Stephenson Scholarship Hall

Stephenson Scholarship Hall, founded in 1952, is one of eleven Scholarship Halls at the University of Kansas, and one of five men's halls in the Scholarship Hall system. Stephenson was built and furnished as the result of a gift of $90,000 from the estate of Lyle Stephenson, a Kansas City insurance man, and financial assistance from the Endowment Association. Residents of the hall are known as Stephensonites or Lylemen. Famous former residents include Major League Baseball statistician Bill James [http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2004/apr/25/grassroots_guru/] , Kansas Board of Regents president Reggie Robinson and former Candler School of Theology Dean and Simpson College president R. Kevin LaGree.

Daily Life

Stephenson houses 50 men, who live paired with another Lyleman in a single room.

Like all other scholarship hall inhabitants, residents pay almost $1,600 less than in a regular University of Kansas Residence Hall. For this privilege, students do regular work shifts, which range from cooking meals to cleaning restrooms. An older resident (called a "Proctor") is earmarked late in the previous year to enforce and assign these shifts, and is, per tradition, baptized as such in Potter's Lake on campus.

The Building

Stephenson contains four floors. In the basement level, there is an expansive kitchen, pantry, dining area, and lounge containing the largest HD television in the scholarship halls, and a billiards table. A door leads out from this floor to the back yard, which contains a basketball court and a concrete staircase leading to the parking lot. This parking lot overflows on Fridays and Saturdays with individuals illegally parking there to gain access to The Hawk and The Wheel, two popular night spots.

The ground level contains a living room complete with grand piano, a bookshelf containing many stolen and odd books, and a trophy case, which houses the many memberships of "Wilbur Q. Nether" (a "fictional" resident, although some claim otherwise) and various trophies, either earned, bought, or "acquired". Also on this level is the Scholarship Hall Director's (SHD) room, mail room and telephone, a work office for maintenance staff, two restrooms (one for residents and one for guests), and three resident rooms. This is one of the quietest floors in Stephenson, and the unisex restroom in the lobby is the cleanest in the Hall because it is cleaned by the maintenance staff, not by the residents.

The second and third levels contain nothing but resident rooms, with a communal bathroom on each floor. The bathrooms each have three sinks, two urinals, three bathroom stalls, and a group shower, which the Lylemen refer to as a "gang" shower arrangement. The proctor generally lives on the third floor, in a room by himself, and is the only resident (other than the Hall Director) to not have a roommate. In recent years, however, the proctor has found himself living on the second floor.

Traditions

Stephenson Hall has had many traditions over its half century of housing hormonally charged young men. Notable traditions include:

*"Catch the Rabbit" - First night of move in, All the lyleman move in a group to search for rabbits across campus. If a rabbit is seen, the one who spotted it, yells out "rabbit" and leads the group in a chase to detain it.

*Stephenson Hall Intramural Team T-shirts - known as "S.H.I.T." shirts.

*Old Man/New Man Football Game - traditionally held on Stop Day for the fall semester, the Old Man/New Man football game is a tackle football game played without pads. The Old Man team is composed of all individuals who have lived in Stephenson for at least two semesters. The New Man team is composed of freshmen and the hall director.

*Modern Neanderthal Ball - A "modern" all scholarship hall party held at Stepheson Manor where residents dress as cavemen. Unlike the Neanderthal Ball of old, this party is dry. The Neanderthal Ball gives the Lyleman an opportunity to run around in the women's halls just wearing loincloths.

*SuperHero Party - February 2008 marked the first annual Superhero Party. This was the largest lyleman event of the year. Scholarship Hallers dressed as their favorite superheros/villains. There is a prize for the best female/male costume and best hall superhero team. The SuperHero party won ASHC's the "Best Male Scholarship Hall Event" of the year.

Traditions once practiced at Stephenson

*Fountaining/Showering - On ones birthday, the hall would surprisingly grab him and carry him to the chancelors fountain singing the Stephenson fight song. During the winter, the guy having the birthday, would be carried to a cold shower. This tradition was lost a week before finals in the fall 2007 semester.

*Neanderthal Ball - traditionally held on Stop Day for the spring semester, the Neanderthal Ball is a free party held at an off campus location. The individuals who sign the rental agreement for the venue, arrange transportation for party goers (generally a bus), and procure the alcohol are known as the Grand Poobahs of the Neanderthal Ball.

