<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><item href="/issues/2015-winter/student-life-then-and-now.html" dsn="news"><item_date>11/24/2015 12:00:00 AM</item_date><category_header/><title>Student Life Then and Now</title><subheader/><description>Take a look with us and see if you agree that, in some ways, the life of a student is timeless.</description><author/><photographer> </photographer><image> <img src="/sites/default/files/1901c_physicsclass.jpg" width="2542" height="1632" alt=""/></image><taxonomy-story-type>Features</taxonomy-story-type><taxonomy-cultural-story-category/><taxonomy-news-sections/><taxonomy-college-department/><taxonomy-tags>Traditions, Student Life</taxonomy-tags><type>story</type><categories/><relationships/><main-content>
Quite a few things have changed about campus life since our founding in 1890 -- the size of campus, the number of students, the classes they've taken, the technology they've used, the rules they've followed (or haven't followed). But take a look with us across the years and see if you agree that, in some ways, the life of a student is timeless. And if we missed some of your favorites, let us know.
1890-1910s
 


	
	1910 Students
 

 
Names

1890: Texas Normal College and Teacher Training Institute
1894: North Texas Normal College
1901: North Texas State Normal College

Numbers

1890 enrollment, first week: 70
Cost: Tuition, $13.50 for 10 weeks; room and board, $2.50 per week
Denton population: 2,558, served by 10 trains daily
1901 library: 500 volumes

Milestones

1913: First library building (today's Curry Hall), first formal intercollegiate sports
1919: First four-year bachelor's degrees

Campus life

Sample courses: Ornamental penmanship, elocution, telegraphy, domestic science
Boarding house rules: No buggy riding at night; no protracted use of the telephone for idle conversation; no leaving the city without the president's permission; return to boarding houses for the night by 7 p.m.
Affordability: Let no student or parent imagine that it is necessary to expend a large sum of money in order to get through. It is a fatal mistake. Thousands of good boys have been ruined by too liberal allowances of money at college. Students do not come here to spend money. -- 1890-91 catalog
Character: A member of the present session was, by motion, invited to appear before the Faculty and show cause why his certificate and diploma should not be withheld. The charge was that he frequently used profane and indecent language. Mr. ____ acknowledged that the charge was true, but promised to desist from the use of such language in the future. By motion, his character was passed, but he was notified that his certificate and diploma would be cancelled if he failed to keep his promise to desist from the use of such language. -- May 1914 faculty meeting minutes

(I would stay in Denton) from September to Christmas. It wasn't far down from Fort Worth and it only cost $1.05 to take the train, but you didn't have $1.05 in those days.
-- A.B. Jolley ('12), 1905 freshman (UNT oral history)
 

1920s-1930s

Names

1923: North Texas State Teachers College

Numbers

1920 enrollment: 1,138
Cost: Tuition free and textbooks furnished; matriculation fee, $15; student activity fee, $15
Denton population: 7,626

Campus favorites

'Fessor Graham's Saturday Night Stage Shows
Local fraternities and sororities
Swimming at the recreation park

Milestones

1922: Eagle chosen as mascot
1936: First dorm (Marquis Hall) and master's degrees
1938: World track record set by twin twins Elmer and Delmer Brown and Blaine and Wayne Rideout

Campus life

Sample courses: Millinery, sanitation, mercantile accounting, rural school problems, the World War, clogging (athletic dance)
Extracurricular activities: A point system was in place to keep students from becoming overburdened with work in student organizations. In 1920, the maximum number of points allowed per student per term was 20. Examples of points assigned: Campus Chat editor, 15 points; college athlete, 10 points; class president, 2 points; orchestra member, 1 point.

(Transportation was) like sole leather. … You just walked. … The first traffic problems they had were with the summer teachers' cars. That was a real problem because the streets were narrow. 
-- President J.C. Matthews ('25), remembering his days as a student at North Texas in the 1920s (UNT oral history)
Once, when I got in line (for registration), I got my arm up over my head and couldn't get it back down for a little bit. It was so crowded. 
-- Elizabeth Teasley ('41), 1937 freshman (UNT oral history)
 

1940s-1950s
Names

1949: North Texas State College

Numbers

1940 enrollment: 3,581
Cost: Texas residents, $36 fee each semester; residents of other states, fee equivalent to the amount their schools charged Texas students (no less than $36 a semester)
Room and board: Marquis and Terrill, $26 to $27.50 per month; Chilton, $24 per month or $17 per month for board only
Denton population: 11,192
Campus: 45 acres, including athletic fields; 15 brick buildings, 17 frame buildings
Library: 100,000 volumes

Campus favorites

Contributing to the war effort, GI Bill
Ugliest Man on Campus
Scrappy
Greek life
Abner Haynes
North Texas Push, dancing on the Slab
Union Coffeecake

