KU welcomes new, returning students

The temperatures made it feel like the middle of summer, but the lazy days are over for Kansas University students, who started classes Thursday.

Atop Mount Oread a sea of students shuffled to and fro.

Thus began the semester. Classes. Studying. Talk of philosophy or science. New friends. Parties. Sporting events. And all those highlights of the college days that many of us hold as dear memories.

Being mayor ‘beyond realm of possibility’

Boog Highberger, now Lawrence’s mayor, couldn’t imagine that in 1977 – on his first day of classes at Kansas University – he would meet so many people that he still knows today.

In particular, he would have never guessed that a young faculty member in one of his architecture classes, Marci Francisco, would go on to become the mayor of Lawrence and a state senator. But Highberger, a native of the small town of Garnett, really never would have guessed that he would go on to become mayor of the city as well.

“That was beyond the realm of possibility,” said Highberger, who began serving his first term as mayor in April.

Other memories of his first day at college are clouded for Highberger, who eventually received an electrical engineering degree and a law degree from KU. Highberger said he remembered being slightly intimated coming from a small town, but “mainly excited.”

Highberger said staying in the dorm his freshman year was a good experience. He said that allowed him to meet many “interesting people,” including some of his current friends.

“For me, it did end up being a place where you could meet friends for life,” Highberger said.

Superintendent wasn’t typical student

“I didn’t have the traditional college experience,” Lawrence School Supt. Randy Weseman said.

In 1973, Weseman enrolled at Kansas University. He had graduated from high school four years earlier and spent the time in between serving two tours in Vietnam with the U.S. Air Force.

With his short hair, he didn’t quite fit in with peace activists and hippies, he said. Weseman juggled college with two jobs – one as a grocery store clerk at Rusty’s (now the site of Checkers).

Before he graduated, he married and had his first child.

“I can remember typing papers and having a kid on my knee,” he said.

He was focused, he said. And, because he was older, he didn’t have jitters on the first day.

“I’d seen a little bit of the world by that point,” he said. “There was nothing about college that scared me.”

What do you remember most about your first day of college?

“I remember having a great fear that I wouldn’t be able to find my first class. I think I showed up a half hour early, only to discover that eight to 10 of my fellow classmates had the same fear.” – KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway, who attended undergraduate school at the University of Nebraska-Omaha

“It was 1972 and it was right here at KU. : I parked at the University Shop there at the top of the hill; Al Hack Jr. and Sue – the (recent) mayor – were running it at the time. It pays to know people, right? So I could just run across the street. … I remember walking into geography in Lindley Hall – Professor (George) Jenks – and I was late, as usual, and therefore embarrassed. Let’s put it this way: Front row. Attractive women. Miniskirts were still in. The front row was all taken. The girls all wanted A’s, so they were there in the front row.” – Mark Buhler, sales manager and broker at Stephens Real Estate and former state senator

“I just remember thinking there was a lot of people. That was probably the biggest thing. Nobody knew anybody. … Even though I knew a lot of people (from Hutchinson), you’d never see them.” – Douglas County Dist. Atty. Charles Branson, who moved into Joseph R. Pearson hall in August 1990 after transferring from community college in Hutchinson. It was his first experience living away from home. He moved into JRP on a Sunday and started work the next day at Douglas County Bank. He went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in business administration and later went to KU law school.

“I don’t remember much about Briar Cliff (it was a long time ago). I do remem-ber an exhilarating excitement and confusion on my first day at Iowa State. I also worked in the student book store and kept seeing people I knew from Sioux City. My first lecture class with 200 in an auditorium was overwhelming, but the instructor was funny and great. I remember being amazed at how many different things a person could study.” – Candi Baker, director of the Lawrence Arts Center’s dance program

“I think I was asking myself what I was doing, which was a pretty good question. I think it wasn’t until I was working that I had any sense of purpose, and then I knew why I was there and what I wanted to do.” – Douglas County Commission Chairman Charles Jones, who attended undergraduate school at Kansas University. He graduated in 1979 with a degree in biology.

“What I remember about my first day in graduate school at Syracuse University (1967) was the East Coast accents everyone seemed to have, the popularity of deli food in the union, and the almost total absence of blond people.” – Roger Shimomura, Lawrence artist and professor emeritus of art at Kansas University.

“What I remember is the other members in that class were chief officers with large departments in the Kansas City area, and I was somewhat intimidated because I was this new, young firefighter guy.” – Deputy Chief Mark Bradford, Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical, on his first day at Metropolitan Community College in Kansas City, Mo.

“Walking into the law library and being excited and terrified at the same time because there is a heckuva lot to learn.” – Kansas Atty. Gen. Phill Kline, a KU law school graduate

“Despite it being so long ago, I seem to recall being concerned about getting to the right place at the right time. My first class was an introductory Psych course held in the large auditorium at the Kansas Union (the Burge Union didn’t exist then) and the challenge was getting across campus, from Templin Hall to the Union on time.” – Kansas Department of Health and Environment Secretary Roderick Bremby

“I’m a KU guy. … It was 1989, in August : I went to high school in Derby, and that was pretty big, so the size didn’t blow me away so much. But it was the volume of people moving around campus – that, and the fact that my English professor honestly expected me to read about 300 pages by the next class. I thought, ‘Boy, I’m actually going to have to work in college.’ ” – Bennett Griffin, president and chief executive officer of Griffin Technologies LLC, Lawrence

“I remember being over-whelmed my first day at KU after transferring as a sophomore from a small college in Missouri (Lindenwood). I lived in Lewis Hall, which meant a long walk to Jayhawk Boulevard where most of my classes were. It was hot, KU was big, and my dorm held more students than my entire high school. But I was a Jayhawk, following in my parents’ footsteps.” – Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger, of Lawrence