PAGE TWO
SECTION C
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
SUNDAY, MAY 28. 1929
Dormitories House Many Women Students
Corbin Hall Built After 40 Year Drive
- Hare of 120 University Women, It Stands of the Site of Old North College Named for Professor
A 40-year drive was necessary before the first women's dormitory, Corbin hall, became an actuality at the University.
The women's dormitory drive started in 1881 when $125 was contributed to the fund. In 1885 the alumni alone contributed $80 toward a new dormitory. By 1912 the graduates of the University had placed $47,540 in the fund. Old friends had contributed $1,810 and the students $69,534, making a total of $7,044.24.
The alumni in 1912 had collective drives in New York City, Boston, St. Louis, and Ann Arbor where they donated $1,179 for a dormitory. Due to the cold weather and irregular train service at this time the reports from different sections were slow in coming, but increased as the mail service improved.
Movies Contribute Money
The two moving picture shows in Lawrence at that time, the Pattee and the Aurora, turned in their entire box office receipts for a week to the drive. The sophomore girls homemade candy sales donated $50.
Although there was active interest in the women's dormitory question due to the World War interest it was not until 10 years later, about 1920 that the movement gained enough momentum to come about actually. By this time the collective activity of the students raised a sum of $75,000 for the dormitory. The students and faculty members had collected $3,000.
The immediate movement which resulted in Corbin hill and three other dormitories in the state began when a meeting was held in January, 1920. The deans of women of the various state schools met to consider a better housing program. Conference About Dormitories
Conferences were held between the representatives of the different schools, and Henry J. Allen, governor of Kansas. A state-wide committee for dorditories, which was made up of four representatives from each of the five state schools, met in Topeka. The representatives from Kansas on this committee were professors of economics, Olin Templin, now president secretary of the endowment association, Miss Alberta Corbin, adviser of women, and the president of W.S.G.A.
Miss Margaret Lymn, professor of English and the Kansas University publicity agent, and a committee of five women drawn from the Kansas council of women drew up a bill and sent it to the state legislature. Friends of the University sent a letter to the governor many University women went to Topka and talked personally with the members of the state legislature.
Above - Corbin hall,
on the extreme
left - Watkins hall,
and on the immediate left - Miller
hall.
The bill called for a million dollars, but only one-half this sum was appropriated. This sum was insufficient to build the request five dormitories, so the Kansas State University withdrew its petition. As a result, the University of Kansas now has Corbin hall.
On North College Site
The dormitory was placed on a 10-acre tract where old North College was situated. The site was placed aside for a state school in 1856 by Amos A. Lawrence, after whom the city of Lawrence was named. In 1920 Corbin was ready to move to a fourth floor, and its fourth floor was then used as an infirmary, but is now formed into living quarters for students.
Corbin hall was named in honor of Dr. Alberta Corbin, who was professor of German of the University faculty for 35 years. Doctor Corbin resigned her teaching position in 2019, and appointed appropriations from the state legislature and her uniting efforts we now have Corbin hall.
Where Coeds Live at College-present Nig Sug noise.
Outstanding for its leadership on the campus, the sorority record reports two members on the W.S.G.A. council, Betty McVey, c40, vice-president of the council and Jane Bellington, c40, vice-president of the senior class. In addition the sorority has four Mortar Board members, Betty Boddington, Mary Markham, Lucie McVey, and Roberta Cook.
At present there is room for 120 girls in Corbin hall. The state interest has not lagged in the dormitory. State funds have been appropriated for landcaping, enlarging of Corbin schools and providing Corbin women. Mrs. Alma Brook is now the social director of Corbin hall.
Sigma of Gamma Phi Beta was founded at the University in 1915, and has grown until today it has 46 active members. The present chapter house at 1339 West Campus was built fifteen years ago to take the place of the first chapter house, the present Nu Sig house.
Gamma Phi House Built in 1915
Gamma Phi has four active members in Mu Phi Epsilon, honorary musical sorority, 12 girls in the Women's Glee Club, 10 members of Dramatics club, and six active members in Tau Sigma dancing sorority. The chapter was represented with four girls in the Jayhawker upper 15 of paddlehilt last year, and three of the sorority's activities have been chosen for a similar honor this year. For the last three years a Gamma Phi member took part in that three-year list includes respectively Mary Katherine Dorman, gr. Roberta Cook, fa 39, and Isabel Wost, c'40.
