Malott recalls KU past-administration, and pointing out parallels between it and the present one.
Continued from page 1
The gray-haired man in the red robe glanced at Chancellor Wescoe, grinned, and said, "I was the last of the tall chancellors; since then they have become shorter and balder, a trend which I shall not try to appraise."
Malott said that the students in his term of office weren't always satisfied either. He said, "People in those days, too, did not always agree on the structural design of buildings as developed by the state architect. But I was partially protected by lack of funds to build models to exhibit, and always, with Mrs. Malott's help and that of a local committee, I managed to get the ivy and evergreens planted around any new building before construction had attained ceiling level of the first floor, so no one ever saw, or quite realized, the stark realities of the architectural designs."
MALOTT THEN WENT further back in time to look at the forces—historical, social, and intellectual—which shaped KU in its first 100 years.
He first mentioned, after "forgetting for our purposes such transients as Coronado," the Santa Fe and Oregon Trails, "which peeled off a certain increment of pioneer spirits."
"It took," he said, "the sharp division and the emotional biases of the slavery question to bring the real pioneers to the Kansas plains."
Malott talked of the commonly-
held belief that Kansas was founded in behalf of a cause. This made it seem a battleground for freedom, something out of the ordinary 100 years ago.
The Kansas people's liking for politics, and the twin motivations of idealism and personal profit molded the people of the state so that someone said the early settlers "had no sooner driven down their tent-pins than they began to talk of a college."
Malott traced the planning and beginning of a state university in Kansas. He spoke of the help of Amos Lawrence, and of the bickering among the Presbyterians, Congregationalists and Episcopalians about which should be the moving force of the new educational institution.
THE REV. R. W. Oliver became "our first, and part-time chancellor—and talked the Episcopalians out of their money in behalf of a non-sectarian institution," Malott said.
After Oliver left, Gen. John Fraser, whom Malott called "the first real administrator of the University" and "a born promoter," took over and lasted through KU's first commencement.
Malott then dismissed further history of KU's chancellors by pointing out that several men were elected to the post, came to Lawrence, took a look around—and promptly left.
The audience in Hoch roared when Malott added, "All of which, happening in the rapidly strengthening life stream of the University, shows, beyond doubt or peradventure, that chancellors are
not terribly important, although it has been alleged that deans are occasionally useful."
Kansas' rapidly expanding realization of its responsibility to its citizens was brought out by Mallowt as a primary force in building KU, which he called "a full-scale university, unique in the breadth of scope of its work, and unique in its service to a large constituency.
"It touches society on a thousand fronts."
BEGINNING TO LOOK ahead in context of the historical setting. Malotl spoke of the "formidable array of tantalizing problems" ahead-poverty, increasing population, war and cultural and racial conflicts.
Speaking of the people who built KU, Malet said, "They insisted that the University of Kansas be free to have blowing through it every wind of social, economic, political and physical change."
Malott expressed the hope that the Inter-Century Seminar can build on the framework of KU's first century and throw out the challenges facing man and society, especially the direction of higher education.
"The University of Kansas gives every evidence that it is vitally alive," Malott said, "and with the thrust of this inter-century celebration, will move confidently, ably, and sturdily into the century ahead."
Daily Kansan
Tuesday, April 12, 1966
Leaves KU for Ball State
David R. Hermansen, associate professor of architecture, has resigned his position to join the faculty at Ball State University in
Muncie, Ind. After 12 years at KU he will join a new architecture department opening next fall at Eall State.
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