The 1930s were plagued with the effects of the Great Depression along with the ever-growing threat of a second world war looming overseas.
Known as the threadbare 30s
the decade was one in which virtually every student at the university had to work in order to pay for his or her schooling.
In 1935, students found it hard to pass up Ohio University's co-op living opportunities. Room and board was $17 a month and jobs - usually in the dining or residence halls - paid $20 a month. Tuition at that time was around $400-$500 a year.
Leona Hughes, a 1930 graduate, remembers working multiple jobs and earning 15 cents an hour in order to pay for her schooling.
I worked as an independent who typed term papers and theses. I also tutored short-hand and eventually became assistant to the head of the department she recalled. There were not as many possibilities for financial aid outside of school. tuition or the registration fee as it was called then
was $40 per semester and moved up to $45 before I graduated.
Former OU golf coach and 1932 graduate Kermit Blosser was one of 2,800 students who attended the university when he began in 1928.
It was $270 for the first year. I roomed at Mrs. Copeland's place in town because there were no men's dorms until after the war. I received $1 a week and had to cook my own food on a hot plate
he said.
Loren Pace, a 1936 graduate, chose OU for a reason that most students today probably neglected to consider: It was the closest hitchhike from his small town outside of Zanesville, Ohio.
Pace, a music and language major, found work playing in a dance band and working the dining room of a fraternity.
Despite all the work, there was still fun to be had at OU.
Music and dancing provided social outlets for students on weekends. The 1930s was the time for swing, big band and jazz. The decade boasts such names as Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman and Louis Armstrong.
The music was of the swing era
Pace said. Rock 'n' roll had never been heard of. Hip-hop was not around.
Fraternities and sororities also played a part of campus life, much as they do today.
Hughes will have been a Phi Mu for 75 years this March. She fondly remembered the singing contests hosted by the Greek societies as well as the times when fraternities would serenade the sorority houses.
Pace was a member of Phi Kappa Tau fraternity. He quickly found out the fraternity house was not very conducive to studying.
The minute dinner in the basement was over
the TV was on and so was the radio. I became very acquainted with the library
he said.
Athletics were another popular extracurricular activity during the 1930s. Blosser credited many of the university's successes in athletics at the time to football coach and later athletic director Don Peden.
I was active in wrestling and football. What made the team great was Peden. He was a fine young man with a lot of faith in the youth.
17
Archives
