Sisterhood Before Sororities: Friendship Between Women at Centre College After Integration With the Kentucky College for Women

Women on matress KCW.jpg

A group of KCW students slide down the steps of their residence hall on a mattress. 

By Kiley Short

When Centre College constructed its first female dormitories in the early 1960s, they quickly became more than just a space to sleep. At both K.C.W. and Centre, the dormitory was a place where women studied for their exams, entertained themselves with games of bridge, or swapped pieces of clothing for their upcoming dates. It was the only space where women were permitted to wear slacks or shorts besides gym class.[1] Because many of the women also shared the same major, Education, it became a shared academic space secondary to the classroom. In the words of Judi Royalty (Class of 1966), women students shared both “habits and traditions,”[2] as well as the high expectations for behavior and academics that Centre placed on them. These gender-segregated residence halls served many purposes, but the longest-enduring was cultivating life-long friendships. During the 1960s, traditions taken from K.C.W. and societal norms fostered extraordinarily-close female friendships on Centre College’s campus, as those norms and traditions informed the gendered living arrangements, educational experiences, and behavioral expectations of women at Centre.

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A typical single-person dormitory room at the Kentucky College for Women. Photo taken circa 1920. 

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The dining room at the Kentucky College for Women, where female students ate their meals together every day. 

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The exterior of Morgan Hall on the campus of the Kentucky College for Women. 

When asked about the most significant memories they had during their time at Centre College, many women spoke of the tight-knit female community on campus. The women of the Kentucky College for Women did everything together, which was a habit that stuck even after the women’s finishing school formally merged with Centre College. While Centre College offered courses to women beginning in 1926,[3] the women’s campus was entirely separate until the fall of 1962, when the women of K.C.W. moved into the newly-finished female dormitories on West Main Street. Separated from the men’s campus and residence life, the female residence halls at K.C.W. and Centre provided a gendered space where female students could bond without intrusion. In fact, only females were allowed in the upper levels of the dormitories, making their living space completely off-limits to men. Both K.C.W and Centre College maintained a gendered landscape until the 1970s, when coeducational residence halls became the norm in the United States.[4]

While it sounds ironic, Centre’s culture of discipline and high expectations intersected with friendship and camaraderie in the residence halls. When women weren’t in classes, they were most likely in their residence hall reading, chatting, studying, or sleeping. The sense of community in the residence halls was strong – even after the move to Centre’s main campus – that the women retained their own governing authorities, the Women’s Student Government, Women’s Student Council, and Women’s Judiciary. Women’s Student Council Representatives were made up of the Presidents of each residence hall and the Presidents of each academic class.[5] The 1964-1965 Women’s Handybook explained that the Women’s Student Council was a sort of enforcer of the “a high standard of social and moral conduct” for the women. Their listing in the Handybook reminds students that they “reserve the right to ask any [female] student to withdraw if her presence on campus is undesirable.”[6] The Women’s Judiciary was charged with matters related to behavior as well, dealing with violations of Centre’s general conduct policies and the Academic Honor System, which applied only to the women. The Honor System ensured that women were acting “in accordance with standards of honesty and truthfulness,” and allowed women to take any of their exams outside of the classroom.[7] The final behavioral standard that the women set for themselves was the Personal Integrity System, which emphasized the idea that even if there is no written rule regarding specific behaviors, the women of Centre were expected to act responsibly with integrity in all situations.[8]

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Segment from the Centre College Cento
that asked KCW students how they felt
about the upcoming physical merge with
Centre's campus. 

As a result of their proximity, it was easy to monitor one another and hold each other to a high standard in all things. However, it was not the fear of reprimand that ensured upright behavior, but rather the sense of unity and mutual responsibility that the women felt toward one another. There was a warm spirit of sisterhood at K.C.W., where all the women lived together in a single building, ate all of their meals together in the K.C.W. dining hall, and bussed to Centre’s main campus together. Those feelings of community emerged clearly when the women expressed reluctance and discontent when the time came to move from their old dormitories at K.C.W. to the newly-build residence halls on Centre’s main campus. In a column in the Cento, women shared their feelings about the merge. Nan Lobaugh wrote that she “hated the idea of dressing for dinner with the boys,” and Nelsie Deloteus said, “The majority of us hate to leave K.C.W., [but] no amount of complaining will change it.” Pat Howell worried that the sense of “togetherness” would be lost, while Brownie Rogers feared that the women would “become second class citizens,” after the move.[9] At K.C.W., the women had governed themselves and created a community of women who looked after one another. The Kentucky College for Women was a special place where women felt connected to one another, a feeling they did not want to risk losing as they made their move to their new home on West Main Street. 

