Summer Session Kansan
Friday, July 9, 1965
Lawrence, Kansas
--representative to the predecessors of the Big Eight athletic conference. He died in 1960.
53rd Year, No.7
WILD GROW THE WEEDS—This one—time natural beauty spot, located just below the east side of Watkins Memorial Hospital, is Prairie
Acre; now a wilderness of weeds.—(Photograph by Dan Austin)
'Nature's Fashion' Is Not Sweet In Prairie Acre's Garden Now
By Tanya McNaughten
"Whereon is set this block
Of Oread limestone to mark
And preserve Nature's sweet
Fashion of making her garden."
These words are part of the inscription on the marker placed on the site of Prairie Acre in 1932.
Prairie Acre, located on Mt. Oread just below the east side of Watkins Memorial Hospital, was set aside in 1030 to preserve the last bit of virgin prairie land on the campus.
The land originally was part of the Robinson estate and was given to the University by the city of Lawrence. Tucked away in the sprawling expanse of the KU campus, Prairie Acre is intended to be one of the rare visible remains of the early days in this once-wild frontier territory.
KU ALUMNI saw the value of preserving the last of this land. For them, and they hoped for future generations, the land provided an opportunity to look at the patch of bluegrass, the cottonwood tree, and the wildflowers native to Kansas, and return in imagination to the Kansas of the pioneers. Indians and buffalo.
In 1840, the department of building and grounds built a fence for the land from limestone deposits near Potter Lake. This fence was to surround the land which had never been touched by a man-made implement for reshaping the earth's surface.
For some time after this, a retired mail carrier, Sam Elliott, took it upon himself to take care of the acre and the limestone fence. However, with the passing of this man vent the care of Prairie Acre.
NATURE'S FASHION of making her garden is no longer so sweet. The land is so covered with weeds that a student would find it hard to recall the days of the pioneers, Indians and buffalo, for thinking how much a good weed-killer might do for its appearance.
Nor do the wildflowers flourish and bloom. Most of the original flowers disappeared long ago, and although it was hoped that they might be restored, there is no evidence of them.
There are a few purple blooms to be seen if the campus tourist wants to "rough it."
A LOOK AT the flowers can be achieved by walking around and over the stones of the broken-down fence (the weeds are too high to permit a walk through the field).
The main argument against improving Prairie Acre is that the land should never be touched by plow or shovel because it no longer would be natural prairie. Yet, sewer lines have been installed across the area.
The limestone fence is somewhat risky for casual sitting. According to Keith Lawton, vice-chancellor of operations, the fence is restored once a year.
'Tall Tales' Are on Tape
Thirty reels of tape recordings of "tall tales" by one of Lawrence's greatest raconteurs for five decades have been presented to the Kansas Collection of the University of Kansas Library.
THE GRASS has been burned and sewers have been dug. The fence is yet to be repaired, the weeds yet to be curbed, and the wildflowers yet to be restored.
The story teller was W. W. Davis, former chairman of the history department, a KU teacher from 1910 to 1954, and perhaps best known over the state and area as KU's faculty
Many of the stories involve hunting and fishing experiences of his boyhood in rural Gulf Coast Alabama near Mobile. But many others involve the Southwest and Geronimo, the Apache chief who fought so long against the white settlers.
New Dean Excited By KU Prospects
By Jacke Thayer
Leaning back in his chair in the pink-walled office, Dr Warren K. Agee, who has been named dean of the William Allen White School of Journalism and Public Information, explained how he came to KU.
"I heard about the job opening
"I heard about the job opening when Burt (outgoing Dean Burton W. Marvin) resigned in October," Dr. Agee said. "We had been friends for many years and I was also acquainted with several faculty members."
AGEE WAS INTERVIEWED for the post in May and paid his first visit to Lawrence then.
"I have great admiration for the school and it has long been steeped in tradition," he continued. "My wife and I fell in love with the city of Lawrence and I'm proud of the school—or I certainly wouldn't be uprooting my family again."
