By:
Tom Nordlie (352) 392-0400Source(s):
Kirby Barrick kbarrick@ufl.edu, (352) 392-1961
Wayne Smith whsmith@ifas.ufl.edu, (352) 846-0867
Jimmy Cheek jgcheek@ufl.edu, (352) 392-1971
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences has a new symbol to honor its history and mark its 100th year educating students in Gainesville.
The college’s first academic mace – an elaborate wooden staff more than four feet tall and weighing 20 pounds – will be used in commencements and other formal ceremonies, said Kirby Barrick, dean of the college, which is part of UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.
“The mace is an impressive piece of work, and will be a symbolic addition to our graduation ceremonies, beginning with the May 5 commencement,” Barrick said.
“Since we cannot recount our college’s long history at these events, the mace provides a way to represent it,” he said. “As the graduation ceremony begins, a marshal carrying the mace will lead a procession of faculty and administrators onto the stage of the Stephen C. O’Connell Center.”
Academic maces have been used by European universities for centuries, and have become increasingly popular at institutions in the United States, said Carl Van Ness, UF archivist. Inspired by kings’ scepters and warriors’ clubs, academic maces symbolize the authority universities possess to grant degrees.
UF has an academic mace used for campuswide events, which was presented to President Charles Young at the close of the university’s sesquicentennial celebration in December 2003. That mace caught the attention of Wayne Smith as he planned commencement events while serving as the college’s interim dean.
“I thought it would be great to have a mace for College of Agricultural and Life Sciences commencements,” Smith said. “It was one of the four founding colleges on the Gainesville UF campus, and this seemed like a perfect way to meet this need and honor our past.”
The college began life as Florida Agricultural College, established in 1884 in Lake City. In 1905 that institution was relocated to the UF campus in Gainesville, which opened in 1906.
To design the mace, Smith formed a UF committee that included Jake Huffman, a professor emeritus of wood science; Jane Luzar, associate dean of the college, Steve Feagle, an instrument maker and designer with the agricultural and biological engineering department, and George Hecht, a curatorial assistant with the Florida Museum of Natural History.
“We looked at academic maces used at other universities and found most of them were made of wood, which was a good option for us,” Smith said. “Jake Huffman is a wood-science expert and helped the team select native woods that were attractive, sturdy and significant to the state’s history. He also helped us understand proper treatment of these woods.”
From bottom to top, the new mace includes red mangrove, strong wood representing southern coastal areas; live oak, dense wood used to build ships such as Old Ironsides; cypress, a durable wood representing the state’s wetlands, and black cherry, a fine wood used to build furniture.
The final piece of wood is a piece of UF history – a block of longleaf pine salvaged from Machinery Hall, the first building completed on the Gainesville campus. Originally part of a support beam, the wood was recovered by George Freeman when the building was demolished in 1976 to make way for Turlington Hall.
“I understood the symbolism of that piece of wood, and I was certain there would be a perfect use for it someday,” said Freeman, a former UF facilities director. “When Wayne Smith and Jake Huffman told me they had used the wood for an academic mace, I knew that the opportunity I’d anticipated had been realized.”
The pine was used for the head of the mace, decorated with the seals of the college, UF and the state of Florida. Atop it rests a sphere gilded by George Hecht representing the sun, the energy source for all plants and ecosystems.
Brass bands used to connect the wooden sections of the mace were engraved to record institutional names and the administrative leadership as the college evolved from 1884 to the present. Van Ness provided information about the college’s early history to assist the design team with this part of the project.
When not in use, the mace rests in a base of native chert rock, symbolizing the college’s lasting nature and the alumni that form its foundation.
Feagle built the mace, performing all the work himself except for the gilding and engraving. From start to finish the project took approximately five months.
In December, the design team presented the mace to Barrick at the college’s scholarship and leadership convocation.
Although it represents a single college, the mace can be a source of pride to all members of the UF community, said Jimmy Cheek, senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources.
“Our design team personifies the can-do spirit that has made the University of Florida one of the nation’s most innovative and dynamic institutions,” Cheek said. “I hope this academic mace will inspire greater appreciation of the efforts and accomplishments at UF these past 100 years.”
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