OUR VIEW: Ag school’s tribute fitting

Tuesday was the one-year anniversary of the van accident that killed eight students and an instructor from the College of Agriculture. This week was also Ag Week. On Tuesday, a parade of 11 tractors, one for each of the victims and the two survivors of the accident, went from the Spectrum parking lot to the Taggart Student Center in commemoration. The Herald Journal reported that one of the survivors, Robbie Peterson, said the parade would become a yearly event.

In addition to the tractor parade, $32,000 has been raised for the Ag Tech Memorial Scholarship fund, and $30,000 of student funds has been set aside for a memorial statue planned to be erected near the new Ag building. Another fund, the Justin Wade Gunnell Foundation, has been established to gather funds for charities

We congratulate the College of Agriculture and Logan Ipsen, the ASUSU Agriculture Senator, for their handling of this situation. The accident was the worst tragedy to hit USU in the memory of those who now attend school here. Last year’s candlelight vigil and this year’s remembrance gathering are fitting tributes to the lives of those who were killed. As the memory of the accident gets further and further away, hopefully future students will see the statue in memory of those who died and keep the same sense of community the university’s students and faculty showed one year ago.

We applaud the efforts of the administration and the students, this year and last year, to honor those who were killed. Their conduct was heart-felt.

We also applaud the family and friends of the students and instructor who died for making sure their loved ones will be remembered, and for creating such positive legacies as a scholarship and a charity fund in their names.