To be a female student at Baylor in the 1930s required following a lot of rules — and we mean A LOT!
Each academic year, Baylor would develop a Handbook for Dormitory Women detailing the expectations female students were expected to abide by during their time studying at Baylor.
Young women at Baylor were encouraged to keep their handbooks at the ready for their first few weeks at the University. After all, they couldn’t be expected to memorize all those rules right off the bat.
The handbook includes a packing list detailing the clothing women should bring — cotton and knitted dresses, skirts, and sweaters for daytime wear and a silk or woolen dress for Sundays. They also suggest a more formal dress for special occasions. No slacks were allowed, and any “gymnasium suit” or “bathing suit” had to be covered by a skirt while on campus.
Any woman in the dorm was required to take each of her meals in the dining hall, which was probably best considering the dorm rooms themselves were subject to frequent cleanliness inspections. They were expected to come to meals well dressed and not to bring any of their books.
The handbook emphasized maintaining quietness in the dormitories, especially on Sundays. Alarm clocks were forbidden and “perfect quiet” was required every day from 11:00 p.m to 6:45 a.m.
Talking to a “gentleman” for more than 20 minutes constituted a date. Freshman girls were only allowed to have two evening dates a week. Sophomores were allowed three evening dates a week, one of which could be on a school night, and juniors and seniors were allowed to date at their own discretion. Of course, it was absolutely forbidden for a young woman to show a man her room unless it was a member of her own family and there was a chaperone with them.
These are just a few of the many rules that Baylor women followed back in the day. Can you imagine not being allowed to wear shorts in this Texas heat?
