University of Missouri at Kansas City - Kangaroo Yearbook (Kansas City, MO)

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, ..-,.,,....,.1.e-n-m..vnr-san i -1-,-vm - FOR VV ARE lt will take more than the lure of colorful pennants and basketball games to bring you people as alumni back to this campus, Robert Nelson told the senior class. We do not have panty raids and telephone booth stuffing teams here, the student body of The University of Kansas City is mature and serious and has no time for silliness. We of the Administration are proud of this state of affairs. And in Mr. Nel- son's words the seniors felt they had encountered the true expression of The University of Kansas City spirit. What can you expect of a college career at KCU? This is a pertinent question: a question which prospective students and old students alike ponder. Perhaps before we open the 1959 Kangaroo, the indelible record of this past year at our University, it might not be unappropriate to consider these questions for a moment. The spirit of KCU has been called apathetic, and has at times approached the status of a complete nonentity in the eyes of some students. To others, those who orbit around Haag Hall mainly, the antics of the fraternities and sororities and student council have seemed disgustingly silly and childish. In between these two factions there are many students who scarcely have time enough in their days, busy with jobs and family responsibilities, to attend classes and study. For these students, altho the desire to contribute may be keen, there are not enough hours in the week to permit them to partici- pate in the great millrace called extra-curricular activities. This is the situation peculiar to an urban university. Those forces which cause these diverse attitudes are the same forces which bring people to this campus in the first place. The state of the student body has been analysed and bewailed many times, echoes of the keening never die in the halls of KCU. lt is difficult for the young and enthusi- astic to accept the situation as it is and try to go from there, to build a school unique in attitude and atmosphere rather than to strive for the stereotyped college life of resident, isolated campii. Nourished on the concept of competition in extra- curricular activities during their high school days, the freshmen arrive at KCU eagerly anticipating a 2 less juvenile and more elaborate program than what they have previously known. They are stunned to find that the burden of these activities rests in large part with them. The rest of the student body, struggling with the responsibilities of demanding class loads, outside jobs, and family activities, has a bare minimum of time to spend offering them guidance and support in their enterprise. These new students encounter a rigid but skeleton frame- work of traditions to work within, and too fre- quently find that the fruits of their labors are met only with accounts of the superior events of previ- ous years. Perhaps subtle revolution is a more accurate term to describe what has happened to colleges across the country. Urban universities such as this one indicate the crytalization of these revolu- tionary forces, which rise out of the new class of students, who have little or no family tradition and support for higher education, who are independently, seriously, and sternly interested in learning and not in tom foolery. This shift of emphasis from the raccoon coat days of the '20s to the G. l. baby buggy post war days has brought the demise of Joe Col- lege, U.S.A., Playboy on Papa's bank account. ln a situation such as this, it is to be expected that the extra-curricular activities will have a different tone and a less exuberant character. Those students who are disappointed in the lack of school spirit at KCU need to reappraise their school and see that from another, more contemporary viewpoint, there is indeed a very vital spirit manifested here. Those students who are so critical of the activities need to join into them and mold them more to their taste. These two groups can, and are beginning to, work together towards a compromise program of student activities which will more appropriately fill the needs of the whole student body. This is a challeng- ing but necessary goal which must be achieved as this young rapidly growing university takes its place amoung the leaders of modern higher education. Steps have been made in this direction this year, the organization of the independent students for political purposes is an important example. Apathy in student government, the apex of the lack of time and interest manifested throughout the activities structure, is a nation-wide problem and an urgent problem which must be solved quickly. Students at KCU will find their administration much more helpful and co-operative than they might expect, the opportunities to lead and plan are so many that jobs go begging, for lack of a responsible person to do them. Here then, at KCU, the student who has the desire and ability to co-ordinate his primary responsibilities with those of student leadership will find all the chances he could ask for, they are his for the effort. -June Hyatt, Editor