A contemporary undergraduate student at the University of Mississippi might be used to traffic jams around the Square, overwhelming options of courses to take and a campus that is connected to the globe through its programs. Three past graduates of UM, however, shed light on the very different school that they attended.
Leslie Westbrook, originally from Jackson, Miss. and currently living in Oxford, graduated from Ole Miss in 1968 with a bachelor’s degree in English and a minor in psychology.
Post-graduation, she was a longtime consumer research specialist at Procter and Gamble. She is now retired, but she still does consulting work. She is also a board member of the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics.
She reflected on how Ole Miss and Oxford have grown, compared to their size when she was on campus.
“Ole Miss still had a feeling of a small school,” Westbrook said. “Most students (then) did not have cars. So, we didn’t have the unbelievable parking problems that exist now. We had no buses. We walked to all classes and even walked to the Grove and the Square.”
Westbrook explained that at the time, strong cultural prejudices pushed women toward either teaching or nursing, degrees which most women students pursued. She challenged this standard and decided she would try for a career in marketing strategy and consumer research.
She still recalls a strong dress code particularly aimed at women.
“(Women) had to wear skirts Monday through Friday to class,” Westbrook said. “If you had a sport or gym and you had to wear shorts, you had to wear a raincoat over that if you had to be out on campus. You could wear slacks or pants after 5 p.m. on Friday until 8 a.m. Monday morning, otherwise you had to wear a shirt.”
This formal university culture gradually dissolved during the two following decades.
Jamie Peaster, from Yazoo City, Miss., is an original account manager for Taranis, which is an Israeli agriculture-tech company. He graduated from UM in 1987 with a bachelor of arts in history.
Peaster explained that during his time at UM, there was a casual atmosphere, with the overall culture of Oxford having a strong small-town feel.
“It really is true that everybody knew everybody, and it was almost like living in a small town,” Peaster said. “It wasn’t growing like it is now.”
The opportunities to join various clubs or get involved within a specific community were not as vast compared to the current time.
“I was involved with Reformed University Ministries,” Peaster said. “They had a big Campus Crusade group there and a big Navigators group. Then, each of the disciplines had their own little groups like engineering and the accountants and that sort of thing.”
Intramural sports were also very popular during the mid-’80s.
“We all had an intramural team that we created, and we had gatherings based on our intramural teams and things like that. We played everything from football, basketball, baseball (and) soccer,” Peaster said.
Kyle Pauly, from Reno, Nev., a 2020 Ole Miss graduate with a bachelor of science in chemistry, recounted recent development at the university.
“My first year at Ole Miss was the first year of our two-year bowl ban from football, and I felt like there was also a lot of just change going on when I was there,” Pauly said.
Pauly explained that the university always seemed to be evolving.
“We had two different head (football) coaches during that time,” Pauly said. “We were dealing with the (state) flag being changed to the new current Mississippi flag. They changed the mascot a couple of times when I was there, so I felt like the overall time that I was there felt almost like a big change period.”
Throughout UM’s history, Oxford has had a comfortable college town environment.
“Oxford and Ole Miss still feel small and still feel manageable and a good place to be,” Westbrook said. “It’s not like other campuses that have just gotten crazy, just overcrowded around the country. It’s still a great place to be in a great place to live.”
