From Ms. Gussia J. Butler, class of '39:
"As I reflect back on the time I spent at Baker University, it was the best of times. The year was 1939, and my first time attending an integrated school. Another young lady, Maxine Porter and I were the only black students attending Baker University. At that time there were no dorms for black students, but local black families often rented rooms to black students attending college. I recall getting plenty of exercise walking a mile to and from campus.

I remember the faculty as being honest, hardworking and fair, with our best interest at heart. For example, I wanted to major in Physical Education, and a course in swimming was required. Of course, blacks were not allowed in the pool. Upon hearing about this, the physical education teacher went through the proper channels to make it possible. For this and many other experiences at Baker University I will be forever grateful.

I attended Baker University before air conditioning, television, credit cards, ball point pens, panty hose and drip-dry clothes. Coeds never wore pants and grass was for mowing, coke was a refreshing drink, and pot was something you cooked in.

However, I consider the time I attended Baker as inspiring, uplifting and liberating. It was truly a "stepping stone" in my life, making me the person I am today! Thanks for the memories, Baker."

Submitted by Loren L. Oshel on the Cooperette House:
"It was February 1936. Eight 8 female students together decided that they might have better food with more satisfactory living conditions at less cost if they could prepare their own meals. So, at the outset of the new semester, they moved into the home of Mrs. Mary King.

The plan seemed successful and the following year, 1936-37, their number grew to 12. They wrote songs and a hymn, drew up a constitution, requirements for membership and an official name "Baker Women's Cooperative Club". The constitution was accepted by the Baker administrators.

The next year an entire house and a second floor annex were rented. Mrs. Beulah Tharp became the new housemother of the 22 girls. In the fall of 1938, the Club rented and furnished the attractive Hardin house on Jersey Street with 17 girls. In the summer of 1940, they purchased the house.

Then came the war and as the Baker enrollment dwindled, there were only a few girls interested in living cooperatively. So, in 1944, the house was sold to the University to be used as a dormitory. Mother Tharp stayed on as housemother for two years. After the war, as the Baker enrollment again increased, a group of women students became interested in reopening a Cooperette house. In 1948, this group solicited the aid of the Men's Coop Club to helped them sell bonds in order to obtain funds to buy the former Cooperette house. They adopted a new constitution and Mrs. G. P. Carpenter became the second Cooperette housemother. Mrs. Tura Turner is the present housemother.

For your interest, the girls in the charter group were Carolyn Collins, Jean Curry, Bertha Ewing, Ruth Wagner, Ila Roene Woodring, Esther Lancaster, Edna Mae O'Hare, and Roberta Warren Knabe."

David A. Pape, class of '67:
"I attended Shawnee Mission East high school. My rank near the bottom of my senior class, in 1963, reflected my very poor grades. I had low self esteem and I had no hope of going to college. My mother worked for a Baker University graduate, Mr. Tom Leathers. Mr. Leathers told me, 'if you want to go to Baker, I will see what I can do to help.' I told Mr. Leathers that I would very much like to go to Baker.

Several weeks later a letter arrived at my home. I was accepted to Baker as a 'Student on Condition.' The condition being, I make a 'C' average, or better, my first semester at Baker. I did make the 'C' average and four years later, in 1967, I graduated with a B.A. degree in Biology.

My professors were tough but compassionate; they cared about me as they did all their students. Professors spent their own time working with me, and Dean, Dr. B.A. Gessner, made sure that I graduated. I went on to earn an M.A. degree in Education from Northern Arizona University, and I made the Dean's List. I retired on Feb. 1 of 2007, following a successful career.