In the 50 years since the 100th class graduated from Tufts College, it has been more involved in Tufts than any other group of students. But when these alumni return to campus next week as the honored guests at this year's commencement and for their 50th reunion, they will find that much has changed in the last 50 years.
Many alumni will stay in the dorms in which they resided as undergraduates half a century earlier - but they will find the facilities and the campus much different today. The bookstore was in Bendetson Hall on the academic quad, the library was in Eaton, and there was a University golf course. No one complained about having a closet single in the basement of Haskell and Wren then because those dorms were still 12 years from being built. Latin Way, South Hall, and the campus center also did not yet exist.
The student body was also quite different 50 years ago. The class of 1952 was much smaller and more homogeneous, but did have students of diverse religious backgrounds and a few international students. Also, at that time, women were students of Jackson College.
In 1952, tuition was approximately $625 for classes, board, and meals. Additionally, many of the people for whom buildings and other places on campus were named after were still active on campus. One such person was basketball and football coach Ellis.
Archives of the Tufts Weekly show that student concerns in 1952 were similar to concerns that students have today. Student government elections, later library hours, voting rules, and instituting an honor system for exams were just some of the issues that made the headlines.
Perhaps the biggest news in 1952 was University President Leonard Carmichael's announcement that he was leaving Tufts to become secretary at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC.
The social scene on campus was similar to the current scene, with students taking the T to Boston, fraternity parties (many of them in the same exact houses they are in today) on weekends, and school group socials on weeknights and weekends.
However, while many of the activities were the same, the time frame when socializing occurred was not. Weeknight social activities could not go past 10 p.m., as Jackson women had to be in their dorms for curfew. "Dorm mothers" checked in to see if the girls were in by 10 p.m. on weeknights and 12 a.m. on weekends.
"We had a dorm mother, we had called her the 'evil witch of the west' at the time," said Anne Torrey, who lived in Stratton Hall back in 1952 when she was Anne Jenkins, or "Jinx." "We were expected to have proper manners for ladies at the time."
According to Torrey, she loved living in Stratton Hall because it was the only dorm to have its own dining hall and back then was "very elegant."
One significant change on campus in the last 50 years has been the equalization of the male to female ratio.
"At Jackson College with maybe 100 girls in the whole class and 500 men, the odds were wonderful," Torrey said.
Male enrollment was high in 1952 with the return of men from the war, and the ratio was often joked about among students.
When Torrey returned to campus for homecoming last year, she noticed several changes in students life. Torrey, a former head cheerleader at Tufts, majored in education and was a sister of Sigma Kappa. Both her sorority and her major no longer exist at the University.
During homecoming, Torrey visited campus and met with the current Tufts cheerleaders. She observed many changes since she was head cheerleader; for one, there are now men on the team.
Also, past uniforms were much more conservative. Their uniforms consisted of brown slacks and heavy knit sweaters with a blue T and a megaphone.
"We could not show our legs, let alone our panties. We were Miss Prim and Proper," Torrey said."We did short cheers that everyone participated in and the student body was with us, and that doesn't happen today." The sports, however, teams competed against the same teams in 1952 as they do today.
As a member of the cheerleading team, Torrey was able to escape freshman hazing, a Tufts tradition that was once very popular.
"Freshmen girls had to wear green ribbons in their hair and guys had to wear beanies for first semester," Torrey said. The sophomore honor society, called the Sword and Shield, coordinated activities for its class and was in charge of freshmen hazing.
Another expired Tufts tradition that meant a great deal to students at the time was the Mayorality Campaign held every spring. The Mayor of Tufts was a position parallel to a homecoming king - an elected student with no real duties.
However, it involved highly competitive campaigns with campaign themes, posters, parades with elaborate floats and live horses, and parties throughout the week. At the end of the week, students voted for the Mayor of Tufts.
"The Mayoralty Campaign was a hoot and a holler, it was party time for five days," Torrey said. "Three or four students would compete, it was pretty much backed by the fraternities."
"You folks, without having seen it, can't imagine the energy and effort that went into those campaigns," Alan Bruns, another 1952 graduate, said.
His wife, Roberta Bruns (in 1952 she was Roberta Shepard), was also a member of the class of 1952. During her time at Tufts, she was a sister of Alpha Omicron Pi. She says that Greek life was bigger on campus in 1952 than it is now partly because there were more commuting students or "off-hill students," as they were called.
"That was a nice way to get the off-hill students to be more of a part of the non-academic side of the college life too," said Mrs. Bruns, who was also a member of the modern dance group and the Jackson archery team.
The Bruns are co-chairs of the 50th reunion. They are part of the Centennial Class Coordinating Committee (C4 for short), which plans reunions, publishes a bi-annual newsletter for their class, and meets back at campus twice a year. The class of 1952 has the highest rate of alumni participation ever - 65 percent.
The committee works to help reconnect the class of 1952 with each other and the students of today. Five years ago, they established the centennial scholarship for exceptional students, which has been awarded to five students from this year's graduating class.
Mr. and Mrs. Bruns met during their freshmen orientation at their advisor's meeting. They also had an English class together, but didn't start dating until their junior year.
Mr. Bruns, a physics major, recalls loving his dorm, West Hall, where the only showers were in the basement while he lived on the fourth floor. He played lacrosse and was also a brother of Theta Delta Chi and lived in the fraternity house on 123 Packard Ave., the same address it has today, for two years.
As a NROTC student, Mr. Bruns received a scholarship to attend a number of colleges from which he selected Tufts.
"In the NROTC I had a choice of 52 schools and I've always been happy that I chose Tufts. I enjoyed it," he said. "I wanted to pick up a coed school and I wanted a school that had lacrosse, and I didn't want a school that took too much pride in being Ivy League."
However, Mr. Bruns thinks the University has changed greatly since his time as a student.
"There were no midnight dashes through the park without any clothes on, and happily very little drugs," he said. "Alcohol was not as severe a problem as it is now."
Torrey agrees that there are many distractions for students and does not exactly like what college life has disintegrated into.
"Kids go into it for the experience, not the education, and it's a shame," Torrey said.
But she still thinks that college is a wonderful time and should be enjoyed. She still has her diploma, "a sheepskin" she calls it, tied in the brown and blue ribbon she received it in.
