Cynthia Mendenhall and the Student Union

Cynthia Mendenhall cutting watermelon
Image source https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/10194

From year one, East Carolina has affirmed the vital importance of students’ social development. Indicative of this, founding president Robert H. Wright and his faculty approved, in 1910, literary societies as avenues for students’ shared growth as individuals and as leaders. Realizing students’ need for a social space of their own, Wright allowed the YWCA – the first student organization on campus – to run a snack shop in the basement of the Administration Building (later, Austin) to raise funds to build a “hut” on campus. The YWCA then gifted the hut to the school “as a center for informal social activities.” The rustic structure, located on the backside of campus (near Mendenhall), served for decades as a popular venue for student gatherings.

In 1927, a far grander center appeared on the east end of campus, the Social-Religious Building (later, Wright Building). President Wright saw it as a “home for the campus life of the institution.” The building included an auditorium for various religious and cultural programs, rooms for the literary societies, the YWCA, the athletic association, and Bible study groups. According to former ECU historian Mary Jo Bratton, the Social-Religious Building was a “precursor of the Student Union.” Fittingly, the building was named for President Wright shortly after his passing in 1934. For the next forty years, it served as the social center of student life.

Following WWII, the growth of a more autonomous, coeducational student body prompted East Carolina to accommodate greater student input in defining the social life of the burgeoning campus. A “student union” was established so that students could contribute actively to planning and managing campus social activities. In 1954, the basement of Wright was remodeled, providing an “ultra-modern” space for the new union. The student union was called the “College Union” in recognition of East Carolina’s recent transition from a teachers college to a four-year liberal arts college. To guide the College Union, East Carolina hired Cynthia Anne Mendenhall (1922-1972) as its founding director. Once renovations were completed, the space for the College Union, on the southside of Wright (now, Dowdy Book Store), opened to a broad walkway facing the newly constructed Rawl Building. It quickly became a popular meeting place on campus.

Cynthia Mendenhall was instrumental in the successful growth and development of the College Union. A native of Tennessee, she was raised by her mother, Cora Redding Mendenhall (1892-1938), a matron at the Methodist Children’s Home in Winston-Salem. It was there that Mendenhall, according to U.S. Census records, spent much of her childhood. In 1943, she graduated from the Woman’s College of the University of North Carolina (now, UNC-G) with a B.S. in secretarial administration. While director of the College Union, Mendenhall was also active in the Association of College Unions and the American Recreation Association. After her tragic passing in 1972, at age 49, following a bout with cancer, a memorial service was held, fittingly, in Wright Auditorium. At the service, the dean of students, Dr. James Tucker, and the ECU chancellor, Dr. Leo W. Jenkins, praised Mendenhall for her unending devotion to others. The same year, the Buccaneer included a full-page “In Memoriam” noting how Mendenhall had guided the College Union’s growth and development for nearly two decades. When a new student center was dedicated in 1974, the ECU Board of Trustees, recognizing Mendenhall’s long and selfless service, named it for her.

Throughout the 1950s, Mendenhall ensured that the College Union provided students a relaxed venue for social and recreational activities such as ping-pong, cards, chess, and other board games. The union also offered black and white television, then one of the newest technologies for communication and entertainment. However, the most popular spot in the College Union was the “soda shop” where students often stopped for fountain drinks and coed socializing. College Union activities during summer school were sometimes held on the mall. In the featured picture, from the 1959 East Carolinian, Mendenhall is presiding over a watermelon cutting, one of many iconic College Union summer activities that she orchestrated.

The 1958 Buccaneer described the College Union as “the community center of college students, faculty, administration, alumni and guests of the College …. In all its processes it encourages self-directed activities, giving maximum opportunity for self-realization and for growth in individual social competency and group effectiveness.” In addition to dance parties, Halloween parties, Christmas parties, Valentine parties, spring carnivals, pizza parties, and bingo parties, the College Union provided bicycles for students interested in exploring the area. A juke box in the recreation area contributed further to its popularity. Annually, the union sponsored events honoring foreign students. During the summer, weekly watermelon cuttings and hot dog cook-outs became defining contributions to campus life. To publicize its myriad activities, the union edited a monthly calendar of events and maintained a bulletin board.