Grand Poobahs of the Former Neanderthal Ball

* 1993 - Carlos Tejado and Brian Akins
* 1994 - Josh Hummert and Clay Lyddane
* 1996 - Vance Lassey

Former Presidents

An exemplar of the sloth and slovenliness for which Lyle men are noted, Joshua "Josh" Hummert served as the president of Stephenson from August 1993 until January 1995 when he was deposed in a coup orchestrated by the Hall Director. Elected by a landslide because he was too apathetic to vociferously oppose his nomination, Josh was forced to attend many boring ASHC and hall meetings until he delegated that authority to a giant inflatable Keystone Light beer can, who served with honor and distinction despite the obvious handicap of being inanimate. The giant inflatable Keystone Light beer can met an untimely demise from the pointy end of a stick wielded by one, who in Josh's words, "Could not accept anyone who is different from themselves".

Former Secretaries

Keeping the tradition alive of being deposed of in a Hall Director coup, was Vance Lassey, known to most (or at least to himself) in those days as "The KU Stud." Vance served as Hall Secretary from January 1996 through September 1996, when he was kicked out of the hall in the first semester of his senior year after 3.5 years of dutifully upholding the Lyle traditions, and having just moved in to that awesome room on the first floor with his roommate Chris "MacGyver" Busch. These minutes of course spoke not of the previous meetings, but instead poked fun at residents and mocked housing. Vance learned his craft of writing and reciting meeting minutes that were completely devoid of actual minutes from Carlos Tejada and his pannus Agapito (Of course this was in the days when the hall members named their beer guts and would often sit around the living rooms with their shirts up making their navels talk to each other, which was way better than studying.). Carlos was preceded by Michael S. Engel who served as Hall Secretary from August 1990 through May 1993, the longest continuous stretch as Hall Secretary.

cholarship

*GPA requirement (?)

Lance Storie Foster Memorial Scholarship:The Lance Storie Foster Memorial Scholarship was established in 1989 through contributions received from the family and friends of Lance S. Foster. The scholarship is awarded to a resident returning to Stephenson Scholarship Hall, who has contributed to Stephenson, the scholarship hall system, and the university community.

Lance was a native of Stillwater, Oklahoma, and a transfer from Oklahoma State University. He earned his bachelor’s degrees (granted posthumously in 1989) in Systematics and Ecology and Political Science from The University of Kansas. Lance lived in Stephenson Scholarship Hall for three years of his undergraduate studies and was actively involved in scholarship hall government; he also rose to the highest student position of program director at radio station KJHK. Lance supplemented his course work through his involvement with the KU Democrats and Biology Club. He was also voted a life member of Phi Beta Kappa. In his spare time, Lance enjoyed playing guitar, running, and intramural sports. He died on May 7, 1989, at the age of 23 when a soda machine fell on top of him as he was trying get his money back after it took his change.

Other Scholarship Halls

The ten other Scholarship Halls, alphabetically, are as follows:
*"Battenfeld Scholarship Hall" (Men, est. 1940) . . . The first men's Scholarship Hall at KU, Battenfeld was built in [http://www.kuendowment.org/giving/opportunities/scholarship_halls/ 1940] to honor the memory of John Curry Battenfeld.
*"Dennis E. Rieger Scholarship Hall" (Women, est. 2005) . . . KU’s newest scholarship hall, Dennis E. Rieger Hall opened its doors in [http://www.housing.ku.edu/scholarship_halls.htm Fall 2005] .
*"Douthart Scholarship Hall" (Women)
*"Grace Pearson Scholarship Hall" (Men) . . . Known as "G.P."
*"K.K. Amini Scholarship Hall" (Men)
*"Margaret Amini Scholarship Hall" (Women) . . . Affectionately known as "Maggie," to avoid confusion with K.K. Amini.
*"Miller Scholarship Hall" (Women)
*"Pearson Scholarship Hall" (Men, est. Fall 1952)
*"Sellards Scholarship Hall" (Women, est. Fall 1952)
*"Watkins Scholarship Hall" (Women est. 1926) . . . Watkins opened in [http://www.housing.ku.edu/scholarship_halls.htm 1926] as the first of KU’s scholarship halls and maintains strong bonds with alumnae by hosting an annual spring tea.

=Stephenson in the News=

[http://www.kansan.com/stories/2005/aug/17/hall_sweet_home/ Hall Sweet Home] University Daily Kansan article by Robert Perkins, published Wednesday, August 17, 2005.

[http://www.kusports.com/news/football/story/107950 Border War] Lawrence Journal-World Article by Mike Rigg, published Saturday, September 27, 2003.