University of Kansas - Jayhawker Yearbook (Lawrence, KS)

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FALL I S S B E 1945 number of students find themselves commuting via the Rapid Transit. Student renters, office reports say, started out with choosey ideas. Many of them wanted the companionship offered by organized houses that being out of the ques- tion, they thought they could do with a nice, spacious room something with all the comforts of home, modern facili- ties, thick rugs, ample closets, and a beauty-rest mattress. At the end of several days ' search some were ready to settle for a closet with a pull-down mattress and a priority on the bathtub every other Saturday. Worried mamas and papas, not trusting the listed rooms, made house-to-house canvasses to find a lovely couple who would take Gertrude in for the year. Others felt that a ten-minute walk to the campus inter- fered with their education. Having convinced most stu- dents that 14th street Hill is really a breeze, and that no rooms were available on top of Oread, the University ' s next problem concerned the landladies. Those who felt it their duty to further universal intellect by taking in student roomers, nevertheless cringed at the thought of loud voices reverberating through the walls at all times of the day or night, innumerable phone calls, rings on the bath tub, along with a certain amount of leavening power on their property. Tact and understanding on the part of the housing authorities were employed to get these two divergent factors together the landlady and the student. It wasn ' t so much a problem of finding the University with its post-war problems down. It was lack of essential materials for building during the war, and the sudden release of servicemen at the war ' s end which left few homes for the homeless. As near as university officials can check, only one or two would-be students went home because of the housing prob- lem. More veterans and civilian students will be coming back to school each semester. The enrollment will break all previous records. Post-war housing plans will be the order of the day. More private rooms and apartments should become avail- able soon with the steady termination of war workers. But the trend of student choice seems to be for living in organ- ized houses. Plans are being made for new residence halls, one for men and one for women, to be built with the $201,000 given by Mr. and Mrs. J. R. Pierson of Texas. Plans for a women ' s dorm to be built west of Corbin were started be- fore the war. New dormitories undoubtedly will be built, fraternities will re-claim their houses, students will move back in view of Mt. Oread this will be the future, the post-reconversion period, when the room-renter hangs the rooms sign on the front door and prepares to latch on, to, a rotiiner or to go down trying.

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THE JAYHAWKER Home on the Front Range By Many l ut flackio+i IT WAS a brave and courageous housewife who hung out her rooms shingle this fall and braced herself for the onrush of would-have-been pledges, veterans, residence hall refugees, and room-seeking students of every variety. The end of hostilities on the war fronts coming shortly before the opening of the fall term caused thousands of war workers and ex-servicemen to return to school. An almost nation-wide housing shortage for students resulted. As more and more students made application to enter the University, the housing problem at K.U. became a major issue. Fifteen veterans with families made plans to commute from Sunflower Village, the only near locality not crowded to capacity. And, according to government agents, more room is still available if you have a way to get back and forth and if you are a veteran. Since plainly enough, Sunflower Village was not the answer to the myriad of problems facing the University, residence halls were arranged to accommodate more stu- dents; and the administration officials got to work on lists of private rooms. The crisis came shortly after fraternity and sorority pledge lists were announced. Those who were not pledged and those who came to Lawrence the day before enrollment casually expecting to rent a room on their way to the campus found themselves on the street. A Chamber of Commerce committee called Lawrence citi- zens and asked them to fix rooms for students. The advisor of women and advisor of men offices were open day and night checking rooms. Two new dormitories for women, one at 1420 Ohio and another at the old Hearth tearoom, were started on short notice. Public-spirited Lawrence citizens who came to the aid of the university and some high-powered reconversion by K. U. officials succeeded in housing the homeless. Our record beat that of many state schools Missouri University, for ex- ample, turned away out-of -state students and other schools had to limit their enrollment in other ways. Veterans with wives and families are the K. U. students who are still having housing troubles. It goes back to the old story: No children or dogs allowed. One veteran who wants to enter school next semester has two boys one six and one nine. He is unable to find a place where his boys will be allowed to live with him. Some schools have set up trailer camps for married students. So far many K. U. ex- servicemen have to leave the little woman back home with her mother while he batches at school. With the exception of the ten to twenty veterans w ho have been unable to find apartments for their families, K. U. students have found a pkce to hang their hats. But the Jay- hawk family is no longer nestled atop and on the brow of the Hill. It has spread to all suburbs of Lawrence, and a

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) DR. romm Hollywood-styled by Dolores Sulzman TALL, well built and (see pic- ture), Dr. Coleman, in his first statement to the press, said, with the proper Hollywood intona- tion, I just want to be a good prof, and he means exactly that. From Sunny Cal, Dr. James C. Coleman came to join the K. U. psychology staff this fall just in time to enjoy the Kansas rainy sea- son. The rain and other things ob- served during his first week in our sovereign state have confused him a bit. He, too, thought Kansas was dry. He ' s interested in psychology and moreover interested in teach- ing it to anyone who gets in his classes. He doesn ' t offer any snap courses, but as one coed explains it He has a way of dishing it out (Continued on Page 60)