Katie Mitchell-Koch will lead more than 4,000 Kansas University graduates down Campanile Hill during commencement Sunday, carrying a banner to represent the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

She’s excited — and nervous.

“I’ve heard the banner’s kind of heavy,” she said. “I’ll just have to wait and see.”

The walk down Campanile Hill — which begins at 2:30 p.m. Sunday — has been a KU tradition since 1924, when Memorial Stadium was built. Before that, students marched from old Fraser Hall to Robinson Gymnasium, where graduation took place.

That tradition isn’t lost on Mitchell-Koch, a chemistry major from Wichita who was selected by administrators in the college to carry its banner.

“I was talking to one of the chemistry faculty members, and they said they’d all be lined up together on the hill,” she said. “It sort of brought home that my career’s ending and all those people will be there to celebrate.”

More than 4,000 students traditionally participate in the graduation ceremony at KU. There are 6,229 official members of the class of 2003, including 4,028 who completed school this spring, 1,348 who were done in December 2002, and 853 who were finished in August 2002.

The number of graduates is up more than 5 percent from last year, when 5,906 students were eligible to walk down the hill.

Year-round planning

Kansas University senior James Rose, 24, of Lawrence, tries on a graduation cap at the Kansas Union Bookstore. KU seniors are busy this week preparing for Sunday's commencement activities.

KU officials said planning for graduation was a year-round task. They reviewed last year’s commencement shortly after it was over to prepare for this year’s event.

About 30,000 people are expected to be at Memorial Stadium. Almost all of the city’s 1,200 hotel rooms are booked for the weekend, said Susan Henderson, marketing manager for the Lawrence Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Henderson said the bureau estimated commencement brought in $1 million to the local economy each year, roughly the same amount as a home football game.

“This is the biggest event for the university,” said Rick Nightingale, assistant director of Facilities Operations. “This is when the parents come to town and see the university they’ve been paying money to for the last four years.”

Jeff Weinberg, assistant to Chancellor Robert Hemenway, said KU was tweaking a graduation system developed over many years. Weinberg is part of both groups that plan KU’s graduation — the Traditions Committee and the Logistics Committee.

“There have been very few significant changes,” he said. “It works very well, considering we don’t have a rehearsal.”

Graduates will begin assembling along Memorial Drive at 2 p.m. and march down the hill beginning at 2:30 p.m. The procession is expected to finish around 3:30 p.m., when a 45-minute ceremony begins.

¢ Guide to attending the ceremony¢ KU announces schedule of events¢ List of KU graduates¢More on KU commencement¢More graduation stories¢KU’s 2002 commencement

As in past years, KU won’t have an outside graduation speaker. Hemenway will deliver brief remarks.

The only noticeable change this year, Weinberg said, is that herald trumpets signaling the start of the procession will have microphones near them, so that people in Memorial Stadium can hear. In the past, the trumpets were audible only to graduates standing nearby.

Weinberg said one of the biggest tasks for commencement organizers was preparing the script and giving directions to the participants who sit on the field.

From the facilities standpoint, Nightingale said, the goal is to make campus look its best. That means sprucing up flower beds, putting a fresh coat of paint on crosswalks and replacing damaged signs before the big day.

He said preparing for the more than 30 school, department and organization ceremonies scheduled during the weekend was more work than the Sunday afternoon commencement ceremony. He said his crews could prepare for the events, but the work was left until the last minute.

“This week is the worst,” he said. “It gets pretty hectic sometimes.”

Weather plan

As much as they plan, organizers can’t control the weather. Weinberg said that when weather was questionable, a group of KU officials would sit in a Strong Hall office monitoring computers dialed to weather radars and have phones programmed to call Kansas City-area forecasters.

In 2000, he said, that system paid off.

“We were advised if we were done by 4:20, we’d be OK,” Weinberg said. “We knew we had to move the students down the hill somewhat faster. We got the ceremony done, and at 4:20 it began to pour.”

KU officials will decide by 1 p.m. whether to start at 2:30 p.m. If it’s raining, they’ll attempt to start at 4:30 p.m. The next rain time is 6:30 p.m. If it’s still raining then, KU commencement will be at 9 a.m. Monday.

But inclement weather isn’t expected be a factor on Sunday. Ross Janssen, 6News forecaster, said to expect mostly sunny skies and a high around 80.

“It could be a little on the warm side, but it shouldn’t rain, which is what most people will be worried about,” he said.