College Then and Now: Looking Back 50 Years

by Richard W. Burnette, Western Kentucky University, May 18, 2007

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I am a 71-year old senior at Western Kentucky University and students ask me how different college life was in the 1950s. It is not easy to respond. I am not snobbish when I say that the old ways were superior, because I believe they were. But what 19-year old wants to hear this?

On the other hand, I am open-minded and tolerant of the mores of today’s college students. But this doesn’t mean I like them. In fact, I deplore the dress codes and language practiced by most college students – but I don’t grieve about these things. Live and let live is my motto.

In 1955, I enrolled at Lynchburg College, a coeducational liberal arts school, where I labored for two years before transferring to the University of Virginia. At Lynchburg, girls wore skirts, blouses and sweaters, and black-and-white saddle shoes (or brown and white). Slacks or Bermuda shorts with knee socks were worn on the weekends. I never saw a woman in “jeans” except for tough jobs.

At the University of Virginia in 1957, we were permitted to smoke in class – and almost everyone smoked. Our dress code was “blue blood,” meaning necktie (there were no women) and khaki pants. Staying out of the fashion race was a saving grace, but such attire made us feel like we belonged. I, like thousands of other students, was compliant in obeying this convention. Professors wore suits, but not shower slippers or short pants. It was a different age.
Tennis shoes (sneakers) were taboo but popular on the tennis court or playing basketball in the gym. “Dungarees” that transformed themselves into jeans were unacceptable.

But how can you respect a student, male or female, wearing filthy jeans with the cuffs too long, walked-on and ragged, threadbare, and dragging the ground? Such a person would have afflicted all of us. There was a clean, no nonsense demeanor that I sorely miss today.

But times have changed. I can only guess how “cool” it must be to wear jeans ripped or slashed, or for girls to dress like they’re going to the beach. Why do boys come to class barefooted? Is this act self promotion? Females and their half-exposed anatomy reflect a desire for attention or is it a craving to audition for MTV? Such outlandishness is, no doubt, a product of our TV-Internet culture, where Lindsay Lohan is better known than Condoleezza Rice.

And our language was cleaner also. We used upset or angry for “pissed off,” tail for “ass,” and hate or abhor for “sucks.” There was more of a euphemistic tone to our words that was less repugnant to others. I believe our language has degenerated to the extent indicated – but the students seem oblivious to this feeling.

Manners, seemingly, were not as obtuse then as today. Now, it is not uncommon for one student to spread books and baggage over a bench, many of which line the hallway adjacent to the classrooms. The courtesy to make space to allow someone else to sit (or study) never enters his or her mine. Our benches are long, one of which will seat three to four students. When my tired legs beg to sit down, I’m not going to sit on the floor; I’m not going to sit on the ground except on a picnic. I am not a hippie.

And this brings me to other dislikes. The first is the telephone. We called our parents “collect” over a payphone to ask for money. Today’s loud-mouth soliloquies of nothingness that invade campus, namely, the ubiquitous cell phone – did not exist. Secondly, buying lunch was with cash. No checks, no plastic. How did I ever survive without a cell phone and a credit card? Only God knows.

Blacks were not permitted in the schools I mentioned, and that was not right. Watching Elvis Presley the night he was first showcased on TV was disappointing to some as the cameras would not pan below his waist for us to witness his wild gyrations. There were broadcast decency codes. Abortion was illegal. I remember only one married couple at UVa during those three years of college in Lynchburg and Charlottesville. It has taken me 50 years to return to school and my creed is simple and straightforward: no judgments, no stories about the way it was. Just refrain from asking me the differences between then and now. I don’t want to hurt your feelings.

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