Kansas State University - Royal Purple Yearbook (Manhattan, KS)

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experienced the universitrs ' at its best. ' Orientation and enrollment in Bramlagc was wonderful, she said. The K-State team really pulled together to show our new students what being a Wildcat is really all about. I was so proud to be a K-Stater and overall, the day was a huge success tor the K-State communm-. Our orientation and enrollment leaders. Wildcat Warm-Up counselors, faculty, staff and of course Deans Lehning and Bosco provided amazing service and leadership and really pulled together to make the day a success, she said. With graduation taking place in Bramlage, this group of K-Staters will have an opportunity to say they started and ended their K-State careers m the same place. When orientation and enrollment resumed in the Union, student leaders and staff faced another challenge, but Bosco said they took it in stride. Power went out across campus, including the Union where student leaders were in the middle ot the first K-State Show. Bosco said the statY remained focused, had high energy and made it seem as it nothing was out ot the ordinary. They completed the show and open t ' orum before escorting students and their families to the Bosco Student Plaza for lunch. Continued on page 24 The morning light after the June 11 tornado allowed workers to see the extent of the damage on campus. Weber Hall ' s largest ventilation unit was ripped from the roof and became an immediate focal point to the clean-up process ' .loil 8-nler In the aftermath of the tornado, students, faculty and community members dealt with overturned chicles, downed power lines, flooding and power outages. 1 finally got brave enough and went out to see my car. Andrew Dickson. junior in mechanical engineering, said. And somehow the car bumper to bumper with me had Its windows blown out. a couple of aisles down there were cars on top of one .TMother. but my truck only I lid insulation covering it on lie side and the other was pi etty clear. We set our goals virtually the day after the tornado by saying that we fully intended to have the total campus cleaned up and restored by August 22. 1 told the Board of Regents on the morning of June 12, and the County and City Commissioners, that by August 22, our entire campus would be back to normal and more beautiful than ever before. I thought of quotes from three different Presidents that caused me to be very positive and very focused and very upbeat about cleaning up the entire campus. I remembered that FDR (Franklin Delano Roosevelt) had said in 1932 about the depression that The only thing we had to fear was fear itself. ' I remembered Ronald Reagan ' s comment that ' It is always good morning in America. It is never good evening. ' I actually said to myself that we would operate the tornado cleanup and restoration job in the same way that General Eisenhower organized our troops to invade Normandy on June 6, 1944. I knew it would take that kind of effort and determination. JonWWakl.pioiarnt Tornado 25

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Continued from page 21 Orientation and Enrollment A closed L.inipus and ,in alternate location were not aspects of New Student Orientation and Enrollment that student leaders, administrators or advisers had m mind for the first day. I made the decision to hold our first day of orientation and enrollment (as planned) at 1:30 a.m. (June 12). Pat Bosco. vice president of student life. said. Our staff led by Emily Lehning. assistant dean of student life, coordinator of new student services, and the summer ' s orientation and enrollment student leaders, had to move mountains from about 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. We started our welcome program to SOI I new students and familv members from Kansas and around the countrv on time. It was an incredibly proud K-State moment for me to welcome more than SOI I new freshmen and their parents at 9 a.m. m Bramlage (Coliseum). Although enrollment did not take place in the K-State Student Union, Bosco said the event at Bramlage was a true representation of what President Jon Wefild had said: the storm would not shut down the universm-, and it would be back better than ever. Trisha Gott. admissions representatiw, said the location ot orientation did not matter, students still ■22 Student Li

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Continued from page 23 In the Midst While he listened to coliiuin iiuisie on hi headphones on the third-floor computer lab of Rathbone Hall, Andrew Dickson, junior m mechanical engineering, had no idea a line of storms was headed toward Manhattan. I had my music up pretty loud just listening to it, and m first luinie -ork assignments were due the next day, so I was prett - intently focused on that, he said. All of a sudden, m the background I heard some noise. I didn ' t think about it and started Hstening to my music again. I then started listening more and more, and I realized it was sirens. Dickson quickly logged onto weather.com. and as he refreshed the Web page, a tornado warning for the town came up. He quickly packed up his things and went to the coffee shop area on the mam floor to watch the Weather Channel. As students and conmaunm- members gathered dowiistairs, Dickson and four others decided to get a closer look at the storm. Together they went to the engineering complex courrv ' ard and watched for signs of the storm. There was a decent amount of lii;htning, but at first we didn ' t really notice much, he said. Then one ot them pointed out that the crane being used for the construction (of the parking garage) was rotating at the top, and It rotated a full two and a half times while I was out there. It began raining, the lighting increased and the wind and rain changed directions, Dickson said. It picked up a lot, and we realized we needed to get the hell out of there, he said. All of usjust started running toward the basement, and we got there just m time. Right as we were going down, you could just hear glass breaking, your ears popped and you could feel this huge rush of wind coming through the building. After waiting for the storm to blow over, Dickson ' s group went upstairs to explore the damage. With the threat ot a second tornado, the group went back downstairs to wait out the storm, but it never came. He ventured upstairs to see exactly where the tornado hit, took a tew photos on his cell phone and gained the courage to walk outside to assess his car. Dickson said being m the middle of the storm was an eye-opening experience and showed him ]ust how much societv- is at the mercy of mother nature. He 24 Student Life