Sally Knowles attended Winthrop College from 1968 to 1972 and experienced the school’s transition to welcoming male enrollment.
Even though men were enrolling in the college, there were no on-campus living spaces for them.
Knowles lived in McLaurin her freshman year, which did not have AC units and required students to share a hall community bathroom. During her sophomore year, she had the opportunity to live in Phelps Hall where her room was right over the boiler room, which kept the room hot all year.
“There was sort of a lottery for dorm rooms,” Knowles said. “I remember lining up very early in the morning in front of the housing office on the day we could request a room. Some dorms were more desirable than others. I was able to have the same room in Thomson two years in a row because you had priority for a room you were occupying.”
During this time, Winthrop College had strict rules and regulations that required students living on campus to follow.
“The rules on campus were very strict,” Knowles said. “Freshmen had to be in their dorm rooms from 7 pm to 10 pm for quiet hours and there was always a roar on the hall at 10:01 pm.”
During her time at Winthrop College, the residents were required to sign out on cards that were kept in the “House Mother’s Office” anytime they were leaving campus. On these cards, they would state where they were going, how they were getting there, who they were going to be with, and when they would be back.
“Something younger generations will find interesting is that there were no telephones in the dorm rooms,” Knowles said. “Calls came in through a dorm switchboard. Each room had a buzzer, and each occupant was assigned either one buzz or two. Then there was a code for a local call, a long-distance call, and a visitor in the parlor.”
The parlor is also where the residents would visit with their dates since no men were allowed in the halls. There were exceptions for male students who were helping students move in or if they were maintenance.
Anytime there was a man in the halls, “you heard the announcement of man on the hall.’”
One thing that Knowles remembers about living in the dorms was the frequent fire drills.
“It was always a concern that there would be a fire drill when one was taking a shower,” Knowles said. “We had to wear hard-soled shoes, a raincoat, carry a flashlight, and have a towel around our necks. Periodically, the fire drill would be a ‘black out’ and all lights in the dorms were disabled. Present students may have noticed the tubes coming from some of the older dorms. Those were fire escapes that were not being used by the time I was there.”
While living in the dorms, Knowles enjoyed the sense of community that was created among the women.
“I have many enduring friendships from my years at Winthrop,” Knowles said. “There were no social sororities on campus but the camaraderie in the dormitories and within class years served some of the same roles as sororities. Each dorm had a song and there was an annual competition with Classes Night, where each class created and performed a skit on an assigned theme.”
Knowles shared her memory of her and a group of friends going into Thomson cafeteria after hours to get ice cream, and one time held a séance.
During the week, the women were required to wear dresses or skirts to classes and the dining halls, McBryde or Thomson, on the weekends because there were usually parents and visitors on campus.
“We were able to wear slacks to class starting in my sophomore year,” Knowles said. “I remember one chemistry professor saying he thought it wasn’t a good idea for us to wear skirts and have our legs exposed in a lab. Of course, then our skirts were way above our knees! It was the beginning of the “hippie age” so we all had to have authentic bell bottoms. I had a pair that shrank in length, so I modified them with curtain fringe – how cool was I!”
Knowles remembers the movies that would be played in Byrnes Auditorium on Saturday nights.
“[They] were affectionately called “Old Maid Movies” since we attended when we didn’t have dates,” Knowles said.
For fun, the students would go off campus to get ice cream, visit Glencairn Gardens, and travel to Charlotte.
Knowles shared that she got an excellent education which prepared her for graduate school and employment. She also earned teaching assistant positions as a student.
“Professors were excellent and took an interest in ensuring we got an excellent education,” Knowles said. “Both the biology and chemistry professors wanted us to be exposed to those sciences in the real world. We went to professional meetings with them and helped arrange on-campus lecture series. It was nice being so involved and I believe that was because of the small class sizes at Winthrop.”
Knowles was in several national honorary organizations associated with her degree, such as Beta Beta Beta and Zeta Alpha.
“I think there was more emphasis on excelling academically as a woman since there weren’t men on campus to marginalize us,” Knowles said.
Knowles graduated with a major in biology and a chemistry minor. She went on to get a master’s degree in chemistry from the University of South Carolina. After graduating she worked at an oceanographic institute and retired from DHEC in 2006 where she worked in water quality protection. Until recently, Knowles volunteered at Congaree National Park in Columbia, SC where she would work in the visitors center and lead hikes of small groups.
“I was a biology major and chemistry minor, so my favorite classes were in those fields,” Knowles said. “I really liked Limnology (study of rivers and lakes) and the professor who taught it, Dr. Luckett Davis, was wonderful. He was probably my favorite professor. I think that course helped steer my career choice since I worked first at an oceanographic institute and then at the SC Department of Health and Environmental Control in water quality protection for 28 years.”
Knowles recently attended her 50th-year reunion from Winthrop College, now Winthrop University.
“It is hard to believe I graduated from Winthrop 50 years ago,” Knowles said. “The 50th reunion was a lot of fun and although we have aged, many look the same and we still have connections due to shared memories.”
