Hidden History FIG

Explore the lost stories and hidden past of student life at the University of Oregon…then add your experience for future generations.

Summer Assignment

Please read Lucile Saunder McDonald’s diary from her freshman year at the University of Oregon campus in 1915. The link to the diary can be found here.

As you read the diary identify a specific story or anecdote from Lucile’s diary, recounting her first term at the UO in 1915, that challenges, reinforces, or complicates your own expectations for your first term on campus at the UO in the fall of 2016.

Consider themes, experiences, events, or individuals you find dated or timeless–Housing; Roommates; Work; Recreation; Finances; Hazing/Initiation; Anxiety & Fatigue; Homesickness; Dating; Romantic Relationships; Preparing for Exams; Attending the Civil War Football Game; Personal Appearance; Circle of Friends; Family Pressures; Returning Home For the First Time During Holidays.

We’ve also prepared an overall financial chart comparing the costs of attending UO 1915 vs. 2016: Lucile Saunders Comparison Chart 1915-2016.

Leave a one-paragraph minimum comment below reflecting on the story you choose. You may wish to include a brief quote or page number from the diary. Feel free to leave general comments in addition to your reflection.

Please have your reflection posted (below) by our first FIG meeting on Friday, September 23.

15 Comments

  1. Throughout her diary, Lucile documents her struggle of trying to adjust to her new life in college; this includes her daily balancing act of keeping up with school work, working almost everyday, and still having a social life all while keeping in touch with her family in Portland. Her diary resonates with me in this way because keeping up with all of the different aspects of life can often become overwhelming. In one entry, she records her thoughts after being fired from her job as a housekeeper, “I wonder when this ne’er-do-well stunt will cease to be..” (pg. 19); she felt in that moment that nothing was going well in her life. The premise for her firing was due to her school work getting in the way of her work at the house. In that moment she had felt defeated, but she quickly adds, “… but I’d hate to acknowledge defeat just when the family have started to send me everything I want because they are so proud of me… Also, Mrs. Stevenson… could say “I told you so”, if I came back.” (pg. 20). Her resilience and the nature of her humanity is truly admirable, and I will remember her story when I feel like giving up. Even though she didn’t end up finishing college, her accounts are raw and very real, there is much that can be learned from looking at someone else’s experiences, as well as your own.

  2. To help Lucile cope with her many struggles, she wrote to her family and to herself. Lucile’s diary consisted of her daily hassles and personal issues and her thoughts on anything that has happened. To help get by she took up many odd jobs and housekept for her place of residence. I could not believe the amount of busy work and daily jobs she had to barely stay afloat. I’ve worked for the past two years as a soccer coach with odd hours and many annoying children but it has compared nothing to the amount of school work, job work, and house work Lucile had to keep up on. I have never moved before, let alone be away from my family for too long. Lucile has left her family for school, which no one else supported her decision on, and I am very proud of her decision. Being away from her family must add to the struggles she’s suffering through at school. I couldn’t imagine going through a new life change without support and contact to my family. Lucile herself mentioned on page 23 “…yet life seems as empty as though I had stayed in the house and played tideledy winks all day. I am not homesick, far from it. It’s just that same old loneliness .” I would become so terribly depressed if I had the life she did. I would get too bored and too lonely and scared to continue schooling let alone all the house work and normal job work. I admire Lucile’s perseverance and I wish to learn from her in that way. In my first year I shouldn’t let the boring, lonely days get the better of me. There’s still lots to learn from the past, I’m glad I did.

  3. Margaret MacPhail-Weller

    September 20, 2016 at 4:28 PM

    Throughout her diary, Lucile Saunders continuously fights with the issue of having to pick and choose what she did with the small amount of time she had. While Lucile was working to support herself in the very least, her classmates were able to go out and not worry about this dilemma. Lucile was fired at her first job, because of the fact that she did not find the balance between her school, social life, and work. If she were to spend too much time at work, she could fall back on her studies and eventually be asked to leave the college as well as becoming extremely lonely. If Lucile were to spend drastic amounts of time on her social life, she could lose her job and get kicked out of college. This balance is extremely hard to find the right formula for, and many students such as Lucile struggle with this. I relate to Lucile on this issue, because I have often found it hard to balance friends, school, extracurricular activities, etc. The answer to this is to keep trying and never give up, just as Lucile did.

  4. Lucille desperately wants to become a strong, independent woman who doesn’t have to rely on anyone. As she goes through the everyday struggles of being a poor college student she realizes she does need a little help. She receives a few dollars from her uncle every so often and she is always trying to find a good paying job so she can cover her own expenses and start to pay her family back. Lucille doesn’t want to accept the money that is given to her, but she knows she must accept it in order to stay afloat. I found it very telling when Lucille wrote about her usual 50 cent patching job at Allen’s and was payed $1.50 while she knew that wasn’t what she earned. She says, “…I refused part. Was I silly?… She wanted to give me some swell clothes, but I hated to show her that I wanted them” (pg 34) I find it very admirable and relatable that she relies on herself when in need. Staying true to yourself while remaining independent and strong are three incredible traits I hope to retain in my experiences at the UO.

