Change is inevitable and expected over the course of more than 150 years, but the passion the Auburn community has shown for its school has remained the constant of this ever-changing, quaint college town.
John Cottier, associate professor of anthropology, has lived in Auburn his entire life.
Cottier said he started classes in 1958, graduated, and after a few years in the military, came back to teach in 1976.
"I started out here when it was (Alabama Polytechnic Institute)," Cottier said. "We didn't roll Toomer's Corner, and as a freshman you couldn't even walk through the gates there."
Cottier said Katharine Cater, former dean of women, was strict with female students.
"Females, when I was in school here, basically could not wear shorts or jeans outside their dorms," Cottier said. "If they were to go to a P.E. class in shorts they had to wear a raincoat over them. You could not live off campus if you were a female unless you lived with your parents."
He said limited forms of transportation led to more students living on campus and indirectly helped add to Auburn's family atmosphere.
"Most college kids did not have cars," Cottier said. "You either walked or you rode bicycles."
He also said Auburn was a primarily dry city with very few places to eat.
"We had to go long distances to buy beer," Cottier said. "There was a place between Auburn and Opelika where you could buy beer. No bars, and very few places to eat. Columbus, Ga., was the only place you could get pizza."
Cottier said students used to prank the University.
"The first fountain I remember was at Ross Square because we used to throw people in them all the time," Cottier said. "There used to be a fountain at each of the quads here at Haley Center. Students would pour laundry detergent in them and they would bubble up."
Auburn University has a wide array of photos in the library archives made available for students.
"Many of our more interesting, older photographs are available on the Web," said Dwayne Cox, head of special collections and archives for Ralph Brown Draughon Library. "Many of the things in the digital library are taken from collections; many of them are still pictures related to Auburn University."
Jeffery Bolan, junior in aerospace engineering, recently had his photographs featured in The Auburn Circle.
His works combine an image of Auburn's past with the same image from the present, showing how the University has changed.
"I had seen this picture of Toomer's Corner, and on the left side it is like the 1890s, and then the tree is the dividing line and the right side is the 2000s," he said.
Bolan said he used Auburn's digital library to choose the original photographs to duplicate.
"First I had to find old pictures to use," he said. "I put the picture on my camera, and I just walked around taking pictures from different angles until I could get angles that looked close."
Bolan said he ran the photos through an editing software and the rest was simple.
"I just went on the computer, overlaid the two images and lined them up," Bolan said. "Once I got lined up I just erased half the image ... to make it look coolest."
Cottier said it is important for students to acknowledge the cultural changes that have occurred over the years.
"Every generation changes a little bit," Cottier said. "Every generation has its own set of schemes and directionality. Change is inherent in terms of society."
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