Females today make up more than half of Ohio University's student population and aren't discouraged from wearing jeans, studying engineering and playing rugby. However, the OU campus put more regulations on women in the past.
The university used to print student regulation handbooks containing strict rules and dating and etiquette tips for all male and female students on campus. Earlier versions accommodated both sexes, with special sections for each, while later versions were divided into separate books for men and women.
The men's version of the book taught men how to progress academically while the women's version told women how to be a lady and suggested social norms, said Bill Kimok, university archivist and records manager. Alden Library's Archives and Special Collections section, on the fifth floor, has handbooks dating back to as early as the 1929-30 school year.
In the 1964-65 school year, the university printed the handbook You
the Coed for women. Under one of the book's headings, Ohio's Coed the first sentence read: The most important thing about being a college coed is being a lady. The men's book You the College Man
reads: A college man is many things
but above all else
he is a scholar under the Standards of Conduct heading.
Journalism professor Dru Riley Evarts, who graduated from OU in 1951, and Mary Lee Powell, who graduated from OU in 1962 and now lives in Athens, both said being thought of as simply a coed instead of a female scholar did not faze them.
I was too old to have the independent mentality of the flower children of the 1960s
Powell said. Being the first female generation in her family able to attend college was a dream come true, she said.
Junior OU student Amelia Hogan said if the university referred to her as a coed, she would think she wasn't considered important to the university.
As late as the 1970s, women had their own dean and even their own judiciary system, Kimok said. Between 1967 and 1974, women also were banned from the OU Marching 110 because then-director Gene Thrailkill thought women couldn't perform the athletic moves.
The first section of You
the Coed had a guide for dating and social tips. Tips such as A woman may offer her hand to a man if she desires and A woman does not put on make-up or comb her hair in public are a few of the social tips listed in the handbook.
Dress also was a strict issue at OU. The dress standards section of You
the Coed stated the following: It is hoped that women will always be neat
clean and well-groomed. High standards or personal hygiene and an attractive appearance are expected of all women.
Sweatpants, jeans, T-shirts and hooded sweatshirts weren't the typical classroom wear that they are today. According to You
the Coed