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Women moving into the newly-built Acheson-Caldwell House in January of 1962. 

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The interior a two-person dorimitory room in Acheson-Caldwell House on Centre's main campus. Photograph taken June of 1962.  

These fears turned out to be unwarranted. The feeling of connection and camaraderie existed for many years after K.C.W.’s formal integration. Along with their tight-knit friendships, the women of K.C.W. brought a culture of mutual respect and high standards to Centre’s main campus. In several interviews, alumni were asked about moments when female classmates would break rules or try to bend them to get their way. Each time, the women said no, they never – or very infrequently – heard of misbehavior by their female peers.[10] The close ties that residence life provided these women, along with their shared career goals and the expectations that Centre had placed on them, made it easy for these women to maintain excellence in all areas of college life. Even though they were closely monitored on both campuses, the women were happy to be together.[11] Institutional policies and societal norms had clumped them together, which meant that they were all under the same rules and expectations. Additionally, the absence of Greek life and lack of athletics for women allowed the women’s campus to remain unified, rather than split into small friend groups surrounding Greek organizations or sports. Betsy Wilt (Class of 1965) recalled that women usually identified with the female members of their academic class, rather than with a club or other extracurricular.[12] Although they had lost the luxury of their beautiful and spacious rooms in Morgan Hall, West Hall, and East Hall, the women who moved from K.C.W.’s campus to Centre’s campus had not lost their culture of a united women’s campus along the way.

Along with the sense of community that came from residential life at Centre, many women also shared academic interests. A scan through the senior class sections in the yearbooks of the early-to-mid 1960s shows a striking divide between the majors chosen by men and women. Although there were almost no majors of only one sex – with the exception of the Home Economics program that ended in 1964,[13] which was only female – some majors were dominated by women and others by men. Women dominated the Education and English majors, while many men majored in Business Administration, Economics, or the sciences. There were, of course, women who majored in male-dominated areas, like Chemistry, Biology, or Psychology, and men who majored in Education and English. However, those students were in the minority of their majors, at least until the second half of the 1960s, when majors began to diversify in terms of gender.[14]

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The (mostly-female) membership of the SNEA in 1963. 

Many women shared the common goal of becoming a teacher after graduation, regardless of their major.[15] Female membership in the Student National Education Association (S.N.E.A), a club intended for future educators, was tremendous. From 1960-1967, there were only 7 male members of S.N.E.A., as opposed to the 173 female members during that same period.[16] The S.N.E.A was the largest pre-professional group on campus in the 1960s. While teaching has been an historically female-dominated field, Centre women had the unique experience of sharing these goals while also sharing the educational experience at Centre. Although many of the women we interviewed said they never felt like they were treated differently in even the most male-dominated classrooms,[17] women were treated differently in terms of the information they were expected to know upon graduation. Outside of the information and skills necessary to achieve their career goals, part of their curriculum was proper decorum and social skills.

In one of their required courses,[18] Centre women learned how to hold a plate and cup while sitting down and standing up for picnics and how to properly smoke a cigarette (always sitting down). This may have been a tradition carried over from K.C.W., which incorporated elements of a finishing school into their curriculum.[19] Other than their lessons in appropriate behavior, women at Centre said they never felt as though their womanhood determined how they were treated in the classroom. As a result of the respect she got as a female student, Jane Skidmore remarked that she graduated from Centre feeling empowered, confident, and excited to start her career. She remarked that she never felt discriminated against or held to a different academic standard than any of the men in her classes, and neither did her friends.[20] Although there was a clear gender divide in majors, women at Centre were given a level of respect in the classroom that had not been afforded to many women across the nation before Title IX passed in 1972.[21]

Outside of the classroom, women at Centre were subject to a set of behavioral standards – and the watchful eye of administrators[22] that did not apply equally to the men of the college. Some of the strictest policies for the women involved residence life, public behavior, and public appearance. Prior to 1962, when all of the female students moved from their dormitories at K.C.W. to the newly-built buildings on Centre’s main campus, women’s residence halls were almost a mile from men’s residence halls. After 1962, the women’s dormitories – the Acheson, Caldwell, Yerkes, Cheek, and Evans Houses – were still a cross-campus trek from the men’s dwellings. In the dormitories at both K.C.W. and Centre’s campuses, women’s activities were monitored and recorded. This institutional supervision included – but was not limited to – sign-out sheets in women’s residence halls and strict regulations for public dress. These policies was common among many coeducational universities, but many of the traditions that had been carried over from K.C.W. were rooted in the idea that schools were not just a place of learning curriculum, but a place of learning how to behave.

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Cover of the 1964-1965 Official Women's Handybook, created by the Women's Student Government Association. 

