The class gift of the class of 1996 was a council ring on the lawn of the Humanities and Social Sciences Building. It was one of a many on college and university campuses and in sylvan public settings. The council ring design originated in the early 1900s by landscape architect Jens Jensen, a designer and conservationist who worked closely with Frank Lloyd Wright and the Prairie School of Design.
The council ring provides for a discussion or deliberation during which all participants are on the same level, facing each other, and have their roots both in Nordic and Native American traditions.