It’s a spring evening in March, and I’m cooking dinner with a group of friends in the dorms. We soon discover that the oven isn’t working in the apartment as we try to cook fajita chicken. So, naturally, as any good friend would do, Jenna Mincy, a sophomore graphic design major, offers her dorm to finish cooking the food. As we walk over to the Sullivan dorm building, where she lives, I see the Davignon family living in their new apartment. I soon learn that they have just moved in that same day.
Mincy, being the hospitable friend she is, arranges flowers and places them in a vase to bring to their new neighbors. She walks over, and I know the conversation must be amazing because she doesn’t return for another 20 minutes. Mincy and the girls who live in this building were blessed by the new presence of the Davignon family. Just as the students have so graciously welcomed them as faculty in residence, the Davignon family gives back to our community in the same way.
Phil Davignon, sociology professor and department chair, arrived at Union in 2014 after completing graduate school at Baylor University. His wife, Melissa, and their three children lived in a home when they first arrived in Jackson, but in 2020 they moved into the Hope quads while awaiting their permanent faculty in residence apartment. After eight months of waiting for construction to be finished, they moved into Sullivan three weeks ago.
Davignon has worked long and hard to create several new programs in the sociology department, including criminal justice, family studies and forensic science.
“A real strength of Union is our students because most of the students generally want to be here and want to learn, and that makes all the difference,” said Davignon. “When students want to be in the classes you teach, they experience some real transformation. It’s an exciting process.”
A few years into Davingnon’s time here at Union, he noticed a need for new areas of study in the sociology department. Over the years, many students went into law enforcement, but he realized that students wanted to study in a program that is close to what they desire as a career. These new programs have had a welcomed response with the entire department doubling in size within a year.
Davignon finds something powerful and transformative about writing, researching and interacting with students. It is the people of Union that make his job so special.
As the Davignon family moved into their new apartment three weeks ago, Davignon reflected back on how quickly the moving process was completed. The entire family was moved in a matter of a few hours because of the amount of people who came to help.
“It’s kinda fun to see people again,” Davignon said. “In Hope, we only had a few neighbors at most, so now our kids get so excited when they see people walking by, and they run to the window and wave to these girls walking by Sullivan.”
Not only is their new space larger, but it provides them with students as their closest neighbors. Some may think this would be concerning for a young family with three children, or it might be concerning for college students to have children living next door. However, this family finds it a joy to have their lives connect so closely to the college students they interact with every day.
“It makes life feel a lot more integrated because everything is connected in terms of work and living and teaching and seeing students,” Davignon said. “It certainly isn’t for everybody, but we love it.”
One of the many benefits of living with college students is the multitude of babysitting offers and kind greetings from the girls in their building.
“It’s so fun seeing the Davignon children playing in the yard when I’m coming to and from our building,” said Mincy. “Since I have younger siblings, it brings home just a little bit closer. One day after class, my roommate and I were talking to Melissa, and we started talking about plants, and we quickly realized that we share a similar love for them. A few minutes later, Melissa knocked on our door, and she gave us both succulents in stegosaurus planters. It was so fun, meaningful and kind.”
The entire Davignon family contributes to the community and the quality people who live on this campus. It is a refreshing sight to see children running, laughing and playing. Families living on campus make dorm life feel more like home life.
“I’m really fascinated by community and how we find good community,” said Davignon. “That’s something I think is harder and harder to do in today’s world. It’s hard to get rooted. It’s interesting how college, for a lot of people, is a time of their best community because it places people at the same age, at the same location, going through the same kinds of experiences. It’s this rich community, and I miss my college days. Being on campus and being involved in campus is just special.”
