Whereas Blue Mountain Christian University began its first session as a women’s institution on September 12, 1873, with a four-member faculty offering a liberal arts curriculum to 50 students; Whereas Blue Mountain Christian University was chartered as a college in 1877 and managed by the Lowrey family until 1920 when the Mississippi Baptist Convention assumed ownership; Whereas, in 1956, the Mississippi Baptist Convention voted to add a coordinated academic program for men preparing for church-related vocations; Whereas, in 2005, the Board of Trustees voted to make Blue Mountain Christian University a fully coeducational institution; Whereas, on October 7, 2022, the Board of Trustees approved changing the name of the institution from Blue Mountain College to Blue Mountain Christian University; Whereas Blue Mountain Christian University has grown from 50 students to host more than 600 students participating in nine programs of study, including establishing graduate programs in education in 2006, business administration in 2019, and kinesiology in 2023, as well as a School of Nursing in 2022; Whereas Blue Mountain Christian University has played a significant role in meeting the needs of its constituents for 150 years by educating women in the 1870s following a devastating war, by educating ministers in the mid-1950s when bi-vocational pastors were unable to travel to pursue higher education, by converting to coeducational status in 2005 when the education of both men and women became expedient to enhance community advancement and service, and by establishing a nursing program in the 2020s to address a critical shortage of trained personnel in the medical field; Whereas the inaugural Southern Literary Festival was established at Blue Mountain Christian University in 1937 to foster creative writing and to provide exposure to successful authors