University of Kansas - Jayhawker Yearbook (Lawrence, KS)

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It was a time of revelations. Students standing at prominent places on campus, or- ating about Jesus Christ and sin and salvation. Several persons handed out informa- tion on Millineum 73, the Divine Light Mission featuring Guru Maharaj Ji. There were several campus religious groups: Mustard Seed, The Lawrence Christian Libera- tion Front, Navigators, Yeshua House of Campus Christians, Intervarsity Christian Fellowship and Canterbury House. Then there were several other organized groups of students who would get together for Bible studies. Perhaps, in future years, this will be regarded as a counter attack against the no-news-was-good-news era in which we lived. Transcendental Meditation was gaining pop- ularity, and many students were convinced that after meditating for 20 minutes they were as relaxed as if they had slept for eight hours. Fraternities and sororities were regaining a lost popularity, and an American Graffiti era came to an end when the Wescoe Boardwalk was torn down, signifying the fact that a large new building was almost completed. There was the Week of Shocks when no- body really knew what to say or do. Vice-President Agnew resigned after newspa- pers and magazines connected him to corrup- tion in Maryland state government. One typical conversation went like this: Did you hear about Agnew resigning? Yes. Isn t it great? Now all they have to do is get Nixon. Other students felt insecure about the whole matter and thought the government was col- lapsing before their very eyes. President Nixon, who had succeeded in avoiding the press in his first administration, was on television at least once every three weeks during the fall of 1973. Operation Can- dor, the President s counter-attack against Watergate allegations, was the theme he used to try to get the country back on its feet. 29

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The University of Kansas started off school year 1973-74 with a lot of news: new chancellor, new buildings, new relationships be- tween students, faculty and administration and a new spirit high- lighted by a winning football season. There was also a new athletic director, a new assistant athletic director who was famous, a new health director, new restaurants and new officers in campus organizations. These new things were certain to make the year distinct, although it probably will not be remembered by anyone separate from the University. The factors that made up 1973-74 promoted a state of campus normalcy, and it was a happy tiding for those students who could remember the campus turmoil that occurred in 1969-70. Perhaps one reason the campus returned to a state of normalcy was that all eyes were turned to national affairs: Watergate and the Energy Crisis. No one really had time to bother about disrupting the campus. Impeachment-of-Richard-Nixon talk was mounting and declining, and trust in the government was wavering. Students were thinking about the energy crisis. It was a time of wonder: Wondering if the winter would be severe and hoping, in- deed, that it would not be. Wondering if severe weather might cause severe living conditions. Wondering what Phase Four really meant. And wondering, for many, how they would get home when airline companies were reducing their numbers of flights around Christmastime. 28

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Executive clemency and thoughts of missing or erased tapes kept many Americans in doubt about the government, and specifically, about the President. Some students were spelling Nixon ' s name with a swasti- ka instead of an x. In the meantime, an energy and fuel shortage was becoming the American reality. Project Independence, 1980 was the term President Nixon coined for the energy fuel conservation plan. A Republican from Minnesota, Gerald Ford, stepped in as the new Vice-President. Thirteen-hundred residents in the campus community signed a peti- tion supporting the impeachment of President Nixon, and the Douglas County Citizens for Constitutional Government was formed. Sen. Edward J. Gurney, a member of the Watergate committee, came to KU and spoke of the Watergate crisis. Gurney said that the U.S. will survive the Watergate scandal be- cause the American political system is functioning as well as it has in the past 200 years. The system is working and it is working well. The truth is coming out. This nation has been through great crises before we ' ll weather this one have no doubt. But there was grave doubt. Sen. George McGovern came and spoke of the Aftermath of Wat- ergate to a capacity crowd, criticizing Nixon ' s tactics in bringing out the truth, and called for his impeachment. The newly established government energy commission lowered the speed limits on highways to 55 miles per hour. Gas rationing was antici- pated during the spring semester. Some students bought locks for their gas tanks, thinking people might steal gas when thev wanted to go for a Sunday drive and didn ' t have enough. Thermostats were turned down to 08 degrees, and the University appointed a special energy commis- sion as a prophylactic measure intended to conserve energy. Watkins Hospital, in the meantime, advertised free influenza shots. Watkins also was distributing birth control pills for the first time. The new chancellor, Archie Reese Dykes, had two prominent problems on his mind. His first priority was to promote an increase in faculty salaries. One skeptic Kansas senator was saying that professors should leave their ivory towers and their vine-covered halls and grovel with the common man. He insisted that faculty mem- bers were not selling their product and that they must do so to get state support. Tenure debates were once again a big issue. The fear of becoming tenured in, with 67 percent of the faculty already tenured, was preval ent in Strong Hall. Chancellor Dykes was the public relations man for KU, speaking at alumni gather- ings across the country. The chancellor ' s executive secretary, Richard von Ende, was trying to promote the idea that KU shouldn ' t be called KU anymore that it was the University of Kansas. People wondered how it would affect thecampus yell: Rock Chalk, Jayhawk, UK? 30