University of Mississippi - Ole Miss Yearbook (Oxford, MS)

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... ' V. Social life at Ole Miss starts as soon as Rush is over and football season has begun. Many Ole Miss students grew up picnicking in the Grove, but for others, the tradition of blue blazers or skirts and heels was one they adopted with that first football game. Blind dates and mixing drinks were lessons learned early. But this year there were other lessons to be learned. Ole Miss, with all its tradition, is changing. Long considered by parents to be a sanctuary of safe- ty where children could be sent to an environment as safe as when they themselves attended college, this year the small town of Oxford had its taste of big town problems. Within three weeks, three Ole Miss students died an accident, car wreck, suicide the first time many of us had to deal with the death of a friend. Several car thefts occurred on our campus, seemingly not unusual for colleges, where the concentration of expensive cars is so high. But for Ole Miss, it was shocking. Unlike other colleges, where coeds fear walking around campus at night, Ole Miss has always been safe. But this year rumors were heard, and warnings mumbled about the dangers of walking around cam- pus alone at night. But for the first year, Ole Miss coeds took heed calling roommates before walk- ing home from the library, going jogging in pairs or groups, letting sorority sisters drive them places, calling University Police escorts and leaving notes for roommates, explaining where they were gone and when to expect them back. The precautions were similar to what our parents had asked of us before we ever left home but we learned that safety could not be taken for granted even in the small community of Oxford, Mississippi. LCM Opening 7