A streaker and a commencement ceremony in a hotel.

The two don’t have much in common – except they were things that made the University of Colorado School of Nursing Class of 1974 unique. Because there were two Classes of 1974: one spring, and one winter.

There weren’t several graduations like the University of Colorado College of Nursing at Anschutz Medical Campus holds now. There was only one: in the spring for students graduating from the five-year program. The program combined a BS degree and a nursing diploma. CU Nursing no longer offers this program.

Why were there two graduating classes?

Dr. Mary Enzman Hines, a professor emeritus at CU Nursing, was a determined student who was curious as to why CU Nursing had a five-year program. She explained what happened during the Class of 1974’s 50^th reunion during CU Anschutz’s All Alumni Celebration.

She gathered information about US nursing programs and found CU Nursing was the only five-year program. She brought an envelope with the information to the Dean at the time, Kathryn M. Smith.

“I told her it would be nice if we could graduate a semester early,” she says. “I asked her what it would take. And she said we’d have to get the chancellor to agree to this, and I said ’Okay, bring him on.’ She said the chancellor wouldn’t agree to this, and I said I think we can talk to him and make him agree.”

The chancellor did agree – but said the students wouldn’t be able to graduate because there was only one ceremony, which would have been in the spring of 1975.

“I told him ‘That’s okay, we’ll put on our own graduation ceremony’,” she says. “He kind of frowned at me, but he didn’t say no. So we set up our graduation in the Regency Hotel and we had the greatest time. Everybody got acknowledged and our diplomas were mailed to us.”

Enzman Hines’ determination led to the Class of 1975 graduating a semester early, making them the Class of 1974. 

Class of 1974 50th Reunion Dinner during the CU Anschutz All Alumni Celebration

“The class (the Spring of 1974) weren’t happy with us because we got to graduate early,” she says.

And where does the streaker come into the picture? It happened at the Spring 1974 Graduation when nursing students could attend a larger commencement at CU-Boulder.

Jan Trotten, Cheryl Hergenrather, and Jeanean Santini were in the audience when suddenly a naked man came running across the stage.

“We’re like, okay, yep there he is,” Hergenrather says.

“He was totally naked,” Trotten says. “And all I could think about was my dad in the audience, who was a chaplain and preacher in the Air Force, and my mother, the preacher’s wife, and what they were thinking.”

Reminiscing on Nursing School

Eleven alumni attended the 50^th Reunion dinner; six from the spring, five from the winter.  The dinner was held in conjunction with CU Anschutz All Alumni Celebration, bringing back alumni from all disciplines across campus. Many alumni shared fun stories of their time at CU Nursing and some of their favorite memories.

One of Santini’s fondest memories was hiking with her roommate.

“I don’t even remember what we wore, or if we even had hiking boots,” she says. “I don’t remember how we got up or down from the mountains but being in Colorado is one of my great memories.”

Wendy Alnutt Walsh, who graduated in the spring of 1974 and came back to CU Nursing to earn a master’s degree in Parent-Child Nursing and a PNP Certificate said physiology was one of her favorite classes.

“A number of classmates didn’t bring a notebook to class that first day and Dr. Brockway lectured for two hours. There was a lot of borrowing paper that day, from yet unknown classmates,” she says.

“I also will never forget Dr. Brockway’s tests – multiple choice questions. I’ve never taken harder tests! I remember working on those tests for hours! That class and Dr. Gwen Smith’s pathophysiology were my favorite classes, not the ones I got the best grade in, however.”

Class of 1974 alum Wendy Alnutt Walsh wearing a nurse's uniform

Alnutt Walsh was a class champion for 1974, meaning she helped contact alumna and encouraged them to come to their reunion. She found out many of her classmates had long, dedicated nursing careers.

“There have been many people in leadership roles, many nurse practitioners, Masters and PhD degrees, and at least one Dean of a School of Nursing School,” she says. “I guess when we were freaking out about not knowing “how to be nurses” and our instructors’ reply was we had the knowledge, we would get the experience - that their confidence was well placed.”

This link has more photos from the All Alumni Celebration and CU Nursing's Class of 1974 50th Reunion.