Standards stressed by the sorority are friendliness, hospitality, scholarship, activities, and character.
The international sorority was founded at Syracuse University by four girls on November 11, 1874. The pin is a monogram closed by a crescent moon. Colors are brown and flower. Flower is the pink cannation.
The 47 active chapters support four summer camps for underprivileged girls, a quarterly magazine, The Crescent, and several scholarships.
Summerfield
group of Kansas high school seniors take Summerfield tests. Preliminaries were held in four districts on July 2, and the final examinations plus faculty committee interviews took place in Lawrence soon after. Today the system of choice is much the same, with final decisions based on high school records of grades and activities, on preliminary and final examination grades, and on personal information. The final standard lastic record is not kept up, the resident Scholar may be warned of imending dismissal.
continued from page one)
William Bullard is an attorney in Austin, Texas. Harold Dent is doing economic research for the U. S. Department of Commerce. Hilden Gibson is a university instructor in political science. Conyers Herring has a research fellowship in physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Burton Power is a research engineer for a steel company in Rhode Island. Joseph Vogler is an insurance executive in Houston.
from first class of 1929-33, Fredrick Wirth (who whizzed through a bachelor's and a master's degree in Harvard) served as the High School's department of Latin.
Summerfield graduates have chosen a wide range of livelihoods—they are philologists, psychologists, journalists, geologists, engineers, businessmen, teachers, doctors. They are now occupied with the task of proving to Solon Summerfield that they are better fitted to serve the world because of his gift to them. Resident Scholars hold dinner meetings approximately once a month, at which two senior men read
puppers or give talks on the work in which they are most interested in. They also cooperate in publishing a "Summerland Newsletter" which is published bi-monthly, and carries both resident and graduate scholarships.
Among the outstanding Scholars of recent fame have been Dean Moorehead and Don Voorhees, who were chosen Honor Men of 1938 in the first double award ever made. Blaine Grimes, c'29, has been president of the Men's Student Council and Paul Martiz was Y.M.C.A. president for two years. Summerfield men are consistently prominent in Owl Society, Sachem, and Phi Beta Kappa.
Delta Psi Became Sigma Kappa Here
Xi chapter of Sigma Kappa was instituted at the University in April 1913, after existing for over a year as a local sorority, Delta Psi.
The home of Delta Pi, and the first home of Xi, was at 1247 Ohio street. Three years later Xi moved to 1245 Broad avenue. Gradually this house become too small, and in 1923 a new house was built at 1625 Edgehill road on the site of old Fort Thatcher. This year Sigma Kappa ranked first scholastically among the sororites.
The organization was founded in 1874, at Colby College, Waterville, Maine, with the first five girls to enter Colby as charter members. In 1904, Sigma Kappa became a member of the National Panhellenic.
Sigma Kappa has several publications such as The Triangle, a quarterly magazine, the Songbook, the Bulletin, the Directory, and the Book Maroon, an anthology of poetry written by Sigma Kappas.
The pearl is the official jewel of the sorority and the flower is the violet. The colors are lavender and maroon. The pin of Sigma Kappa is a maroon triangle, bordered with pearls or with a gold scroll, and inscribed with the Greek letters in gold.
Watkins, Miller Are Gifts of University's Beloved Benefactor
By Lillian Fisher, c'41
Many little girls have "dream houses" that they would like to have for their dolls to live in. Mrs. J. B. Watkins had just such a dream, only she wanted real people instead of dolls to live in her "dream house."
For months Mrs. Watkins planned color schemes, draperies, furnishings, and landscaping. In 1925 she submitted her plans to the University, and imme-
to the University, and immediately work was begun on Watkins hall, a co-operative dormitory for self-supporting women.
The building, which was erected at a cost of about $70,000, was a gift of Mrs. Watkins to the University in memory of her husband, the late Jabez B. Watkins.
Built in 1926
All during the summer of 1928, construction was going on. The structure is finished in yellow pressed brick. The roof is of composition asbestos shingles of green, red, blue, black and gray. Large white pillars make an attractive entrance to the hall and dormer windows relieve the severe lines of the roof.
