Nearly a century ago

A peek into the school's annals is always a delight, and this issue we share excepts from the 1905-06 University catalog. The college sat on 15 acres a few miles north of the courthouse in Waco, a town the catalog dubbed as "one of the largest, most substantial and most prosperous cities of Texas." Just over 100 students were enrolled. Tuition ranged from $20 to $25 a semester, depending on the area of study, with the school of business being the most expensive. Fees totaled $8, and room and board for a double room ran $16 for the fall. Please note that any odd wording or spelling you find in the text is the way it was printed in the catalog.

Morals and Discipline

It oftentimes happens that students, away from home for the first time and free from parental authority and the restraining influences of home life, retrograde morally. We may add that his tendencies under changed conditions depend largely upon his stability of character as established by his home training. The Faculty of Texas Christian University is pledged to make the morals of students a matter of prime concern.

Certain guiding principles are observed in administering the discipline of the school. These are held as fundamental and necessary in maintaining strong, consistent discipline.

A Word to Parents

Students often ask parents to allow them to visit other students and to visit other cities to hear lectures and attend entertainments of various sorts. This is very detrimental to the students progress. We will not allow students to leave the College without we have special request of parents and we hope parents will be very cautious about making such requests of us.

Incorrigible Students

Sometimes parents having failed to govern their children at home send them away to school in the hope that they will be placed under rigid discipline and careful oversight and that in this way the failures of home training will be corrected.

We wish to say emphatically that we do not want bad boys or girls who are sent away from home to be reformed.

Furthermore we believe it to be our duty to return to parents and students full value for the money that is paid us and when we find students that are wasting their time and refuse to do their work properly we will request parents to withdraw such students from school. We cannot consent to take money from patrons for which we render no just equivalent.

And in case you thought people were different back then É

A Word with Parents Concerning Expenses

Sometimes parents complain that it costs too much to send their children away to school, but generally this complaint grows out of the unnecessarily extravagant habits of students, which are encouraged by parents. Students write home for money and parents respond when oftentimes it would be far better to refuse the request. Inexperienced boys and girls are very poor judges of the amount of money they ought to spend and some fritter away considerable sums in worse than needless ways.