Admissions

Homecoming games conjure nostalgia and sentiment, particularly in those whose lives have taken a turn away from their carefree college days and into the real world. This year, Carson-Newman’s Homecoming was no different as alumni swelled the college’s numbers.

Many reminisced with former classmates about old traditions that have fallen by the wayside such as freshmen beanies and social rules.

“When I attended Carson-Newman there were very strict rules about how male and female students were allowed to interact,” said ’52 graduate Amy Doak. “We had to have written permission from home to be able to go on a date with a boy and even then we weren’t allowed to Jefferson City.”

Doak went on to discuss how girls were also more closely supervised in the dorm and weren’t allowed to go out alone, or with other girls, at night unless they had adult supervision. Girls were also forbidden to have cars on campus.

However, male students were not so restricted. Doak’s husband, Elmer, whom she met during her sophomore year at Carson-Newman, remembers trips to Knoxville with his friends and staying out into all hours of the night.

“We had so much more freedom,” he said. “I remember the girls would always get perturbed at the things we were allowed to do while they sat in their dorm rooms at night. It was a different time then. People expected girls to be demure and dignified; we weren’t held to quite so high a standard.”

Alumni who attended Carson-Newman later than the Doaks remember a tradition that has, only in recent years, faded away – the freshmen beanies which served as an initiation ritual for the new students.

“I remember having to wear that horrible thing anytime I left my room, sometimes even in the dorm,” said ’78 graduate Sylvia Ann Martin. “Essentially it served as a huge flashing light over your head that said ‘torment me, I’m new.’ It was never taken too far and always fun though, particularly when you were able to inflict the same embarrassment on the incoming class the following year.”

Alumni were also able to provide insight into more mundane problems students encounter daily. For example, girls who have resided in Butler Hall often comment about low shower heads – an annoyance for those who are attempting to wash their hair. However, Crystal Knight, ’48, said that particular phenomenon is easily explained.

“When they built Butler girls still went to the beauty shop once a week to have their hair done,” she said. “No one wanted to wash their hair, or even get it wet, because it would muss their ‘do; so, when they installed the showers in the dorm they were designed to only hit girls from the neck down.”

Another question many raise is the reasoning behind the sealed, metal compartments located at the end of each hallway in the older dorms such as Alumni and Butler.

“Those were for telephones,” said ’57 graduate Bob Coleman. “We didn’t have cell phones or even a land line in every room; each hall had one phone. The switchboard would ring the hall and whoever was closest answered. Then it was their responsibility to either get the person or take a message. It was definitely a less convenient system, but at least it kept hall mates on good terms. Otherwise, if you were feuding with someone, you didn’t get your calls.”

It is these quirks and traditions that have helped give the college its distinctive personality, a personality new generations of students are both adapting and adopting.

“Some traditions have continued over long periods of time,” said ’87 graduate Caroline Truett. “I don’t know when it originated, but I do remember the freshman boys coming to our dorm and serenading us during the first week of school, something my niece tells me still occurs today. However, today’s student have made it more elaborate and more their own.”

Though the faces enjoying these traditions have changed, alumni say it is because of how new students have made the college their own that they would recommend it to future enrollees.

“We may not have the notoriety of a monstrous Division-1 school,” said ’98 graduate Kelly Sanders. “The truth is though, the size of Carson-Newman is what allows students to have these long-standing traditions and to experience the rich heritage the school possesses. It’s size is what makes it personable, it’s personality is what makes it special.”