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The Indiana Daily Student

Family, friends and faculty remember 13 students

Framed pictures of family vacations, senior pictures and smiling cousins sat atop one table. A tri-fold board with family photos sat beside another.

At 3 p.m., a string quartet from the Jacobs School of Music began to play.

Filtering in to the University Club in the Indiana Memorial Union, friends, family and faculty joined in remembrance Sunday.

Nametags topped the covered tables, each displaying the name of a student who had died in the last year.

In IU’s sixth annual Student Remembrance Day, a room of about 20 gathered for a brief program put on by the IU Division of Student Affairs.

Dean of Students Harold “Pete” Goldsmith led the remembrance of the 13 students who died in the 
last year.

“As a University, we pause each year to remember the students we have lost,” Goldsmith said. “Something in us is broken.”

He discussed the contribution and continuity each student brings to IU and said the University exists for such students.

“We are deeply grateful for the contributions of all of our students,” Goldsmith said. “But today we pause to remember and honor the contributions made by these students with recognition that we could not be what we are had they not been who they were.”

Speaking beneath a painted portrait of former IU President Herman B Wells, Goldsmith shared Wells’ notion that all students are made part of the IU family.

Robert Meyer of the Division of Student Affairs then took the podium to explain what Hoosiers are and what it means to be a part of that 
family.

“Although there is no one definitive description, Hoosiers know very well who we are,” Meyer said. “We are a sum total of all of us, our culture. All of us who have walked this campus since 1820 make up the Hoosier family.”

Jeff Schacht of the Campus Religious Leaders Association then read a poem by an unknown author called “Remember Me.”

“Think of me,” Schacht read. “Remember me and my soul will live on in you and in the generations yet to be.”

As families held back tears, Assistant Dean of Students Sara Ivey Lucas read the names of the 13 students being remembered and paused between each name.

Drawing the program to a close, attendees shared stories over punch and cookies.

The roommate, stepfather and an associate professor of Aaron Holme, who died last month, posed for a photo.

A close friend and a professor of Joseph Smedley, who died in October, discussed the chemistry students’ friends and personality.

Family of Hannah Wilson, who died last April, shared similar experiences of feeling Hannah’s presence during the last year. It was as if Wilson were looking out for them, the family said.

“They touched the lives of many fellow students and the lives of faculty and staff that interacted with them,” 
Goldsmith said.

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