SOCIAL DISTANCING THEN AND NOW

New signage greets students to UK this year as they walk across the campus. The message on the signs, "Please Stay 6 feet apart," is deadly serious and is intended to keep the campus healthy during the current pandemic. But nearly 80 years ago women and men students became very agitated over what they thought might become stricter rules for walking together on the UK campus. 

In 1941 the Board of Trustees named Herman Lee Donovan, the former Eastern Kentucky University president, as UK's fourth president. UK students worried because Donovan came with a reputation for requiring strict student behavior, especially regarding relations between the sexes. At Eastern, he allegedly used "Donovan sticks" or rulers to measure the physical space that had to be maintained between men and women as they walked across the campus. 

Moreover, until 1935 Donovan enforced a rule at Eastern that required students to turn out the lights in their rooms by 9:30 p.m. and also ordered that, "No one should be permitted to sit in dark or shadowed spots on the campus after it gets dark." Certainly, such an attitude did not fit with the modern ideas regarding student culture at the state university. 

No doubt to the students' relief, Donovan never imposed such strict rules at UK. The world was changing rapidly and while many rules to keep men and women at a safe distance from one another continued, Donovan and the administration had to turn most of their attention to guiding the university through the tumultuous years of World War II. 

Today, UK faces an unprecedented challenge with Covid-19. Wearing masks, keeping a healthy physical distance, and proper hygiene are only the basics of what UK students, faculty, and staff will need to do to assure on-campus classes can continue through the fall semester. 

Additional information about the history of women students, faculty, and staff can be found in the recently published, Our Rightful Place: A History of Women at the University of Kentucky, 1880-1945.

https://www.kentuckypress.com/97808131793