Lift the Chorus

issue 2, 2020

The reviews are in

Wow! Great new overall presentation of our trusted magazine! Your research, discussions and decisions have provided us with a clean, sharp and modern magazine.

I have always enjoyed the publication cover to cover each issue and now look forward to this bright renaissance of information about our forever collegiate home.

–Tim Greenwell, s’88
Carrollton, Texas

Congratulations on the transformation of Kansas Alumni!

I love the new look, revised format and modified content and focus. This represents another Herculean project undertaken by the Alumni Association and executed with grace, precision and energy. What touch! Thank you!

–Tedde Tasheff, c’78
New York City, NY

The team’s redesign reveals your knowledge of readership habits, KU traditions, a superb grasp of pacing and a fresh perspective that accommodates the elderly (ahem …) and the young.

The result is an airy, breezy, comfortable environment that really clicks. Even the paper feels just right.

–Dan Reeder, j’71, g’74
Lawrence
Kansas Alumni editor, 1976-’85

I really like the new look and content. Congratulations!

Glad to learn of the honorary doctorate for Bill Kurtis [“Honorary doctorates,” Rock Chalk Review, issue No. 1]. I always respected and watched his reporting but had not realized that he is a fellow alumnus.

Many other pages brought topics of great interest. I spent more time reading this issue than I can remember before. Keep it up!

–Fred Buchanan, e’57
Vail, Arizona

Outstanding improvements to an already first class publication! We really like the change in the paper quality, as it nicely complements other publications we routinely receive.

Great job and meaningful transformation!

–Taylor Burch, p’88, g’90, PharmD’09
Lantana, Texas

Ill-timed storms

In my new issue of Kansas Alumni for Winter 2020, I noticed a short article about the construction of the World War II Memorial Campanile [“A Walk to Remember,” Hail to Old KU] on page 84. It mentioned that the class of 1970 graduated indoors because of a rainstorm.

I was in the class of 1972, and we had to graduate in Allen Field House because of a tornado warning; I believe a tornado was between Topeka and Lawrence.

It was super hot in there. I’m sure it had been closed up for awhile. They had roller carts of folding chairs by the doors as we entered and we actually carried our own chairs to sit in for graduation.

–Kathleen Newlin Pyke, d’72
Hays

Food for thought

“Hunger for Knowledge” in the November issue [No. 6, 2019] outlined the harsh reality of food insecurity on the KU campus. Is anyone surprised? Back in the old days—my day—poor nutrition was a joke and a badge of honor. Cigarettes, coffee and all-nighters were a way to flout parental authority. But today, real hunger is not a joke in this, the richest country in the world. With skyrocketing living and academic costs, the only expendable item in the budget might be food.

Even those students who do have money left over for food rely too often on starches, with no budget for fruit, vegetables, proteins. Thank goodness for the churches and other organizations who are stepping up to provide free meals for malnourished students. How can a student study and achieve when every thought is about food and when and what and where?

I know of a young man, a popular athlete, who would race through his college student union, slapping backs, laughing and joking while snatching food from trays. People laughed, but it wasn’t a joke. He was hungry.

Some interviewed students revealed that the body can survive on one meal a day, with perhaps help from friends. For how long and how shameful is it to beg? Many students come from low-income families who struggle on minimum wages that haven’t risen in decades.

I also know of a few success stories. The young mother, working, taking classes, who tried desperately to improve the lives of her and her children. She succeeded, but what if hunger had forced her to give up? I know of a determined teenage couple with two toddlers, who struggled through years of poverty to achieve their dreams. What if hunger had denied them their success?

If our only hope is to educate our inquisitive, intelligent and motivated young people, we cannot abandon them to starvation.

–Harriet Hawley Bearce, assoc.
Lawrence