Graphic by Haley Smith
Creaky wooden floors, the smell of old papers and a ceiling full of signatures — Kedzie Hall stands frozen in time. With the exception of updated technology and thousands of students cycling through over the decades, Kansas State’s home for the A.Q. Miller School of Media and Communication has looked the same for generations.
K-State President Richard Linton intends to change that with the Campus Master Plan. A project set to begin in 2028-29 will turn the south portion of Kedzie Hall into “an Enrollment One-Stop support center on the Manhattan campus where students have access to enrollment support; financial support, including financial aid, cashiering and Powercat Financial; student records and Veteran Affairs in an accessible, centralized location,” director of news and communications services Michelle Geering said.
As one of K-State’s original buildings, Kedzie Hall has carried troves of aspiring journalists through media/communications degrees, creating some of the most passionate alumni the university has. Here’s what graduates of the A.Q. Miller School have to say about the move to repurpose the building:
Susan Edgerley, class of 1976, journalism major
Susan Edgerley, a professional in residence at K-State, remains involved with the university and the A.Q. Miller School nearly 50 years after graduation. She currently serves on the Edgerley-Franklin Leadership Scholarship committee and previously served on the advisory council for the journalism department.
Edgerley said she’s glad Kedzie will be updated, but not surprised the cause isn’t specifically for the A.Q. Miller School.
“I don’t think that journalism has been a financial priority for the university for decades, so I wasn’t surprised that something like this might come up,” Edgerley said. “I sort of thought it [the repurposing] was fine because Kedzie, as a building, we know, is woefully out of date and needs a refurb, and I’ve come to the realization that that’s probably not going to happen around the journalism curriculum.”
Edgerley doesn’t think K-State could rely on A.Q. Miller School alumni to fund the construction of a new building to house the department.
“Journalism alums just aren’t financed at the level that business school alums are,” she said. “ … I have not seen an achievable solution to bringing all of journalism together on the K-State campus that would make me think alumni support only could carry it off.”
One problem Edgerley anticipates is alumni’s “nostalgia” for Kedzie Hall, which, she said, she certainly feels when reminiscing on her time there.
“Learning how to hit the ground running after graduation in a newsroom is the most valuable thing I learned from K-State,” Edgerley said. “My education at K-State prepared me for the workplace, the job market and the newsroom. That carried me to the New York Times for almost 30 years.”
Tim Fitzgerald, class of 1986, advertising & public relations major
Tim Fitzgerald is on the advisory council for the A.Q. Miller School and was disappointed to hear Kedzie Hall will no longer house the department within the next few years.
“It sucks, but the building was falling apart when I was there,” Fitzgerald, publisher of GoPowercat, said. “Now I’m falling apart, and the building’s gotta be much worse.”
Fitzgerald said the A.Q. Miller School should prioritize finding “a home” for the department.
“We need an anchor spot,” he said. “We’re so spread out already between different parts being different places. I talked to Drew Smith about the possibility of maybe an expansion of Dole going up. The only thing I don’t like about that is it’s on the periphery of campus. Kedzie’s right there, man. You walk over to Anderson, you walk to the Union — those are quite often, outside of sports, those were the two biggest hubs for stuff going on.”
Regardless, Fitzgerald is sad to see Kedzie’s association with journalism go.
“Kedzie is an iconic building,” he said. “It’s not like any other buildings on campus. It’s got its own look, and it’s not a box. It’s got character to it, and I think it fits the people who wanted to be in journalism. It’s got a feel to it that it belongs to us. I hope it ends up back with us and the whole building is renovated.”
One of Kedzie’s most iconic spots is the ceiling in the newsroom, which alumni of The Collegian sign before graduating.
“I wish there was a way to save the ceiling, but there probably isn’t,” Fitzgerald said. “That ceiling was covered in signatures in the ‘80s, so that’s kind of heartbreaking.”
Fitzgerald said he worries the space reallocation in Kedzie could have larger implications for the A.Q. Miller School.
