UMHB Marks 50 Years of Going Coeducational

HOW IT ALL STARTED

Seeing men on campus attending classes wasn’t unusual. It had been the norm since 1922, when the acclaimed John C. Hardy had served as president. He created the “Campus Boys” program, a select group of 12 upstanding young men who lived on campus and worked in exchange for tuition. Throughout the years, other male “day students” were allowed to attend class­es and obtain up to 90 hours of coursework. When the male students reached 90 hours, however, they had to finish their degrees elsewhere, and the nearest schools that offered bachelor’s degrees were in Austin and Waco.

In the spring of 1968, the board of trustees recog­nized that it was a hardship for men to leave Belton to finish their schooling, especially when many of them were married and starting families. The board decided to allow men to be granted degrees “as a community service.” Men were finally allowed to finish their de­grees at Mary Hardin-Baylor!

However, because of the resistance, male gradu­ates were not allowed to walk the graduation stage to receive their diplomas with their female classmates, but instead had “special arrangements.”

The first male graduate, James P. Smith, a soldier from Fort Hood, quietly received his diploma in 1968. In 1969, the male graduates received their diplomas at a baccalaureate ceremony the day before the women walked across the stage. Two years later, the males were allowed to be in the chapel for the graduation ceremony, but not to march across the stage.

“We sat on the left side of the auditori­um and they brought our diplomas to us on the side,” said Bill Elliott ’71. “I didn’t feel bad. I sort of chuckled. I knew every­body in the class and we were all togeth­er, so it didn’t matter at the time.”

According to Carol Younger’s biog­raphy, The Parker Years: A Bridge to the Future, the board of trustees knew that the current practice of graduating men (but not permitting them to participate in any campus activities like graduation ceremo­nies) was “not only wrong but illegal.”

In July, trustees realized they had to make a decision. Faced with breaking federal regulations concerning accredita­tion, the board was forced to either return to the status of an all-women’s school (which would have led to bankruptcy) or embrace the idea of going coed. To make matters even more complicated, Dr. William Tanner, who had served as president the last three years, had just left to serve as president at Oklahoma Bap­tist University. In his absence, Dr. Bobby Parker, who had worked as vice president for the last two years, was named interim president until trustees could find a new president. Even though Parker was known for wearing a proverbial “black hat” during his tenure as vice president, faculty, staff, and others wrote letters to the trustees in support of Parker taking the helm during this tumultuous time. He was named president, effective Aug. 1, 1971, just eight days after the college had gone coed.

“If it hadn’t been for Bobby Parker, we wouldn’t have a university,” said Bobby Johnson ’76, who worked under Parker’s administration as director of alumni development.

Even though Parker bore the brunt of those who were opposed to going coed, he forged forward with a new vision and new ideas to help the school stay open.

It wasn’t an easy path by any means, said Parker’s wife of 53 years, Marietta Parker, who is now 96. Just like it was yesterday, she remembers serving alongside her husband those first few years after going coed.

“In (Younger’s) book, it sounds like everyone was just thrilled to death that he was named president, but that was not so,” Marietta recalls.

“Half the faculty was aggravated, many of the alum­nae were opposed to it, and we were a million dollars in debt,” she said. “Everyone said they wouldn’t blame Bobby for going coed, but they did.”

The Parkers received threatening letters and calls, but trudged ahead. “I have told people that I was the mother of coed of Mary Hardin-Baylor and it was a long and painful birth!” Marietta said with a laugh.

According to Gayle Crain, who served as interim alumni secretary during the first year after going coed, “Dr. Parker saw the direction that the college needed to go and led in that direction—at great cost to himself. He endured a great deal of opposition and criticism from opponents, but he stood fast and provided lead­ership that led to the development of a university that serves hundreds more students per year than we ever dreamed possible just a few years before.”

Younger wrote that Parker's presidency “will go down in future history books as a time of healing, growth, expansion, and significant stretching toward the goal of academic excellence.” Forging a new path under Parker’s leadership, the almost bankrupt college’s financial condition began to improve and by the early 1980s found itself standing on solid financial footing.

A NEW BEGINNING - WALKING THE STAGE

At the end of the fall semester in 1971, male gradu­ates were allowed for the first time to walk the gradu­ation stage and receive their diplomas alongside their female classmates.

Dennis Thornblom ’71 was working as a Campus Boy at MHB and vividly remembers being one of the first males to walk. He also proudly recalls being one of the first men to get to go through the infamous “Slime Line” initiation.

“I still have my freshman beanie in a memory box at home,” he said. “I am grateful to the college for giving me the opportunity to lay the foundation of my education.”

Bill Saunders ’70 remembers when he came as a Campus Boy, just one year prior to Dennis. He said there was a closeness among students, but that men were still excluded from participating in athletics, hold­ing office positions, and joining in traditions like the Easter Pageant.

“We were pretty much excluded from everything,” he said. “We were just here to do our work and go to school and that was it.”

Carolyn (Foster) Reed ’71 served as student body president in 1970 just prior to turning coed. Apparent­ly in force to keep male students in “their place,” she recalls some amusing rules in the student handbook that she helped rewrite that year, including one that stated: “A girl could not sit in a chair a male had gotten out of for 15 minutes until it had time to cool off.”

John Austin ’71 said there was also a rule that “no male student could drink out of a water fountain that a girl had just drunk from until a certain amount of time had passed.”

John graduated just prior to the July 24 vote to go coed and remembers being told they were not able to march with the women.

“We were just so happy to get the degree, we didn’t mind,” he said. “We sat several rows back and they just handed the diplomas to us. We weren’t upset at all. In fact, we didn’t know we should have been upset until we were invited to march two years ago,” he said, referring to the invitation he received from UMHB in 2018, inviting him to officially walk across the stage at the spring commencement ceremony on May 5. The university paid special tribute to the first male gradu­ates of UMHB by asking all males from the classes of 1968 to 1971 to return to campus for a special recog­nition at commencement. Eleven men, including John, came and participated in the ceremony and were given the chance to finally walk across the graduation stage—almost 50 years later!

Arthur “Yogi” Prinz remembers when he received his invitation and thinking it was “silly.” After all, it had been 49 years! After his daughters, who are also UMHB grads, convinced him to do it, he now says he’s glad he did, and it meant the world to him and his family. “There was a subtlety that I had never experi­enced at that level. I’m glad UMHB did that for us.”

Even though he and his male classmates were originally excluded from walking the stage with their female counterparts, Yogi can honestly say he’s never held a grudge. The self-described “Crusader at heart” says it was a good experience for him.

“I’m proud of the school. I’m proud that I’m a grad­uate, and, I’m proud I walked across the stage.”

GLORY TO GOD

Going coed may have been the “single most import­ant decision Mary Hardin-Baylor College faced in the second half of the 20th century,” Younger wrote, but many who were familiar with the circumstances know that God put the right man in the right place at the right time.

“Our first five years (at MHB) were hard ones,” said Marietta Parker. “Nobody realizes just how little my husband slept those first five years. Many early morn­ing hours were spent in his study, praying, seeking the Lord’s will.”

In a 1985 speech at the Second Century trustee dinner, Dr. Bobby Parker reflected on the tough de­cisions and hard work so many members of his team faced in saving the college.

“The people in this room saw the need for a plan and stood by the plan,” he said during the speech. “Yes, a lump comes to my throat as I look upon your fac­es—those who saw the need of a coeducational Mary Hardin-Baylor. We are a full-grown co-educational institution. As such, we have faith in ourselves and in the future because of our faith in God.”