With the final week of spring semester finally upon us, our staff at “The Bengal” would like to offer a recap of the many events that made up this year before graduating seniors are out of here for good and the rest of us take a short break before starting all over again in August.
Fall semester kicked off with CommUniversity’s annual Welcome Back Orange & Black event, at which the organization awarded an Idaho State University student a custom “Bengal car” for the second year in a row.
The university suffered a loss with the death of Jackie Poulson, assistant track and field coach, at the end of August. Students, faculty and staff joined Poulson’s family and friends in honoring the much-loved member of the ISU community.
Local, state and national elections had students and community members campaigning hard for their preferred candidates.
ISU’s quad gained a bit of Bengal spirit with the installation of a new bronze Bengal statue in front of the Pond Student Union Building. ASISU President Matt Bloxham (who went on to be re-elected in this spring) said he hopes the statue will become part of an ISU tradition symbolizing good luck to students who touch the statue’s paw.
An ISU year in review wouldn’t be complete without mention of Homecoming, which included ISU’s usual traditional parade, spirit log hunt, powderpuff football and homecoming game, as well as a new dance event in place of the annual bonfire.
The women’s soccer team had an outstanding season, going on to become Big Sky Champions. In other fall sports news, ISU football saw controversy between Coach Mike Kramer and player Derek Graves, which resulted in a short legal investigation and some air time on ESPN.
As spring semester rolled around, students continued to stay involved in interesting clubs, make great plays in sports and contribute overall outstanding accomplishments to the ISU community.
Several weeks into the semester, ASISU elections yet again introduced ballot fever and intense campaigning to the university atmosphere, resulting in the aforementioned re-election of ASISU President Matt Bloxham, this time with a new vice president in former College of Business Senator Taylor Jensen.
Throughout the tail end of winter students campaigned to end discrimination and got involved in great opportunities like the Sundance Film Festival. The spring semester also saw a wave of culture nights, such as Africa Night, Japan Night and more which offered students, staff, faculty and community members the chance to learn about other areas of the world through food, dance, song, fashion and other media.
In March, ISU Confessions and Missed Connections pages on Facebook sparked debate, and anonymous arsonists sparked a small fire in the PSUB.
The various ups and downs of the 2012-2013 school year will be capped off by commencement at the end of the semester on Saturday, May 11. Whether students remember the year for its finer moments or small controversies, we can all end on the high note of graduation.