Building a Campus Ministry Church and Center at TAMIU

The Newman Club has begun a project where Texas A&M International University students, faculty, and staff may be more involved. The purpose of the group is to improve student life on a spiritual level and further success. The Congregation of St. John, along with other Catholic sources, initiated the idea of constructing a Campus Ministry Chapel and Center at TAMIU.

For the past seven years the TAMIU alumni has experience unprecedented growth from about 3,500 to 7,000 students;perhaps 70% to 80% of those students at TAMIU are Catholic. Since Father Michael Therese Scheerger came to this campus, he was placed before this reality and had the idea of building a Catholic Center at the University. Most major universities, such as universities in Kingsville, San Antonio, Austin, College Station and more, are accompanied by Catholic ministry center, among many other denominations. Father Michael, the Catholic Campus Minister, stated, "Pretty much every major University has a Center like this, and so, is good to see that TAMIU is coming up to par." Taking this and other facts into consideration, the Brothers of St. John, along with the Bishop, started to build upon the idea of this project in 2006.

Five years of evolving ideas and hard work were put into this project. In November of 2011, thanks to the generosity of the Killam family, the contract for the acquisition for the land were signed; hence, the project is underway. The Catholic Campus ministry Center will be located at 5201 University Boulevard, Laredo, TX 78041-1920, next to the Early College Building. The construction of this center will not impact TAMIU Student's tuition whatsoever. The financial assistance for the project is being sought from Catholic sources outside the University. The Project will consist of a 300 person Church, daily Chapel, Multi-purpose Hall, two classrooms, library, office space, café, and a few living quarters that will be available for students who will help to run the center.

In order to demonstrate the strong support from TAMIU students, faculty, and the public's interest in building the center, approximately 1,010 signatures that were collected at the TAMIU campus in just three days. Student's opinion varied with many in support and very excited, some opposing, and many others are neutral due to religious beliefs.

The construction phase of the project will start in the 2012-2013 school year and the construction will take about a year to be completed. This center would be open to the students and the public. As of now, it is certain that it will be a chapel provided by the Catholic Church to service the needs of the TAMIU alumni as well as those of our greater community.

If you want to know more updates about the new Campus Building you may like their page on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/CCMProject or call (956)326-4351. If the public in general is interested in knowing how the Catholic Building may look inside or outside you may watch this video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djDHPIfEHE4&feature=share (SandyLugo may be reached at sandylugoespinoza@dusty.tamiu.edu)