Page 17 - To Dragma October 1930

JANUARY, 1930 JMy, IS

Oh, !

Says—

zJMiss zAnna <^Many, Pi

^ COLLEGE girls of today are not unconventional. They are as
conventional as the girls who attended this college when I did.
If anything they are even more strongly swayed by public

opinion," said Miss Anna Many, Counselor to Women of Newcomb Col-
lege.

She wore a sports sweater, very different from the costume teachers
donned twenty years ago. As she talked, a loud chatter rose, and the
hall outside filled with young women clad in short skirts and extremely
sparkling in their lipstick, rouge and bobs.

"Conventional behavior means the behavior approved by public
opinion. Usually a girl's conventions are the ones taught or permitted
by her parents.

"Of course young people are adventurous and whenever they get the
chance they like to edge a wee bit across the boundary line and then
look around to see who is watching.

"At any rate public opinion has been gradually changing all the time,
and when the war came along it compelled an emergency shake-up over-
night. Before the war I did not think of working. Then I joined a col-
lege Red Cross canteen and went to France in the last days of the conflict.
I came back with a discovery: I enjoyed working. I remained in Red
Cross service here and in Atlanta, Georgia, for two years and then be-
came affiliated with Xewcomb, my alma mater. M y whole outlook upon
life had been turned turtle, and for the better. Consider that I was only
one citizen of one of many nations that experienced the same jolt to pub-
lic opinion, and you can see what I mean.

"After the war, people were not unconventional, they were merely
living up to new conventions approved by the majority.

" I said college girls of today are probably even more observant of
public opinion. Newcomb has student government. This takes the re-
sponsibility of student behavior upon itself, and since it is composed of
voters and representatives from the homes of several states, and because
it feels its responsibility as a body tremendously, its actions are very
wisely conducted.

"Girls have an allotted number of nights out a month, each case de-
pending on grade and scholastic standing. The freshmen have one night
out a month, exclusive of holiday nights.

"The girls do not approve of smoking on the campus. That is one
instance of public opinion, as enforced by the students themselves. They
are also careful not to permit extremes in style that they believe is not
wise for the student body as a whole.

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