History of the University of Kansas

The Lied Center of Kansas is the main performing arts center at the University of Kansas, and one of three performing arts dedicated centers on the campus. The venue is free of charge to students for student functions, academic speakers, and School of Music performances. It engages local secondary and primary schools through the performing arts. Commercially, it offers an annually updated program of artists, musicians, theatrical, and dance acts from around world. It houses two separate performance spaces, an auditorium and pavilion. The auditorium has a multi-winged, multi-leveled seating space for up to 1983 guests, and a 122' wide stage. The pavilion is a configurable space suitable for small scale events and performances with a maximum capacity of 200. The back lawn forms a natural amphitheater and has been used on occasion for outdoor performances.

The Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics, often shortened to the Dole Institute, is a nonpartisan political institution located at the University of Kansas and founded by the former U.S. Senator from Kansas and 1996 Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole. Opened on July 22, 2003, Dole's 80th birthday, the institute's $11.3 million, 28,000-square-foot (2,600 m2) facility houses Dole's papers and hosts frequent political events. The institute is officially bi-partisan and has sponsored on-campus programs featuring prominent politicians of both major parties. The institute sponsors the Dole Lecture, which is given in April and features a prominent national figure addressing some aspect of contemporary politics or policy. The institute awards the annual Dole Leadership Prize each September, which includes a $25,000 cash award. The Presidential Lecture Series features the nation's leading presidential scholars, historians, journalists, and others including former Presidents, cabinet officers, and White House staff members who discuss the nation's highest office in ways that combine scholarly rigor with popular access. The archives hosted an exhibit in 2017 entitled "The League of Wives: Vietnam’s POW/MIA Allies & Advocates." In 2017, Elizabeth Dole gifted her career papers to the Dole Institute Archive and Special Collections.The director of the institute is Audrey Coleman. Director Emeritus is Bill Lacy, who worked as a strategist on both Sen. Dole's 1988 and 1996 presidential campaigns and his 1992 senatorial campaign. Steve McAllister, the former dean of the University of Kansas School of Law, served as interim director from October 2003 to September 2004, prior to the arrival of Lacy. Richard Norton Smith, a presidential historian, was the founding director of the Dole Institute and held the position for two years. Lacy took a temporary leave of absence from the institute to work on the presidential campaign of former Senator Fred Thompson and returned to his role as director in the spring of 2008.

The University of Kansas School of Law is the law school of the University of Kansas, a public research university in Lawrence, Kansas. The University of Kansas Law School was founded in 1893, replacing the earlier Department of Law, which had existed since 1878. The school has more than 60 faculty members and approximately 315 students. The school is accredited by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools.With over 400,000 volumes, the Wheat Law Library at the University of Kansas School of Law is the second largest and oldest law library in the state of Kansas.

Hoglund Ballpark is a baseball stadium in Lawrence, Kansas. It is the home field for the University of Kansas' baseball team. The stadium holds 3,000 people and opened for baseball in 1958. The stadium sits next to historic Allen Fieldhouse, home to the Kansas Jayhawks basketball teams. It is named after former Jayhawk baseball shortstop and former petroleum-industry CEO Forrest Hoglund.Following the 2010 season, an artificial turf surface was installed at the facility. The installation, which was overseen by AstroTurf USA at a cost of $1.2 million, all of which was funded by donations to the Jayhawk baseball program.

Lawrence is a city in and the county seat of Douglas County, Kansas, United States, and the sixth-largest city in the state. It is in the northeastern sector of the state, astride Interstate 70, between the Kansas and Wakarusa Rivers. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 94,934. Lawrence is a college town and the home to both the University of Kansas and Haskell Indian Nations University. Lawrence was founded by the New England Emigrant Aid Company (NEEAC) and was named for Amos A. Lawrence, an abolitionist from Massachusetts, who offered financial aid and support for the settlement. Lawrence was central to the Bleeding Kansas period (1854–1861), and the site of the Wakarusa War (1855) and the Sacking of Lawrence (1856). During the American Civil War it was also the site of the Lawrence massacre (1863). Lawrence began as a center of free-state politics. Its economy diversified into many industries, including agriculture, manufacturing, and education, beginning with the founding of the University of Kansas in 1865 and Haskell Indian Nations University in 1884.

