Education

Oral history excerpt recalls UF’s shift from restrictive rules to student activism in 1960s–80s

A 1992 interview from the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program at UF, recently republished by the Gainesville Iguana, features Dr. Phyllis Meek, a former UF associate dean for Student Services, recounting how the university dismantled gender-based curfews, dress codes, and speaker bans during her tenure beginning in the mid-1960s. Meek describes working from within the administration to advance student rights while personally identifying as a liberal activist, and recalls the formation of a Committee on Sexism and Homophobia in 1989 in response to harassment of gay students on campus. She also reflects on what she saw, as of 1992, as a troubling rollback in tolerance for difference on campus as economic pressures tightened.

Sources: The Gainesville Iguana