University of Missouri - Savitar Yearbook (Columbia, MO)

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12 Rev. Kenneth Frerking, Campus Lutheran Church Anyone else . . . is a sort of invader Socially, politically, Ithink the students, and even more so, the faculty bring a certain open mindedness and a greater degree of liberal attitudes than you would normally find in Columbia. Basically, Missouri is rurally oriented and usually more conservative. The university, through its students and faculty, presents another point of view. I guess some people look upon Columbia and Boone County as their special heritage; anyone else who comes in is an outsider, a sort of invader. They may feel threatened by this. If you listen to party line ta local radio talk show, you pretty quickly pick up this feeling. For these folks, there are some conflict problems, but my guess is that this kind of attitude, this barrier, is breaking down. You always have this whenever you have a point of view that is more liberal than the center of the road. You are going to get another point of view in reaction which is going to be more con- servative than the center of the road. My entire ministry has been in the campus ministry. Seven years at Ohio State, and Pve been here for about six years. As far as the campus ministry is concerned, there have been some pretty big changes tin students over the recent yearsJ When I first began at Ohio State back in the late 1950s, we were still in the religion boom era that had started in the early 50s. It was fashionable then for people to associate with the church. There was no problem as far as getting students to- gether for organizational meetings. Organizations were in. We had a psuedo-Greek organization in our church called Gamma Delta. The students identified with its kind of thing and all the para- phanalia that goes with the Greek organization. That whole thing has gone by the wayside. We are less structured and more interested in presenting a variety of programs - educational, service projects - that would be of interest to students. We work with a fewer number of students now in terms of these group activities than we did back in the late 1950s Attendance at worship service is holding its own fairly well in our case. There has been a sifting out of those who were there for the tiwrong reasons. It could be that we have a tthigher quality of worshipers. We have to comfort ourselves with these rationalizations, anyhow, whether theyire true or not!

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14 There are just so many more lstudentsl that therels bound to be more of them who donit come to school to learn. When Iwent to school lat the University of Mis- souri-Columbial, the school was so much smaller then. I donlt know how much smaller, I donlt actually remember what the size of the school was. Because it was so much smaller, almost all of them were here because they wanted to learn. Now I think it has become the custom to go on to school after high school. A lot of them are here just because they are sent or because it is the thing to'do. I donlt know that the percentage has changed, but the numbers iof these studentsl are greater. I think the outside influences are the things that cause trouble among the students. I donlt think it is the ones who come here from the neighboring states and our own state for serious study who caused the serious trouble last spring. lCambodian Invasion Demonstrationsl I think that was outside influence. A lot of them come for just that purpose . Another thing, I think there are so many young radicals on the faculty; more than there were in my day. The young professors here now are more different from the young professors of those days than the students are dif- ferent. The older professors - they are the same as ever. But itls these younger ones who have There are so many young radicals on the faculty . . . come in - so many of them are radicals, it seems to me. In the old days, that wasnlt true. So, I can look back a good many years and see the changes. I donit know all the changes because I have lost contact with students in general. One reason why we moved out here - away from where we did live very close to the campus - is that the students were so thick in the fraternities behind us and they were noisy and such undesirable neighbors that we were anxious to get out of there. Thereis an ordinance on this street that you canlt have but two students staying in your home.