Our Finest Hour-7 Tonight The LAST GASP
LAWRENCE KANSAS
Monday, June 3, 1957
8:30 a.m.
1957 Seniors Have Busy Year
Rv JANE PECINOVSKY
The senior year activities, exclusively for the elders of the University, began in October when all seniors were excused from their 10 o'clock classes to attend the annual convocation.
Badges, Pennants, Yell
Highlights of the get-together were cheers, wolf whistles, badges, pennants, coffee, and donuts.
Wearing their colorful red, white and blue "Damn Right, I'm A Senior" badges and waving 1957 Jayhawker pennants, the honored class was taught the senior yell by Jim Bickley, of Leawood, head cheerleader.
The text of the cheer, which was yelled several times:
Clap your hands!
(Clap hands three times)
Stomp your feet!
(Stomp feet three times)
We're the class that can't be beat!
(Cherleaders): What class is that?
(All): FIFTY-SEVEN
Following the introduction of the 17 candidates for Senior Queen, the class elected Ann Straub, of Chicago, queen. Her attendants were Pat Bohannon, of Bartlesville, Okla., and Merrilyn Coleman, of Lawrence.
Three days later, the seniors, seated in a reserved section behind the band and pep clubs in Memorial Stadium and wearing their senior badges and waving the pennants, watched the Oklahoma U. football team win their 34th consecutive game by downing KU 34-12.
The only bright spot of the afternoon was the introduction and crowning of the Senior Queen and her attendants.
Second Convocation Held
Another chance to legally cut 10 o'clock classes occurred in late April when the second senior convocation was held. Their important business to settle was the choosing of the class gift.
After much discussion and debate, the seniors voted to give $2,000-2,500 toward the erection of a canopy over the front entrance of the Student Union.
Although the total cost of the canopy will be at least double that amount, the seniors will be given full credit for the gift.
Set $3 Dues
The seniors also established the amount of dues—$3—to finance the gift, rental for caps and gowns, and the senior breakfast.
The class was told that it had made a profit of $500 on the senior calendars, which contained pictures of the queen and her attendants.
Seniors: Things You Should Know
The University has listed the following reminders and requests, and asks that graduating seniors comply with them:
1. Friends who want to sit together during the exercises should march in the same line, before or behind, not beside each other in the procession.
2. Caps are to be worn into the stadium. Men should remove their caps when the signal to be seated is riven.
3. When degrees are conferred, all graduates included in groups designated by the deans of the schools should rise when presented to the chancellor. Men will replace their caps.
5. Until tonight the tassels on the caps should be worn to the front right. Before the procession begins, the tassels should be changed to the front left, where they should remain.
4. Parcels and purses should not be brought to the exercises. They cannot be carried across the stage, and graduates do not return to the same seats.
6. Graduates should not smoke or chew gum during the procession or exercises.
7. White or light colored shoes should not be worn in the procession.
Harvey Bodker, of Mission, the calendar committee chairman, said that over 1,400 were sold.
The final official senior class function of the school year, a softball game and picnic, was held in early May. Again seniors were excused from classes—this time, all Thursday afternoon.
Senior Day began with the traditional men vs. women softball game, held at the intramural field. For the second straight year, the game ended in a tie.
Score: 20-20 Tie
The women, showing surprising batting power and bulging feminine muscles, were enforced by the catching of Maurice King, of Kansas City, Mo., a member of the basketball squad.
The men, playing with kitchen pans instead of gloves, running the bases backward and batting opposite the normal side, rallied to gain a 20-20 tie.
Following the game, the seniors went to Holcom's Grove for a picnic and the judging of a male beauty contest. Jerry Goss, of
dent, and Vern Johnson, of Kansas City, Kan., treasurer.
THEIR DUTIES NOW OVER—Senior class officers met frequently during the year to plan the class activities. From left: Judy Howard, of Salina, secretary; Richard Billings, of Russell, president; Alice Barling, of Kansas City, Mo., vice presi-
Stafford, won the contest in extremely close balloting.
After the beauty contest, the seniors had shrimp, baked beans, and potato chips to end Senior Day.
But senior activities had not ended. During the middle of May the University Business Office was busy every day as the soon-to-be graduates ordered announcements, class rings, or paid class dues.
Seniors Still Busy
The three days for which the seniors have waited all year, and the three past years, have almost ended. Some have attended the Mortar Board dinner, the Phi Beta Kappa meeting, or the alumni association meeting; all attended baccalaureate services Sunday night.
