As the demolitions of Maguire Village and University Village South loom, UF graduate students are rallying to save the once-bustling communities. But for former UVS resident Carmen Valero-Aracama, the demolitions pose an additional loss: a memorial of her husband.
Welch McNair Bostick III, Valero-Aracama’s husband and former UF agricultural and biological engineering doctoral student, was hit by a car and killed in an on-campus bicycle accident in 2006. He was 34 years old.
Survived by Valero-Aracama and their 9-month-old son Luca, Bostick left behind a legacy of service for UVS. As an elected representative for UVS — affectionately known as “the Mayor” — Bostick helped make drastic improvements like adding free Wi-Fi, planting community gardens and running gardening workshops.
To memorialize Bostick’s passion for plants, Valero-Aracama and other UVS residents planted a memorial garden after his passing. Fitted with a bench and an honorary plaque, the garden was inspired by traditional landscaping from Japan — the place where Bostick and Valero-Aracama first met and fell in love, she said.
McNair Bostick pictured at his home in University Village South.
Valero-Aracama, who is now 50 years old and lives in St. Louis, Missouri, visited the memorial in March 2024 with Luca Bostick-Valero, now 19, who has no memories of Bostick.
“It's the only thing he has left of his father,” Valero-Aracama said.
But when the pair stepped onto University Village South’s grounds nearly two decades after moving out, it was nothing close to how Valero-Aracama remembered it.
She and Bostick-Valero had to jump a chained fence to reach Bostick’s memorial site, only to be met with bits and pieces of it. The garden was in disarray, and the swing bench and commemorative plaque were missing.
And the villages — where she threw her baby shower surrounded by loved ones, celebrated holidays with her neighbors and spent time in the pool and playground with her husband and infant son — were empty.
”It was a perfect place to live,” Valero-Aracama said.
In 2020, the university announced plans to demolish the villages, citing concerns they were “beyond economical renovation.” By Summer 2023 — a year before Valero-Aracama and Bostick-Valero visited the site — all residents had moved out. The demolitions are projected to be completed by the end of 2025.
After her visit, Valero-Aracama emailed university officials asking about the fate of the memorial. Ten months later, a housing official got back to her, saying the plaque was in storage but the whereabouts of the bench were unknown.
The memorial was “a way for us to grieve his loss,” Valero-Aracama said. “It seems like they don't really care about that… I wish my son could come back and see that.”
The memorial garden honoring Welch Bostick at University Village South.
At Frazier Rogers Hall, located roughly two miles from UVS on the opposite side of campus, there's another memorial to Bostick: a laboratory with his namesake. The agriculture and biological engineering department also has a scholarship in his name.
During Valero-Aracama and Bostick-Valero’s visit, they visited the laboratory with Jim Jones, a retired UF professor in agricultural and biological engineering and one of Bostick’s mentors.
“I think it’s a real tribute to him and his family,” Jones said of the laboratory. “It was really great to see her and just see Luca's reaction to [the] plaque and going into the lab.”
Jones hadn’t seen the pair since they moved away nearly 20 years ago, and he said walking into the laboratory brought back memories of Bostick’s time at UF. Valero-Aracama, Bostick-Valero and Jones saw the plaque dedicating the room to Bostick, and they met with graduate students.
“He [Luca] reminds me an awful lot of his father,” Jones said.
Jones said Bostick remains one of his best students, having earned top grades and helping conduct research on improving soil and crop yields in Mali, a country in West Africa. Bostick had almost finished his dissertation when he was killed.
“I was hoping that when I did retire, he would be one of the candidates to replace me,” Jones said. “He was just an outstanding person.”
As Bostick’s loved ones grapple with the potential loss of the memorial, the university has no clear efforts to salvage it during the demolitions.
Kevin Senior, a 26-year-old graduate research assistant and president of the Graduate Student Council, is leading a charge within UF Student Government to fend off the demolitions. He said he believes any memorial dedicated to any UF community member should be preserved.
Senior spoke in person to some administrators roughly six months ago, and said there are plans being discussed regarding the memorial. Among talks about the memorial at the administrative level, it still isn’t clear what will happen to it.
“For those who were in the know, it was very confusing,” Senior said.
UF spokesperson Hannah Farell said in a statement to The Alligator that Housing and Residence Life is working with the Bostick family to “determine next steps,” in regards to the memorial.
“Several options have been discussed but no decision has been reached,” Farrell wrote.
In regards to the demolition, Valero-Aracama said she is sad to see the buildings go, in addition to the university’s lack of graduate on-campus housing options.
“They have other priorities, and definitely we’re not one of them,” she said.
Contact Shaine Davison at sdavison@alligator.org. Follow her on X @shainedavison.