Milestones

1945: First colleges and schools
1946: First lab band, first bowl game and win (Optimist Bowl)
1949: First permanent Union
1949-1952: Four national golf championships
1953: First doctoral degree
1954, 1956: Desegregation

Chart toppers

"Love Letters in the Sand," Pat Boone
"Ooby Dooby," Roy Orbison (written by North Texas students Dick Penner and Wade Moore)

Campus life

Sample courses: Radio speaking, dance band arranging, secretarial science, atomic physics, educating for the Air Age, beginners' Russian, climate and man
Dress code: Slacks, dresses made to show the midriff and shorts are considered out of place in the living rooms and dining rooms of residence halls, campus homes, classes, and on the streets. … Girls are asked not to wear rolled-up hair with or without a scarf on the street, to classes or in the dining rooms. In case of an emergency a girl should speak to her dormitory director. -- 1954 Tip-Off student handbook, edited by Bill Moyers 

(The women) never did go to bed at night. ... They said they washed their hair, and they wrote letters and they visited. They had lots to talk about. 
-- Imogene Bentley Dickey Mohat, recalling dorm life in 1944, her first year as dean of women (UNT oral history)
I think, when I started, they used to come into a show for 15 cents but later it got raised to the 'outrageous' price of 25 cents. You could see a full-length movie and have a stage show, also. … I owe 'Fessor Graham everything. If it hadn't been for him, I wouldn't have gotten a college education, I don't suppose.
-- Gene Hall ('41, '44 M.A.), jazz studies founder and lab band director, recalling his student days playing in the stage band for 'Fessor Graham's Saturday Night Stage Shows, making $7 a week (UNT oral history)
 

1960s-1970s
Names

1961: North Texas State University

Numbers

1960 enrollment: 7,480
Denton population: 26,844
Campus: 300 acres, 40 brick buildings
Library: 340,000 volumes

Campus favorites

Joe Greene
Basketball in the Snake Pit and the Super Pit
Marches, protests
Paperbacks
Earth Day
Streakers
Flying Worm
Co-ed dorms

Milestones

Lab 1975: First of seven Grammy nominations for One O'Clock Lab Band

Chart toppers

"Wildfire," Michael Martin Murphey
"Two Out of Three Ain't Bad," Meat Loaf

Campus life

Sample courses: Field lab in conservation education, international relations, use of the slide rule, introduction to computers

It's usually a good idea to sit near the front (of class). But if there's a pretty girl in the back, the pursuit of good grades shouldn't be allowed to interfere with the pursuit of happiness.
-- New student advice, Johnny Hendrik ('68), 1966, Campus Chat
It's a pretty good school and I'm finally getting used to the hippies.
Anonymous Denton resident quoted in the 1973 Yucca yearbook
 

1980s-1990s
Names

1988: University of North Texas

Numbers

1980 enrollment: 17,158
Denton population: 48,063
1990 library: Just under 2 million cataloged holdings

Campus favorites

Fry Street Fair
Eppy
Big hair
Teleregistration
Hacky-sack
Blood drives
Necessary Roughness
Recycling
Online classes
Email

Chart toppers

"Boys of Summer," Don Henley
"Breakfast at Tiffany's," Deep Blue Something

Milestones

1988: Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science
1990: Centennial
1998: First green building (Environmental Education, Science and Technology Building)
1999: World-class music hall (Murchison Performing Arts Center)

Campus life

Sample courses: On-line information services, introductory game programming, digital photography

Everyone knows college students don't have any money. That's why they are in college. 
-- Freshman Iris Perez ('92), commenting in the 1987 Aerie about the price of textbooks (a new book cost $30)
 

2000s-2014
Numbers

2000 enrollment: 27,054
Denton population: 80,537
Campus: 498 acres, 140 structures

Campus favorites

New Orleans and Heart of Dallas bowls
Texting, Facebook, Twitter
Sustainability
REAL communities
The Big Event
A-train
Apogee Stadium

Milestones

2002: Discovery Park development
2003: Pohl Recreation Center
2010: First LEED-certified building (Life Sciences Complex)

Chart toppers

"Come Away With Me," Norah Jones
"Nuthin," Lecrae

Campus life

Sample courses: Aviation logistics, biomedical instrumentation, migrants and refugees, digital retailing strategies

I'm far away enough from home where my parents can't just show up over the weekend, or I'm also close enough where they can still reach up and zap me if they need to. 
-- Student commenting on UNT's prime location, 2000
 

2015
Numbers

2015 enrollment: 37,231
Campus: 900 acres; 172 buildings, including 15 residence halls
Library: 7 million print and digital items
Latest Denton population estimate: 128,205
Student organizations: More than 400

Campus favorites

UNT tartan
Free Wi-Fi on the square
Albino squirrel
Instagram
New Union
Celebrating 125 years

We have five different dining halls, plus tons of retail options -- and coffee shops, because caffeine's probably going to be the most important part of your day. 
-- Student talking about campus life as part of a UNT virtual tour, 2015</main-content></item>