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hi today I'm going to talk about an item from our mississippiana collection
today I'm going to talk about the Miss Southern Handbook
This is the handbook, from Southern Miss in 1964, for women
at the time there was no handbook for men
unfortunately, but the women did have some guidelines by which to live by
while here at USM
For instance, there is a whole section just on campus attire
so, just to read a little bit of it, to get a sense: a buttoned raincoats or skirt is to be worn
over the sports attire when going to the physical education building or playing
fields
the pool, lake, bowling, or parties where spors atire is appropriate
the back or side door must be used when sportswear is worn at night. The girl must
return to the dormitory 15 minutes before the dormitory closes in order to use the side door
which is closed fifteen minutes before the front doors are closed. There are a variety
of different guidelines for women and including you can't be seen riding in cars
with boys, you can't go into town with boys
which at that time was downtown hattiesburg
because USM, when it was first built in the teens
was the end of the trolley line, it was the middle of no-where
Other guidelines they have
are to make sure that you clean up after yourself because
your mother isn't here to do it anymore
different things about smoking you know you can't smoke at all
freshmen had to wear beanies, wear little hats
One of the things that I like best, that makes me giggle is that at the back of the book
there is this paragraph called "you...your mother's daughter"
and it says "you have come to USM to fulfill a dream, and if
not yours, perhaps your families
you are all that we have by which to judge this family who loves you dearly and who wants
the many joys and satisfactions
which can come with a successful college life
let the patient and careful training which you have received at home
be reflected in your life at college
and you will find that you are not only justifying your families fait in you but also you will be making a
happy adjustment here"
so that's basically the "don't screw up" paragraph because it will reflect not only
on you but your entire family
So I don't know if these actually worked on women, I assume they did
but it is another little interesting tidbit we have here on the history
of USM