Summer Session Kansan
Tuesday, June 25, 1963
LAWRENCE. KANSAS
51st Year, No. 5
"CAN I PLAY TOO?", young Chris Vale asks his parents, Mr. and Mrs. William Vale, as they join dozens of other KU people in free pool
Photo by Dan Austin
games, bowling, and table tennis Friday, June 21 at the Kansas Union open house. One of the more popular features was the steak special.
Visitors at Guesthouse Prove Famous People Are Congenial
By Linda Machin
A woman graduate student gets paid for meeting famous people.
Barbara Lesher, Wichita graduate student who is official University hostess, recalled the names of past campus visitors who have stayed overnight at the University guest house. Among them were; internationally known writers, ambassadors, senators, and heads of such government associations as Peace Corps and NASA, and various foreign officials.
"ABOUT FIVE years ago, before he was president, John F. Kennedy stayed here and spoke on campus," she said.
A recipient of the guest house scholarship, Miss Lesher, who with her roommate, Judy Reider, lives in a small basement apartment of the vine-covered University guest house located behind the chancellor's home, told of an incident with a German official from a university in Munich.
"What really amazed me is how appreciative these people are." Miss Lesher said. "I really don't do that much for them—just greet them at the door when faculty members bring them to the house, serve them coffee, toast, and orange juice for breakfast and talk with them when I have time."
"DR. FRIEDMANN wrote out a special certificate of merit on his official university stationery for Judy because she had sewed a button on his coat." Miss Lesher said.
In scroll-like letters, the certificate read: This certifies that Miss Reider sewed one button on my almost best suit.
"And later," she laughed, "when Judy and I were making chocolate sundaes in the kitchen, he stuck his finger in the chocolate sauce then smudged it on the certificate, thus giving it his official seal, he said."
Miss Lesher said that she has enjoyed her job as university hostess the past year because she is constantly reminded that famous people are just as human as everyone else.
"FOR INSTANCE, the thing I remember most about Arnold Toynbee was how sweet and courteous he was to his wife," she said.
She told of the actress who played the part of Joan of Aren in a university play who had received frequent telephone calls from her husband in New York. The last time he called he told her of his plans to fly directly to the White House in Washington for a benefit performance. The actress became quite upset because she hadn't the right clothes with her and was afraid that her husband wouldn't bring the right ones.
Pointing to a window in the living room, she told of another guest who lost his key to the house and had to crawl in through the window.
"I GUESS he had forgotten that we were living right downstairs," she said. "He was a very large man. I don't know how he did it."
The guests always rave about the house, she said. One guest who had visited college campuses all over the nation, said it is by far the nicest accommodations he had had. Many universities house their guests in rooms in their student unions or in faculty members' homes.
Calling attention to the furniture, Miss Lesher said that the house had been furnished with valuable antiques by the art museum. The house itself was built with the rock left over after building Waktins Hall.
"Every since then we haven't been able to keep that window closed," she said. "It just pops back up."
"Mrs. Watkins didn't want to waste the rock so she provided it for this house," explained Miss Lesher.
DESPITE THE fact that the guest house is surrounded by several scholarship halls and a fraternity and sorority house, the guests have never complained of the noise. "The chancellor's dog used to make more
noise than the students," she said.
Several of the visitors, she noted could hear a bell tinkling at night and had asked what it was. "They all seem quite amused when I explain to them that it is a bell the Kappas ring in the parking lot to remind the girls of closing," she laughed.
Miss Lesher, who says that her work as university hostess doesn't hinder her from working on her thesis, will complete her graduate work in October. "It's a wonderful opportunity for a woman to add to her education. I've learned so much from the people I've met."
HUMANITIES Icturers, candidates being interviewed for University positions, and members of the board of regents have all been guests in the past year.
"Eric Heller knew Robert Frost personally, and Ambassador Boland from Ireland, knows James Joyce personally."
Becoming nostalgic about leaving the guest house next October, Miss Lesher said, "Living here, sometimes you forget to be a student. When there are no guests here we are allowed full use of the house." She recalled winter evenings spent in front of the fireplace roasting marshmallows.
**APPARENTLY**, the guest house visitors as well as Miss Lesher have had no trouble in making themselves feel at home. Miss Lesher told of a morning when she had baked a pie to take to a party in the afternoon. She left the pie to cool on the top of the stove. Later she returned to discover that nearly a third of the pie was gone with a note in its place which read: "Thanks so much for baking the pie, Miss Lesher, it was delicious."
"I didn't have time to bake another pie," she said, "so I just took the half-eaten pie and the note from the guest to the party."
