LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 22, 2012) − Three years from today on Feb. 22, 2015, the University of Kentucky will celebrate the 150th anniversary of its establishment. In preparation for this major milestone in the university's history, President Eli Capilouto has named a committee to plan the festivities that will surround UK's sesquicentennial.
Comprised of representatives from the student body, faculty, staff, administration and Board of Trustees, UK's sesquicentennial committee will develop academic, philanthropic and special event programming in celebration of the university’s sesquicentennial in 2015. Activities and programming will recognize significant milestones in the university's history leading up to its founding in 1865.
As part of the university's celebration, the committee will plan the following:
- a university-wide recognition and celebration in 2015;
- events and activities that acknowledge Founder’s Day, Feb. 22, in the years leading up to the sesquicentennial;
- an educational component that creates a greater awareness of our history and mission with students and alumni; and
- special recognition and development opportunities to help UK family and friends to continue to invest in their university.
Committee responsibilities will also include the development of subcommittees to address specific activities and programming; regular communication with the campus community and external constituents; and initiatives that will engage the entire university, alumni and Commonwealth as the state’s flagship, land grant university.
UK's sesquicentennial committee is being chaired by Mike Richey, vice president of development, and Deirdre Scaggs, associate dean of Special Collections at UK Libraries. Other members appointed to the committee are: Dean Terry Birdwhistell, of UK Libraries; Dean Tom Lester, of the College of Engineering; Tom Harris, vice president of university relations; Stan Key, executive director of alumni affairs; Richard Greissman, assistant provost for program support; John Herbst, director of student services; Kelley Bozeman, deputy director of marketing; Nancy Cox, associate dean for research in the College of Agriculture; Terry Mobley, member of UK Board of Trustees; Frank X Walker, associate professor of English and faculty representative; Holly Clark, office coordinator of the Staff Senate and staff representative; and agricultural biotechnology junior Claci Ayers, student representative.
The committee is already hard at work and has created an email, UK150@uky.edu, for messages related to the sesquicentennial. They are also developing a website for the anniversary and a three-year plan for festivities
The sesquicentennial's first event will be presented later this year and focus on the importance of the university's land grant mission. "We hope to celebrate the Morrill Act this year either in the summer or likely the fall," Scaggs said.
Kentucky's legislature created UK as a land-grant college as part of the Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862. Introduced by Justin Smith Morrill of Vermont, the act provided funding for institutions of higher learning in each state. Each state received 30,000 acres of federal land for each congressional representative from that state to be sold to provide an endowment for at least one college where the leading object would be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts.
To hear more about UK's sesquicentennial committee, listen to Scaggs' interview on UK Perspectives on WUKY here: www.publicbroadcasting.net/wuky/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1904519.
MEDIA CONTACT: Whitney Hale, (859) 257-8716 or whitney.hale@uky.edu
