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Growing a Campus Graphic 2

2018-02

14-Growing a Campus.pdf

G A Campus
Landscape Development and Design

Laval Morris
In 1939, Laval Morris, a former student of Emil Hansen, returned to USAC and founded the Department of Landscape Architecture. Morris and his students, especially Kenji Shiozawa, one of the first students to graduate from the program, played an important role in developing the campus during the postwar boom.

Agricultural College of Utah master plan
commissioned by President John A. Widstoe in 1912.

Emil Hansen (right) and a student posing in
front of a model bungalow style home, c. 1920.
USU Special Collections and Archives,
USU A-Board Collection, Image 1080

USU Special Collections and Archives,
USU Publicity Portraits, Box 2, Image 129

Student Gifts and A-Day/Agathon Projects
Markers inset into many of the sidewalks and stairways near Old Main proclaim the involvement of students in developing the campus grounds. Each spring, Aggies dropped their pencils and picked up shovels for the annual A-Day festivities. Students were expected to participate. A Student Association vigilante squad often rounded up “shirkers,” trying them before a student court. A-Day activities included a morning of construction, usually laying concrete for new walkways, followed with lunch prepared by Home Economics students. Afternoons featured athletic contests, and ended with a dance in the evening. The 1921 A-Day project is particularly important because students, under Emil Hansen’s supervision, laid out walkways and planted Norway Maples, some of which still adorn the perimeters of the Quad. A-Day became the weeklong celebration Agathon during the 1950s. Although it disappeared during the 1970s, the Alumni Association resurrected the event during the 1980s, and today’s A-Week still consists of service opportunities, along with other student events.