  5. Throughout Lucille’s diary, she writes about her struggles to find work, going from house to house, and the difficulty maintaining schoolwork as well as her social life and her writing assignments. Early on in her first year, she worries about finding a job, as well as her living arrangement. She relies on doing odd jobs such as housework and sewing as well as loans from her family members. As a result of trying to balance work with the thought of having a roof over her head, she feels fatigued and can’t do the housework she relies on, “Was too tired
    to get supper, so paid Mrs. Shutt, my new landlady, .15 for it.” (Pg. 24). Once Lucille finds a stable job (at the Guard or the Oregonian) and builds multiple friendships with other girls, she finds it easier to balance social life and work. She has friends to go with events to and relies on them to help pay the rent or help around the house. I worry as well about how my first year will go. While I don’t worry about where I’ll live, I want to pursue a job, and like Lucille, I wonder about how a job will impact the other aspects of my life. I hope that I’m able to rely on friends and family to help me whenever I need it, so powering through freshman year will not be so tough.

  6. Through reading Lucile’s diary, which has always been frowned upon until this point, I found myself returning to the first few pages in awe. On September 10, 1915, Ms. McDonald decided to attend the University of Oregon; two simple days later she was on campus having spoken to Dean Straub and acquired a room(Page 3.) This concept is foreign in the field of education in 2016, any student attending the University this year knew they were coming months in advance. What Lucile accomplished is the same as a student deciding to attend on September 20, 2016 then expecting a room on the September 22, 2016, everyone else’s move date. Just the thought of a student going through this process in Lucile’s steps is nearly laughable, while I admire her determination and lack of procrastination, it is simply impossible for this day and time. Of course other topics also struck me as outdated, such as only having a badly timed dishwashing job to put oneself through University without a spine crushing amount of student loans piled on top a degree in journalism. I find these first few pages of diary entries to be similar to the stories told to children by great grandparents of the good old days and simpler times, the kind we all rolled our eyes to. Making Lucile McDonald’s story probably one of the first times we listened.

  7. While reading the diary of Lucile McDonald, there were many situations that I found I could relate to in her struggles, and many that I could see myself enduring in the near future with the fall semester approaching. Yet, I found myself more drawn to the beginning, specifically to pages 5 and 6 where she writes about the texts books and prices of daily living. For the most part I believe that Lucile McDonald shares many of the same worries and challenges as a majority of the incoming freshman, not only at University of Oregon, but freshman everywhere, until she mentions the cost. Page 5 she writes: “To Iris sep. 16-… This one [a book] costs $2.10 and looks like a small encyclopedia.” To think that in 1915, a hefty sized textbook was $2.10 is really quite unbelievable, seeing as books in 2016 can range anywhere from $65 all the way to $400. Moving to page 6, she also shares with us ” To Ma Sep. 18-… Im not worried about cash. Uncle Frank sent me $5 and several of my studies require library notes instead of books…” She continues to mention pricing periodically through out the diary, and I’ve come to find it entertaining, getting a real glimpse into life at what seems to be such a simpler time, in every aspect of the word. Its evident to me that this is the biggest challenge in her experience as a student of the university or Oregon in correlation to my own experience. As prices have skyrocketed, there seems to be more pressure and urgency put on many students today, but we find a common ground in the fact that there is always a substantial amount of stress tied to every aspect of college, whether its 1915 or 2016.

  8. Throughout Lucile’s diary, documenting her freshman year at the University of Oregon, she talks about her constant trials to juggle all of her responsibilities in her life. To pursue her dream to have a career in journalism she must learn not only about the American Government and Spanish but also how to work for a living to be able to attend the UO. There is a section in her diary where she expresses to the reader how she doesn’t know if she can endure anymore stressful situations. She writes, “I’d rather go home than go through this again (Page 20). While I was reading her diary I couldn’t help but make a connection between her battles and what I’m nervous about I’ll be struggling with when school begins. I got a job that works me 24 hours a week last Spring and I have had no trouble balancing my responsibilities up to this point. I also had a relaxed last semester of high school and the idea of having a load of homework as well as going to school and working 24 hours a week seems to overwhelm me. On top of that I would like to maintain somewhat of a social life during my freshman year. Lucile does a remarkable job of stabilizing her workload and a lot can be retained from her personal experiences. Although a lot has changed since the early 1900’s, there are countless similarities I captured about UO students then and UO students today. I want to use the knowledge I learned from her entries to help balance all of life’s daily conflicts. Keeping my goals in mind is so valuable and that is what I will have to do to be as successful and hardworking as Lucile Saunders McDonald is during her freshman year at the University of Oregon.

  9. Lucile’s story is one that is timeless and resonates with each and every Oregon student to this day. She is a young adult deciding where she should take her life after completing high school, and she documents her freshman year while attempting to make something of herself independent of outside help. She says on September 10th, “Think of it, college with $24.85 in my purse. No one thinks I can do it but here’s where I cut loose and try.” Lucile comes to terms with the fact she could fail and flunk out, and chooses to take the chance anyway. Throughout the year she has ups and downs just like the rest of us, she has nights she doesn’t eat and nights she’s so exhausted she falls like a ton of bricks into bed. I haven’t been through my freshman year yet but I know her struggles in 1915 will be similar to mine over a century later. I know I will have late nights while trying to balance school and social activities just as she did. Her final entry on June 12th perfectly summarized the attitude I hope to have throughout this year; although she had flunked one hour, she ends her diary with, “…but I had learned a lot from the course. The End.”