“I learned how to be a journalist in there,” he said. “I learned everything. See, when I was at school, we lost our accreditation; that’s how lowly the journalism department was, but I came out of school better prepared to be a hands-on newspaper employee because of what took place in those rooms. … For all of us who went through there and particularly those of us who are still in the profession, it was the birthplace of our passion for the world of journalism.”
Fitzgerald said the energy in Kedzie accommodates students seeking a real newsroom experience.
“The building’s a special place,” he said. “It’s like magic in there. It’s a sense of creativity that goes with good journalism, and it’s hard to explain. When a newsroom has that, you know it as a journalist — and that place has it. That’s the sad part, is they build a brand-new building or renovate, and it’s all sterile, and beautiful and perfect — that’s not a newsroom. That’s an office.”
Brandi Schuster, class of 2000, mass communications & print journalism major
Brandi Schuster was involved with The Kansas State Collegian during her college years, serving as copy editor, opinion columnist, managing editor and more. She was disheartened to hear the Campus Master Plan’s goal to repurpose Kedzie.
“Kedzie Hall is synonymous with The Collegian for me,” Schuster said. “ … It makes me sad. Everything sounds pretty much the same as it did in the late ‘90s, which I’m taken aback by, but at the same time I’m glad there’s students nowadays who get to have that same experience we did, because it was the best.”
Schuster remembers inside jokes with Collegian staff amidst the stress of creating a student newspaper.
“We had a file called Pithy Quotes, like when people would say ridiculous things, we would take it out of context,” Schuster said. “That was hilarious. Also, at the end of the year, we would have our banquet, and we would make a fake Collegian for that. I loved writing just stupid stuff.”
However, Schuster said her nostalgia for Kedzie can’t trump the importance of modern journalism.
“The building is important from a sentimental point of view, but what’s most important is that there are still people studying journalism, and that’s the most important thing,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what building that happens in. It just is important that there are still high school graduates who want to go to K-State, they want to study journalism, they want to make sure they’re still holding up that standard of unbiased, factual journalism.”
Rachel Stoker, class of 2019, journalism major
Rachel Stoker is a former editor-in-chief of The Collegian. She remembers Kedzie being “a little dusty, a little musty and a little worn-down.”
“I’ve been back to campus probably three or four times since I graduated, and it looks about the same; [it] hasn’t gotten any better — not that I would necessarily expect it to.”
Stoker said she hopes the A.Q. Miller School finds one central spot if it leaves Kedzie.
“I really don’t love the idea of spreading them [MC/COMM classes] all out because it was already kind of spread out, having all the broadcast kids out at Dole for Channel 8,” Stoker, morning executive producer at KSNW-TV, said. “With the different programs spread out, it really limited that cohesion and that camaraderie within a program that was already struggling with enrollment numbers.”
At this time, K-State administration has not announced plans to move Collegian Media Group, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, out of Kedzie Hall. However, Stoker said it would make recruitment for student publications difficult if plans change.
“The pool that CMG has to pull from is within the A.Q. Miller School, and when you put it in a different spot, you’re losing that visibility,” she said. “Yeah, you can go to a class, and a club and a program and be like, ‘Hey, come on in,’ but it’s so much different when you can say, ‘Come on in,’ and The Collegian newsroom or the Royal Purple or Manhappenin’ is right there, down the hall or downstairs versus across campus.”
Stoker said transparency from the university will make-or-break the Campus Master Plan’s project to repurpose Kedzie Hall.
“It’s just going to be a matter of having someone in a position of authority to find what the right path is that’s financially feasible and works with the space, and finding the donors to give to it,” Stoker said. “Once donors are presented, or alumni are presented with a plan, someone’s going to give money to it, no matter what it is. They just need to be presented with the details.”
With campus administration still deciding on future plans for Kedzie, Stoker said one thing is certain:
“[Kedzie Hall] is a beautiful beast,” she said. “Oh, she’s ugly, but we love her.”