Class of 2012 to Be Added to Senior Walk This Summer

University of Arkansas officials said Friday that 4,533 names will be added to the U of A’s historic Senior Walk over the course of the summer, as the university adds its Class of 2012 to the more than three miles of concrete walkways that list the names of U of A graduates, beginning with the original graduating class of 1876.

The process of adding graduates’ names is time consuming for many reasons, said Dave Dawson, the university’s registrar of students. Though thousands of students take part in December and May commencement ceremonies, sometimes students actually complete their last remaining graduation obligations after the ceremonies are held.

The university waits several months after the May commencement ceremony each year to begin the process of engraving names in campus walkways for three primary reasons: to ensure that students whose names will appear have in fact finalized all degree requirements and related paperwork; to allow the process of creating and proofing the special rubber stencils used to carve the thousands of names into concrete; and to account for the proper weather conditions necessary to conduct the work.

The university expects to complete the process of adding the Class of 2012 names to Senior Walk by August, Dawson explained. A clerical error on the list provided for the stencil inadvertently omitted a number of students, which temporarily halted engraving shortly after it began. The engraving process is expected to start over shortly, with fresh concrete being used so that names can be placed in alphabetical order, as originally planned. University officials said the corrections will add approximately $75,000 to the previously projected cost of preparing and sandblasting the 4,500-plus names into the campus walkway near the Chi Omega Greek Theatre on Dickson Street. The normal costs for installing each class — design and special construction of actual sidewalk, stenciling of names and name sandblasting — are in the range of $350,000 to $375,000.

Final records show that 4,631 students graduated as part of the Class of 2012. As in past years, a small number of graduates — 98 members of the Class of 2012 — exercised the option of not having their names engraved in Senior Walk.

The students of the Class of 2013 — those students graduating this May 11 and those who finished degree requirements by the end of the summer and fall terms of 2012 — will have their names added in the spring or summer of 2014, Dawson explained.

The U of A’s Senior Walk currently features more than 140,000 names. Senior Walk is widely recognized as one of the most unique commemorative features found on any U.S. university or college campus.