaced by the tornado. I wanted to say that although I cannot get your material things back, I hope that I can somehow help by creating new memories on our Southern Miss campus. It breaks my heart knowing that for many of you, irreplaceable memories and mementos are now destroyed.

This is no longer a "Southern Miss or Carey issue. This is about Hattiesburg banding together as a city and community and restoring faith in you and your campus. I know how hard it can be to keep morale up at this time, but hopefully through continued efforts, we can restore normalcy to you all.

I've seen many Crusaders on our campus. While it has been an adjustment to see red and black in a sea of black and gold, it is refreshing. I love seeing and meeting new people, so having whole groups come on campus is pretty cool.

I hope that you guys find our residence halls comfortable. I know that things like memories in your own personal dorm cannot be replaced, but hopefully by our accommodations, we can at least make it sort of feel like home. Home is where the heart is, and while we are a few miles away, I hope that we can constantly be reminded that Hattiesburg is home, too.

I hope that in this time, you realize how awesome Southern Miss really is. Our people, our campus, and our community are some of the most caring, welcoming individuals I have ever met. From what I have seen from you guys, so are you. I know that it's weird having class online and not being fully "present" academicallly, but I hope you remember that we want to help you.

I'm so glad that we have been able to accomodate you guys. I know that I have a greater appreciation for both of our respective administrations after this. It may have taken a natural disaster to bring us together, but I am so glad we can mesh together.

So here's to you, William Carey. We are ALL Sader Strong. Through this, we can show the world how great partnering between two schools really is. We are not rivals, we are brothers and sisters united in preserving the legacies of our respective schools. ALthough the situations we are in right now may be strange, we must band together and aide our cross town brothers and sisters.

Southern Miss, and William Carey To The Top,

Emily Victoria Rasch