University of Kansas - Jayhawker Yearbook (Lawrence, KS)

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Many parts of the new tripled-in-size Memorial Union Building opened this fall and the entire building is expected to be ready early in 1953. together and must go forward at the same time. About six million dollars will be available to the University from the state educational building fund at the beginning of the 1953 legislature. Chancellor Murphy plans to ask the legislature to approve at least a third of the proposed ten million dollars at the present time. The money will go toward: 1. Construction of a l o to 2 million dollar music and fine arts building. 2. Remodeling of Bailey Chemical Labora- tories into facilities for the School of Education, amounting to $500,000. 3. Purchase of $500,000 - $750,000 worth of equipment to be installed in the science build- ing which is now under construction. The remainder of the program, which will not come before the legislature until 1955, includes plans for the construction of a $740,000 annex on the northeast corner of Snow Hall and the addition of a third story on Haworth Hall annex costing $150,000. Housing for students is one of the most press- ing needs at the University. In repeated statements Chancellor Franklin D. Murphy has cited the neces- sity for expanding the dormitory system as well as classroom facilities. Plans being made to alleviate the housing sit- uation include construction of dormitories to ac- commodate 600 male students in the area west of Lindley Hall. The proposed location for the build- ings is about a mile west of the campus in what is 24

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Dormitory Row, the University ' s newest housing area, contains newly built Pearson and Stephenson Halls as well as Sellards Hall (out of sight to the right). Older dorms on this new street include Batten- feld and Templin Halls. PLAN FOR TOMORROW by Virginia Mackey KU ' s FUTURE includes no growing pains as the University looks ahead, planning its building and housing needs. At a recent meeting of the Board of Regents, Chancellor Franklin D. Murphy outlined a ten year building program totaling more than twelve and a half million dollars. To date more than four million dollars worth of construction is underway on the campus. Daily the walls of the new science building rise higher above the south side of the hill, the addition to the Union is almost completed, and the excavation for a $200,000 stack addition to the law library behind Green Hall has recently been finished. The reason behind the extensive building pro- gram is an anticipated increase in enrollment over the next ten to twenty years. University officials agree that planning for housing and supervised living cannot be over-emphasized since the student population may increase to between 10,000 and 12,000 within the next decade. At present Kansas elementary schools are jammed with children of the post-war baby boom. This increase in the school-age population, cou- pled with a growing exodus of industry to the Mid- west and particularly around Kansas City and Wichita, makes it extremely important that not less than 2,000 more student living units must be constructed in the near future. Without additional housing and classrooms there can be no continued progress in higher educa- tion at Lawrence. The two programs are linked 23

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now known as the Daisy Field. Addition of another unit to house freshmen women also is under con- sideration. It will be built, along with dormitories housing upperclass women, on North College hill. Although designs are not complete for the music and fine arts building, the site selected for it lies west of the Military Science building and south of Lindley Hall. The building will straddle the old road leading to the Military Science build- ing. Among many conveniences featured in the building will be air-conditioned practice rooms especially designed for both instrumental and vocal music. For dramatic productions the building will include a theater at least as large as the one in Fraser Hall. There also are hopes for providing an outdoor theater. Chances are that this year ' s freshman class will be the first to see a basketball game in the new fieldhouse. However, according to the Chancellor, construction on the fieldhouse is farther along than would appear to the eye. About 35% of the total construction is completed in the finished under- ground work, but until more steel is released, work cannot begin on the superstructure. When completed the fieldhouse will hold about 5,000 more spectators than the municipal auditorium in Kansas City and about 3,000 more than K-State ' s fieldhouse. ROTC classes will use it for drill and both physical education and ath- letic programs will use its movable basketball floor, indoor track, lockers, showers, and storage space. The Science building, dedicated to the advance- ment of all physical sciences, rises on the south slope of Mt. Oread below Robinson gymnasium. IJUt 25