The co-operative plan on which Watkins hall was organized worked out so well that ten years later Mrs. Watkins built another dormitory, exactly like Watkins hall. It was opened in the fall of 1937, at which time Mrs. Watkins deeded the property to the University.
The building is situated far back from the street, between Watkins ball and Mrs. Watkins' home. It meets Watkins' hall after Mrs. Watkins' brother.
The large living room on the first floor is finished in oak and light tan. It has plastered cornices and a huge, attractive fireplace. Two bedrooms are placed in front of the hearth. Homes Pleasantly Furnished
Large French doors lead into the sun parlor which is decorated in apple green with natural colored wicker furniture upholstered in green. The first floor also contains a suite of rooms for the house mother, a reception hall, and a guest room. A lifesized painting of Mr. Watkins hangs over a small table in the reception hall of Watkins. A portrait of Mr. Miller hangs in Mill Hall.
Eight study rooms and a bath are on each of the two upper floors. Three rooms on the second floor accommodate three women; the other rooms in the house are for two women. The extra space on the third floor is taken up by a large storage room.
Each study room is furnished with a study table, rug, dresser, two lamps, two straight chairs, and a rocking chair. Residents are permitted to bring in any other furnishings that they want, consequently each room is arranged in a different manner.
Basement Unique Feature The feature of the hall is the
Phone 75 NewYork Cleaners
TWO GOOD INVESTMENTS
1. Kansas University for your schooling.
2. New York Cleaners for your wardrobe.
Over 21 years in Lawrence under one management.
ERNEST W. YOUNG, owner
unique way in which Watskins planned the basement. Seven kitchen-cutties, each accommodating five or six women, are on the ground floor. Besides these, there is a large refrigerator with seven compartments, a laundry room, a general kitchen, a drying room (for wet tea towels), a storage room for canned fruit and vegetables, and a huge council room.
The council room can be used for various things. On special occasions it is used as a dining room, but more often it is the recreation room. Ping Pong is popular among the women of the halls. Often times, on a cold winter night, the large fireplace in the council room will send out a sound as the team plays around and roast marmelos while the logs crackle and snap. House meetings are also held in this room.
The women of the halls have drawn up a constitution, and they call themselves the Watkins hall and the Miller hall self-governing association. Officers elected annually are: President, vice-president, secretary, treasurer, historian, intramural manager, and a social committee.
Women Manage Operation
These officers have charge of running the halls. The president makes out a chart every nine weeks of the house duties that each woman is expected to do daily. Every morning before classes begin, each resident of the hall does a certain house-cleaning job, and in a very short time, the house is clean for the day. Phone shifts are worked out on a similar plan.
The women in the halls do their
own cooking. Each kitchenette has a woman who acts as kitchen-head She is responsible for devising a plan whereby each member of her kitchen can cook two times a week and every fifth or sixth Sunday. Every Saturday the kitchens are thoroughly cleaned and inspected. Many opportunities are given to students both in other self- supporting University women do not get. The members of Watkins hall and Miller hall enter all of the intramural sports, participate in many functions, together with the sororities and Corbin hall, and they have open house and formal dances frequently during the school year.
or Miller hall. Residence in the hall is awarded in the form of scholarships for one year only, but under certain conditions may be reevised for another year. Candidate for the scholarship must be self-supply and have a degree of scholarship, and must possess a good, moral character.
Not everyone can live at Watkins
Applicants must submit references from a superintendent or a principal of their high school, from leading citizens, and from a reputable banker. If at any time, the holder of a scholarship does not come up to the set qualifications, residence at the hall will terminate. According to the deed, the rate of rental on the dormitory shall at no time exceed $3 a month for a young woman.
1863. ..1939
A GREATER YEAR EVERY YEAR
... for a greater University
We commend the University of Kansas on its progress, and are glad that we have been in Lawrence to see you grow. It is a pleasure to extend our heartiest congratulations.
Green Bros. Hardware
ROCK - CHALK
JAYHAWK
KUUUUUU
Tops for College Cheers
Likewise
Winter Chevrolet Company
Is Tops in Lawrence for Automobile Service
CHEVROLET
PHONE 77
1