Jeffery Harter graduates from Jacksonville State
Just six weeks after an EF-3 tornado devastated Jacksonville State University and its surrounding community, 724 students received degrees at Burgess-Snow Field at JSU Stadium on May 4. Jeffery Harter of Sherburne earned a bachelor of science in emergency management.
The tornado left a $42 million trail of destruction in its wake. President Donald Trump declared the area a federal disaster on April 27, just a week before spring commencement was scheduled to take place. In an act of resilience and perhaps even defiance, the university salvaged the last few weeks of the spring semester and held its spring commencement ceremony as planned with one change: three ceremonies were combined into one and moved to the Gamecock football stadium due to damages at Pete Mathews Coliseum.
Summer classes are currently in session as workers replace roofs on a total of 34 buildings and make other necessarily repairs to the more than 50 damaged buildings. All repairs, except for any new construction projects, are fast-tracked to be completed before the fall semester begins Aug. 21. For more information, including how you can help with recovery efforts, visit www.jsu.edu/jsustrong.