Senior Class President Beth Brown is busy with the final steps of her tenure.
On Thursday, she will meet with committee members to determine just how much money they will have to use on a senior class gift, and will go from there.
So far, Brown has thought of four possible ideas, all of them in their preliminary stages-and one of them at least partially a joke.
During all of Brown’s walking between the HPER Complex and Presidents Circle, which she said she does “all the time,” she came up with the idea to build a ski lift between the two areas of campus.
“We haven’t done much research,” Brown said while laughing about the idea.
A general scholarship set up for a senior next year is another possibility.
It would be similar to the Die-hard Ute scholarship that the Associated Students of the University of Utah established this year, awarding a senior based on academic success as well as campus involvement.
Brown has also thought about gifting a plaque with an inspirational quote and placing it at one of the main entrances to the U campus.
“[The gift] is something that we want to do, but at the same time we want to make sure it’s a good use of money…We want to make sure that what we spend the money on is beneficial,” Brown said.
Last year, ASUU spent an unusually high $27,000 for TRAX art near the LDS Institute of Religion and hospital stops.
The year before that, only $2,700 was available to help purchase and erect an electronic sign, though the sign is still not anywhere on campus.
The 2001 administration raised $8,000 to plant trees at the Red Butte Arboretum.
In addition to planning out the senior class gift, Brown is part of the Student Selection Committee that must choose which student will give a four minute speech at commencement on May 7.
Brown, along with five other students and six administrators, must read through 36 speeches submitted by honors students.
“I feel like a teacher…correcting papers. It’s kind of fun because you get to read about people’s experiences at the U,” Brown said.
The committee will narrow the selection down to 10 and then three, but only one will end up giving the speech at commencement.