Nothing can help sun-baked college students give up summer fun and get ready for another year of nose-to-the-grindstone studying like a party. So the Associated Students of the University of Utah kicked off the 2001-2002 U school year with Redfest, a three-day event packed with art, food and music from 20 local bands.
Just two weeks later, thousands of students and community members gathered on the steps of the U’s Park Building to hold a candlelight vigil for the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. This was a eulogy, not a party, and the only band, a string quartet, was somberly playing “Nearer My God To Thee.”
This amazing shift from one extreme to another characterizes the past two semesters at the U, a year that included amazing highs, tragic lows and more unexpected turns and blind corners than a ride down the I-15 corridor during construction.
Too many faces, names and events defined the year to remember them all. But why not look back on a few?
Parking dominated students’ minds as they returned to campus and found record enrollment and fewer places to put their Civics. Some got angry. Others got in fights. Many feared and/or loathed the “lycra-bound ticket minions” (as one student called them) riding around giving citations.
One student even sued. On a positive note, however, the LDS Institute promised students a future place of peace and bliss, where they find solace from mortal life’s greatest cares and frustrations?and it has nothing to do with religion. The institute will soon build a multi-level parking structure, or in other words, heaven on earth.
As it usually does, religion on campus figured prominently during the year. But unlike other years, when concerns centered mainly on a powerful Mormon influence on campus, this year the most prominent situations involved complaints of religious discrimination against Mormons.
A U.S. district judge dismissed Christina Axson-Flynn’s religious discrimination lawsuit. The U medical school passed an audit of its admissions process, which some people perceived as biased against Mormons. And most recently, angry students filed a complaint against a teaching assistant who used the Mormon Church as an example of institutional racism.
Time will tell how the U and campuses across the country will react as religious conservatives elbow for room under political correctness’ protective umbrella.
Sept. 11 shocked the campus, and students gathered around televisions to watch the attack and its aftermath. The 3,000 people at the candlelight vigil hugged, sang and listened to speeches that focused appropriately on acceptance, love and healing. The Chronicle dedicated a special issue to voicing students’ feelings on the attack. Reactions in letters to the editor ranged from “Military Response Won’t Help” to “Proud to Be an American” to “We Will Show Terrorist What Divine Wrath Really Is”?a considerable cross-section.
Several big wigs laid their feet on U soil, including Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, who came to talk about globalization; author Terry Tempest Williams, who came to support Earth Day; and U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, who came to cut a ribbon?and also anger environmental activists, who set up a protest three blocks from where Cheney’s motorcade passed. Whoops.
Even President Bush arrived for the Games, the event that probably most affected the U campus during the year. Because of the Olympics, students in cars lost parking places and even streets due to construction. Students living in the Heritage Commons lost their living quarters to Olympic athletes.
But the U gained plenty from the Games. Not counting the experience, which most people seemed to enjoy, the U gained a light rail line from downtown; the Eccles pedestrian bridge on the east side of campus; and the Olympic cauldron, which officials recently announced will remain a fixture at the southwest end of Rice-Eccles stadium.
Crime left its mark on campus during the year. Scores of cars received the usual bash-and-borrow treatment, as thieves took CD players. Even a parking meter vanished.
In the world of medicine, researchers made considerable progress. Cancer, obsessive-compulsive disorder and incontinence all received attention on the hill. One troubling medicine-related Chronicle headline did appear during the year, however, reading, “U Neuroscience Students Introduce Kids to Brains.” Hopefully this wasn’t the first time the two had been introduced.
In sports, Ute gymnasts place fourth nationally and called it “OK.” The football team played brilliantly against BYU?for 55 minutes, dismantling during the closing seconds. It did win a bowl game. The men’s basketball team dismantled early against Indiana in the NCAA tourney, but at least it returned to the Big Dance. The women’s team unfortunately did not fare as well.
ASUU worked during the year as it always does, and surprisingly found $200,000 in a coat pocket in January (it was actually due to bad math, which is sometimes good). During the ASUU elections, the Impact Party slimly defeated the Elevation Party, which soundly defeated write-in candidates Mr. T, Darth Vader, Macho Man Randy Savage and The Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
The Women’s Resource Center celebrated 30 years?the law school received a $26 million endowment?Chartwells started serving vegetarian meals?so much to say, and so little room to say it. Perhaps there is only one thing left to say.
Until next year.
Michael welcomes feedback at: [email protected] or send letters to the editor to: [email protected].