TCU students hold vigil to help community heal

A student-led prayer vigil reminded the TCU community to stand together on a day when things easily could have fallen apart, the minister to the university said Wednesday.

“The spiritual events that happen on this campus, with all their rich diversity, connect us to each other, remind us what we believe and what is most important to us,” The Rev. Angela Kaufman, minister to the university, said.

Sarah Allen, a sophomore strategic communication major, had the idea to put together a prayer vigil in light of the events involving the TCU students who were arrested in Wednesday’s drug bust.

Allen created a Facebook event and created fliers to pass out to promote the event, she said. She then spoke to Graham McMillan, vice president of the student body, who helped recruit speakers and find microphones for the event.

Allen then contacted Chancellor Victor Boschini, Kaufman and her own minister to involve the TCU leadership, she said.

McMillan said that the fact that a single student put this event together shows how the community can bond.

With the drug arrests story breaking earlier in the day, the prayer vigil caught the attention of media outlets, which also covered the event.

The media concentrated on what Allen described as the negative aspects of the story, but she said she thought the prayer vigil created a positive environment.

Jordan Mazurek, a junior sociology major, said, “I have faith in my fellow Horned Frogs to do things to reaffirm who they are and who we are. My faith may or may not rely on a deity or religious texts, but it does rely on every individual around me that I draw on for support.”