Lee Alumni Relations and Student Development collaborate on Spirit Wall Contest

A Lee-centered mural is coming to campus this fall. The Lee Alumni Relations office is collaborating with the Student Development office on their Spirit Wall Contest, which aims to unite the Lee community to design a mural on campus. Alumni and current students have submitted designs, and the student body will vote for their favorite nominees.

The Spirit Wall will be painted on an exterior wall of the Deacon Jones Dining Hall. The official mural reveal will take place during Homecoming in the fall.

The Student Development office received all design submissions, and the office’s student staff provided feedback on the initial samples for the mural. Alumni Relations selected finalists to present to the student body.

Alex Staup, the director of student engagement, hopes to merge the engagement of Lee’s past, current and prospective students.

“I hope the Spirit Wall communicates that our campus community is unified,” said Staup. “One of our goals is that it stirs up excitement for current, prospective and former students alike in a way that they can see we are all connected and proud to be Lee University Flames.”

Staup attributes the Spirit Wall proposal as “the brainchild of the Alumni Relations Office.”

Dr. Susan Alford Ashcraft, director of alumni relations, said the Spirit Wall is an opportunity to promote school spirit on campus. The Spirit Wall is intended to initiate the addition of more murals on the north and south ends of campus. Within the past year, Ashcraft has been aiming to connect students through “creating something that is meaningful to everyone.”

“We would love to see more than one pop-up around campus,” said Ashcraft. “Just kind of a fun way to also get students engaged with things the Alumni [Relations] office is doing.”

A committee of administrators, faculty, alumni and students will be formed to survey the submissions and to choose the final layout for the Spirit Wall. Ashcraft said the Spirit Wall designs will be edited through student feedback, and the “collaborative approach” of using various submissions to create the final painting will create a more complete image of Lee’s culture.

“Potentially, they are students, alumni or other professionals that we would contract with,” said Ashcraft. “So, there’s the potential for it to be one or all three of those.”

Ashcraft said the placement of the Spirit Wall, on an exterior wall of the Deacon Jones Dining Hall in the center of campus, was an intentional decision.

“That thoroughfare is traveled heavily by students and prospective students and their families when they are going on [campus] tours,” said Ashcraft. “That thoroughfare is traveled heavily by alumni if they are coming to games on campus or if they are coming to homecoming. So, that seemed like the best [place], and the middle of campus.”

Ashcraft said the Spirit Wall symbolizes the “spirit of the Lee experience” and represents the identity of Lee.

“It becomes an icon almost on campus, and that’s what we hope for it to be,” said Ashcraft. “Something that would represent, no matter when you were here, now or later, it embodies that spirit of what Lee is, [and] who we are as Lee students and alumni.”

Chancellor Paul Conn is currently serving in his 52nd year at Lee. Conn’s presidency spanned 34 years, during which he worked to develop Lee’s image and to raise the university’s standards. Conn hopes the Spirit Wall will become a new aspect of Lee’s image.

“There have been a few times where we have worked on the image separate from the substance, but mostly we have had the feeling that if we improve the substance, then the image would follow,” said Conn. 

Conn believes “reputation follows reality,” and the process of creating Lee’s image includes adding “bells and whistles” to offer students.

“I hope it will be a place that students will enjoy, and then it will become a standard part of the Lee experience,” said Conn. “To have pictures made at various times of your Lee experience.”

Conn said “signature buildings” have become “synonymous to the Lee experience,” and the Spirit Wall will serve as the first mural to add to Lee’s iconic locations.