Prank fails to spoil first graduation
By Robert Stevens
A skeleton dropped in at the first KU commencement ceremony and took a position just above the speaker's head.
The first commencement, June 11, 1873, was in the then uncompleted Fraser Chapel. A skeleton, borrowed from the zoology department, was lowered by pranksters from the wooden rafters.
The jokers suspended it above U.S. Senator Joe Ingall's head during the commencement address, according to Kansan files.
THE CHAPEL WALLS had not yet been plastered and the studding lay exposed. It was just the right setting for the skeleton, and the caper took very little work.
Although classes first met here in 1866, the first four seniors were not given their diplomas at an official ceremony until 1873.
Although graduation ceremonies have since been modified and streamlined, and many changes have come to the campus, the basic commencement pattern has undergone very few changes.
The first graduation fete could be divided into four parts which still exist today. They include the baccalaureate service, the class day exercises, the commencement exercise and the class celebration supper.
A BOOK BY Robert Taft, former KU history professor, "The Tears on Mt. Oread," said that the 1873 ceremony was patterned closely from those held in Eastern schools.
It symbolized the newness of the University as it was held in the unfinished building, but it also portrayed the dignity of the occasion with the orator, Sen. Ingalls.
The balcony had not yet been installed, and the walls were just bare boards.
A special temporary stage was constructed on the right wall of the chapel and the audience was forced to sit on wooden, backless benches.
CLASS DAY was held June 10 with orations given by three of the four graduates. The other senior, the first engineering student, was allowed to display his architectural drawings of a bridge on the stage.
The afternoon was spent planting vines on the campus. This was noted by the class as the first step in the ornamentation of the campus. The project was undertaken because the campus
presented a bare and uninviting appearance.
On the final day, the commencement procession originated on the south hill of the University, where the Museum of Art stands today, and ended at the chapel.
The parade was led by the bands, followed by the students with the graduates last. Fourth in the procession came the faculty, then the regents, and finally the officials from Lawrence, Douglas County and Kansas.
THE FIRST TO ENTER Fraser Chapel were Chancellor Fraser and Sen. Ingalls.
The only faculty members from the first session of school who also were present at the first graduation exercises were Professors Snow and Robinson.
The baccalaureate sermon was given by the Rev. Richard Corden of the Plymouth Congregational Church.
In the commencement address, Sen. Ingalls in the grand oratorical style of that day, opened by saying, "The first time I stood upon this consecrated eminence, I looked southward and eastward down the enchanted Wakarusa and Kaw rivers; through the vacant bruselas of a rude fortification that frowned with incongruous menace upon the pastoral landscape for whose tranquil and diversified beauty, nature has no rival, art has no synonym."
IN 1998 THE commencement committee developed continuity in the ceremonies. This was also the first year that the chancellor and vice chancellor donned robes for the fete.
The graduates first wore gowns in 1897. At that time there was much debate whether the faculty should wear them.
Although the administration wore them in the first decade of the century, the faculty did not follow suit until almost ten years later.
The first class reunion was in 1913, with all four of the original graduates attending to commemorate 40 years.
IN 1897 THE march of graduates was changed and the place of commencement exercises was moved. The chapel in Fraser had become too small to hold the audience, so the ceremony was moved to Robinson Gymnasium. The processional march was then from Fraser to Robinson.
The original graduate dinner was in the chapel at Fraser. When the move came in 1897,
the dinner was also moved to Robinson.
"They served box lunches in Hoch Auditorium for a while," Henry Shenk, head of the physical education department and chairman of the commencement committees, related.
"I THAS GROWN, and we are planning for 1,400 this year including graduating seniors, alumni, and others," Shenk said.
The dinner has been held over the years in Snow Hall, Spooner Library (now the art museum), Dyche Museum of Natural History, the Fowler Shops, and in a tent on the front lawn of Fraser.
Lawyers choose senior officers
Cordell Meeks, Kansas City second year law student and recently appointed assistant resident director for Joseph R. Pearson Hall, has been elected president of next year's senior law school class.
2 Daily Kansan Tuesday, May 24, 1966