Academics

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Grade report from the Victoria J. Lewis Scrapbook.

Established in 1905 with the signing of the Buckman Bill, Florida Female College (which would change its name to Florida State College for Women in 1909) would grow to become one of the largest women's college in the country.  From 1905-1947, Florida State College for Women offered its students a rigorous classical education.  The academic challenges of FSCW are apparent in the scrapbooks of its students.  Reports cards--good and bad--fill the pages of these scrapbooks.  In one scrapbook, studious Marion Emerett Colman (BA in English, 1918) laments her grade of 90, after "studying so hard" (HP 2007-135).  In another scrapbook, one finds the celebratory telegram Victoria J. Lewis (BS in Education, 1944) sent her father, commemorating not being put on academic probation after a tough semester (HP 2007-079).

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Mortar Board members in the Class of 1934 Scrapbook.

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Page dedicated to Victoria J. Lewis's involvement in Mortified.

Mortar Board & Mortified

Mortar Board was first founded at Syracuse University in 1918, as the only national honorary for senior women. The FSCW chapter was established in 1931. According to its motto, central to selection into Mortar Board was "leadership, scholarship, and service" (1934 Yearbook). Its purpose was to promote high standards of scholarship and leadership among the college students.  No more than twenty juniors were selected to become members of Mortar Board their senior year, and the academic requirement was very competitive.  As members of Mortar Board, students ran fundraisers and contributed service to the FSCW community.    

Mortified was founded in 1936 by students who had shown exceptional leadership and service to the FSCW community but could not meet Mortar Board's rigourous academic specifications. According to a Flambeau article from the page of Victoria J. Lewis's scrapbook dedicated to her involvment in the organization (shown right), Mortified "stresses leadership, service, and active personalities. Their yell is 'Leadership, service, and scholarship' - scholarship being a long drawn out groan." Traditionally, Mortified members would hijack the Mortar Board intiation ceremony and noisily intiate new Mortified members in a ceremony that was "anything but dignified, and quite a contrast to the previous sedate ceremony of Mortar Board." 

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Notes on the Thalian Minerva Club Reception in the Kathlyn Medora Monroe Scrapbbok.

Minerva Club & Thalian Literary Society

A popular club in the early days of FSCW, the Minerva Club was a literary society, which met under the motto: "Self-knowledge.  Self-reverence.  Self-control" (1913 Yearbook). Together with the Thalian Literary Society, the Minerva Club published "The Talisman," a bimonthly literary magazine. Both clubs held weekly meetings and hosted literary debates and receptions.

Traditions
Academics