University of South Carolina Columbia - Garnet and Black Yearbook (Columbia, SC)

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- --.s,'?'1?'Ew Dawlv College forms the likebf barkgroundfbr 1930 damaf. like that, one Gamecock contributor wrote. We feel 58D is talent enough. The role of the beauty is not stressed as much today as more and more women have become involved in active roles in the SGA, Associa- tion of Women Students and dorm government. Current issues have also played a major part in the rapidly changing role of women. In November, 1962, a woman became the first black to seek admission to USC. Filing suit against the University, she claimed USC offi- cials barred her entrance because bf race. And in 1972 Gail Ransoine became the first black homecoming queen, an event marred by boos. Equal rights and women's -libera- tion became hot issues in the seven- ties as women pushed for greater availability of birth control contracep- tives, abortion legislation and the equal rights amendment. In 1970, Vicki Eslinger, a maverick law student, started an abortion hot- line. She explained that from 1966-70, she knew of at least one illegal abor- tion being performed on a girl in her dorm. One year a dead fetus was even found in a garbage can at South Tower. An issue over the infirmary's deci- sion not to supply birth control pills for coeds arose in 1970. Harvey L. Burdette, director of the infirmary then, explained that the health center was there for the treatment and pre- vention of diseases. Birth control, he said, did not come under this category. Today birth control pills are sold at a 26 nominal fee to USC coeds. ' A bra survey conducted during 1970 also revealed a change in women's preference of clothes. According to the survey, almost 20 per cent occasionally went without bras in public. The Gamemck reporter daringly formed this impression, The girls who went without bras were mainly Northern Chippie-typej, small-breasted girls. Today's Woman is obviously much unlike her foremother. She is involved in a rapidly growing society where job opportunities are just beginning for females. She no longer has to be the nursery attendant unless she chooses. Versatility is the key for t0day's female. Rita McKinney, '74 SGA president lil' the ffm female to secure that office. USC's First Dean of Women Looks Bac 4 By Karen Petit The evolutionary fossils of coed- ucation at USC are scattered rem- nants of the past, concealed by time and buried in the annals of history. Enclosed in multiple layers of con- troversy, war, and politics, the steps leading to official coeducation at USC have been painfully taken and carefully hidden from previous his- tory texts. Since she was first dean of women at USC, Mrs. Irene Dillard Elliott is able to trace coeducation from conception to official recog- nition on the University campus. According to Mrs. Elliott, the Coeds' evolution is in four impor- tant phases. The first begins with post Civil War conditions in Columbia. When federal troops came to occupy South Carolina, the federal authorities first changed the South Carolina College concept to one of university status. Their idea was to broaden educational opportunities for those in the state. Scouting the Columbia vicinity, federal officials looked for blacks to fill the class- rooms - especially black women who could later teach in the public schools. Finding enough black women to establish a four year Normal College for the prepara- tion of teaching black students, col- lege coeds first entered the Univer- sity's scene during Reconstruction. Housed in Rutledge, these women became the first and only class for blacks to graduate from USC. When Mrs. Elliott became dean in August, 1924, she met Mrs.

