8A the university daily kansan
news
wednesday,november19,2003
City commissioner remembers 'hippie' days in college
Highberger reminisces about days back in college, Student Senate
By Amanda Kim Stairrett
astairrett@kansan.com
kansan staff writer
Jared Soares/Kansar
Photo courtesy of University Archive
Dennis "Boog" Highberger looked at a photograph of himself getting arrested in college and chuckled. A police officer gripped Boog's arm and led the long-haired student out of a building.
Boog ended his term as the University of Kansas' student body vice president in 1984 by getting arrested at the Kansas University Endowment Association building. He was with the KU Committee on South Africa, trying to convince the University to stop doing business with companies that supported apartheid.
Boog is now a Lawrence City Commissioner, and his hair is shorter. At a Tuesday meeting in City Hall, Boog sat in front of a crowd in casual business wear. Boog was dressed in a T-shirt and flannel overshirt.
These days, Boog is trying to make a change from inside the system by having a say in how the city of Lawrence grows and develops.
In college, Boog called himself a hippy and an anarchist.
"I'm still pretty idealistic," he said. "But it's balanced with more pragmatism."
Boog grew up in Garnett, located 70 miles southwest of Kansas City, Kan., on U.S. Highway 169. Garnett's current population is 3,242. The town boasts that it is "America's Hometown." Grade school classmates took his last name, Highberger, and gave him the nickname Boog. Boog came to the University with a childhood friend and the nickname stuck.
He chose the University over Princeton and Harvard and has been in Lawrence ever since.
Photo courtesy of University Archives
"Sometimes I feel I should
"I'm still pretty idealistic. But it's balanced with more pragmatism."
Dennis "Boog" Highberger, right, campaigned for student body vice president in 1983.
Dennis "Boog" Highberger Lawrence City Commissioner
have gone back home," he said,
but, "Lawrence feels like home."
Boog started college life in Hashinger Hall and is still friends with the first person he met there. He said he was studious at first.
"I started learning more out of class than in for a while," he said.
Although Boog doesn't make it to campus as often as he used to, he said he saw a change in students. The average student is wealthier and more tolerant of differences, he said.
"I wasted the best years of my life at the library." he joked.
Some of his favorite classes were Robert Antonio's course about social theory and Timothy Miller's course about new religions of America.
ABOVE:Dennis "Boog" Highberger was arrested at the Kansas University Endowment Association in 1984. His group was asking the University to stop doing business with companies that supported apartheid in South Africa. Boog is still an active player in community issues.
As a KU student in the 1980s and early 1990s, Boog earned a bachelors of science in electrical engineering and a juris doctor in law. Boog estimated that he spent over nine years at the University.
Another fond college memory was when he performed with a campus street theater group that held a blank protest. Boog and his friends marched with blank signs and gave a silent speech at Wescoe Beach. The group wanted to raise awareness about form and demonstration versus content.
Boog said he missed having the freedom to spend the afternoon in the library.
Boog got his first taste of politics in 1983. The KU student body
election that year was first thrown out because ballots were stuffed, and the results were close. In the second election, Boog and his running mate won easily. They
had support from some in the greek community and their secret weapon — international students. His party's campaign poster was written in 12 languages.
LEFT: City Commissioner Highberger listened last night during a weekly public hearing at City Hall. He has been an avid community activist in the city of Lawrence for many years.
In 1986, Boog wrote himself in as the graduate student senator. He got one vote. By the end of the school year, enough people had given up the position to allow Boog the opportunity serve the seat.
During the mid-'80s, Boog edited Disorientation, a guide of information students didn't get during orientation. With Disorientation, he tried to give the illusion of a vast progressive movement among the student body.
Boogran for the Lawrence City Commission because he was concerned about the way Lawrence was growing. His pet projects are living wage and zoning. The relationship between campus and the city is important, he said.
"There was never a vast number of idealistic kids who spent time trying to make the world a better place," he said.
"Lawrence will always be a university town," he said. "As Lawrence grows, the University
may not be quite as pivotal to the city's economy."
Boog said he expected the city to grow faster than the University, estimating the population to reach 150,000 in 2005.
Boog said he got a great education and enjoyed interacting with people at the University.
"There's a lot more to learn," he said.
Mike Rundle, fellow city commissioner who remembers Boog in college, said Boog tried actively to put ideas in students' heads.
"I don't think he's lost his willingness to look at things deeper," Rundle said.
Boog looked at photographs of himself in college and smiled as if there were an inside joke. When asked what a young Boog would say about the current Boog, he said, "Plus ça change, plus le même chose."
The more things change,the more they stay the same.
— Edited by Michael Owells
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