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SPECIAL GRADUATION EDITION
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Many students are taking more than four years to earn their degree
Commencement at KU involves more than walking down the Hill
The real world can wait as graduates decide to travel and see the world
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Published since 1889 by the students of the University of Kansas
Graduation is a time for reflection
By Kevin Dilmore
Kansan staff writer
When this year's graduating class arrived as freshmen in August 1984, Carla Vogel and Dennis "Boop" Higherder of the Costume Party coalition were in charge of Student Senate. Lawrence was in the grip of a heat wave with temperatures reaching 106 degrees, and "Ghostbusters" was playing at the Sunset Drive-In on Sixth Street.
Much has happened on Mount Oread during the last eight semesters. Here is a condensed version of some of the events that have occurred at the University of Kansas and the college for those who were lucky and skilled enough to earn a diploma in four years.
1984-85: The Mean Season
In September, Gay and Lesbiat Services of Kansas came under fire from student senator Steve Imber after he distributed a petition to revoke the organization's Senate
funding. Imber said his petition was not an attack on homosexuality, but simply an attempt to shift money away from a group capable of supporting itself. Imber's claim was questioned when he sold "Fagbuster" T shirts to Smith and polluted his Swimwear killed the petition, and Imber later called a truce with GLSOK president Ruth Lichtwardt.
More than 8,000 football fans ran screaming through the streets of Agglievie in Manhattan after the annual KU-KState football game, which KState won 24.7. The mule began with a smoke bomb in front of Kite's Bar and Grill and ended with about 20 injuries and 24 arrests. The arrests included two KU students. The season did have a high note when KU stunned second-ranked Oka-
homa 28-11 on Oct. 29 in Memorial Stadium.
Louis Farrakhan brought student unrest closer to home with his speech March 29. The black separatist leader of the Nation of Islam drew
More students protested the buildup of nuclear weapons during "No Business as Usual Day" April 29. About 100 people "died" in front of Stauffer-Flint Hall after drinking Kool-Aid laced with mock cyanide.
The year on a roll: T3 went 20 on the air Jan. 19. . . Student petitioners saved an elm tree slated for removal by construction of a science library
about 2,500 people to Hoch Auditorium for his speech, sponsored by Alpha Phi Alpha. A few students picked.
... Ansehutz Sports Pavilion was dedicated and the New Yorker pizza restaurant and video arcade closed on the same day, Oct. 27. The first OZZI Awards were presented by the Dayton Dragons on Oct. 27. Danny Manning joined the front line as the men's basketball team won its second consecutive game in Allen Field House, beginning a 55-game home winning streak.
1985-86: The Sound
The KU Committee on South Africa
and the Fury
made its presence known during the school year, protesting the Kansas University Endowment Association's investments in companies doing business in South Africa. Committee members brought apartheid to the attention of students by protesting at convocation, sleeping in the lobby of Strong Hall and entering Finance Hall resulted in a about dozen arrests. Some protesters set up tents March 17 in front of KUEA offices in Youngberg Hall and 24 days later, officials announced a policy of selective政
Some students changed their night-life activities to comply with new Kansas alcohol laws, which dried up happy hours at bars and began to legal the drinking age in yearly increments to 21. University housing facilities barred beer from the premises for fifth annual Party was canceled to meet the new standards and several taverns began the process of changing into clubs or closing altogether, such as The Paladium.
The men's basketball team began
its season in front of about 6,000 diehair fans in at the first "Late Night with Larry Brown" Oct. 15. Those same fans hummed the "Jayhawk Shuffle" through a first-place finish in the Big Eight Conference, the championship game of the Big Eight Division. The team's birth in the Final Four in Dallas. The music stopped when Duke defeated KU 71-67.
The year on a roll: Deanell Tacha,
vice chancellor for academic affairs,
was appointed to the 10th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals ... fuel rod users
were removed from the University Reactor
Center, and the radiation biophysics
program came to an end ... The Romans relied
on a stadium named Day Nov. 9
Athletic trainer Dean Nesmith died
Sept. 26 .. KU alumna Lynette Woodward became the first female Harlem Globetrotter.
That's Entertainment
Despite the temporary closing of the Hillcrest Theaters, which left
movie fans with only four operating screens, Hollywood was nevertheless on the minds of KU students.
Principal photography ended on "Nice Girls Don't Explode" near the beginning of fall 1986. The film, produced by KU alumnus Dou Curtis, featured many KU students as actors and crew members during its shoot. "Nice Girls Don't Explode" had its world premiere in Lawrence April 2 after technical problems canceled the screening the night before. And many viewers said that although nice girls might not explode, they were capable of bombing.
A bomb of another sort went off in Woodruff Auditorium during a screening of a controversial film in October. About 150 people protested the showing of "Hall Mary," a film by French director Jean-Luc Gudard. Protesters picketed the film on Oct. 8 and 9, saying the film was contrary to cherished beliefs held by Catholics. A stink bomb went off
See GRADUATION, p. 8, col. 1