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Excerpt from Oral History Interview with Mary Price Adamson, April 19, 1976. Interview G-0001. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) See Entire Interview >>

Transferring from NCCW to UNC-CH

Adamson explains why she left the North Carolina College for Women to attend UNC-Chapel Hill. She talks about the atmosphere on the NCCW campus, the opportunities they did and did not have, and what she gained by changing to a co-educational university.

Citing this Excerpt

Oral History Interview with Mary Price Adamson, April 19, 1976. Interview G-0001. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Full Text of the Excerpt

What was I talking about?
MARY FREDERICKSON:
North Carolina College for Women.
MARY PRICE ADAMSON:
Oh, about what it was like. So I flatly said to my mother, "I am not going back to the Women's College anymore." The expression now would be "I've had it up to here, and I'm not going back there." I was fed up with the Women's College. I was getting old enough, I guess, to be interested in boys. Just the whole atmosphere . . . I had several friends that I liked, but I was just bored with the whole business. So I just presented her with a dilemma, but by that time, I was the only child of college age. So that gave a little bit more leeway. I transferred to Chapel Hill.
MARY FREDERICKSON:
For your last year.
MARY PRICE ADAMSON:
For my last year. And in transferring, I lost credits because they had been required courses at the Women's College, and there were required courses at Chapel Hill. They did not coincide, so I had to spend an extra quarter. And that was the reason I was graduated in 1931 instead of 1930. That's the reason I'm not sure how many of these people I'm going to recognize in the dormitory that I'll be staying in.
MARY FREDERICKSON:
Let me ask you a few more things about North Carolina College for Women and why it was so boring. Were there any activities among the students that you were involved in?
MARY PRICE ADAMSON:
I worked on the Carolinian, the paper. That was about the only thing. Since I was living off campus and the last couple of years I was there, perhaps I didn't give it a fair share. But there were the two debating societies which I just thought were just . . .
MARY FREDERICKSON:
What did they debate?
MARY PRICE ADAMSON:
What did they debate? I don't know. Anyhow, I just found the whole thing was not stimulating. I wasn't a brilliant student, so if I'd applied myself to my books, why, I would have done better.
MARY FREDERICKSON:
Do you remember any faculty or teachers who particularly influenced you?
MARY PRICE ADAMSON:
Yes, there was a woman from Wisconsin who was named Magnhilda Gulanda, who taught history. I had a good course of her's in European history, and it was really the best course that I had there-very stimulating. Then I had a good English teacher. I'd had an excellent English teacher in Greensboro High School. I also was fortunate in having a good English teacher at Women's College. I've forgotten what her name is and I shouldn't because my niece, Mary Louise Price, when she was there, this woman recognized her and, "You are a niece of Mary Price, aren't you? She used to sit right there in that seat." (Laughter)
MARY FREDERICKSON:
Were most of the faculty women?
MARY PRICE ADAMSON:
No. There was a Dr. Arnett, who taught American history and lived across the street from us in Greensboro. His daughter, Dorothy, was wonderful helping in the Progressive Party campaign in '48. His wife was a friend of my mother's. She's really an excellent person. And Dr. Arnett was a good person too, but his class was just dull, dull, dull.
MARY FREDERICKSON:
Do you think the place had changed since Mildred and Branson were there?
MARY PRICE ADAMSON:
Yes, it was very much in the process of changing during all of those years, and what it's like now, I of course wouldn't know at all.
MARY FREDERICKSON:
So from the days when Edward Linderman was there, people like him had sort of drifted away from Greensboro, do you think?
MARY PRICE ADAMSON:
I don't remember any really stimulating faculty there at the time I was there.