Board of Regents Elect Henry Bubb
Henry A. Bubb of Topeka, was elected chairman of the Board of Regents Friday afternoon at the last official Regents meeting of the year held in Topeka.
Bubb, President of Capital Federal Savings in Topeka, succeeds Clyde M. Reed, Jr., publisher from Parsons. Bubb wil serve as chairman for one year. Reed had been Chairman since January, 1962.
W. F. DANNENBARGER, Concordia, was elected vice-chairman.
Commenting on the outlook for the coming year, Bubb said, "The whole board is dedicated to getting salary increases for professors, assistant professors and other school officials in state schools. It will be a year of hard work."
Bubb's election came at the end of a day-long session which was consumed mainly with considering fiscal 1965 budget recommendations by heads of the five state universities. No figures on the recommendations were released.
AT THE SAME session, Chancellor W. Clarke Wescoe announced the appointment of Professor Duane G. Wenzel as acting dean of the School of Pharmacy. The board approved Wenzel, who has been a professor in the school since 1948. He replaces Dr. Allen Reese, who resigned.
In other personnel decisions, Kenneth Anderson, dean of the KU School of Education, and Aaron W. Harper, new head of the School of Education at Pittsburg, were appointed members of the junior colleges advisory committee. The agency was created by the legislative council.
The regents also waived retirement age requirements for Leonard H. Axe, president of Kansas State College of Pittsburg, and R. G. Cremer, head of the department of business administration at Kansas State Teachers College, Emporia.
CREMER ALREADY has reached the state mandatory retirement age of 65
In action on medical center operations, the regents gave final approval to establishment of two assistant dean positions. The extra deanship will require no additional appropriation.
Appointed to fill the positions were Dr. Jack Walker, formerly a physician in Pittsburg, and Dr. John Chapman, who has been acting as an assistant dean at the school.
In other action, the board authorized $672,983 in contracts for an addition to the out-patient clinic at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan. The general contract of $416,146 went to the Bob Eldridge Construction Co., Kansas City, Kan.
OTHER CONTRACTS were awarded to Foley Heating and Plumbing, Kansas City, Mo. $117,718; Great Northern Electric Co., Kansas City, Kan. $53,385; Anderson Priest Elevator Co., Kansas City, Kan. $54,914; and Samuel Olson Manufacturing Co., Chicago. $30,820.
The state architect was authorized by the board to proceed with structural plans for the new $650,000 laboratory building at the Medical Center, and a three-story addition to the children's rehabilitation unit.
The regents also awarded contracts for a $433,877 men's dormitory at Kansas State College of Pittsburg, with Jones Bros. Construction Co. of Pittsburg, receiving the general contract of $303,000.
KANSAS STATE University was authorized to construct a $50,000 shop building for housing maintenance at Kansas State University.
The five major Kansas colleges and universities were represented at the meeting by their respective heads except Emporia which was represented by Dean Cremer in the absence of President John King.
D.G. Wenzel Appointed Acting Dean
Chancellor W. Clarke Wescoe informed the Board of Regents of the
Duane G. Wenzel, professor of pharmacy at the University of Kansas, has been appointed acting dean of the School of Pharmacy for the coming year.
D. G. Wenzel
action at Friday's meeting in Topeka, J. Allen Reese, dean since 1940, earlier this year requested relief from administrative duties as of June 30.
Prof. Wenzel, whose field is pharmacology, became assistant professor at KU in 1948, the year in which he received the Ph.D. degree from the University of Wisconsin. He had earned the B.S. in pharmacy degrees from Wisconsin in 1942, and subsequently had two years of experience in drug stores.
At Kansas Prof. Wenzel was promoted to associate professor in 1952 and to professor in 1956.
Two years ago he was chosen for membership in the New York Academy of Science, one of the nation's oldest societies.
He is known nationally for his studies of the influence of nicotine on atherosclerosis and studies on vitamin deficiency. He is co-discoverer of a drug used to control epileptic seizures. His research has been sponsored by the Tobacco Industry Research Council, the Life Insurance Medical Research Fund, the Office of Naval Research, the U.S. Public Health Service, and the National Vitamin Foundation.
Staley Named Ford Fellow
The awarding of a faculty research fellowship to Charles E. Staley, associate professor of economics at the University of Kansas, has been announced by the Ford Foundation.
Prof. Staley will conduct research next year at Harvard University on international raw material stabilization schemes.
THE KU professor is one of 43 faculty recipients nationally and the only faculty member nominated by a Big Eight school to hold the award.
The Ford fellowships are given to release faculty members from teaching duties to conduct research of their own choosing on important economic and business problems. Stipends are based on academic salary, with allowances for research, tuition and travel.