At the end of the fall 2014 semester, Dr. Samuel W. “Dub” Oliver sat down with the Cardinal & Cream to look back on his first semester as president of Union University. The interview has been edited for length.
Q. After your first semester here, what do you think?
A. It’s been amazing. In some ways it feels like forever. In other ways it feels like we just started. How can the semester be over? But it really has been an incredible journey, an amazing journey filled with so many wonderful memories. That’s one of the sweet things about ‘firsts.’ I remember the first time I had lunch in the Lex. I remember the first time I went to Union Night, our first Homecoming, all those things. It’s been filled with many wonderful memories and a lot of good work. Another thing is [the first semester] gives you a sense of, ‘Yes, I can do this. I can make this work.’ Not that it’s not challenging, not that it doesn’t have some ups and downs along the way, but this is good.
Q. Do you have a favorite memory from the semester?
A. The Inauguration was a great week and the ceremony itself, I thought, was really a great celebration of God’s faithfulness to Union.
Q. What was the thing that surprised you most about the semester?
A. One of the things that I’ve really enjoyed is how fast students have adopted us and loved us. Usually that takes a while, for people to get to know you and think ‘He’s alright.’ How quickly that happened was a sweet surprise.
Q. What was the hardest thing last semester?
A. The hardest thing has been some of our financial challenges with our smaller entering class this year … . Just the financial challenges with that and having to ask people to make sacrifices and to trim budgets, not to be able to do everything that we really want to do, that’s the toughest thing.
Q. What are you most grateful for?
A. God’s providence, God’s blessing. It’s so clear that he has us and his hand is upon Union. I’m certainly grateful for that and don’t want to presume upon that blessing. I want us to always be people who are always seeking after him, that people would say of us that — I hope they would say this about me — I’m not only a man after God’s own heart, but we are also a people seeking after God’s own heart.
