Wednesday, November 29, 1967
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
11
Mother finds college challenging
By Maggie Ogilvie Kansan Staff Reporter
Last fall Mrs. Augusta Flenjia was managing a grain elevator in Bluff City, studying English and sociology by correspondence, and caring for a family by herself.
This fall she is the only adult enrolled in freshman-sophomore Pearson College, and a frequent visitor to the eighth floor of Oliver Hall where her daughter, Fran, a junior, is a counselor.
"You have to have more than one job in a small town," she said, referring to the erratic wheat harvest business, so she took a second job of preparing for a teaching career.
"I want to thank you for making it possible for me not to have to work that hard," her son Edward, now a KU graduate student told her when he realized he might otherwise have been a farmer. He and his wife, the former Gloria Farha, an assistant to the dean of women, encouraged Mrs. Flentje to join the rest of the family at KU.
"Life!" Mrs. Flentje said, is her major, but Fran insists it is "patience." She encouraged her
mother to learn short-cuts between classes, instead of "running" as she did the first week between Fraser and Learned Halls.
"If you're going to take a full load, you have to be in good physical condition." Mrs. Flintje said of a schedule including psychology, history, math, and English. She quit carrying a dictionary and briefcase when she found notebooks and pencils were all she really needed.
"I get nervous in algebra." Mrs. Flentje said. "I think so much slower than I used to, so it takes time and a half. I'd have a conference with my teacher if his office (in Oread Hall) weren't so far away. It's quite a struggle."
"Lut you're so spry and skinny," said Fran who had been surprised to see her mother studying until midnight at Oliver.
"The first couple of weeks I was up 'til 12:30 every night," said Mrs. Flentje, "not studying—just keeping up on the reading."
"Mom's grade-conscious," Fran teased.
"I have to revise my grade standards for my children since
I'm getting by," Mrs. Flentje said,
"even that's something, though!"
Because she never worked after graduating from high school in 1937, Mrs. Flentje led a "real leisurely" life, whereas, she said, "a working woman will keep in contact more with living conditions and so forth."
"But you're well-read," said Fran.
"Oh. honey," her mother laughed, "I'm just finding out how much I haven't read." She belonged to study clubs and PTA, but had taken no responsibility for a car, bill payments, or her deceased husband's insurance agency which she sold recently.
"This has been a big selection for me," she said, recalling her first impulse to use part business training, although she "didn't have any ambition to work in an office."
"I thought I should give college a try," she said. "So many jobs require it." Mrs. Flentje learned that fact from a social welfare employer who would have hired her had she held a degree, and from an interviewer in a KU department who gives priority to
college graduates though the work doesn't require a degree.
"What scares me is that now it's almost essential to get your master's," said Fran.
"You're not too far from a master's when you get a BA," said her mother. "If I were a junior I'd think I had it made." She plans to "take one semester at a time, and not think too far ahead."
Mrs. Flentje gets "a lot of encouragement" from her young classmates, several of whom have "accepted" her—waiting to talk after class and opening doors for her.
"Do you know what they all say? Oh, how can I get my mother to do the same thing?"
One girl asked if Mrs. Flentje thought her mother would like visiting a residence hall. Her answer: "She'd love it—for one night."
During Mrs. Flentje's first overnight stay, 38 freshman women enlisted her help in getting Fran's sweater off—"to mend it"—before they showered her. A successive all-night invitation was declined, because Mrs. Flentje had to return to her younger daughter,
Debra, a Lawrence High School sophomore. Their apartment "doesn't seem much like home yet" but older student tenants study rather than party, so Mrs. Flentie can study also.
"I'd enjoy attending more campus events," she said, "but every night I feel like I have something else to do. I went to hear Harrison Salisbury and enjoyed it a lot. I just love the Fine Arts building, and I really enjoyed 'Gypsy.' I heard 'Satchmo,' too, but I couldn't even get my children to go with me."
Mrs. Flentje said a youth-oriented environment, with "teachers as young as my son," makes her think of students "as boys and girls."
Having observed that students in her Pearson College classes seem to know each other well, Mrs. Flentje said, "When you raise three children of your own, you know pretty much what goes on."
"It amuses me the way some of them dress 'far out,' because it seems to me they're more conforming than the rest of us," she said.
J-School dean re-elected to Sigma Delta Chi office
Warren K. Agee, dean of the School of Journalism, was re-elected national vice president for campus chapter affairs at the annual convention of Sigma Delta Chi, professional journalism society, in Minneapolis, Minn., Nov. 15-18.
Agee, who served as the first national executive officer of the society in 1960-62 after its reorganization, will advise Sigma Delta Chi about matters relating to the 88 campus chapters.
Agee's job will also entail an awareness of the problems of Sigma Delta Chi chapters. When
possible, he will attend charterings of new chapters.
Calder Pickett, professor of journalism and KU chapter advisor; Norman Larson, teaching associate; William O. Seymour, instructor in journalism and Allan Northcutt, Wichita senior and president of the KU chapter of Sigma Delta Chi, also attended the convention.
Northeutt accepted two awards for the University Daily Kansan at the convention. The Kansan won first place in feature writing and second place in sports writ ing.
For Vacation, Graduation, Education or the time of your life.
TWO-MONTH FLIGHT June 13 - August New York to Paris . . . $270 Chairman, Craig Crago
ONE-MONTH FLIGHT August 6 - Sept. 5 New York to London . . . $305
Chairman, Lennie Lee
Contact the SUA office for further information and contracts
Presents Members of The Spanish Department reading
Modern Spanish and Spanish American Poets in Spanish and English
4:30 Thursday November 30
Forum Room, Kansas Union
Openings Now Available
in
NAISMITH HALL
- Central Air Conditioning Controls in Each Suite
- 20 Meals a Week—No Limit on Servings
- 4 Student Suites with Private Tub-Bath
- Wall-to-Wall Carpeted Rooms
- Closet and Large Desk-Dresser for Each Student
- Vanity Dresser in Each Student's Room
- Complete Vending Service
- TV and Study Lounge on Each Floor
- Recreation Room and Recreational Equipment
1800 NAISMITH DRIVE