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Kristin Collins Literature & Society Dr. Mike Sherry C.L.U.E. Project Bloomsburg Then vs. Bloomsburg Now

While studying the lives of college students today, I thought to myself how different we are from one another. Then I took it further in thinking, if we are so different from our own peers, how different are we as a college to generations in the past? What was Bloomsburg University like in the past compared to now? Was it a more strict school? How has it grown as a university? Were students interested in the same activities/sports teams that students are interested in now? During my studies, I will answer these questions with the use of my ethnographic knowledge. In //Ethnography//, Heath & Street describe ethnography as “observing, comparing, reflecting, and assessing.” (Heath & Street 2008, pg. 2) During this project, I used these guided terms to figure out everything there is to know about Bloomsburg in general. In my findings section you will find my observations compared to one another, and then my reflections and assessments. To answer my questions in the first section, I first interviewed the research center’s employee. He told me a lot of general points about the University and where to find some more details using the library’s website. I then looked in depth at the online collections of Bloomsburg University’s past. It contained yearbooks, student handbooks, catalogs, and pictures of everything since Bloomsburg University was established as an Academy in 1839. During my research I found that Bloomsburg as a university has changed a great deal, not only in size and popularity, but also it has grown immensely in the sense of regulations and education. During my PowerPoint slideshow I talk about the history of Bloomsburg a lot, mostly the campus’ growth but here I want to discuss how our education and regulations have changed as well. When the school was declared a literary institute and a state normal school they published documents stating rules, regulations, and just about Bloomsburg in general. In most of the earlier documents during the eighteen hundreds, some of the requirements were that you had to attend “Public Worship” on Sunday that your parents taught and afternoon classes dealing with worship. In the early 1900’s, one catalog stated that boys and girls were separated and during the school days you were not allowed to talk with one another. There were even hired faculty observing the students in the halls and around campus watching to make sure you were there for the education and the education only. If you were caught mingling with the opposite sex too much, they expelled you. One of the catalogs from the year of 1901 stated these rules as “character building.” They even stated as far as activates go, that you were required by the school to be involved in one extra-circular activity (40-50). Parents and guardians are requested to not send any packages or even call the students unless it is an absolute emergency. The catalog talks about inviting friends to your campus is distracting to the students as well as going home for a short amount of time. Students in the early 1900’s could enroll in the school at any time of the year, because there were classes being taught all year round. Students are also expected to supply their own appropriate clothing but are only allowed “12 articles of plain clothing in the wash per week. In 1901, school tuition summed up to around $460.00 for full year education and housing (40-50). In 1950, the education of the school turned more towards the teaching direction, hence the name State Teachers College. The cost of a full year’s education and housing cost around $600.00. Guests were now allowed but they had to be approved by the Dean of Women or the Dean of Men. Students taking gym classes were required to wear the gymnasiums’ uniforms provided to you at the school bookstore to be purchased. The laundry rule still applied where the students were only allowed 12 articles of clothing washed a week. The students were still required by the school to participate in any extra-circular activity (29-35). Students now had to apply to get into the Teachers College including coming for an interview. Students who were incoming freshman often got “bullied or hazed” by upperclassmen. They had to wear these beanie hats distinguishing them from the rest of the groups. They also had to wear a big sign over their clothes stating their name and where they were from. Upperclassmen often approached these students and asked many random questions about anything and the freshmen would have to answer correctly or else they were made fun of. This was a known trait throughout the school and was never looked down upon until around 1970 when Harvey Andruss left the school. Another thing that I found really interesting in my interviews was that there was a separate section in the school yearbooks just for drinking and partying. They actually had pictures of students at parties with alcohol in hands, and there was even a photo of a student doing a keg stand (Dunkelberger). In 2003, things were very different then the in the 1900’s. Now of course there are tons of not only undergraduate majors and minors but graduate degrees as well. Students are now given tests to see where they are at before entering college to make sure they are in the correct classes that they need to take. The college is a public college; therefore, it cannot force you to go to any religious ceremonies. Basically all of the rules and regulations that were once put in place before are banished. College rules and requirements are all geared towards your major or field work of choice. College in the current years is now a place of freedom combined with education (173-207). While looking in depth at the University’s policies and requirements, I found a great difference in just about everything. College is a place where you come to meet new people and get the education you need to further your life in the career path that you have chosen. When the school had first opened it had almost a negative look on everything besides education, while at Bloomsburg University today, we almost promote social interaction on an everyday basis. There are tons of clubs, sports teams, and just classes in general that have both the male and female genders, which back then would have had you expelled. During the school year students go home I would say quite often and even receive a lot of mail and packages from family members, especially if they live far away. I feel that college in the early 1900’s was taken very seriously and definitely stricter than in today’s society. I think this is true because while doing my time diaries, I found that it was a lot more common for people of generations before us to not go to college at all. In today’s society it is almost expected of you to go to college, if you want to get a decent job. I also found that a lot of the sports teams were the same throughout the years but the clubs varied a lot. The clubs were obviously mandatory in the earlier years as stated above but now I feel as if they do not have to be mandatory because most students want to be in those clubs or activities for various reasons. The clubs in the earlier years were also very limited to things like choral groups, the newspaper, and community government association. Bloomsburg University has grown as a college in so many ways. It has grown as a community of staff and students, and it has grown as the beautiful campus it is known for today. Bloomsburg University is a place where people come to get an education as well as an experience and everyone here at the University in 2011, makes that happen everyday. "Bloomsburg Univeristy of Pennsylvania undergraduate and graduate catalog." 173-207. //Collections: Digital Collections//. Web. 3 Oct 2011. <http://www.archive.org/stream/bloomsburguniver2002bloo "Circular of Information of the Bloomsburg Literary Institute and State Normal School." 40-50. //Collections: Digital Collections//. Web. 3 Oct 2011. <http://www.archive.org/stream/circularofinform1901bloo Dunkelberger, Robert. Personal Interview by Kristin Collins. 01 oct 2011. "State Teachers College bulletin. Annual Catalog." 29-35. //Collections: Digital Collections//. Web. 3 Oct 2011. <http://www.archive.org/stream/stateteacherscol1950bloo
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