Lincoln Hall Project
Surviving the Crash
Principles in Tense Times
Keep off the Grass
During the Great Depression, students were bound by strict measures to uphold campus decorum. Smoking was not allowed on campus, and neither was walking on campus lawns or picking flowers. “They had two policemen on the force then,” recalled the late Aurelio (Joe) Florio, class of 1934, to University of Illinois Archives researchers, in 2001. “Old Pete with a big cane roamed around the campus, and if he saw anyone roaming on the grass…he’d blow that whistle and say, ‘Get off the campus, get off the campus!’”
Cars and Morality
Students weren’t allowed to have an automobile on campus unless it was absolutely necessary. The University cited safety and “moral” concerns in defending the unpopular rule. “We have a certain responsibility to try to help create an environment which is favorable and stimulating to character,” President Chase wrote to a dissenter, in January 1933. “With our large registration of women I am not in favor of allowing students to drive freely about the country.”
A Proper Protector of Women
Women on campus during the Great Depression were presided over by Maria Leonard, dean of women. She assisted female students in a wide variety of academic and personal affairs, but she also was remembered for upholding standards for female students that were considered oddly stringent even then. Her rules for women’s rooming houses included thoughts on how long a woman should keep a man waiting when he arrived for a date, dinnertime conversation, living room behavior, and the location of electrical switches so male visitors could not turn off the lights. Female students also received verbal warnings against sitting on men’s laps, wearing red, or drinking at public water fountains for fear their lips would appear too luscious.
A Wild Streak
Despite the Great Depression—or maybe because of it—student stress relief could get out of hand. In the words of one former student, campus was “wild” on April 7, 1933, when Prohibition was partially lifted, allowing the sale of beer consisting of 3 percent alcohol (derisively called “Near Beer” until students added alcohol from the chemistry labs). Another point of mayhem was a spring tradition called cap burning, when men would burn green beanies that they were required to wear during their freshman year. In 1931 it bloomed into a riot with mud fights, nudity, and the storming of sorority houses (in that order). Administrators promptly put an end to cap burnings and the Class of 1934 was stripped of the Sophomore Cotillion the following year. Editorials blamed fraternities for encouraging the tradition, and also administrators for “suppressing” students with strict rules.