Establishing a Place on Campus: State's Mates Projects at NCSU

North Carolina State College Logo, ca. 1962

The North Carolina State College logo, circa 1962.  The civic works that State's Mates participated in on campus solidified their position as constituents of the college community.

A portion of the civic work that State's Mates did in the early days of the organization was in collaboration with other groups on campus and was primarily oriented toward providing programming for students and their children. In conjunction with the College Union and the Married Student Board, State's Mates assisted with babysitting duties during meetings and helped to publicize the annual campus-wide Easter Egg Hunt, which was aimed at the children of all students. These activities sought to encourage family-life on campus, highlighting their desire not only to facilitate youth-friendly culture, but also to actively engage with and become a part of the North Carolina State College community. In a sense, their roles as mothers and the visibility of children on campus bolstered the legitimacy of State's Mates at the university. Although the group had an obvious connection with NC State through their husbands, this new construction of the campus as a family-space equipped the group with an influence that they otherwise would not have had, particularly because their supposed expertise in motherhood gave them a more authoritative voice.

In addition to these collaborations, State's Mates participated in many other small activities that visibly established their presence as active members of the campus, including poster design for the World Service United Fund Drive and the dispersal of bulletins advocating immunization for children and mothers. Furthermore, records indicate that members serviced as guides for the 1957 Southern Library Convention; this role as ambassadors for the university illustrates that the organization was considered a legitimate and integral organization on campus by this period.

Although the civic focus of the group shifted to more large-scale projects after the formation of the Projects Committee in 1960, annual reports suggest that collaboration with the Married Student Board was prevalent in the 1970s. While no existing records indicate that participation in these activities occurred throughout the tenure of the club, it is likely that these smaller activities were omitted from the annual reports and Wagg'n Tongue articles as a result of more extensive coverage granted to the annual projects.

 


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Introduction
Establishing a Place on Campus: State's Mates Projects at NCSU