The history of the Memorial Union began October 17, 1939
at the annual homecoming. At that time interest was mainly
represented by a faculty-alumni group, but student interest
soon followed. However, plans for a building were shelved
with the coming of World War II.
Cody Commons
The Board of Regents was empowered by
the legislature of 1941 to grant authority to the state
college to establish student union fees to construct and
operate a building. Early in 1944 Fort Hays State requested
permission of the Board of Regents to collect student union
fees, beginning the spring semester 1945. This permission
was granted on June 4, 1944, and the fee established at
$5 a semester and $2 a summer session.
During World War II the old Gymnasium-Woman’s Building
was converted into a Social Building and served as a student
center until the first unit of the Memorial Union was completed
in 1958, nineteen years after the original proposal to build
a Union.
When the first unit was completed, it was found to be inadequate
for the needs of a student body that had experienced an
unprecedented growth during the planning and construction
period. To provide an addition to the building the union
fees were increased to $7.50 a semester and $3.00 a summer
session, beginning September 1,1960.
Ground-breaking ceremonies were held on February 12, 1957,
and the “moving-in” process was started early
in the fall of 1958. The building was in complete use before
Christmas of that year. Cody Commons, which during the years
had passed through various transformations and additions,
was again remodeled and incorporated in the new building,
providing the food service center.
Cody lunch room
Cody Commons to the North of the Memorial Union building
The students, faculty, alumni, and friends
of the college gave much of their time, services and financial
support to making the Memorial Union a reality. It was built at
no cost to Kansas taxpayers. The fees collected for twelve years,
contributions from individuals, and a loan from the Federal Housing
and Home Finance Agency made it possible to complete the first
unit of the building, which cost $851,600
Construction of the Annex
An annex to the union was completed in the spring of 1970. The
new annex provided a large recreation area in the basement. There
was a 12-lane bowling alley, pocket billiards and snooker tables,
table tennis, a snack bar and booths, a lounge with a capacity
of 100 seats, and a bookstore in the lower level. The ground level
contained a 120 seat theatre-television lounge and a large food
service area. An art gallery, a large ballroom, and several new
meeting rooms were located on the second floor.
Since 1970, changes in the Union
included the move of the Student Health Center to the Union and
University Bookstore remodeling in 1983-84, Cafeteria remodeling
in 1992, the creation of Stouffer Lounge, and numerous minor remodeling
projects utilizing the annual budget fund.
In the fall of 2003 a student referendum was initiated by the
Student Government Association to increase student fees to fund
a major renovation of Memorial Union. The referendum passed, and
an additional student fee of $6.00 per credit hour was added to
pay for the proposed $7.2 million renovation. The latest renovation,
scheduled to begin in 2005, includes creating a new student organization
office area; a new multi-purpose area in place of the bowling
lanes for activities, events, dining, film, lectures, etc., an
renovated food service area with a new food court; expanded student
health center and bookstore facilities; a new two-story atrium
entrance; upgraded mechanical, plumbing and electrical systems
and improved technology capabilities throughout the building.
The FHSU Memorial Union is a campus community center and headquarters
for campus life providing most facilities not found elsewhere.
But it is much more than a building --- it provides an educational
program of out-of-class activities designed to provide for the
students’ personal, social, and cultural development, practice
in leadership and management, and fullest enjoyment of leisure
time hours. The building provides facilities for students, staff,
faculty, alumni, friends, parents, and visitors. It is a living
room at the center of the campus --- a laboratory in leadership,
in democratic action, and in living.
The Memorial Union is the realization
of a dream of students, staff, faculty members, and alumni. It
stands as a memorial to the men of Fort Hays State who lost their
lives in the defense of their country during two world wars and
the Korean conflict. A dedication service was held on October
18, 1958, during homecoming activities. This statement is quoted
from the program for that event:
This building is dedicated to the
unfulfilled dreams of our young men who gave their lives in
defense of freedom. We can only speculate what contribution
they might have made to the world’s culture if war had
not intervened, or what honor they might have brought as creative
adults, to their families, their home communities, their college.
Instead, they fought bravely in wars
not of their own making. They died in strange and distant lands
where the rippling sheen of a Kansas wheat field was but a golden
memory. The Memorial Union is dedicated today as a practical but
permanent monument to the sacrifice these men have made.
A plaque in the Sunset Lounge of the Memorial Union lists the names of
the Fort Hays State men to whom the building is dedicated. On
October 1st, 1983 the Union was re-dedicated to include and honor
the nine former FHSU students who died in Vietnam.