Reflecting intensified ideologies of the Cold War, the College Union was described in 1962 as an organization sponsoring activities meant “to encourage social responsibility and leadership in our democracy. Founded on democratic principles – ‘Of, for, and by the Students’ – every student enrolled in the college is automatically a member and is invited to join one of the numerous committees organized to plan recreational activities for the students.” The 1963 Buccaneer declared, along very democratic lines, “Of, for, and by the students” to be “the motto of the College Union.” The 1964 Buccaneer added that the College Union was “a unifying force in the life of the College,” with a “two-fold [purpose], social and service.”

By 1965, the College Union had outgrown its once “ultra-modern” facilities, requiring yet another renovation of the Wright basement. During construction, recreational facilities were moved temporarily to the lobby of Wright. Upon completion, the newly renovated space included air conditioning and color TV. Billiards was added to the list of activities available. Bowling leagues were organized for off-campus recreation. Endless competitions were organized, with prizes awarded the winners. In some cases, winners went on to statewide inter-collegiate competitions.

In 1968, the College Union was renamed the University Union, matching East Carolina’s rise as a university. With the times, the University Union added coffee house sessions featuring folk music. Concerts on the mall, sponsored by the union, also became popular. Reflecting the increasing diversity on campus, University Union committees included African-American students. The union also played an instrumental role in bringing African-American performers to campus, thus contributing through its sponsored activities to the ongoing move away from the once dominant Jim Crow culture to new, unprecedented levels of diversity and inclusion.

In 1954, the College Union’s programming budget had been $300. By 1959, it had ballooned to over $5,000.00. Funding came largely from student fees as approved by the Board of Trustees. In 1973, $3.50 from each student, now numbering well over 10,000, went to fund University Union programs, budgeted at over $50,000. Films, concerts, coffee houses, various recreational activities, and speakers were funded for all students. In 1972, the year of Mendenhall’s passing, the University Union brought Stevie Wonder, the Beach Boys, and the J. Geils Band to East Carolina for some of the biggest campus concerts in the entire state.

By 1971, a restructuring of the University Union was underway. Administratively, it became a part of Student Affairs, led by the dean of student affairs, Dr. James Tucker. In the spring of 1972, shortly after Mendenhall’s passing, major changes continued. First, the University Union was renamed the ECU Student Union. Also, responsibility for programming was transferred entirely from the often-politicized SGA to the Student Union. A Board – including the SGA president, treasurer, and speaker of the legislature; the presidents of the Men’s Residence Council, the Women’s Residence Council, the Panhellenic Council, and the Interfraternity Council; a representative from the faculty senate; a representative of the administration; the associate dean of student affairs, Rudolph Alexander; and, the retiring Student Union president – guided the governance of the Student Union. The Board appointed the president of the union, who then appointed committee chairs. Chairs in turn appointed committee members. Activities were scheduled according to budgets allotted to the various committees for programing.

Enrollment growth in the 1970s made further renovations of the Wright basement impractical. A new facility – long discussed as a campus dream – became a reality in 1974 with construction of a grand “barrier-free” student center on the west end of campus next to Joyner Library. The new facility, named for Mendenhall, included on the ground level an eight-lane bowling alley, a billiards room, three table tennis rooms, television and video tape rooms, a hobby crafts area, and a permanent coffee house facility. The main floor housed an information desk, the central ticket office, a student bank, an 80-seat theatre, a kitchen and small dining room, a snack bar, and a lounge area. Union and SGA offices, a music listening room, and two reading rooms were on the top floor.

A more relaxed ethic informed the newly reorganized Student Union. Rather than democracy or inclusiveness, its primary goal was defined as “making people happy.” Although Cynthia Mendenhall did not live to see the fruits of her labor, the new $3.5 million building with 80,000 square feet of assignable space, one of the architectural monuments on campus, stands as testimony to her impact on social life and student culture at East Carolina, as well as to the school’s commitment to providing generously for the social growth and empowerment of its student body.

Sources

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Citation Information

Title: Cynthia Mendenhall (1922-1972) and the Student Union, 1954-1972

Author: John A. Tucker, PhD

Date of Publication: 7/19/2019

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