Volume 124 Issue 104
kansan.com
Friday, February 24, 2012
Stepping on Tiger tails for the very last time
CAMPUS & TOWN
Comin' to Kansas
The University of Kansas has students from all 50 states, but what made them decide to come to Kansas for college? //KELSEA ECKENROTH
Where does our KU family come from?
-Students from Kansas: 69.1 percent
-Number of international students: 2,093 from 109 countries
-Most common home states of non-Kansas residents: Missouri, Illinois, Texas, Colorado, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oklahoma and California
PHOTOS BY CHRIS NEAL
City limit signs on the North end of town.
Sources: ku.edu and KU admissions
Alex Dakas was the first person in her family to go out of state for school. When she told her family she wanted to go to the University of Kansas, they didn't believe her and thought she would eventually change her mind. But after visiting the University of Illinois, the University of Wisconsin and the University of Cincinnati, she thought they were nothing compared to KU.
The percentage of out of state students attending KU varies between 20 and 30 percent each year. Elisa Krapcha, assistant director of freshman recruitment for the KU Office of Admissions, says when students from other states come to Kansas for the first time, they expect to see the stereotypical Kansas setting of flat land, wheat fields and lots of cows. When they get to Lawrence, they are often surprised by how unique the town and campus is.
When Dakas, a sophomore from Chicago, drove to Lawrence for her first campus visit, she looked out her car window and could see the red roofs of the buildings on campus from the highway. Dakas can still recall how excited she was when she saw the red roofs. "I think that is an icon of the campus, and that's something that has really stuck in my mind," she says.
Dakas saw more red when she got to the campus. It was fall, and the leaves on the trees scattered across campus were starting to change. The trees and hills across campus were different than the cliché flat Midwest scenery she was used to seeing back home in Illinois. The beauty drew her in.
Dakas is an architecture major and says the architecture program also helped her make her decision. The program at KU is different than any of the other schools she looked at. It's a five-year program, which appealed to her because she is able to get her master's degree.
Amanda Kilwin, a senior graphic design major from St. Louis, had quite the opposite of Dakas' experience when she came to visit the University. The day she visited was cold and rainy. She drove all the way from St. Louis to find out her name somehow wasn't on the list for Senior Day. The staff was able to add her in and it all worked out. Despite the rough start to her first visit. KU felt right.
Kilwin says she always found something wrong with the other schools
she visited. She noticed all of the main buildings were on Jayhawk Boulevard, with a 10 to 15 minutes walking distance from each other. The other schools were scattered or had the art schools located on different campuses.
Kilwin says the Art and Design Building was a main factor in her decision to come to KU. When she applied she was told that everything she would be doing for her major would be in the same building with the same people all four years.
"I had never thought I would go to a big school because grade school through high school my classes were really tiny. I didn't want to get lost in the crowd at a big school," she says. Being in a small program with a smaller group of students gave her a sense of comfort.
Jackson Sump, a freshman from Washington, D.C., and one other person from his graduating class are the first people from his high school to go to KU. Sump says East Coast people think Kansas is full of farm hicks and see it as fly—over land. He was sick of what he calls a "dog eat dog world" at his home on the East Coast where he says people do whatever it takes to get ahead. He decided it was time
to leave the East Coast and experience a different part of the country.
Sump's dad went to KU so when they were visiting Kansas City, Mo., they decided to venture to Lawrence. His dad gave him an in depth tour and showed him all of his favorite places and told him the memories that went along with them. Sump noticed right away that the people in Lawrence were different than the people back home because they actually enjoy each other's time and seem to be here to build friendships.
During Sump's visit, the school spirit really caught his attention. Everywhere he looked on campus there was someone wearing something with a Jayhawk or KU colors. He didn't see this kind of school spirit and passion at any of the other schools he visited back East. Sump wanted to go somewhere with lots of school pride, lots of traditions and people who love being where they're at. "There's always a sign of happiness here and that caught me off guard because I've seen people at other great school seem unhappy and have no traditions," he says.
LUKE RANKER/KANSAN
From the left to the right: Sam Kovzan, sophomore from Leawood and Tansey Schoonover, a freshman from Roswell, Georgia, work on speeches for their communication class while Emily Pfeifer, a freshman from Hays, studies biology. Kovzan said they had been camping for about 30 minutes when several basketball players came out for a press conference.
"I think it's pretty crazy," Colin Vipond, a freshman from Omaha, said. "Being from Nebraska, it's all about football. Now it's all about basketball. W was in shock when I even first heard about camping."
students descend on the north concourse of Allen Fieldhouse to ensure their camping group keeps its spot in line for the Missouri game. With this contest set to be the last tilt in the foreseeable future of a rivalry that predates the advent of collegiate athletics, students are desperate to secure their seat and witness history.
Normally, the camping is not as intense. But for Missouri, everyone is trying to get the best seats possible.
Haley got to split a Pizza Hut cheese pizza, delivered to him by junior guard Elijah Johnson, with another camper. But pizza time is not the only time the campers can catch a glimpse of the players.
"It was good," Kyle Haley, a junior from Hays, said about interacting with the players. "It's different I guess, knowing they're my age. It's kind of unique that they're as popular as they are."
"I just know usually within the first few days people drop like flies, but only one group has dropped out ahead of us so far," Vipond said.
"I'm looking at the gods of our school," Tansey Schoonover, a freshman from Roswell, Ga, said as students gathered to watch the men's basketball team walk to practice.
The men's and women's bas-
pushed junior forward Thomas Robinson around in a laundry hamper as the players delivered pizza.
Worse than waking up early is the fear that a camper might oversleep his or her shift. In her freshman year, Maggie Hirschi, a senior from St. Louis, Mo., woke up at 5:55 a.m. for her 6 a.m. camping shift at the Fieldhouse before a game against Texas. She rushed over from her Oliver Hall dorm room but arrived too late, and her group lost its number three camping spot.
The north concourse will continue to bustle with student activity until numbers are handed out three hours before tip-off on Saturday.
Students try to maintain sanity during hours of camping. Vipond's group pitched in together to purchase an air mattress that
surf the Internet. Sometimes I sleep, if you have an early shift, but it's really hard on this floor."
"Mizzou ones just are always fun because you see the dedication students have to come to these games," Hirschi said.
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CLASSIFIEDS 2B
CROSSWORD 4A
CRYPTOQUIPS 4A
OPINION 5A
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SPORTS 1B
SUDOKU 4A
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— Edited by Ian Cummings
Both teams will continue winning basketball games. Missouri might even win a championship in the SEC. But left in the wake of Saturday's game will be a tremendous void that a hundred games against West Virginia or South Carolina could never fill.
Kansas without Missouri is like Batman without The Joker or the Hatfields without the McCoys. Would anyone really care about one without the other? Thanks to a need for attention from one side and a stubbornness from the other, we are about to find out.
When the game ends, win or lose, take one last mental picture of the aftermath. Because if the powerholders get their way, that memory is all your children and grandchildren may ever know of one of the greatest rivalries ever played.
I contents, unless stated otherwise, © 2012 The University Daily Kansan
Don't forget
Today's Weather
Edited by Taylor Lewis
Get your ticket for the Campus Movie Series at the Kansas Union. Tonight's featured film is "The Muppets."
Strong winds, mostly cloudy.
Gone with the wind.