The seniors gathered in the Student Union Ballroom for the annual senior breakfast today. They will attend a University reception this afternoon...and tonight they will receive signed diplomas.
In case of rain or unsettled weather, two long blasts of the University whistle after 5:30 p.m. will indicate that the exercises will be held in Allen Field House. Graduating seniors should then report to the Field House and assemble in the first balcony corridor.
Instructions To Seniors:
2. Enter the proper ramp corresponding to the initial of the last name, and go to West Stadium.
Graduating seniors are to meet at 6:35 p.m. today at the south side of Strong Hall for the commencement exercises. Wraps may be left in the first floor classroom near the east entrance of the building where they will be guarded until after the program.
If the exercises are held in the Field House, graduates may return caps and gowns and receive diplomas there.
After the program, if held in the stadium, graduates should follow this procedure:
1. Go to the track from the seat in the north bowl, walk west and south around the track to the light area beneath the press box.
3. Return cap and gown and receive receipt.
4. Present cap and gown receipt and diploma receipt, which is obtained with dummy diploma during the exercises, to the Registrar's representative to receive diploma.
A penalty of 50 cents a day, with a $2.50 maximum, will be assessed if caps and gowns are not returned by noon Tuesday.
Because of the necessity of getting the Last Gasp "to bed" early, and because of the unpredictableness of the weather, the Last Gasp staff has seen fit to describe this beautiful, (foggy, rainy, snowy, LOOK OUT FOR THAT TORNADO!) day in anticipation of anything.
Seniors To Have Weather As Customary On June 3
As the weather goes, so goes graduation.
... (fill in the blank), with temperatures ranging from -30 to 102°. The bureau tells us to wear (raincoats, foul weather gear, bikinis, try and be decent).
The weather bureau predicts.
In case of rain, commencement will be held in Chamberlain Field House. Otherwise, festivities will take place in Memorial Stadium.
Last year, a beautiful spring day was available for use by all seniors. The sun rose this morning (in the east) at approximately 5 o'clock, and will set this evening (in the west, barring unforeseen circumstances) around 7:45.
THAT WALK DOWN THE HILL—Tonight 1,200 persons, including seniors and graduate students, will go through the Campanile, down the hill, and into the stadium to receive their degrees or certificates from the University of Kansas.
Tonight's Program: Commencement
About 1,200 seniors will officially call it quits at the University tonight when they file down through Oread valley into Memorial Stadium and become a part of the 85th annual commencement.
By KENT THOMAS
Seniors last night heard the Rev. Emerson G. Hangen, minister of the First Congregational Church, Long Beach, Calif., speak at the baccalaurate services. He served more than 12 years as a chaplain in the U. S. Navy, and since 1937 has had pastorates in New Hampshire, Connecticut, and California.
Supper Held Before Baccalaureate
At an all-University Commencement supper held in the Student Union Ballroom before baccalaureate, seniors, their parents and the alumni receiving citations heard Chancellor Franklin D. Murphy give a summary of KU progress.
Other week end events included a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Alumni Assn., the Endowment Assn. Trustees' breakfast, the annual Alumni Assn. meeting, and free bus tours of the campus. There was also a Mortar Board dinner and a Phi Beta Kappa meeting, and reunions of the classes of '07, '17, '32, and '47 were held.
(Continued on Page 3)
3 Alumni Named To Receive Service Citations From KU
Three alumni of the University, who were named to receive the citation for distinguished service to mankind given by KU and the Alumni Assn., will be honored at Commencement exercises tonight.
The three to be honored are Wendell E. Green, class of 1908, now presiding judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Chicago, Ill.; Dr. Edward F. Kohman, class of 1912, an authority on food technology, Merchantville, N. J., and Dr. Elias Howard Sellards, class of 1899, geologist and retired educator, Austin, Texas.
Judge Green, a native of Kansas City, Mo., earned a pharmacy degree at KU. Moving to Chicago, he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1920.
Gov. Adalie Stevenson appointed Judge Green to the Circuit Court of Cook County in 1850 and he
was elected to a full term the following year.
Dr. Kohman has been consultant to the Campbell Soup Co. since 1950.
Dr. Sellards grew up in Scranton, Kan., earning the A. B. degree from KU in 1899 and the M. A. degree in 1900. After earning the Ph. D. degree from Yale, he taught at Rutgers University and at the University of Florida.
In 1918 he went to the University of Texas where he became professor of geology and director of the Bureau of Economic Geology, of which he has been director emeritus since 1945.