Robert Hemenway wants to be clear: A proposed football facility at Memorial Stadium will not block Kansas University graduates’ procession route for commencement.
Since fund raising for the project intensified this fall, rumors have been flying that the facility would be built beyond the stadium’s south end zone, altering the fabled walk down Campanile Hill for graduation — and blocking the view of the field from the hill.
“We are not going to build a building that would interfere with one of the most treasured of KU traditions, the walk down the hill,” the chancellor said. “The athletic director (Lew Perkins) and I agree on that. Coach (Mark) Mangino and I agree on that.”
The university has raised $6.15 million for a football facility, which would include offices and indoor practice space. The project is expected to cost between $25 million and $30 million.
So far, gifts have come from Dana and Sue Anderson of Los Angeles ($3.15 million) and Charles and Sharon Lynch Kimbell of Hutchinson ($3 million).
Several universities with similar facilities — including Kansas State University — have placed them at an open end of the stadium. And speculation KU would do the same — fueled by a column in the University Daily Kansan — has some worried about KU’s traditional graduation walk.
In a recent survey, about 30 percent of alumni said walking down the hill was the tradition they remembered most fondly from their years at KU. It was second only to the Rock Chalk chant.
Hemenway said he didn’t want to mess with that.
“There are rumors flying,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s a nonissue. I’m not interested in that option.”
Hemenway said he didn’t know whether it would be possible to have the facility near the south end zone while allowing the commencement procession to continue.
Warren Corman, university architect, said KU hadn’t begun talks about where to put the building. But he said he thought it would end up on a side of Memorial Stadium other than the south side.
“There are a lot of other places to build it,” Corman said.
6News video: Football facility won’t block walk (12-16-04)
Andersons donate $3.15M to football project (11-13-04)