The Women’s Student Government Association created the Official Women’s Handybook for 1964-1965, which detailed the “rules and principles” which were to guide the lives of women at Centre. The Handybook notes that any woman who does not expect to be back in the dormitory by 7:00 p.m. on any given night must be signed out in the residence book – she must return by 10:30 p.m. on Monday-Thursday, or a bit later on Friday-Sunday nights. According to the pamphlet, women were not allowed to leave campus before 6:00 a.m. without prior approval nor “leave the campus alone after dark unless she is driving a car.”[23] Freshmen women were allotted 4 “engagements” (defined as “any activity other than study in one’s room, study in the library (without the aid of a boy), play practice, language movies, and community concerts”) per week. If she was with a boy during an engagement, she had to note that on the sign-out sheet as a “date.”[24]

In addition to these residential regulations, which did not exist for the men’s dormitories, women were also expected to dress and behave in a ladylike fashion while in public. This expectation was also placed on the men, but were not outlined in the same detail as the women’s guidelines. The Handybook includes expectations for women’s dress in public: “regular school clothes are required, such as skirts and blouses, sweaters and skirts, or casual dresses.” It also reminds women that they were not permitted to be barefoot or have their hair in rollers on the first two floors of the residence halls.[25]Like bare-footedness and hair rollers in the public parts of the residence halls, public intoxication was prohibited. Betsy Wilt (Class of 1964) recalled that you could be cited if you were not in the correct attire.[26] Unlike other missteps, intoxication was grounds for suspension or dismissal.[27]

Men were upheld to similar standards of dress, but were allowed to wear sportswear in public so long as they were also wearing a collared shirt, shoes, and socks.[28] The “Men’s Regulations” portion of the Student Handbook outlines dormitory information that is common in student handbooks today –a prohibition of electrical appliances, information on where to go if there’s a fire, and what to do if you want a new roommate. However, there is no mention of male residence hall closing times, sign-out sheets, or expectations for dress while in the dormitory’s communal spaces. In regard to intoxication, the same sanctions applied to men; however, they were permitted to drink openly in the fraternity houses. Reprimand for public intoxication was likely reserved for cases of disorderliness or rowdiness. Women at Centre noticed this discrepancy in freedom between the men and women, but some say that they did not mind all the rules and regulations that came with being a woman at Centre. Betsy Wilt (Class of 1965) says that they “didn’t question it.”[29] Women saw their education at Centre as having two purposes: teaching them how to think and how to act.

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From left to right: Jane Skidmore (Blair), Mary Jane Marcum (Brown), Mary Paxton Colley (Durr), Sharon Belding (Allen), and Margaret Boone (Brewer). Former hallmates from West Hall of the Kentucky College for Women on a trip to Waynesville, North Carolina. 

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Some members of the Class of 1964 gathered to celebrate their collective 60th birthdays at the Sourwood Inn near Ashville, North Carolina. 

While one alumni noted that the sense of community between the women was partially lost after they moved into the new dormitories on Centre’s main campus,[30] many of our interviewees talked about the lifelong friendships they formed at Centre. Several referred to the women’s population as “one big sorority,” where everyone did everything together and knew each other personally.[31]In fact, Jane Skidmore (Class of 1964) and Peggy Carthrae (Class of 1966) said that they didn’t need sororities on campus for that very reason – it was as though they already had one.[32] Betsy Wilt (Class of 1965) recalled that she had a “big sister” her freshman year, who acted as a mentor and “looked after [her].”[33]

The women of Centre College, both before and after their formal integration to Centre’s main campus, held many things in common. Although they feared that their transition to Centre’s campus would lead to a loss of community, the women’s campus maintained a culture of close-knit friendship long after the move to West Main Street. Centre women shared the notion that earning a degree at Centre would be a rewarding intellectual challenge. When they left Centre, however, they had gained more than just a degree. Along with the habits and traditions that had been passed down from K.C.W., these women shared close quarters in their residence halls and in their classrooms, which were sometimes as gendered as their dormitories. Living in the residence halls, the women of Centre formed extraordinarily close friendships. As a result of the care they had for one another, the women’s campus did not need the College to enforce high standards of behavior because they held one another to those standards on their own. Centre’s female-specific policies that mandated a curfew, appropriate dress, and “ladylike” behavior reinforced the sense of community among the women. The culture that the women’s campus inherited from K.C.W. along with these shared expectations made it easy for the women to form intimate friendships that have withstood the tests of time, distance, and even a pandemic. Although their time at Centre College has passed, the friendships and memories made at Centre remain.

