Page 7, December 1985
It is difficult to say how the 2,290 students
enrolled in Centennial throughout its 11-year
history turned out. The fellows remember many
who went on to graduate school, but locating the
less notable students is difficult. The UN-L Alumni
Association lists only 164 Centennial alumni,
according to Jack Miller, executive vice president.
This may reflect the number of students who felt
their Centennial experience worth mentioning
when they joined the association, but several
other alumni members also may have been in the
program, Miller said.
Although the program sometimes was criticized,
several participants say they think Centennial did
fulfill their dreams. Many were pleased with the
interdisciplinary study, communal living, personal
exchange and self-motivation it promoted.
Homze said Centennial College approached
education more humanistically than the rest of
the university. It was not concerned with narrowly
molding chemical engineers or farmers. It was a
preparation for life, he said.
The human touch partially was established
through interdisciplinary study. Students or
fellows decided what they wanted to study and
how they wanted to approach it. For example,
philosophy and science were combined in one
project so students could learn the structure of
reasoning in science. English and science were
combined in an exploration of nature. Economics
was combined with other disciplines to search for
the identity of quality.
Ryly Jane Hambleton, a Centennial student
from 197D to 1972 who currently is a sports
reporter for the Lincoln Journal and Star, said the
interdisciplinary method helped her link things she
thought were unrelated. For instance, events
covered in European history class made more
sense to her because of a project she had
completed two years earlier on Sir Thomas
Moore in Centennial.
Curt Donaldson, one of the students who
initiated Centennial, said other students made
projects out of searching for "unmet needs."
"I was the illegitimate father of the (Univer
sity) Day Care Center," he said proudly.
Donaldson suggested to another student that '
a needs survey should be done. Kari Ronning,
whom he later married, followed up on the idea
and found the number of kids needing day care,
the number of hours it was needed and the
amount of money parents could afford for it.
Other students built a harpsichord for the
college, another group read "Zen and the Art of
Motorcycle Maintenance," and some studied the
writings of Herman Hesse.
Hesse's ideas, recorded prior to World War I
in "Steppenwolf," spoke to the generation of
students, according to Homze. Hesse was a
pacifist, an Asian mystic and experimented with
drugs.
Drug use gained popularity during the late
'60s and 70s and Centennial students were not
exempt from experimentation. But Betty Car
penter, a fellow during academic year 1976-77,
said drug use only reflected what was happening
across the campus and did not set a precedent.
Some students, she said, substituted drugs for
the security of friends. There was a notion that
you were okay if you were highshe said.
Hambleton agreed that drug use in Centennial
reflected society's use. Drugs were taken as an
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experiment and there was less pressure by users
on non-users than there is today, she said.
Perhaps it was Centennial's sense of community
that kept drug use from becoming an issue.
Centennial was a haven where, amid skyrocketing
enrollment in the 1960s, students were more
than a number.
"At the university, you were one
of 2,000," Hambleton said. "In
Centennial, you were one of 200."
"At the university, you were one of 2,000,"
Hambleton said. "In Centennial, you were one of
200."
The doors of Centennial College opened in
1969 with 125 freshmen and 40 upperclassmen.
The college was located in the Neihardt Dormitory
Complex. Women lived in Love Hall and men
lived in the connecting Heppner Hall. It was the
first co-educational dormitory at UNL. When
Hambleton entered the program a year later, 200
names were listed on a roster of participants.
"I decided my mission in life was to meet
every one of them. And I did. My grades went
down but ..."
Hambleton recalls all-nighters spent playing
bridge, listening to music and rapping in "the
grass room" (named because of its green carpet
and the term's shock value, she said). Or
sometimes groups of Centennial students would
roam the campus in the dark. Many times they
would pile in a car for a 5 a.m. doughnut run.
Terry Wittier, a Centennial student from 1970
to 1972 and currently an attorney, agreed that
Centennial was a comfortable place to be.
Students spent hours talking about emotional
lives, politics and academics, he said. A man did
not have to date a woman just to talk to her, he
said, and tensions between the sexes were
relaxed. Students would just congregate at about
7 p.m. Saturdays and go out, Whittler said.
Georgia Glass, resident adviser from 1972 to
1974, said visitation hours were not strictly
enforced. She said she thinks visitation rules are
artificial and keep students from being respon
sible for their actions. When students have an
option, a sense of responsibiity is fostered, she
said. Nelson Potter, senior fellow from 1974 to
1976, echoed her sentiments.
"You don't need to worry about structure too
much if students and faculty are in close contact
with each other."
And faculty members were close to the
students. Each of the fellows had an office at the
Neihart Complex and spent considerable time in
the bulding. Professors sat on the floor with the
students. They went to programs produced by
students or attended informal gatherings held in
the grass room. Sometimes, to fit student
schedules, the professors gave tests at night.
Hambleton said she was well acquainted with
nine or 10 of her professors when she went home
for Christmas.
"I was more than just a name to them."
Several professors say the same thing. For
example, Homze and Jerry Petr, now an associate
economics professor, said they feel the most
intimate contact they've ever had with students
occurred during their fellowships at Centennial.
Petr lielped with Centennial's birth, nursed it
as a fellow the first two years and returned to it
in 1978.
Maybe, he theorized, closeness developed
because there were fewer students per faculty
Dan DulaneySower
member in Centennial. Or maybe, he said, it was
because they spent a great deal of time together.
Or maybe joint academic ventures prompted
these ties, he said.
Levine, currently an English professor, said
there was a sense of "OK, we'll all have to study
this together."
Levine said students once wanted to study
Latin American literature. She learned as much as
the students because it was not her area of
expertise.
Academic exploration, however, was not limit
ed to the classroom. Hambleton said students
talked about their projects while visiting infor
mally so it is difficult to measure what was
learned in class and what was learned while
socializing.
Despite this informal exchange, many of the
former students interviewed said the Centennial
program did not challenge them as much as it
could have. Levine answers such accusations by
saying it is difficult sometimes for people to
monitor their learning progress.
"Sometimes there's a period when nothing
much seems to go well academically for you," she
said.
Carpenter said the lack of challenge was a
problem in the mid-70s, but noted that the
program changed direction again before it was
dropped in 1981. During the former period, she
said Centennial reflected student desire to get
good grades without working for them.
Continued on Page B
Left: Robert Knoll, UNL English profes
sor and former senior fellow at Centen
nial College. Above: Ryly Jane Ham
bleton is a former Centennial College
student and is currently a sportswriter
for the Lincoln Journal-Star newspapers.
