They weren't the cream of America 's academic crop — in fact, they were just the opposite.

Now, 30 years after Parsons College went bankrupt, alumni of the school dubbed "Flunk-Out U," a haven for those who failed classes elsewhere, have gathered to remember the good times and bad grades of their undergraduate days.

"It's just too bad it didn't last," said Hank Trenkle, class of '65. "It was a hoot."

Along with nearly 100 other Parsons graduates, Trenkle made a triumphant return this weekend to Parson's former campus in southeast Iowa , a space now occupied by the Maharishi University of Management, founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of the transcendental meditation movement.

Even if he could have attended Harvard or Yale — an admitted impossibility given the grades on his high school transcript — Trenkle said he still would have chosen Parsons.

"You had people with life experience here, some life history," said Trenkle, a Chicago insurance executive. "But they came here and worked through it. It was a good place to go to school."

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