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Kutztown University Sesquicentennial (150th) Anniversary

This LibGuide contains information on the presidents of Kutztown University, the buildings, and other fun facts in celebration of the sesquicentennial in 2016.

Students Wore What?

Freshmen students used to wear "Frosh" beanies stating their names and where they're from on yellow pins.

Famous Visitors to Kutztown University

October 25th, 1968: Republican Presidential candidate Richard Nixon passed through Kutztown on a 157-mile long motorcade. He paused briefly to speak to a crowd of students and staff members.

January 25th, 1995: President Clinton visited Kutztown University in order to give an address on the importance of funding higher education and how university relations with the surrounding community is vital, with emphasis on entrepreneurship opportunities for minorities. He praised Kutztown University by calling them a "national model" on this issue. Kutztown University was chosen from a pool of fifteen potential institutions for this speech.

1998: President George H.W. Bush visited Kutztown University as a keynote speaker for the Decision Makers Forum.

July 9th, 2004: President George Bush hosted a town hall style meeting as part of a three-town campaign bus tour.

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Mary of Old Main

Mary is a figure who may be as important as the Angry Chicken when it comes to well-known symbols of the campus. She's the quiet spirit who haunts the upper floors of Old Main. She's said to have appeared in videos and effect the environment around her. Students have reported that cups will move, rooms will suddenly become cold in the summer, and music plays with no source.

There are many arguments regarding how Mary passed away. Some say she killed herself perhaps out of shame of being pregnant, or that she passed away the day before graduation. Past research has turned up support for the former; to quote directly from The Reading Eagle, "Research by a former KU librarian revealed the story of Mary S. Snyder, 22, of Limekiln, according to a Reading Eagle story published in 2006. Snyder died in her dorm room of a heart ailment the night before her graduation in July 1895."

Two psychics visited Old Main in 1991 and report that Mary is not alone in the building, however if there is a second spirit they cannot hold a candle to our Mary of Old Main.