  10. In Lucille’s diary she often wrote about her constant struggle to manage the amount of time she had. This happens to be one of the aspects of college life that I am most apprehensive of. You can’t spend too much time with friends, because then you’ll do poorly in the classroom. But you also can’t spend all of your time studying because then you’ll be miserable and lonely. The first quarter or two in college I think will be very important to help me find a healthy balance between studying and having a social life. I think that this is different for a lot of kids because when they’re at home their parents can act as a safety net for them because they remind to do homework or to run errands and then suddenly in college that safety net is no longer there. In addition to their parents not being there for them anymore, there are a lot more opportunities to be involved in extracurricular activities in college that can make it even more complicated to manage your time healthily in college.

  11. Among the many themes that struck me throughout my reading of Lucille’s diary was the seemingly constant need to fight the ever-encroaching loneliness. As I write this paragraph I can now relate intimately to this. I’m alone, 200 miles from home(and much more for many others), truly self reliant. In this, both me and Lucille struggle. In her time there was no calling home, this I have as an advantage, but the same feeling is there, just as in 1915. This is the first period in many of our lives in which we are truly free. But with that freedom, I know see, comes a fight. A fight to make new friends, build a new circle, build a new me. Now over a hundred years separate us and Lucille, but the struggle and blessings of being far away from home remains.

  12. Lucile depicts her struggle of adapting to her new life in college and getting to college. She talks about her struggles throughout her day, doing everything on her own, keeping up with her schoolwork, paying for tuition and working, and still have time to mingle and make new friendships. She talks a lot of the importance of family and I love and relate to that so much. I adore my family and the idea of being apart from them is weird to me. So I like the entries of the family topic. Her stories and experiences inspire and empower me. She works so hard to get where she is, she doesn’t take shortcuts. She didn’t end up finishing college but her struggles and challenges she endeavored empowered me and will continue to inspire me throughout my college career.

  13. Lucille McDonald’s diary illustrates timeless issues college students face that everyone can relate to. For the most part, I could relate to a lot of the issues she faces , but there were a few that challenged my point of view. The two biggest relatable moments for me were the feelings of loneliness upon starting college as well as feeling overwhelmed with her responsibilities. It can be difficult to find your place in a new school and finding good friends. Lucille struggled with this a bit because she wasn’t living on campus and had a job that took away time for her to socialize. Another aspect I felt that was very relatable was when she just didn’t feel good enough, felt like she couldn’t do anything right. Seeing her issues and how she reacted to them helped me see that the emotions I will feel upon beginning college are not much different from anyone else and have been similar to what students faced 100 years ago.
    Alternatively, there were a few moments that highlighted the differences between Lucille’s views and students today. Her insistence to not accept money from her family and support herself I felt was very different to many students today who simply expect their parents to pay for everything. The fact she worked for her education definitely kept her focused and appreciated the privilege of going to college more than most other students.

  14. While reading Lucile’s diary I found although we have many similarities. I feel like Lucile wants to fit in and have a social life, but at the same time she realizes she needs to be focused. She struggles to find the perfect balance between having a social life and being completely committed to school work. She acknowledges that becoming too social will have have a negative affect on her school work, but she knows she needs to meet new people and step out of her comfort zone. I feel like I can relate to Lucile because I want to be social and active in my community, but I don’t want that to take away from my studies. I also feel like I need to focus but I don’t want to miss out on any opportunities to connect with new people. I believe lucile constantly felt lonely, whereas I know that I have people that will support me throughout my entire college journey. Being independent definitely made Lucile appreciate her education more and made her become a successful student while she was here. I hope to be as determined and focused as Lucile because I know that I can do great things as long as I work hard and appreciate what I have.

  15. Maverick Robinson

    September 29, 2016 at 10:08 PM

    Lucile diary was a reflection of her tough transition from life in Portland to her new life at UO. Throughout the diary, Lucile had to fight through all the hurdles, ups, and downs, the challenge of time management and struggle to make ends meet. It was unbelievable how much Lucile had to endure and still had the passion and desire to succeed on an everyday basis. Lucile was strong and always pursued what she believed were best for her interests. I think although leaving home and taking on all these difficult times and challenges, it helped shape her into a person with the desire to succeed against all the odds. “I’m dead tired and mighty disgusted with things in general and, if it wasn’t for some nice autumn sunshine I’d quit grinning and wail out all my troubles to you.” (pg. 18) This quote shows how things could take a toll on a person. No matter how terrible a situation was, Lucile always seemed to take it in her stride and make the best of every situation. Keeping this mind, I’m going to use Lucile’s mentality and mindset and apply it to my daily activities while attending UO. It should help me become are more well rounded and devote person. Someone that people would enjoy to be around

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