University of Kansas - Jayhawker Yearbook (Lawrence, KS)

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Human reality is a being which is what it is not, and which is not which it is. - lean Paul Satre Poor humans! We wander through life from role to another, never quite sure which bit parts are reality and which are illusions. We build heroes in our minds, and then a credibility gap is spawned when we find politicians are really only humans playing at a game, just as we are humans playing at being students. Are you real when you're sitting in a classroom? Or are you real when you're sitting in a bar drinking the night away? Which image is the illusion? Or is it the illusion which is reality? What could be a starker reality than the nation's economy? But do the material building gd blocks of our lives bring us happiness or just an illusion of happiness? We are surprised when we find those blocks were really only sand. We were aware of the famous and the infamous but they seemed to be only characters in a play until innocent Linda arrived on campus. Then the pushing and the shoving, the staring and the dreams showed she was reality. So, life at the University appears to be a microcosm of our total life. What appears today as reality may be only an illusion when we reflect on it tomorrow. Perhaps the experience of college can help us recognize the difference. Perhaps it will only perpetuate the illusions in our minds. - Debby Spruk

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Features

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In the past two years the President of the United States resigned and was pardoned, inflation rose to almost 12070 and unemployment reached levels disastrous to the American gross national product. The changes Archie Dykes has seen in the University of Kansas in his first two years as Chancellor here have been somewhat less dramatic, but much more beneficial, than these national changes. 26 When Dykes was selected as chancellor in April 1973 he said his goal was to help KU become a better university. Ever since he has been working steadily towards that goal and in the process he has noticed some basic changes in the attitudes of the university. Improving a university is a never-ending task, he said. Strengthening and improving is a continuous process. Dykes said most problems of a university stem from limited resources. Because ofthis, he has devoted much of his time as chancellor to establishing better rapport with the state legislature and alumni. The public relations program seems to be working. Since 1973 KU has had increased fiscal support and has been ableto improvethe renumeration of faculty members. Accordingto Dykes, these are two of the most important changes he has witnessed. We have seen a significant turn-around in funding. I feel we are much more competitive today than we were two years ago and I hope we will be more competitive in two years than we are now, he said. I think the growing public confidence in the university and the strength of the Kansas economy are responsible for the increased fiscal support we have rec'eived. Support by alumni has also grown since Dykes became chancellor in 1973. He said the strong outpouring of support by this group has helped with legislative requests and has put the University of Kansas fourth in all public universities in alumni contributions. The problems that have not improved under Dykes administration, such as access to the library and the computation center, could be corrected with additional funding, accordingto Dykes. The composition and attitude of the student body has changed in the last two years as well. One of our strongest assets is our students, he said.