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Manchester Mourns after Tragic Car Accident

The following email was sent to Manchester University students, faculty President Dave McFadden on Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016.

Dear students, faculty, staff and friends,

It is with great sadness that I share news of a tragic accident early this morning that claimed the lives of three Manchester University students, Nerad Grace Mangai, Brook M. Dagnew and Kirubel Alemayehu Hailu.

A fourth MU student, Israel Solomon Tamire, is being treated for injuries at Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne. Three other students, Nebiyu Shiferaw Alemu, Amanuel Atsbha Gebreyohannes and Dagmawi Meseret Tadesse, were not injured and have returned to North Manchester.

A gathering for the MU community is planned for 8 p.m. this evening (Sunday) in Petersime Chapel. Students, faculty and staff are welcome to attend, reflect and provide comfort to each other as we process our grief. Campus Pastor Walt Wiltschek will lead us.

The students had been to Ball State University and Taylor University earlier and were northbound on I-69 heading back to North Manchester. Based on what we were told, they had a flat tire and were outside of the vehicle changing it when several of them were struck by another vehicle.

All of the students are from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, except for Nerad, a sophomore biology-chemistry major from Jos, Nigeria. Brook was a sophomore majoring in biology-chemistry and Kirubel was a first-year medical technology major.

Please hold all of the people who love these students in your thoughts and prayers. Counseling services are available today at the Intercultural Center and we will ensure that counseling support is available for students, faculty and staff in the difficult days ahead.

We can’t begin to understand the tragic loss of Nerad, Brook and Kirubel, young lives so full of promise. The MU community grieves their passing and will miss them deeply.

Dave McFadden
President

For the media: http://www.manchester.edu/about-manchester/news/news-articles/deaths-announcement-2-21-2016

If you want to do any reporting/photography on location, call Anne Gregory in media relations at 260-982-5285 and leave a message or text 260-417-5061. Calls and texts will be answered in the order they are received.Manchester University is a private institution. If you are coming to the North Manchester campus, please review these Media Access Policies.

Anne Gregory
Media Relations
260-982-5285

  • Nerad Mangai
  • Brook Dagnew
  • Kirubel Alemayehu Hailu


McFadden Invites Students to 'Ask Me'

President McFadden’s spring convocation on Feb. 9 focused on how we learn about ourselves through our interactions with other people. He tied this into his continuing message of “being a better you.” To illustrate this concept, videos and panels of faculty and students helped the audience to realize how their time at Manchester has affected their perspectives.

Another focus of the convocation was the poem “Ask Me” by William Stafford. The former Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, Stafford is important to Manchester because he taught here from 1955 to 1956. His poem directly linked with the convocation through communication. The line “I will listen to what you say” was a common theme throughout the interviews with panels of students and of faculty during the convocation.

Read more.



Dave_GoodBeloved Soccer Coach Says 'Good'-bye
After 36 years of coaching soccer at Manchester University, Head Coach David Good has officially announced his retirement.

Though Good did not begin coaching at Manchester until 1980, soccer has been a major part of his life for as long as he can remember. A soccer ball was at his feet as he grew up in Nigeria, then as he attended Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania, then as he played for Lancaster United, a Pennsylvania club team, post-graduation. Upon moving to North Manchester with his wife, Lois, he secured both assistant coach and grounds crew positions. “I’ve had the good fortune to be doing two things I’ve enjoyed since I was 3 years old: playing soccer and playing in the dirt,” he said. Read more