Agee was here Tuesday through today for briefing sessions with Dean Marvin.
Marvin will leave in late August for a two-year term at Tel Aviv University in Israel to organize a school of mass communications. He has been dean for 17 years.
AGEE, professor of journalism and dean of the evening college at Texas Christian University since 1962. has almost 30 years of journalism education experience behind the post he will officially assume Oct. 1.
"I felt this background was going to waste in the evening college." Agee explained. "I was still connected with journalism through my work with Sigma Delta Chi (professional journalism society) and the journalism course I taught each spring and fall at TCU, but I was leading two lives for three years."
AGEE ALSO has worked as president of the Association for Education in Journalism in 1958. Long-time secretary-treasurer of the organization is Elmer F. Beth, KU professor of journalism.
The new dean also recently revised his journalism textbook on communications. He is an alternate member of the Accrediting Committee of the American Council on Education for Journalism.
Agee said that when he visited KU in May he was impressed by the city, Chancellor W. Clarke Wescoe, Vice Chancellor James Surface, and members of the journalism faculty.
"I felt this was the ideal situation for full use of my experience," he said.
ONE OF THE major factors influencing his decision, Agee said, was the presence of an innovative and experimental atmosphere in the school.
"I would like to develop some programs to bring our people back to the campus." Agee explained. "I've learned a great deal about adult and continuing education as dean of the evening college, and am concerned about the re-education of professionals. Too many of our graduates are separated from education when they leave the school."
Dean Agee will be teaching two courses at the school under present plans: Communications in Society and Editorial Problems and Policies.
Agee expressed an interest in communications research and seminar programs.
"WE REALIZE the value of the old, established journalism schools," he explained, "but we are looking at new trends. In the past five or six years 30-40 journalism schools have put the word 'communications' into their titles."
While he has no specific plans to revamp school curriculum, the new dean said he felt an orientation course in public relations should be added. He describes himself as a strong supporter of photo-journalism.
"The main thing." Agee explained, "is that we will begin a continuing restudy of the curriculum, although I don't anticipate any major changes now. So many things depend on budget and availability of personnel."
AGEE VIEWS the student newspaper as valuable from the school's viewpoint as a laboratory experience.
Warren K. Agee
"I prefer this type of arrangement (the paper connected with the school), but it does bring some problems." Acee said.
"My one major fear is that it can take too much of the students' time if it is not adequately staffed," he added.
AGEE FEELS that professional journalism courses should occupy only 25 per cent of the journalism student's time. The remaining time, he said, should be spent acquiring background.
"The journalism school should be the door to the university, not an entity unto itself." Agee said. "The student should take advantage of the many resources available in literature, history, political science, economics and other liberal arts subjects."
The journalism graduates, Agee continued, "should be able to analyze and exercise critical judgment.
"THEY NEED to be able to think for themselves," he explained. "Education should be a 'pulling-out' rather than a 'pouring-in' process. The student who learns only facts is not getting much of an education."
"They should leave the school with an inward determination to continue their education." Agee concluded.
Agee also is the likely successor to Marvin as director of the William Allen White Foundation, which he said "offers both problems and opportunities." He meets today with the foundation's president, Fred Brinkerhoff, editor of the Pittsburg Sun.
AMONG HIS more fascinating jobs in the past, Agee lists his stint as U.S. Coast Guard combat correspondent in World War II. Also on the list is the work on his Ph.D. thesis in American studies on the use of the newspaper as a social instrument in reconstructing the life of two Texas cattle towns in the 1830s.
Agee said he spent two summers reading the complete newspapers of the cities for a 10-year period in the late 19th century.
THE THESIS, written in 1955, has never been published, but Agee plans to revamp it in the future.
Agee, his wife and daughter, Robyn, will return to Lawrence in late July or early August.
"Dr. Agee is a distinguished educator and a dynamic administrator." Chancellor W. Clarke Wescoe said. "He will carry on the outstanding traditions of the School and help it fulfill its unique prom-
(Continued on page 10)