Fort Hays State University - Reveille Yearbook (Hays, KS)

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President Gerald Tomanek The Black Box Imbedded deep within the stone of the old hall lay a capsule. Could it be buried treasure, worldly secrets or a message from the past? Amidst the ruins of Rarick Halt, a small black box was discovered by a wrecking worker during the final stages of destruction. Taken to the safety of the president’s office, a puzz- led Gerald Tomanek and collegues pondered over the mysteries of the box. What did it contain? Eager to conquer the unknown. President Tomanek called a special assembly March 17 for any persons interested in attending the opening of the mysterious box. Students crowded into the Black and Gold Ballroom to catch a glimpse of the secrets that lay in the metal rectangular capsule. A wave of silent anticipation swept through the crowd as President Toma- nek slowly opened the lid and pro- ceeded to unveil Rarick ' s secrets. No, it wasn’t gold or wise and sacred knowledge. Instead it con- tained papers, documents and inform- ation important to the dedication of the Model Agricultural High School (Rar- ick Hall) in October 1911. The weath- ered documents provided an excellent memorium to the building and a refer- ence to our early history. 24 Rarick Feature i-pri ,jr : o fl ■ ' T, rj! If! Htl fork pa 1 In p m rT 1 ■ 1 fly Y Mm.., I L

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(f the student failed to register his vehicle properly, he would notice a piece of yellow paper placed neatly under his windshield wiper. This being his first offense, the ticket was only a warning. However, if the student continued to park ille- gally, his second offense would warrant a penalty of $2 and all other offenses would be $2 each. If the student failed to pay his fines at the end of the semester he would not be allowed to re-enroll, graduate or transfer records. In most schools, however, a second ticket was more expensive than the first and the third was still higher. Fort Hays State changed its policy of raising fines and ever since, the collec- tion rates have been good. In addition to campus parking, residence halls had their share of parking problems. Anyone from a residence hall could park in another residence hall ' s lot. This situation was necessary because no residence hall had enough parking space to accommodate ail of its residents. Therefore, segre- gated parking was impossible. We had 300 cars registered for McMindes. Their parking lot had room for 54, Where were you going to put all those people if McMindes ' residents could only park in the McMindes 1 lot? Wiest Hall did not have enough space to hold all its reside nts, Brown said. Then they had 20 stalls reserved for the Psychological Service Center. I ' ve been hearing now that they want to move Student Health over there too; that would be 20 or 30 more stalls. With the destruction of Rarick Hall, the education classes are spread out all over the campus. This also adds to parking prob- lems, Brown stated. At this point, the parking problem looked unsolvable. How- ever. McGrath Hall provided an overflow parking lot. There was parking there. It just boiled down to people not wanting to walk. Yes, Fort Hays State did have a parking problem. For those who insisted on red carpet treatment to the front doors of Albertson or Picken Halls, they were the ones to fight for the empty parking spaces. They used up gas driving around the campus hunting for a sacred parking place in front of their next class building. But for those students who arrived for class early enough for a short walk across campus, parking really was not the problem it was thought to be. You can’t beat the system Convenient parking is the ability to station one’s car within reasonable walking distance of a predetermined destination. To most people, reasonable” means approximately the length of one city block, not one mile. Building a dormitory parking lot with stalls for 60 cars when around 400 car owners live in the dormitory was not an example of convenient parking. Another example of what convenient parking was not, was a McMindes Hall resident who had to park her car in a dark, desolate corner of Wiest parking lot and risk being attacked on her way to McMindes Hall. Convenient parking was not being told over the phone at 4 a.m. that you had mistakenly parked in one of the numerous reserved stalls. Convenient parking meant that a person was able to reach his destination before he: a) was mugged, b) developed frostbite, or c) counted more than 5,000 dividing cracks in the sidewalk. A person could make a quick dash out to a car, instead of a 3-mile hike, if convenient parking was available. Convenient parking was an important term to the students of Fort Hays State. Convenient parking was an ongoing prob- lem and threatened both the physical and mental health of every student involved with campus parking.

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...And The Walls Came Tumbling Down By Cindy Griffiths Shifting the cold steel ball into forward motion, the face of the crane operator shows no emotion and no restraint as he swings the arm into position, ready for another attack Bleak March skies cast their sorrowful eyes toward the rapidly dis- appearing remains of the 66-year-old building. The snow lay in dirty patches outlining the condemned area. A dull roar echoes from under the sound of the churing engine as another massive section of brick memories plunges to its grave. Three days later only a huge brown void remains. It is then that students and faculty must face the reality ... a part of the FHS campus has been erased forever. . I suppose a few tears have fallen down my cheeks, mused Dr. LaVier Staven, professor of education, Seriously though, Rarick has been my place of office since I came to i Fort Hays State in 1 961 and I feel that the building has served me well. William Cfaflin, associate professor of education, felt that the old building added to the environment of the campus. “The historical aspect of Rarick is tremendous. It is too bad that the building couldn ' t have been retained and remodeled, even if only to serve as office space. Built only ten years after the birth of Fort Hays State, Rar- P ick Hall was named after Clarence Edmund Rarick, FHS president from 1934-1941 . The hall was first used to house the home economics, agriculture, physical and biological sciences, and geography departments. In 1 963 it underwent remodeling to accommodate the education and psychology departments. Weathering many years of educational ser- vices to the campus, the building slowly grew old. Plagued by termites and moisture, still present from a 1951 flood, its foundation weakening, the hall began to feel its age. In 1971 t the Board of Regents pronounced the building obsolete and Rarick ' s death sentence became inevitable. Plans were drawn up for a new structure but due to tight capital expendi- tures, it wasn’t until 1 977 that the steel ball was set in motion. Fort Hays State, eager to forge ahead in its new capacity as a University, authorized a Topeka wrecking firm to sur- round Rarick. Seventy-five pieces of native stone were saved from the outer frame and then the walls came tumbling down. This sent department heads scurrying for temporary facilities to house their classes. The result of this massive move relocated classes all over the campus, forcing most teachers to teach out of a suitcase-type environment. Education classes were set up in Cunningham Hall and For- syth Library, while Wiest, McGrath and Agnew residence halls hosted elementary and secondary teaching blocks and special education classes. The psychology department moved en masse to the A section of Wiest Hall. This make- shift teaching situation is expected to continue until the com- pletion of the new building in two and one-half to three years. Meanwhile, students and faculty alike will just have to endure the inconveniences of scattered classrooms, although the new hall promises to be well worth the sacrifice. Covering 1 1 7,000 square feet and set at a cost of 5.4 mil- lion dollars, the building will be comparable to the size of Sheridan Colliseum. The three floor construction is expected to be ready for occupancy by the 1980 fall semester. Nine departments: art, education, economics, English, foreign languages, mathematics, philosophy, political sciences and sociology will all be housed in the new structure. Yes, as quickly as Rarick was destroyed, crews wasted no time in encasing the barren spot with fence. It is within these links of chain that construction workers will erect the new building. This glistening steel formation will continue to carry on the tradition of educational excellence that its predeces- sor, Rarick Hall, began 66 years before.