Located near a major walkway behind the Student Center and adjacent to Manchester Field, the Student Memorial Garden will offer a quiet place where students and faculty can pay respect to those who have passed.

Greg Jarvie, vice president of Enrollment Management and Student Affairs, said the idea to create a memorial began in the early 2000s when the university suffered the loss of 11 students who passed due to natural causes, suicide and accidents.

“I remember that was the year we really started to ask, ‘How do we moralize those who have passed during their time here?’” Jarvie said.

Unlike the May 4th Memorial, which is dedicated to the four students who died during the 1970 shooting, Jarvie said the Student Memorial Garden is more generalized.

“We wanted a place that commemorates the death of student and faculty,” Jarvie said, “but offers something more like a place to also reflect and step away.”

Costing approximately $230,000, the memorial will include a waterfall with a lower pool, benches and stone seating, brick pavement and lower-level lights to illuminate the path, said Brian Pickering, project manager II for the Office of the University Architect.

Although there will be no specific names of those students and faculty who have passed, Jarvie said a memorial plaque will be on display.

The original set date for completing the Student Memorial Garden was Dec. 1, Pickering said.

“Like many of the construction projects here at the university, the severe cold weather pushed completion date up to late April,” Pickering said.

Jarvie said taking down the fence and adding extra landscaping will complete the project.

The memorial will be completed by its dedication date of April 28 at 7 p.m., Pickering said.

Kent State President Beverly Warren will dedicate the garden as part of her inauguration week.

Contact Andrea Delph at [email protected].