2A THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
MONDAY. NOVEMBER 21. 2005
this week in KU HISTORY
nov. 21 - nov. 27
© 2005 University of Kansas Memorial Corporation. All rights reserved.
BY SHANKI UPSDELL
editor@kansan.com
KANSAN CORRESPONDENT
Nov. 20, 1967 — Wescoe Fiasco
The University of Kansas revealed its original plans for Wescoe Hall - a giant skyscraper reaching 25 stories - on this day.
The plans included a classics museum, 12 electronic classrooms, 487 faculty offices and 150 parking spaces, according to the KU History Project's Web site. If constructed, the building would have been the tallest in Kansas.
The high point soon skrocketed beyond the University's budget. According to the Web site, the costs exceeded the $5.8 million allowance for Wescoe Hall — nicknamed "Wescoe Hole" after insufficient funds halted construction.
"At the risk of being corny" then-Chancellor W. Clarke Wescoe said in the Kansan, "this building is the high point in the University's master plan."
In 1969, the University began afresh with a four-story building, but again money presented obstacles. The Kansas Alumni magazine reported federal and state funds would pay only about $5.8 million of the building's estimated $8 million price tag. Student Senate proposed an additional student fee to pay the difference.
The proposal passed, and the University dedicated Wescoe Hall as its new humanities building on April 20,1974. This was the time student fees helped pay for a state university building.
Nov. 21, 1914 - The "Ricker Home"
A last will and testament established a low-cost residence that would house female students for more than 20 years.
Estate trustees of Leonora Hollingbery, a Lawrence widow, bought a house at 745 Ohio St. to honor a request made in Hollingbery's will, the Lawrence Journal-World reported in 1947. The newspaper reported she had wished to provide a home "for working women and girls."
The women at Ricker Home, or Ricker Hall, certainly worked for their stay. A rule sheet from the Spencer Research Library archives specified women should perform household duties, clean their rooms and furnish their own bed linens, spreads and towels. The work could take half an hour or one hour daily, "if the work is well-planned and efficiently done."
students paid affordable prices for board; $4 a month for a double room, $5 for a single. Combined with utilities and food, the cost for living there would total "around $25 a month."
Although never an official University residence hall, students continued to live in the house until 1956, according to the KU History Project's Web site.
Nov. 22, 1939 — Hobo Day History
Corn-cob pipes, beer busters and burnt corks were all part of the Hobo Day celebration. The Kansan wrote in 1931 that some University students pawned or sold their best clothes to finance a trip to Kansas City for a beer bust, an all-you-can-drink event, in 1894.
The University Daily Kansan lamented in an editorial the death of the Hobo Day tradition on this day.
After the beer busts moved to Lawrence, students began wearing old clothes, including corn-cob pipes and red bandanas, to memorialize the original event. The Kansan warned students who would not follow the "hobo's standard of 'ragged appearance'" could have their "finery" removed by other students.
Soon Hobo Day factored into homecoming events as "a pep generator for the football games," the newspaper wrote in 1934. The University even canceled afternoon classes on Hobo Day, according to the KU History Project's Web site. The increasingly raucous festivities once featured battles between well-dressed law students and "hobos," a raid on grocery delivery trucks and even a "hand to hand scuffle" between a "hobo" and a professor.
The University Senate disbanded Hobo Day in 1939 by substituting it for a vacation celebrating a national cornhusking championship, according to the Web site. The Kansan decried the move, calling Hobo Day one of the University's finest traditions. "The student body sees in the abolishing of Hobo Day the first step toward a desecration of the sanctity of tradition," it wrote in the editorial.
- Information compiled from www.kuhistory.com and the Spencer Research Library Archives. Edited by Katie Lohrenz
Rhodes scholars chosen
U.S. Naval Academy leads universities with 4 awardees
BY KEN MAGUIRE THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
True to Hollingbery's wishes.
AWARDS
BOSTON — A student who was shot four times while promoting democracy in Iraq and a senior who is writing her thesis on vampires and blood contagion in 19th-century literature were among the 32 Americans selected Sunday as Rhodes Scholars for 2006.
One winner was Scott R. Erwin, a 2005 graduate of the University of Richmond, who founded Ambassadors of Democracy, a civic education initiative at Mustanseriya University in Baghdad. He underwent eight hours of surgery in June 2004 after the car he was riding in was ambushed. Two of
The scholars, chosen from 903 applicants, will enter Oxford University in England next October. The scholarships fund two or three years of study. About 85 scholars from at least 14 nations are selected each year.
