An open forum was held in the Student Center on Oct. 21 where students and members of the Auburn community listened to conceptual designs and were invited to comment on the plans, voice concerns and make suggestions.
The presentation was led by Ben Burmester, Auburn Memorial design project manager and facilities management campus planner; Walker Byrd, SGA president; and Bobby Woodard, associate provost and vice president for student affairs.
Byrd and Burmester’s presentation included project history, location, conceptual design, next steps and a campaign, and then they opened the floor to comments.
“At this point we’re going through the process and we’ll take any feedback that we can get,” Woodard said.
Burmester agreed that feedback is an important component at this stage.
“We’re at this conceptual stage, so we thought we needed to stop and get some feedback … so that’s what were doing today,” Burmester said. “We’re hoping we can get a consensus to take this schematic design to the Board of Trustees in November and work on the final plan for the next few months and start construction in spring 2016.”
The memorial will be built in the Garden of Memory across from the President’s Mansion and is a 4.25-acre site.
This project has been a long-term aspiration within SGA, according to Byrd.
“For about the past eight years, this has been on the radar of the Student Government Association,” Byrd said, “The past two years we’ve been on a more inclusive memorial site to honor all members of the Auburn Family.”
As the current schematic design stands, there will be a section for large groups with a podium area for possible ceremonies, as well as smaller areas for intimate reflection.
Woodard said although they are still in a conceptual stage, they have heard from representatives of local funeral homes and crematories who are interested in seeing if they will be able to facilitate funerals in the future.
This is a policy that will be tackled in the future once construction is complete, according to Woodard.
The goal is to “maintain and improve the existing garden” as well as “improve pathways and water quality of pond and steam so it is visually appealing and sustainable," according to Burmester.
Aside from doing their best to preserve native trees and plants, they will also keep the plaques honoring Alabama veterans.
“There are actually two plaques there: one for veterans from World War I, World War II and Korea veterans and one for Vietnam veterans,” Byrd said.
There will not be any opportunities to have names or memorial bricks put in the memorial, according to Woodard.
Some Auburn community members in attendance at the forum voiced the concern that if they were to put the works of the creed on the ground, it would be disrespectful to the University to have people stepping on them.
Daniel Robinson, Student Veteran Association member, said he does not like the idea of potentially disrespecting the Auburn creed.
“I don’t like the idea of stepping on the lines of the creed,” Robinson said.
Byrd also spoke about how the Office of Development is helping launch a campaign to raise the rest of the memorial funds.
“This is a University-wide initiative to help raise the remaining money and there is a focus on students, so it’s a cool opportunity to educate students on the philanthropic opportunity of giving back to Auburn,” Byrd said.
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