 

Bibliography

[1]Lory Emory, editor, “The Official Women's Handybook: how to play ball at Centre College: girls' rules,” Centre College Digital Archives, accessed May 13, 2021.

[2]Judi Royalty, interviewed by Matthew Rollo, March 1, 2021, Centre College Digital Archives, Grace Doherty Library, Centre College, Danville, Kentucky.

[3]Old Centre 1930,” Centre College Digital Archives, accessed May 13, 2021.

[4]Willoughby, Brian J., Jason S. Carroll, William J. Marshall, and Caitlin Clark. “The Decline of In Loco Parentis and the Shift to Coed Housing on College Campuses.” Journal of Adolescent Research 24, no. 1 (January 2009): 21–36.

[5]Lory Emory, editor, “The Official Women's Handybook: how to play ball at Centre College: girls' rules,” Centre College Digital Archives, accessed May 13, 2021, p. 3.

[6]Lory Emory, editor, “The Official Women's Handybook: how to play ball at Centre College: girls' rules,” Centre College Digital Archives, accessed May 13, 2021, p. 4.

[7]Lory Emory, editor, “The Official Women's Handybook: how to play ball at Centre College: girls' rules,” Centre College Digital Archives, accessed May 13, 2021, p. 5

[8]Lory Emory, editor, “The Official Women's Handybook: how to play ball at Centre College: girls' rules,” Centre College Digital Archives, accessed May 13, 2021, p. 7.

[9]"Question of the Week," Centre College Cento, October 12, 1961, Centre College Institutional Repository Collection, Grace Doherty Library, Centre College, Danville, Kentucky.

[10]Jane Skidmore, interviewed by Kiley Short, March 15, 2021, Centre College Digital Archives, Grace Doherty Library, Centre College, Danville, Kentucky and Betty Hauser, interviewed by Kiley Short, April 14th, 2021, Centre College Digital Archives, Grace Doherty Library, Centre College, Danville, Kentucky.

[11]Betsy Wit, interviewed by Natalie Warren, February 25, 2021, Centre College Digital Archives, Grace Doherty Library, Centre College, Danville, Kentucky.

[12]Ibid.

[13]Pattie McCollom, editor, “Centre College Student Handbook 1964-1965,” Centre College Digital Archives, accessed May 13, 2021.

[14]Olde Centre” 1965-1969, Centre College Digital Archives, accessed May 13, 2021. 

[15]Jane Skidmore, interviewed by Kiley Short, March 15, 2021, Centre College Digital Archives, Grace Doherty Library, Centre College, Danville, Kentucky.

[16]Olde Centre” 1960-1967, Centre College Digital Archives, accessed May 13, 2021. 

[17]Jane Skidmore, interviewed by Kiley Short, March 15, 2021, Centre College Digital Archives, Grace Doherty Library, Centre College, Danville, Kentucky.

[18]Jane Skidmore, interviewed by Kiley Short, March 15, 2021, Centre College Digital Archives, Grace Doherty Library, Centre College, Danville, Kentucky.

[19]Ibid.  

[20]Ibid.

[21]O'Reilly, Patricia, and Kathryn Borman. "Sexism and Sex Discrimination in Education." Theory Into Practice 26 (1987): 490-96. Accessed May 13, 2021.

[22]Jane Skidmore, interviewed by Kiley Short, March 15, 2021, Centre College Digital Archives, Grace Doherty Library, Centre College, Danville, Kentucky.

[23]Lory Emory, editor, “The Official Women's Handybook: how to play ball at Centre College: girls' rules,” Centre College Digital Archives, accessed May 13, 2021, p. 12

[24]Ibid.

[25]Ibid.  

[26]Betsy Wit, interviewed by Natalie Warren, February 25, 2021, Centre College Digital Archives, Grace Doherty Library, Centre College, Danville, Kentucky.

[27]Lory Emory, editor, “The Official Women's Handybook: how to play ball at Centre College: girls' rules,” Centre College Digital Archives, accessed May 13, 2021, p. 20.

[28]Student Handbook, 1964-1965, p. 8

[29]Betsy Wit, interviewed by Natalie Warren, February 25, 2021, Centre College Digital Archives, Grace Doherty Library, Centre College, Danville, Kentucky.

[30]Ibid.

[31]Centre College, “Kentucky College For Women,” YouTube video, 5:22, May 1, 2019. 

[32]Peggy Carthrae, interviewed by Aspen Waldron, March 4, 2021, Centre College Digital Archives, Grace Doherty Library, Centre College, Danville, Kentucky.

[33]Betsy Wit, interviewed by Natalie Warren, February 25, 2021, Centre College Digital Archives, Grace Doherty Library, Centre College, Danville, Kentucky.