Rather than spend the warm sunny Thursday laying out and working on her tan, University junior Logan Juve raked bark dust outside Pacific Hall. Thursday was University Day, so all throughout campus, more than 1,000 students, faculty and staff members were doing the same.
“It’s something that takes only a little bit of time out of your day. Our campus is certainly known for being one of the most beautiful, at least in the Northwest,” Juve said. “It’s just a good way to give back to a community that gives so much to us.”
What started as a group of juniors volunteering to make the campus presentable for upcoming commencement ceremonies, University Day has been going on since 1905. University Day is an annual tradition focused on beautifying the campus. Last year, more than 1,000 volunteers spent the day planting 4,000 flowers, spreading 5,000 wheelbarrows of bark dust and collecting three cubic yards of trash.
Campus beautification was just a part of this year’s University Day. With a theme of Block Party, the event was also focused on unity within the University community.
“The purpose of the Block Party theme was to emphasize community and get people to get out and not only work together, but celebrate being a community together,” said Amber Garrison of the Office of Student Life, a member of the University Day Committee. “It’s like, go plant some seeds and then come hang out.”
University student Robyn Hoppes, the chair for this year’s event, said, “We want to provide a great opportunity for people to get involved on campus, and that’s what University Day is. You get to know people you don’t usually get to spend time with.”
All day outside the EMU, live music played while people mingled. Eating lunch and listening to Green Is For Go, University junior Tyson Lewis said he liked that people were uniting over campus beautification, as opposed to sports.
“I think it’s great – enlisting student help kind of inspires a sense of pride on campus, rather than just littering and degrading,” he said. “People who work at University Day are less likely to litter or not speak up if someone else does because they put in all that hard work.”
Tables lined the path leading to the EMU’s ground level, allowing various student groups – such as the Oregon Ballroom Dance Club, Black Women of Achievement and service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega – to mingle with passing students all day.
For University junior Alison Fox, the coordinator of Project Utopia, the Block Party theme also allowed her to network. A relatively new and unknown group dedicated to community service, Project Utopia was able to promote its service shuttle, which will drive students around Saturday morning to volunteer at FOOD For Lane County and HIV Alliance, among others.
“We’re really hoping to increase student involvement on campus. Our utopia involves students engaged in the community and having it be part of their lifestyle and not just part of their résumé,” Fox said. “(University Day) is good because it’s really the only day you see students out and engaged in campus. It’s nice for students to feel like they’re part of the campus, making it a nice place, making it beautiful.”
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