1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter, is one of the most popular verses around this time of year. However, its importance to the Union College lexicon is one that many current students and recent alumni don't know.

I remember seeing “Union Makes Better Lovers” scribbled on a cartoon drawing of a VW bus as a tiny bumper sticker in a Guide magazine when I was in a Sabbath school class in the mid-2000s. By the time I was checking out colleges in 2015, it was said by recruiters to inspire us non-dating academy seniors to come check out the college, along with countless stories of staff and faculty members who had met their spouse here, and had beautiful, affirming marriages. But the origin of this phrase actually comes from a classroom devotion in 1997.

Chris Blake is a recently retired Union College professor who has influenced Union College culture and policies. In 1997 he gave a devotion to his college writing class. It was focused on 1 Corinthians, the different meanings of love and his personal belief that everything we do as Christians should be to make us love one another better. He said to his class, "You know, when we define love in terms of 1 Corinthians 13, Union College is basically here to make better lovers.”

Thus the phrase was born. Mr. Blake liked the phrase and felt it was a great slogan, and designed it into a bumper sticker. In conjunction with the Campus Bookstore, under the direction of Linda Hill at the time, the created bumper stickers were sold. The bumper stickers read "Union Makes Better Lovers (See 1 Corinthians 13)" and sold “like Hotcakes” until an administrative secretary deemed them to be too raunchy and racy for the college, and confiscated the remaining stacks.

The stickers are likely still within the President's office somewhere. It is said they are handed out to Unionites who announce their engagement while a Union College, although we could not secure confirmation of this fact. However, love cannot be censored, and the next year the ASB team used the slogan on t-shirts, wristbands for the entire student body and even banners for events. This promotional campaign has ensured that “Union Makes Better Lovers” is burned into the Union College vocabulary for generations of Alumni to come.

* A Special note of thanks to Professor Emeritus, Chris Blake for responding to my email and sharing with me the story of the phrase; without him this article wouldn’t be possible.

Bry Galloway is a senior studying history.