Allen Fieldhouse is an indoor arena on the University of Kansas (KU) campus in Lawrence, Kansas. It is home of the Kansas Jayhawks men's and women's basketball teams. The arena is named after Phog Allen, a former player and head coach for the Jayhawks whose tenure lasted 39 years. The arena's nickname, The Phog also pays homage to Allen. Allen Fieldhouse is one of college basketball's most historically significant and prestigious buildings. 37 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Tournament games have been hosted at the arena. The actual playing surface has been named "James Naismith Court", in honor of basketball's inventor, who established KU's basketball program and served as the Jayhawks' first coach from 1898 to 1907. Allen Fieldhouse has also hosted several NCAA tournament regionals, an NBA exhibition game, and occasional concerts such as The Beach Boys, Elton John, James Taylor, Sonny and Cher, Leon Russell, Alice Cooper, ZZ Top, Tina Turner, Harry Belafonte, Henry Mancini, The Doobie Brothers, Kansas, and Bob Hope, as well as speakers, including former President Bill Clinton in 2004, Senator Robert F. Kennedy (which drew over 20,000) in March 1968, and anarchist Abbie Hoffman in 1970. Additional free musical performances occasionally occur during the Jayhawks Late Night In The Phog, musical artists that have performed for this include Tech N9ne, Lil Yachty, 2 Chainz, Snoop Dogg, Run-DMC, and DIESEL. Allen Fieldhouse was the filming location for a climactic hospital scene in the 1983 ABC-TV movie The Day After, one of the most-watched made-for-TV movies of all-time.ESPN The Magazine named Allen Fieldhouse the loudest college basketball arena in the country. The arena broke the Guinness World Record for loudest roar on February 13, 2017, against West Virginia at 130.4 dB. The prior record of 126.4 dB at Kentucky's Rupp Arena which lasted less than three weeks also had many Kansas fans present as the Jayhawks beat the No. 4 Wildcats 79–73 in the Big 12/SEC Challenge. Arrowhead Stadium, which is only 42 miles away, owns the record for loudest outdoor stadium. Allen Fieldhouse is often considered one of the best home court advantages in men's college basketball. Despite the venue being open for almost 70 years, entering the 2023-24 season, Kansas men's team has only lost 117 games at Allen Fieldhouse and only 17 under head coach Bill Self. The Jayhawks entered the 2023-24 season with 352 consecutive sellouts dating back to the 2001–02 season. Twenty times since the venue opened, the Jayhawks have finished the season undefeated at home.

The University of Kansas School of Engineering, founded in 1891 is the oldest Engineering School in the State of Kansas, although engineering degrees were awarded as early as 1873. It is an ABET accredited, public engineering school located on the main campus of the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. In the U.S. News & World Report’s America’s Best Colleges, 2013 issue, KU's School of Engineering was ranked 36th among public schools in the United States of America, making it the highest ranked engineering school in Kansas. National rankings for individual graduate programs included Aerospace Engineering at 30th and Computer Engineering at 40th.

The sacking of Lawrence occurred on May 21, 1856, when pro-slavery settlers, led by Douglas County Sheriff Samuel J. Jones, attacked and ransacked Lawrence, Kansas, a town which had been founded by anti-slavery settlers from Massachusetts who were hoping to make Kansas a free state. The incident fueled the irregular conflict in Kansas Territory that later became known as Bleeding Kansas. The human cost of the attack was low: only one person—a member of the pro-slavery gang—was killed, and his death was accidental. However, Jones and his men halted production of the Free-State newspapers the Kansas Free State and the Herald of Freedom, destroying the presses and offices (with the former ceasing publication altogether and the latter taking months to once again start up). The pro-slavery men also destroyed the Free State Hotel and Charles L. Robinson's house.

Lawrence USD 497 is a public unified school district headquartered in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. The district includes the communities of Lawrence, Clinton, Pleasant Grove, and nearby rural areas. It was organized in 1965 and currently serves 11,427 students from pre-Kindergarten to grade 12 and maintains an early childhood center (pre-k), 13 elementary schools, four middle schools, two high schools, a K-12 virtual school, and an adult learning center.

