SENIOR PRIVILEGES

A group of students from the 1910s

It’s probably very hard for a Centenary student of today to imagine what it was like to be at the school one hundred years ago. Here are a few of the Senior Privileges a student of that time could enjoy:

1. Seniors could study on campus or porches during regular study hours, if quiet.

2. Seniors could sit on the steps of the front porch after dinner and return to their dormitories by the front entrance.

3. Seniors could go to the farm between church and dinner on Sunday.

4. Seniors could walk to the farm with young men guests on any afternoon after three o’clock and on Anniversary Sunday between 1:30 and 3:30, remaining not longer than one hour at any time.

5. Seniors could have senior tables the last four weeks, without chaperone and with privileges of arranging groups of seven at each table, changing groups each week (This privilege could be forfeited by the entire class if any table was unduly noisy).

6. Seniors could, for the next to the last change of the year, choose a table from among those at which the senior had not sat during that year.

7. Seniors could go to the village every day except Saturday and Sunday unchaperoned. This privilege was forfeited for an entire week following any week in which the senior had one unexcused meal absence, a meal tardy, which is the third one, three misdemeanors, or one ‘cut’ on the corridor or elsewhere.

8. Seniors of the Honor Roll were permitted to go to the village on Monday morning between 10:30 and 12:00, and during vacant periods in the afternoon of school days, in place of the regular time.

9. Seniors could cut breakfast on Sunday morning if they followed these conditions:
a) Must be quiet on the corridor
b) Must be ready for church on time
c) Must have room in good order
d) Must not have prohibited things to eat
e) Must do no cooking unless by special permission from Miss. Breckenridge

10. Seniors could keep their lights on until 10:00 PM on Sunday.

Students residing on Senior Hall were on their honor to respect the privileges given to them and, if they did not, risked losing those privileges for their whole class. It was very important for the students, then, to stay out of trouble! These privileges were signed by Olive L. Austin, Dean of Centenary Collegiate Institute, and teacher in Bible Studies, Ethics, and Psychology from 1911 to 1917.