University Day 2011 had an ominous start. After intermittent rain showers the night before, low fog hung around early Thursday morning, giving a chilly gray overtone to the beginning of the campus beautification event.
“When I walked on campus at 5 a.m. and saw the fog, I actually knew that it was going to be a good day,” University Day Chair Simone Walter said.@@http://uodos.uoregon.edu/CelebrationsandEvents/UniversityDay/Staff/tabid/113/Default.aspx@@
Mother Nature redeemed Walter’s faith, as the fog burned off early in the day to reveal blue skies and warm temperatures for the 108th anniversary of the event.
University junior Taylor Reineke plants flowers outside of Johnson Hall for University Day Thursday, May 12. (Michael Ciaglo/Oregon Daily Emerald)
“I feel like if it was bad weather, it definitely would decrease the amount of people who come out. I know the last four years,” Walter said, “we’ve always gotten lucky, which is why we try and keep it middle of May. It’s starting to be lucky in terms of weather.”
Approximately 3,000 University students, staff and community members took part in the University’s longest-standing campus event, spreading bark mulch, planting flowers and picking up garbage all over campus.
“I really enjoy doing labor like this, and for personal reasons, it gets me outside,” junior anthropology major Valerie Spooner said. “Also, I think it’s good to contribute.”@@http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1453230091@@
The beautiful Eugene weather — belying the city’s wet-weather reputation — gave volunteers the opportunity to get outside and soak up the sun.
“I just like to get outside and get involved,” University sophomore Kimberly Leyerly said. “Being able to pick up a rake feels good sometimes.”@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Kimberly+Leyerly@@
University Day’s emphasis on community spirit entices people to contribute to making the University campus a prettier place.
“I just like to volunteer,” said Leyerly, an art history major who participated in her second University Day on Thursday.
Walter said University Day gives students the chance to collaborate with one another to enhance their environment.
“I just think these kind of events can show how people can come together, and they can work together, and they can make magic happen pretty fast,” Walter said.
Each University Day usually leaves its lasting impression on campus with the planting of a tree, but Walter and the University Day committee decided to take the legacy of University Day 2011 in a different direction.
The committee commissioned University graduate art student Joanne Chase to design a tile mosaic that is to be installed by this year’s Commencement.
Stephanie Johnson helps plant for University Day, May 12, 2011. On Oregon’s annual University Day, students and community members donate time and energy to spruce-up the University’s landscape. “It’s a good way to get outside and help the university,” she said. (Rachelle Hacmac/Oregon Daily Emerald)
“We wanted to do a mosaic or a tile just because that’s really how campus projects really started. If you go to Deady (Hall), and you look at the tiles up the walkway, you see tiles from University Day 1908,” Walter said. “Then we had already selected our theme of ‘A Colorful Twist,’ and we did want to do something with color, so we just thought doing the mosaic would be something bigger and exciting and more colorful and just something different.”
This year’s theme was inspired by the balloon arch, which is hung over East 13th Avenue each year for the celebration. The event’s planners associated the balloons with the identity of the University Day event.
“We sort of started playing on those ideas and obviously thought of color and the twist of the arch and started really talking about those balloons and got us the idea,” Walter said.
Both the students who planned the event and those who participated in it cited their loyalty to their school, saying it was an opportunity to give back to the University.
“We students are like the parents of the University,” soon-to-be University planning, public policy and management student N Winmin said. “We are celebrating University Day, but it’s like Mother’s Day.”
University Day by the numbers:
1,000: Bags of trash collected by volunteers
1903: Year event was first named “University Day”
3,000: Estimated amount of University students, staff members and community members who volunteered University Day
5,000: Approximate amount of wheelbarrow loads of bark mulch spread on campus
10,000: Amount, in dollars, of University Day budget
