Kyra Case
K-State hosted a campus-wide open house on April 12. The event included displays of various colleges and organizations in the Union Courtyard in addition to other buildings on campus.
Hundreds flocked to Kansas State’s annual Open House on April 12, showcasing several academic exhibits from across the college. According to the university’s website, it was a “chance to take the next step in your K-State journey,” and learn all there is to know about campus.
Some took this event as an opportunity to teach others about their culture. Thuria Mossa, an Arabic professor at K-State, used the Open House as a teaching tool about stereotypes and preconceptions.
“I wanted to show people, especially — like a lot of people — they don’t really have ideas about the Middle East,” Mossa said. “Their opinions or their ideas are really through the media. And it’s really a stereotype. We don’t really get publicity through the media. I’m here to show where it started, where mankind started or even in the Bible that — it’s where humankind started and it’s all in the south part of Iraq.”
K-State’s Open House was first hosted in 1969 and is considered the college’s biggest annual event, tracing its roots to other college events such as Home Economics Hospitality Day, Engineers’ Open House and Ag Day — which dates back almost 90 years.
Dalton Green, junior in psychology, said he and his department used this as a way of showing what the psychology department stands for.
“When it comes to the psychology department itself, we really value the mental health of all K-State students, whether they’re psychology students or not,” Green said. “Which is why we have those resources like CAPs at Lafene or the various hotlines that students call in the middle of a crisis. So it’s a very big priority of our department here and a message we really like to spread to anybody that we can.”
Out-of-town visitor Linda Couri said she was going to go to speak at St. Isidore’s for a seminary lesson but decided to stop by the Union — the Open House’s central hub — with her son.
“He was looking for Kansas pajama bottoms, which you don’t have,” Couri said. “That’s what we’re doing in the Union, just kind of wandering around. It’s the Midwest, so everyone tends to be really happy and friendly and really kind. It’s just been really welcoming here. … It’s nice to see all the schools displayed, so I like to show my son all of the different options he has.”