An investigation found that insurgents targeted his car in an attempt to stop the classes, he said.
his Iraqi friends, both teachers, were killed in the attack.
"I'm proud to say the attacks did not stop the program from continuing," said Erwin, a 23-year-old native of Weatherby Lake, Mo. "Iraqi students continue to promote democratic ideals to their peers."
Erwin received the Medal for the Defense of Freedom, the civilian equivalent of the Purple Heart. He was wounded in both arms and in his stomach but has recovered. He plans to study international relations at Oxford.
Another winner, Brett A. Shaheen, 22, of St. Louis, is studying economics and international relations at the University of Pennsylvania. He said he's interested in studying the developing world in his time at Oxford, but hasn't committed to any particular field of study.
And Justin M. Chalker, of
Meade, Kan., is a senior at the University of Pittsburgh, where he majors in chemistry and the history and philosophy of science. He is completing research on new chemical reactions in the synthesis of kainic acid, an organic compound used in Alzheimer's disease research. He plans to study organic chemistry at Oxford.
Others selected include Alexander K. Dewar, a Wheaton College senior who built a preschool for children of Ugandan farmers, and Rahul Satija, a Duke University senior who studies the small-pox virus while also teaching violin to inner-city children.
The U.S. Naval Academy had the most students selected with four _ the most in one year in that school's history, said a spokesman, Cmdr. Rod Gibbons. Duke, Yale University and the University of Chicago each had three winners.
One of the Naval Academy selections is Paul J. Angelo, 21, who has held two of the highest leadership positions at the military school. A native of Columbia Station, Ohio, Angelo started a program in Annapolis, Md., that pairs midshipmen with Spanish-speaking elementary students for after-school tutoring.
Angelo said he was "speechless" when he learned he'd won.
"It didn't even sink in for probably 10 to 20 seconds," he said
Samsher Gill, 22, graduated from the University of Chicago this year. The Edina, Minn., native works at Media Matters in Washington, D.C., where his research job involves fact-checking Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor."
Gill said he feels a sense of responsibility as a Rhodes Scholar.
"It's an award for prior accomplishments, but it's really a beginning." he said. "Thinking about what it will mean to create a better world, that's part of what being at Oxford is about."
Lakshmi Krishnan, of Sugar Land, Texas, attends Wake Forest University and is writing her senior thesis on vampires and blood contagion in 19th-century literature. She plans to major in English at Oxford.
ENTERTAINMENT
Audiences under Potter's spell
LOS ANGELES — The bespectacled boy wizard has worked his biggest box-office magic to date.
"Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" grossed $101.4 million in its debut weekend, the best results yet for the franchise, according to studio estimates released Sunday.
The latest Potter movie led a lineup that helped reverse the Hollywood box-office slump, with the top 12 films raking in $171 million, up 19 percent from the same weekend last year when "National Treasure" was No. 1 with $35.1 million.
Debuting in second place was the Johnny Cash film biopic "Walk the Line," which took in $22.4 million. The film chronicles the early musical career of Cash, played by Joaquin Phoenix, and also stars Reese Witherspoon as Cash's lifelong love, June Carter.
Disney's computer-animated film "Chicken Little," which held the top spot last week, slipped to No. 3 with $14.8 million. Jennifer Anniston's thriller "Derailed" ranked fourth with $6.5 million and the sci-fi fantasy "Zathura: A Space Adventure" rounded out the top five with $5.1 million.
ENTERTAINMENT
Pop singer marries music exec
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Christina Aguilera has found out what a girl wants, and now she's married him.
The 24-year-old pop singer tied the knot with music executive Jordan Bratman in a ceremony Saturday evening at Staglin Family Vineyard in northern California's Napa Valley. Us Weekly reported on its Web site.
Sources told the magazine that Aguilera, her hair decorated in jewels and pulled back in a bun topped by white flowers, walked down the aisle in a Christian Lacroix gown. The couple exchanged rings in front of about 130 guests.
The Associated Press
Aguilera and Bratman arrived in Napa Valley on Wednesday to kick off wedding festivities, with a Japanese-themed rehearsal dinner Friday night at the Auberge Du Soleil resort, Us Weekly reported.
Bratman, 28, proposed to Aguilera in February while on vacation in Carmel, Calif. Their hotel room was filled with rose petals, balloons and gift boxes.
"When I got to the last box, there was a ring in it," Aguilera told People magazine. "He got down on one knee and said 'Will you do me the honor of being my wife?' I've been floating ever since."
Rajesh Nirgude/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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