CAMPUS AND AREA
University Daily Kansan, March 28, 1984
Page 6
War has dramatically influenced KU, professor says
Jim McCrossen/KANSAN
Roy Gridley, professor of English, thumbs through the book "On the Hill: A Pictorial History of the University of Kansas." The book contains historical photographs and the collection of
essays that Gridley wrote to help explain nearly 12 decades of KU history.
War and education are seldom as related subjects, but together they have left their mark on our lives.
Gridley was chosen to reduce nearly 12 decades of KU history into 12, 300-word essays for the book, "On the Hill: A Photographic History of the University of Kansas." The book was published by Princeton University Press.
In fact, Roy Gridley, KU English professor, was surprised when he realized the dramatic influence of visual art on students.
"It's tragic that higher education and war are so closely knit," he said.
By ROBIN PALMER Staff Reporter
Nearly everything that is visible on this campus is determined by the effects of war on students;
Newer buildings on KU's campus were built in direct response to the effects of war on students, he
According to Gridley, the Computer Center and Wescoe Hall were both designed to decrease or prevent damages similar to those that were the results of post riots and protests.
From the Civil War to the Vietnam War, protests were prevalent on the campus.
"World War I nearly destroyed the University and Vietnam closed the University down, he said.
During the 1930s, the University was investigated for communism because students had gone to fight in the civil war in Spain, and a prominent doctor's son had been killed in the fighting, he said.
Gridley said that political statements were reported as early as the Depression, when a KU student reportedly raised a Communist flag on Fraser Hall.
"World War I nearly destroyed the University, and the faculty was decimated."
"This move was a serious ideological statement," he said, "if it really happened.
The student population in the 1950s increased,
going to school day, because people came to KU
to enrol in school.
The effects of war even affected the housing
conditions when Gridley was a undergraduate. Gridley said that in most cases housing in the late 1940s through the mid 1950s would be considered substandard today.
conditions when Gridlev was a undergraduate.
Students lived in scholarship balls or in rundown buildings because a University housing system did not exist. Lack of alternatives and money left the students with few choices.
The University population tripped between 1939 and 1946 with no increase in housing. In 1939 there were 4,000 students, and by 1946 there were over 12,000.
The notion that the University should provide some form of housing did not arise until the early 1900s when Alberta Corbin led the fight for a residence hall system.
Problems in housing students created an integrated relationship, unique to a state university system, because students lived in the community, he said.
Her efforts led to the opening of Corbin Hall, 420 W. 11th St...in 1923
Gridley said that students had not changed despite wars and lack of sufficient housing.
"We were nothing but students . . . and all of the mind was consumed." he said.
Students are basically the same, although in the last two decades full-time students have almost disappeared, he said. He argues that students now live a complete life in addition to attending classes.
Gridley said that in 1900, 60 percent of the students were self-supporting. Tuition and living expenses were paid through part-time jobs. The students an extension of their life as a student, he said.
They either worked to be able to afford school or they studied — the majority did both.
Funds for education costs were easier to obtain when tuition was only $30
The problem, according to Griday, is that tuition only increased by 818 during the University's the first 90 years, but that the price for tuition today outstretches inflation figures.
The history within the book itself was written in a general tone in an effort to reduce the sentimental or supportive tone that prevails in most histories of universities, he said.
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"The pictures and the essays are not celebrating the University — they reflect the past," he said.
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