Student Government is holding a contest to design a memorial for students who have died during their time at UK.

The contest was an idea that the SG University Relations Cabinet had last year. The memorial would be a way to bring the university community together, said Executive Cabinet Secretary Madison Young.

“It will be space where students and families can mourn and celebrate life,” she said. “It’s a good way to bring the UK campus together.”

The contest is open to all UK students. Young said it is important for the memorial to be designed by a student.

“The students represent the best interest of the university,” she said. “This memorial needs to represent UK and how we want to remember those we have lost.”

The cabinet researched memorials that other schools have built, such as those at Virginia Tech and Florida State. SG President Nick Phelps said most of these schools’ memorials came after a tragedy, but SG officials didn’t think they should wait to build a UK memorial.

“We didn’t want to wait on a tragedy,” Phelps said. “We want to remember those lost as individuals on campus and that we are a family here.”

Phelps said he hopes that the memorial can be a site for an annual service to remember all UK students who died while in college.

“Each year we can have a ceremony to read the names of those lost in the past year,” Phelps said. “It will represent every single Wildcat that we’ve lost.”

SG doesn’t know how much money to set aside for the memorial because the design will determine the cost, Young said.

“Funding depends on the type of design chosen,” she said. “But we met with about 10 key administrators, and they all support the idea.”

The winner of the design contest will receive a cash prize, recognition by the Board of Trustees and the Student Affairs Board of Directors, a picture and biography on the Student Affairs Web site (www.uky.edu/

StudentAffairs), and design credit for the standing memorial.

SG encourages as many students as possible to enter a design, Young said.

“More applications mean the more we can represent the student population,” she said. “The more the better.”

Students can find the contest application, which is due Oct. 12, on the SG Web site (www.uksga.org). After the deadline, SG will form a committee of non-SG students, administrators and staff to choose a winning design.