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,tis folly to be wivesf' Officers included sovereign spinster, assistant bachelor maid, keeper of ashes of love letters and guardian of love affairs of old maids. Establishing a school for scandal, they featured a curriculum of the art of flirting, its uses and abuses, woman suffrageg how to be happy, because unmarried, and a medical course to'explain causes of heart affections. In 1900 the classes. Probably the reason for this was that the college did little to attract coeds or to furnish facilities for them. J However, growth of coeducation did begin in 1924 when the University appointed its first dean of women, Miss Irene Dillard, and opened the Womanls Building, a new dormitory. As first dean of women, Dillard was also the first female faculty member, steadily until 1952 when women were not admitted as full-time students below the junior class. The Board of Trustees would only admit women below the junior class as day students and had the right to charge each day student with any necessary 'additional expenses to the state. These restric- tions were removed by the General Assembly in 1956. From that time on, freshmen and sophomore women were able to live in Co uectish Coed the same dormito- Clgb are-solved to - Q' ?,.f..,-..--- , 2- ries as the upper- do unto the other FH 5 lk MLW .g,,,2.lL, j classmen and no fellow as he'd like ' longer had to pay to do unto you, an' f ,ife ft 3 higher fees than do it fast' ' ntl-2 s -' ' ff'N'X male PC35- Coquettish coeds ' ' ,q'gE,:' 'A-:gpg . 1 l Throughout the occupied such ele- 'ffl h N. ,ho in years the roles of vated positions as .R' 'Y ,L A 4 fl' the University Cruel coquette, not ' . -7' ' A if C, coed has gradually so cruel coquette, if ' V g :f ','1'v . ' 'X ' changed. She has billet doux scrib- ,', l Lf ' gone from a status bler, and merce- ' 'T' 1 , ,fl-U ' ' of being looked nary main. 1 X j if 1-jr he down upon by her Also in 1902, J , , 5 - --rf ei'-eejgif wwf i peers into modern each coed was 'ima' ' I 'fnwxl g i CNW areas where she given the name of , . 2 ' e .. 1 X- competes among either an animal or 7 QQ ,fe qi-.X 'XXX males in the class- a flower by male K' f 'i V, '-1- '7 ' ' 1 '- ' i room, ROTC and members of the ir 1 l I C7 ff' 1 athletics. Game! and Black f-7 i X , During the staff. One noted if jfgpfgf' 1 , ' early days of coed- coed on campus ' - - l.i'31 -J' Y Aluaigjffi 'H A ' 1 ucation and was listed as a pea- ll fy ,KH of-'X if -fi- 1 ,ffl 1 i through the sixties cock because as the 'X' l fjifffi 4 'Z , 2 ' 1 women have most magnificent Pgfffz -' ,H ' ' served as beauty of the coed flock, ., 4 . 1 g af-- 9 - --9 ef-,TJ queens for a vari- her vanity was lj ..,-l nd l .1Tet ety of organiza- overpowering. , . Q j- -- A,--T , tions and groups. Another called the ,QV fjilf Z'Mf'!-l.i',l- trip' , The first football zinnia was the epi- '!l '7' YE: 2 ,iff 1 5' . ' ' sponsor appeared tome of spinster- , ,- .lx , 'jk' ,V+ ff- N , in the 1912 Game! ismM V ' p QNX.. ,a - ,i 1 N, 'p A 1 andbB!af.1f.?er, in 15125 rl n'ya'fdffE , ' fig , j' If 1 2 .A liicfbaillearfd frazitsk ing the Lady-Bird - ,' t-A., , 1 ' teams would have Club, an organiza- ' QQ, ', I 4 Irrou-:.i,Q,.4m'iixwhi.5lM'I. - 5 ' . 45, sponsors as well as tion to allow the ,I 'll ,f ,G-M, tv ' f l.'15Ll','f, 1 l ROTC, Gamer and ladies a little pleas- - ' ' 7' Black and Game- ure. Colors for the group included love sick green, pale blue and pink. The usual occupation of the 1918 coeds was talking and for the 1918 sophomore class the saying was that they came, they saw - and they left. Coeducation was really not to grow very rapidly until after World War I. Prior to that time, there were never more than 25 girls attending full-time ranking 55th in seniority at USC. After its opening, the Womanis Building was described by the 1924 USC Catalogue as fully equipped with all modern conveniences and accommodates about 100 students. Coeducation really grew at the Uni- versity when the female intellectual capacity was proven in 1916 by several female law graduates. After that time the number of University coeds rose cock organizations. Homecoming and Bantam Beauties featured by the Gamecork were other areas of beauty sponsorship. One beauty contest in 1972 is par- ticular evidence of USC's changing women's role. Although the Sexual Object Sweepstakes never came through, it started off with a rather high flown idea. We aren't going to be hypocritic like the Miss America people, and require talent or anything 25

