Post Author: minksc
The dating roadblocks present in the 1970s did not deter the students of Madison College from interacting with the opposite sex, both on and off campus. The school offered dating centers, and when Warren Hall Student Center opened in 1971 student’s had a more lively location to entertain their dates. Off campus, student’s would attend various Fraternity or college sponsored parties with their dates. Alumni, Susanne (Fitzpatrick) Myers, 1972-1976 and Joe Carico 1974-1978, offered two perspectives of dating at Madison College in the 1970s.
To Susanne Myers and her friends “There never seemed to be a shortage of men,” at Madison College in the 1970s, and there were always ways around the dating rules. The school rules aimed to keep male and female students from being alone with each other in a room. According to the rules of Madison College female students were required to meet their dates in the downstairs in the lobby of their dorm, female residents had to sign out of their dorms if leaving with a gentleman caller, and they were to be returned to that location before curfew. No male students were allowed upstairs in female dorms. According to Myers and Carico these rules did not always dictate the activities of the student body, and boys were often snuck up the staircases in girls dorms, but sneaking out was more difficult.
Students were not limited to covert operations in the girls’ dormitories, they had other options to see one another. Wilson Hall showed movies on weekends, and the Warren campus center offered beer and activities for students. On campus dating centers were available, for students looking for a quieter dating experience. Joe Carico saw no reason to leave campus, “Everything revolved around the dining hall and student center.”
Both Myers and Carico saw significant changes in the dating rules at Madison College. The rules became less constricting on the student body. This may not have had any effect on the activities of the students, it just legitimized them. The absence of these rules did not create more loose women or more dissolute men. Student publications, like The Breeze, report no notable increase in the number of student pregnancies, nor do they speak of mass orgies occurring on the weekends. The relaxation of dating regulations, just allowed students to date one another without having to jump through so many hoops to do so.
Carico, Joe, “Class Lecture,” History 337 Local History Workshop, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA, April 9, 2012.
Myers, Susanne, “Class Lecture,” History 337 History Workshop, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA, April 2, 2012.
“The Carrier Collection, 1965-1998” Collection Number PR 2000-0516B, Series One: Miscellaneous Administrative and University Business Files, Open Dormitories 1971-72, Special Collections, Carrier Library, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA.
Featured Image- Taken from The Bluestone 1971, 478, Special Collections, Carrier Library, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA.