Creighton University - Bluejay Yearbook (Omaha, NE)

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encounter: 1968 As prospective presidential nominees and other national leaders circled the globe in 1968 — each in his way proposing to relieve a tense world, each fronting a restless public — Creighton men and women shared the world ' s encounter with history during 1967-68. The campus visits of former Vice President Richard Nixon and Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey reminded Creighton of the key issues in the 1968 presidential election campaign. Much more meaningful, however, were the reminders from Hilltoppers themselves. Memorial services honored Creighton ' s alumni killed in the Vietnam conflict, among those Denny Holm, the young man who chaired the Student Board of Governors only three years previous. On several occasions students and faculty — mostly from the burgeoning Fine Arts Department — bearing placards and distributing literature, silently protest- ed U.S. involvement in the war. Graduate students left their books and research, theses and plans, to answer the escalated draft fol- lowing February ' s presidential order withdrawing their draft exempt status. Corps of tutors, sodalists, and students organized under such cryptic abbreviations as UNCLA, C- CAM and V-CAP worked in inner-city projects. The protester placards reached longer than the wearer ' s mini-skirts and checked trousers. Girls wear- ing colored stockings and furry coats, saddle shoes and above-the-knee boots, dated young men in double breasted jackets and flowered ties, answer- ing the fashion code of 1968. Creighton University ' s encounter with change was climaxed with the February decision to seat lay- men on the Jesuit Board of Directors — a decision which followed the earlier selection of a layman — Walter Jahn — as vice president of finance. The year saw abolishment of formal quarter examinations and the required unrelated minor. Also allowed for the first time was casual attire on campus and in Alumni Memorial Library. Serv- ing alcoholic beverages at approved student func- tions was permitted, provided that student organi- zations abide by Nebraska state law. Across the nation there was a marked increase in the illegal use of drugs and stimulants in 1967- 68. Creighton ' s student policy was amended to in- clude a provision against possession and use of such drugs. Science students moved from dingy closets and cramped, makeshift classrooms into one of the mid- west ' s most advanced science buildings. The seven- level, 4 million Rigge Science Building houses the departments of biology, chemistry and physics. The structure, named after the Rev. William F. Rigge, S.J., who came to Creighton in 1878 to spend 49 years on the faculty as astronomer, teacher and author, is the most expensive building in Creigh- ton ' s history. Its spacious lecture hall, designed for both science lectures and other campus activities, accommodates 426 persons. As the nation ' s war-stimulated economy spurted and Nebraskans paid their first sales and income tax, Creighton ' s budget increased and student tuition was raised. The m.inimal increase was |160 in the imdergraduate Colleges of Arts and Sciences and Business Administration, boosting annual tuition to $1,230. The most marked increase was in the School of Medicine where tuition rose to S 1,9 10 annually, an increase of $260. The first major spiritual encounter of the aca- demic year began with the first non-required con- vocation Mass. The service included all Omaha Catholic colleges and was offered at Civic Auditor- ium. A special midnight Mass for students vas added to the Sunday schedule. International cuisine and holiday parties were offered by Saga food service — new to Creighton in 1967-68. Candlelit dinners and checkered tablecloths, special desserts and pre-dinner punch were holiday treats to the boarding students. An encounter with Omaha ' s expansion and the university ' s increased enrollment was met with a new periphery road bordering the campus and boosting to 920-plus the number of parking spaces, depending on whether the ninnerous small foreign cars occupied 1, IV or 2 stalls.

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«■ Reform and mediation, understanding and co- operation. Student and faculty groups aimed at such goals in the 1967-68 school year. The newborn facul- ty council, headed by Dr. Ross Horning, provided a new voice for the staffs of the colleges. Student representatives from each school, members of the Student Government Reform Committee, spent hundreds of hours debating and studying worthy and workable changes in student government and policy. The Student Board of Governors ' campaign to increase the student activity fee by $10 was finally successful after the failure in the summer of the Green Light campaign. Approved in December was the so-called kickback referendum in which an allo- cation of the increased activity fee was made to the various schools. The additional funds were to make possible better-financed and more popular concerts and lectures for activity card holders. Creighton ' s encounter with increased enrollment was met from a social, as well as organizational and financial point of view. Kappa Beta Chi was added to the list of campus social sororities and Delta Chi Delta joined the roster of fraternities. The imi- versity ' s chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, chartered in February by the former IKEs, was its first chapter on a Catholic campus. The game room — dubbed the Romper Room — in the lower level of Brandeis Student Center, was extended to include room for dancing, pin ball machines, pool tables and a juke box. Curfew hours for senior women were extended to 1 a.m. on week- days and 2:30 on weekends. A new staff of Samardick guards was contracted to provide campus security. The year meant change paralleled with contin- uity. Located in the center of a nation which suffered riots and war along with hope and determination, Creighton encountered its personal progress and pride in the 1967-68 academic year.