Policies, Problems, and Potential:

Shifts that Affected the Landscape of Higher Education in the 1970s

In the 1970s, a variety of changes impacted higher education in America. Women were entering the workforce in greater numbers, equipped with the skills they had learned in college. Rights for 18-year olds were shifting, including the legalization of abortion and a lower drinking age. Beyond these factors, HBCUs (historically black colleges and universities) were still underfunded and underserved, despite the fact that these institutions were providing crucial cultural and social learning environments for black students.

Policies, Problems, and Potential:

In the 1970s, more women were entering the workforce. Women were learning valuable technical and administrative skills in college, which would prepare them for careers outside the home. This photo shows a student working on a Datapoint 6600 computer in Baylor’s Hankamer Business School. However, the expanding female workforce was a concern to many individuals.

In a 1974 letter to Texas Senator Don Adams, Professor Fred Rodewald from Stephen F. Austin State University shared his concerns about faculty wives working. He wrote: “But when a man’s wife works, he has more domestic responsibilities and chores that take time away from his school work” (Rodewald, 1974). Rodewald suggested that lack of adequate state funding for faculty salaries was the cause of faculty wives working, which in turn made professors’ jobs harder, and by extension, led to poorer quality of instruction. This may illustrate tensions between rapid advancement for women in the 1970s and gender role expectations at home, as well as the effects of inflation on salaries, and consequently, family norms.

Rodewald, F. (1974, October 29). [Letter to Don Adams]. Donald G. Adams Papers, Accession #33, Box #16, Folder #9, The Baylor Collections of Political Materials, W. R. Poage Legislative Library, Baylor University.

This 1973 edition of the Baylor student newspaper highlighted legislature that was relevant to college students at the time. Abortion, listed in the article under “medical care without parental consent”, was recently legalized, was available without parental consent for 18 year olds, and was on the minds of many at the time. In 1971, the legal age to buy alcohol was changed from 21 years old to 18 (and would eventually be raised back to 21 in 1986). This article offers a glimpse into legal rights of college students in the 1970s.

*Beginning at 18:20 and ending at 19:06*

Overviews of higher education history often omit marginalized voices, so it is important to note the HBCU experience in the 1970s. In this audio clip, Takeisa Fontenot is interviewed about her experiences attending Prairie View A&M, a land-grant institution and the oldest HBCU in the state. Fontenot discussed the sense of warmth and familiarity she experienced while in school. Despite the good work happening at HBCUs, they were still tragically underfunded, as a Prairie View Robert Haywood alumnus wrote to Senator Adams in 1973. Haywood implored Adams to “restore a fair share of its budget”, writing that the school
will be crippled without it (1973).

Haywood, R. (1973, April 9). [Letter to Don Adams]. Donald G. Adams Papers, Accession #33, Box #16, Folder #9, The Baylor Collections of Political Materials, W. R. Poage Legislative Library, Baylor University.

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