- [Narrator] And so up the stairs that never seem to end, twisting and turning the past age can still cause us to thrill. Up to the very top of Fraser itself to its familiar red top towers, looming over the campus they give us a seldom scene panorama of a growing university. KU is a growing university. 20,000 students are expected on the campus in the 1970s. It will be a crowded university but it won't be the first time. At the close of World War II, thousands of GIs returned to KU only to find classroom space greatly inadequate. Due to this shortage, there was a definite threat to the quality of education at the university. Something had to be done. The needs of these special area studies were taken care of first. The outdated and highly inadequate chemistry facilities were greatly improved with the addition of Malott Hall to the campus. Music students were moved from the crowded cubby holes in Strong Hall and other buildings scattered over the campus to a new music and dramatic arts building, Murphy Hall. As years passed, more students poured in. Summerfield Hall was constructed for the business school. As this department began its rapid growth, two additions to Snow Hall and a recent addition to the Natural History Museum is the strain on the life sciences. The modern new nuclear reactor building was built as the atomic age forced advanced studies in this area. And in the same fashion, the engineering school was bursting its old seams and demanded these excellent facilities. All of these special areas of study have been well taken care of but still the students continued to arrive in ever increasing numbers. These students are mostly freshmen and sophomores who can spend their first two years in general studies and cannot take full advantage of these new buildings that have been constructed until they specialize during their junior and senior years. Therefore, more general classroom space is desperately needed. Fraser Hall is a general classroom building and cannot adequately cope with these surges in enrollment and therefore it must be replaced. - Good evening, my name is Lance Hayes, we have with us tonight Mr. Vince Ballata who is the field secretary for the KU Alumni Association. Vince, we've seen the past and the present of Fraser Hall and now let's talk a little bit about the future. First the word is out that Fraser is coming down and I imagine that the alumni attaches a great deal of sentimentality to this and are asking why must it come down. Perhaps you can answer a few of these questions. - Well Lance, yes there is quite a bit of sentiment attached to the old building and we all feel this of course. But Fraser Hall occupies a spot on top of a hill that is very valuable to the future building program of the university. - Well of course it's already been pointed out in this show that there are a great number of freshmen here and we need this general classroom space. The fact that they have to go between buildings necessitates that the buildings must be close together, right? - That's right, we must make the best use of the small amount of space available on top of the hill. - Well then, we talk about reclaiming this area, what area is to be reclaimed? - Well Lance, actually there are two major areas on top of the hill right now that are not serving the job the university has to have of these areas. One of them is located directly across from Strong Hall in the area where Robinson Gymnasium and Haworth Hall are. A new gymnasium is to be built across from Allen Fieldhouse down on the old fields and when this is done, Robinson will come down along with Haworth and in their place, will be built a new general classroom building that will be the length of Strong Hall and probably taller. - But even with all of that, well we still need more classroom space. - Yes, the other critical area lies in the area where Fraser Hall now stands. This area must be used more efficiently. - Well Vince, if we could remodel rather than reclaim wouldn't that be a little bit better wouldn't that make everybody happy? - I think it probably would Lance at least on the surface it would. You see, when the administration tackled this problem initially this was the plan, the plan was to remodel Fraser Hall but when the engineers got into the problem they saw that it was just an impossibility. - Well of course I know from having had classes in the building that there's a great deal of, well in fact it's practically made of wood with stone on the outside wouldn't this pose at least a fire hazard if nothing else? - Yes, wood construction just is not practical anymore. - Well of course this wood is 97 years old now isn't that right? - Pretty close to it. - And that beautiful stairway that we saw in the film earlier I imagine would be quite a venting system if a fire did get started. - [Vince] It would take it right up to the top. - Well, what's this business about the foundation of the building which seems to play such an important place in the question to remodel or not to remodel. - Well that's an interesting question Lance about the foundation because actually Fraser does not have a foundation. This may surprise quite a few people but when the building was originally constructed it was just actually set up on the ground there and through the course of time it has given, it has settled and cracks have resulted in the classrooms as you have seen and it just will not stand any longer. It has been rehabilitated several times. - Well, if this remodeling could be done, and as I understand it is a big question as to whether it could, wouldn't it be a pretty expensive measure? - Yes it would Lance. They would have to dig underneath the present building and try to construct a new foundation for it and there is a great deal of questions as to whether the size of the building, the walls of the building could stand the strain. - [Lance] It just might come tumbling down. - It just very well could. - As well as the other engineering problems of getting under there and then the great expense of the thing. Of course we have the liability or the university does to make the best use of the taxpayers' money isn't that right, isn't it even a law? - That's right and as an agent of the state we must use our tax dollars wisely and remodeling Fraser, if it could be done would not be fulfilling this obligation. - Well then the alternative apparently is a new building. - Yes Lance a new building is the only practical solution to this problem on a financial basis because to remodel Fraser, if it could be done, would cost in the neighborhood of four million dollars and that's a lot of money when you consider Allen Fieldhouse cost somewhere around two million dollars or two and half mi-- - Well how would the new building stack up then? - The new building could be constructed for approximately two million dollars and it would have double the classroom space that the present building now offers. - And that's twice as much for half the money-- - That's exactly right. - Well then I think that we can probably see Vince that the fact that if we are to maintain our state and this is a growing university, we need more classroom space, we can't trust the structure of the present Fraser to not only let us remodel so that we could get more classroom space out of it but also it's just plain dangerous isn't it? - Yes, there's just really is no other course Lance. - I see, thanks a lot Vince. - You're welcome. - [Narrator] These are the reasons for the replacement of Fraser Hall, a tired old building that has served the university above and beyond its practical limits. It will be missed but not forgotten. Where a new Fraser will take up its proud tradition and help to carry a growing university to an even higher attainment in its continuing goal of excellence in education.