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Cecilia Saxon, a graduate of the first class and a teacher then at Booker T. Washington. Upon hearing an account of the class's experiences, Mrs. Elliott returned to the University to find history pages void of the information. She was told then by University offi- cials that theqsubject was taboo on campus and should continue as it had before - buried, untouched, and forgotten. It wasn't until Gov. Ben Till- man's administration in 1894 that coeducation would be instituted. The years just prior to World War I constitute the second phase of coeducational growth. Located at the Preston-Hampton mansion was the College for Women, a Colum- bia independent college closely associated with the Presbyterian Church. President of the college was Miss Euphenia McClintock, a very efficient and popular presi- dent, who nevertheless was a poor business manager. With the Euro- pean crisis threatening American security and involvement, Miss McClintock found her college's 360,000 debt insurmountable. For 1915 this was a lot of money, too much money for her school. With no future as an independent col- lege, she pleaded with the state leg- islature to take over her school and combine it with the University. But 360,000 was also too great a debt for the poor state and the leg- islature refused her appeal. When Chicora College merged with the ailing school, much antagonism arose between these two institu- tions. Supporters of McClintock's college established a professorship at USC to be given in southern studies in honor of Miss McClintock. Also, McClintock dor- mitory is named for her. According to Mrs. Elliott, Miss McClintock should have been USC's first dean of women. The state should have taken over her school and combined it with USC. The McClintock era overlaps the opening World War I years and the next phase of coeducation at USC. As many male students left school to join the war, university officials looked at the declining enrollment with alarm. Fearing a during the years 1924-35. possible repeat of Civil War condi- tions when the academic halls sud- denly emptied, the administration decided to allow Coeds to live in University dormitories. Mrs. B. L. Parkinson who became advisor to the female students moved into Rutledge with the girls. While Mrs. Parkinson was actu- allyfirst dean of women, the Uni- versity did not give her the title or consider her a member of the fac- ulty. This second female occupa- tion of Rutledge lasted only for the war's duration. The close of World War I intro- duced the final chapter in coeduca- tion as well as the beginnings of Mrs. Elliott's association with USC. In 1922 both the South Caro- lina Federation of Women's Clubs and USC President William Mel- ton began full campaigns for offi- cial coeducation at the University. During December, 1923, Mrs. Elliott, then Miss Irene Dillard, met with Melton. He said USC was going to have a dormitory for women, a dean of women, and offi- cial 'coeducation within the coming year. Melton's criteria for the dean of women included that she must have a Ph.D., have a full professor- ship with membership on every committee relevant to coeducation, and the same salary as her male peers. When Mel- ton offered Mrs. Elliott the job, she refused saying that she already had a job offer in LaGrange, Ga. A graduate of Randolph Macon Women's College and professor there for seven years, Mrs. Elliott was currently working on her dissertation at the University of North Carolina at the time of Mel- ton's offer. In june, 1924, she received the first Ph.D. given to a woman at that school and accepted the position of dean of women at USC. As first dean of women, she also became USC's first female faculty member. She served as dean from August, 1924, until June 30, 1955, when poor health caused her to resign. A shortage of English pro- fessors in 1946 brought her back to USC where she taught until 1964. Those last 18 years were her happiest years of teaching, she said. Looking back on the deanship I worried and grieved over problems that naturally arose. Her dedication to the University continues today and she seems to know more about current campus life than most students do. A charming and gracious lady, Mrs. Elliott has given USC a rich legacy in coeducation. This Darwinian web of coed evolution clings delicately to for- gotten pages and lies hidden in untold memories. USC owes Mrs. Elliott more than a debt in her coeducation story. We owe her a tradition. Editor's Note: In preparation for this story, Mrs. Elliott was inter- viewed at her Columbia home where she still resides.