Blog Post #3, Alumni Association.

Shayla Owen

Article #1: http://www.ukalumni.net/s/1052/semi-blank-noimg.aspx?sid=1052&gid=1&pgid=3794


                             

Contrary to popular belief to be a participant in the Alumni Association you don't have to be an alumni of the school. Just about anyone can participate in the association. You can be a current student, a recent graduate (with in the last five years) or a graduate from the University of Kentucky. Its quite simple to became a part of the Alumni Association.

            As a current student you are eligible to become a participant in the Alumni Association by simply filling out an application and sending in a small fee of 25 dollars for a single person and 35 dollars for 2 people who are attending. The 35 dollar fee for 2 people wanted to do a joint application. For recent graduates the process to be a participant in the Alumni Association is the same as was for current students.

            As a member, you have access to the loyalty program. In the loyalty program you get discounts to more places than you can count in town and nationally. One very cool perk that I found was you can get tickets through the Alumni Association for any number of sports that the University of Kentucky is involved in. They also offer freebies to the members. The dues that are paid to this organization go toward many things such as scholarships and goes toward alumni connections in several different colleges at the University of Kentucky.

            All in all I don’t think that it would be that bad to sign up to be a member with the Alumni Association. Yes you have to pay to be a member but you get a lot of perks and you get to be a part of an organization that helps the university very much. This organization takes part in a little bit of everything on campus. I hope that after seeing this some people from our class signs up for this organization. 

Blog Post #2, Rupp Arena.

                                  Rupp Arena

Article #1: http://www.rupparena.com/arena-information/history
Article #2: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/03/15/2110899/lesser-known-facts-about-an-impressive.html
                                  Now                                                     Then
                  

So for my second blog post I was going to report about Adolph Rupp. I couldn't find very much on the internet about him so I decided that I would research one of Kentucky's most prized possessions, Rupp Arena. For me Rupp Arena is a great sports facility where thousands of Kentucky basketball fans have fond memories of wins and losses. As you see I picked two articles to pull information from. The first article is from the actual Rupp Arena website. The other is a news article from the Kentucky newspaper stating facts about Rupp Arena itself. I found both sites quiet interesting.

Article #1:
This article talks about the history of Rupp Arena, no not sports statistics but about the actual building itself. The project had actually been talked about since the 1920's. Nothing was really done until the April of 1971. At that time the Tourism Commission was created and building Rupp was one of their first focuses. Rupp began construction in 1974 and was finish ahead of time in 1976. Rupp was and still is the pride of Lexington. thousands lined up to take a tour of the new facility.

Article #2:
This article was actually written in 2012, which when I had first opened it surprised me seeing as I had searched "Rupp Arena in the news in 1976" hoping to find one of the first articles posted after it had opened. In this article it is mainly facts that people may or may not have known. One of the facts that had caught my attention was that they had buried time capsule at Rupp in July of 1976. It is to be opened 100 years later on the 4th of July. Another thing that had suprised me when I read this article was that famous coach Rupp was not the head coach of the UK basketball team when Rupp Arena had opened. In fact Joe B. Hall was the head coach when it had opened. Another fact that they had in this article was Rupp Arena was dedicated on Dec. 11, 1976. Author Herald Leader Staff Leader.

Questions that these articles had raised for me were...

Why were the seats a different color to begin with?
How much would it have cost today to have built Rupp Arena?
Was Rupp the best facility at the time it had been built?
Why did they dedicate it to Adolph Rupp?

Blog Post #1, The Wildcat Statue.

                                                The Wildcat Statue

                      
Link: http://kykernel.com/2012/04/03/wildcat-statue-installed-across-from-memorial-coliseum/

        The wildcat statue is placed across the street from Memorial Coliseum, located on Avenue of Champions. I had already seen the wildcat statue while I was attending band camp the week before school had started. I didn't fully become interested in the statue until we had gotten sent out for WRD to take a look at the statue. I decided that I would take a further look into the statue. I looked on Google for any articles that had been written about the recently new statue. I found an article from the schools newspaper, the Kentucky Kernel, about the statue right around the time that it was being installed.

         The article talks about where the statue was being placed. Which as I had said across from Memorial Coliseum. The article then mentions who had sculpted the statue, Matthew Gray Palmer. He also had done several other wildcat/bobcat statues for other colleges. The Leadership Summit and the Emerging Leader Institute were the ones who had actually had the idea for the statue. They wanted it to be put up so that current "students and alumni can identify with" it. Another point that they had made at the end of the article was the cost of the statue and that there would be brick pavers placed around the wildcat. The brick pavers can be purchased on the Alumni Association website. All the proceeds from the bought brick pavers, that can be purchased by current students, alumni and friends, was supposed to go toward the project but they decided that the proceeds should go to the scholarships that the Alumni Association offers to students.

            Questions that this article answered for me was why had they put the statue there, how did you get your name on one of the brick pavers and can just anyone buy one of the bricks. However this article did raise a few more questions. How much do one of the brick pavers cost? Why exactly did they choose that venue? Was it because its on Avenue of Champions? Or is it because that its across from Memorial Coliseum? What are the other random stones for that surround the wildcat statue? What was the importance of having the wildcat statue on a log instead of a rock?