Lawrence, Kansas was not well defended in the early part of the Civil War. That ended with William Quantrill's devastating guerrilla raid August 21, 1863. By early 1864 Union soldiers were permanently camped on the top and slopes of Mount Oread, then to Lawrence's southwest. It seems the camp was originally named Camp Ewing, after Brig. Gen. Thomas Ewing.Soon a battery of cannon was placed on the top of Mount Oread and in July 1864 construction began on Fort Ulysses, also on Mount Oread. The citizens of Lawrence helped in the fort's construction. Its date of completion is unknown, although it was still under construction in December. It is very possible it was never finished.The advance of Confederate Maj. Gen. Sterling Price in Missouri in October 1864 brought an urgency to efforts to protect Lawrence. The town was placed under martial law and a large guard detail protected the town each night. On October 18 the provost marshal at Lawrence decreed all businesses in Lawrence were to remain open only five hours a day. The situation returned to normal once Price was defeated at the Battle of Westport on October 23 and had to retreat back south.The military complex on Mount Oread was used until the end of the Civil War. With the War's end the usefulness of the installations ceased and they were soon abandoned.

KANU is the flagship station of Kansas Public Radio (KPR), a seven-station network based in Lawrence at the University of Kansas. In addition to KANU (91.5 FM), KPR also operates full-power stations KANH in Emporia (at 89.7 FM), KANV in Olsburg (at 91.3 FM, serving Manhattan and Junction City), and KANQ in Chanute (at 90.3 FM); and low-power translators K210CR in Atchison (at 89.9 FM), and K258BT (99.5 FM) and K250AY (97.9 FM) in Manhattan. Together, the stations cover all of northeastern Kansas, as well as large portions of Missouri, including Kansas City. Flagship KANU provides much of the Kansas City area a second choice for NPR programming alongside KCUR (Lawrence is part of the Kansas City market). Its powerful 100,000-watt signal allows it to double as the main NPR station for the state capital, Topeka. KANH, KANV, K210CR and K258BT serve as full repeaters of KANU. KPR also operates an HD2 signal, which broadcasts a mix of National Public Radio and BBC news-talk programming. That signal is available online or with a special HD Radio. However, KANQ and K250AY broadcast the HD signal on a standard FM frequency. A subcarrier of all KPR's signals broadcasts the Kansas Audio-Reader Network for the blind and print handicapped. The studios for both KPR and Audio-Reader are located in KU's Broadcasting Hall.

Mount Oread is a hill in Lawrence, Kansas, upon which the University of Kansas, and parts of the city of Lawrence, Kansas, are located. It sits on the water divide between the Kansas River and the Wakarusa River rivers. It was named after the long defunct Oread Institute in Worcester, Massachusetts, where many of the settlers of Lawrence moved from prior to the American Civil War. The hill was originally called Hogback Ridge by many Lawrence residents until the Oread name was adopted in 1864, two years after the university was founded.For settlers going westward by wagon train on the Oregon Trail, "The Hill", as Mount Oread is now commonly referred to by Kansans, was the next big topographical challenge after crossing the Wakarusa River at Blue Jacket's Crossing, which is today located southeast of the city of Lawrence. James Lane and Governor Charles Robinson erected a fort on the hill in the 1850s, during the Bleeding Kansas conflict in order to protect Lawrence. A 1857 Harper's Weekly report deemed the fort to be valueless as a military work. Governor Robinson's first home in Lawrence would be built on the hill, which was burned down on May 21, 1855, by pro-slavery border ruffians. According to the United States Geological Survey, Mount Oread is located approximately 1,037 feet (316 m) above sea level. By way of comparison, downtown Lawrence is about 846 feet (258 m) above sea level. Mount Oread is perhaps best known for being the staging area of William Quantrill's raid into Lawrence on August 21, 1863, during the American Civil War. Presently, the campus of the University of Kansas (KU) rests on Mount Oread. Mount Oread is the type locality for the Oread Limestone, and so, gives its name to the Oread Escarpment rising in this region of Kansas. Oread Limestone was quarried from the hilltop and used in the earliest of the campus buildings of KU, including Spooner Hall and Dyche Hall.