It's coming.
Plans are already underway for UniverCity 2002: Celebrate Community, even though it will not begin until September.
"It's a remarkable opportunity for people to connect, which builds a stronger community," said Beth Turcotte, co-director of UniverCity.
The weeklong event, a campus tradition, will take place Sept. 22 through 27. Most of the activities will take place on University Green between Bracken Library and the Architecture Building. The festival hosts scholars, innovators, creators and leaders.
The event is free to everyone and a Ball State ID is not required to attend, said Lorraine Sinclair, another co-director.
More information will be disseminated from Jan. 22 through 27. Keynote speakers and events will be announced, and more information will be added monthly, Sinclair said.
UniverCity 2002 will include performances, lectures, demonstrations, seminars and exhibits. Some of the events will also be held outside the campus.
"This experience will be a living example of the the Celebrate Community theme in action," Sinclair said.
The symbol for this year's UniverCity is the nautilus shell.
According to UniverCity's Web site, a community gains its strength through the harmony of its individual parts, like a nautilus shell.
The shell also represents a community's diversity because it conceals a rainbow of colors.
The first UniverCity was held in 1988. It was designed to be a forum to solve global problems. The founders of the project, architecture professors Paul Laseau and the late Bruce Meyer, patterned the first UniverCity after a festival in Chataqua, N.Y.
"That's what it's all about: getting out of your comfort zone and making the unfamiliar more familiar through interaction with people you normally wouldn't meet," Laseau said.
UniverCity continued until 1994, when budget reallocations stopped the event. It later reappeared in 2000 with the theme "Time to Time." It featured speakers architect Maya Lin, author Elie Wiesel and Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky, and sponsored many different cultural events.
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