The OU Office for Student Affairs hosted a memorial ceremony and planted a tree on the south side of the Bizzell Memorial Library in support of OU President Joseph Harroz and the Harroz family.
Associate Vice President for Student Affairs and Associate Dean of Students Kristen Partridge said the ceremony and tree dedication were a way to honor President Harroz and his family after his father, an OU graduate, died of COVID-19 on Sept. 24, 2020.
During the ceremony, Partridge said the tradition of planting trees on OUâs campus has survived since OUâs first president, David Ross Boyd, arrived in Norman with a nursery of tree saplings. The tree that previously stood in the area was removed in January 2020 after it was infected with a fungus.
The eyes of the OU community were locked intensely on Evans Hall roughly a year ago when the culmination of several semesters of racist incidents on campus finally arrived.