UTAH TECH UNIVERSITY'S STUDENT NEWS SOURCE | March 29, 2024

D-Week as DSU’s most memorable week

One of the many traditions of D-Week is whitewashing the D. Photo Courtesy of @dixiestate on Instagram.

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The Dixie State University Student Association hosted the final D-Week celebration, making this the most memorable themed week.

It may have been the last D-Week Dixie State University has seen, but it didn’t stop DSUSA and the Alumni Association from throwing a week that celebrated 109 years of traditions. 

New name, same traditions?

With the change of DSU to Utah Tech University, you can expect a new type of traditions week. 

Anna Barfuss, a sophomore recreation and sports management major from St. George, said: “D-Week as a whole will change. However, we will still have a traditions week on campus with certain events within D-week continuing such as, carnival, Inferno, a pageant and BrooksBirthday.”

Some of the events DSU has celebrated for 109 years will still be worked into the new traditions week along with new events. Barfuss said we will add and change other events to support traditions within Utah Tech.

Planning D-Week

Planning D-Week events takes months, and everyone who is a part of DSUSA takes on an event. DSUSA even works with event planners and students that are a part of Code Red to plan the D-Week we have come to know.

Kennedy Thurgood, a senior recreation and sports management major from Clearfield, said: “With four event planners we each tackle a different event, but each event can take anywhere from one to three months to plan entirely. For me, planning the D-Queen pageant took me about three months to plan, due to seven weeks of rehearsals, a luncheon, dress rehearsals, boot camp, and the actual day of competition.”

These events take time to plan, and it ends up being an all hands-on deck type as the event get closer.

“The student life team on DSUSA will spend about 60-80 hours during a week like D-Week due to setting up, running and cleaning up every single event.” Barfuss said.

Some of these events take anywhere from five to 200 student volunteers to help.

Promoting D-Week

We all saw the signs promoting D-Week and its events across campus. Whether it was a flyer in the bathroom, flyers on the boards around campus, or large signs on campus promoting DWeek.  

You can thank the marketing team for their efforts and students who are a part of Code Red, the volunteer branch of DSUSA. 

They helped bring the director’s vision to life, helped set up the events, and some were part of the planning process of D-Week. 

Collaboration makes the events successful

While majority of D-Week events are usually planned by DSUSA, they do branch out to the Alumni Association and Campus Recreation to help with some events.

James Burton, a sophomore management major from Spanish Fork, said, “We collaborate with the Alumni Association for traditions week in regards to the carnival and let Campus Recreation throw in some events as well.”

Campus Recreation was responsible for the Great Race and dive-in movie.

Looking forward to a new traditions week

Going into the new era of Utah Tech, there may be some trepidation, but DSUSA is looking forward to setting new traditions and keeping students involved.

Barfuss said: “I hope the school can start new traditions that last forever and keep our school spirit that we have now. DSU has a very special student life experience and event atmosphere. I hope we can continue to build on that and make traditions week even better.”

Since this was the last year students got to enjoy D-Week, DSUSA put effort into ensuring it went out with a bang. We still got to celebrate traditions that have been celebrated since DSU first came to be. Even though it’s time to say goodbye to D-Week, it’s not time to say goodbye to DSU traditions as we transition into being Utah Tech.