From Bob Schwartz, City Manager
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→ Planning Commission – We have no issues or cases pending so the Planning Commission for May 12th has been cancelled.
→ Paving Cindy Court and Coke Street – The Newton County paving crew finished with Cindy Court and Coke Street Wednesday afternoon. We are paying for the asphalt with our LMIG grant from DOT and some city funds. The county is supplying the labor and equipment without charge.
→ Oxford Commencement
It's Commencement Week at Oxford
May 5, 2015
Oxford College will observe its 170th Commencement exercises on Saturday, May 9. The ceremony honors approximately 350 Oxford students, who will receive their associate degrees before they continuing on to Emory University’s Atlanta campus. Following their two years at Oxford, students enter Emory College of Arts Sciences, the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing or the Goizueta Business School for the completion of their undergraduate degrees.
Dignitaries
Emory University President James W. Wagner, Emory University Provost Claire Sterk and Dean of Emory College Robin Forman will join Oxford College Dean Stephen Bowen in presiding over the ceremony, which will begin at 10:00 am on the Oxford quad.* Students and the others in attendance will hear a special address by John Morgan 67Ox 69B, chair of the Emory University Board of Trustees.
→ Oxford College is now a Tree Campus – Here’s an item from the Oxford College web site:
Oxford named to Tree Campus USA
May 1, 2015
There is a new addition to the flagpole that stands in front of Oxford’s Seney Hall. The banner of Tree Campus USA (TCUSA) now flies just below the American and Emory University flags. During a February ceremony held at Wesleyan College in Macon, Ga., Oxford College was awarded membership in the program, which is an effort of the Arbor Day Foundation.
Says Stephen Bowen, dean of Oxford College, “Oxford has been called a place of ‘temples in the woods.’ Being in a semi-rural setting, the surrounding forest has always given definition to the Oxford campus and we tend our trees with care.”
TCUSA recognizes college and university campuses that, in its words:
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- Effectively manage their campus trees.
- Develop connectivity with the community beyond campus borders to foster healthy, urban forests.
- Strive to engage their student population utilizing service learning opportunities centered on campus, and community, forestry efforts.
There is a rigorous process prior to being admitted to TCUSA. Oxford ‘s application was submitted by Eloise Carter, professor of biology, and sophomore Will Milligan 15Ox. TCUSA members are required to establish a tree board, a campus tree-care plan, specific levels of spending for urban forestry, service learning programs, and Arbor Day celebrations. Oxford is the fourteenth tree campus in Georgia; nationwide more than 220 TCUSA members are home to millions of students.
Oxford is currently implementing its quadrangle -forest-restoration plan, named the Ignatius Few Plan, in honor of the founder of Emory College. The trees being planted on the grounds include native trees of varying circumferences. The differences in size will stagger the trees’ maturity in years to come, ensuring that when an older tree comes down, there will be a younger tree beneath it that will grow quickly to fill its gap. The plan was devised in consultation with Robinson Fisher, the highly acclaimed landscape architect from Athens, Georgia, who crafted Oxford’s 1998 landscape master plan.
In addition to the restoration of the forested regions, the plan features an open grassy area flanked by trees in the center of Oxford's quadrangle for events such as Commencement and for student activities. Fisher’s research showed that this arrangement reflects how the quad looked in the early days of Emory College, thus preserving this historic place, while planning for current and future uses.
Funds to finance the plan’s implementation came from the Emory/Oxford Tree Bank. Whenever tree canopy is lost within Emory University, whether to development or natural loss, a mathematical formula is applied that determines how many trees are needed to compensate for the loss. Funds needed for replacement and restoration are put aside for future use..
Being good stewards of all of the resources of Oxford College extends to its trees. For the next century and beyond, Oxford will remain a place of temples in the woods.
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