Originally published in The News-Star newspaper, January 7, 2006

It seems only yesterday - rather than a year ago - that I was writing about the single vote that placed The University of Louisiana at Monroe on her present site. Of course it seems only yesterday that I saw the campus in the summer of 1967 from South College Avenue and, as so many others did, began my path and relationship with our college. Never did I dream I would have this opportunity to learn so much about our history and to write some of it down. I hope I have done our college justice in describing some of her life.

This is the last of the weekly columns that I will write. For those who want to re-read any, the columns will be archived on the ULM Web site. There is also the ULM Magazine and the "ULM Moment in Time" on KEDM radio's Listen Room (www.kedm.org).

I cannot pick out my favorite part of doing this work the graciousness and encouragement of Kathy Spurlock and Ken Stickney, the writing, the exploring, the discovering. Perhaps the most exciting was the opportunity to visit with people who were here in those early years and to hear stories.

Of course, there are so many stories left to tell. For example, there are people like Miss Baldwin, who taught many of the physicians in this area their chemistry, and May Read, who chronicled much of our early history and was secretary to Dean and President alike. Then there was Lewis Slater, who rose from an assistant professor to the first presidency of the four year college, William Hammond and his Christmas poetry of the war years, our veterans and of course, our students.

We could talk about groups fraternities and sororities, the NLU Women's Club, the Discrepancies, pilots-in-training. And there's our campus how the pharmacy school came to Monroe, how we named all these buildings and what we did to celebrate them. Still, mysteries remain ... the main one being the location of the sheet music to our first alma mater.

Thanks to all of you who have called and written. Do not stop now! We have only scratched the surface of our college's history! Hopefully we can all keep exploring and celebrating our wonderful campus. Finally, thanks to all those who were kind enough to say they enjoyed reading about their college especially to Dr. Jenny Savage for showing me the magic of our campus and beyond.

Have a great day at ULM!

Dr. John Knesel, ULM Professor