From the earliest days in 1871, the students at Oshkosh Normal were held to strict rules of behavior as the school served in loco parentis. George Albee, the first president, restricted student's behavior through a self-reporting system. Pitting one student against another, Albee learned who was smoking, who was talking in the corridors and who was seen drinking beer in local billiard halls. As the school grew, so did the complexity of the discipline system.

It is unclear what additional rules were placed on students in 1919 which precipitated the cartoon in question; however, it was in January of that year that Rose Swart became the first Dean of Women. She took this position with a characteristic zeal and in her first remarks as Dean made reference to the Fancy Dress party as an opportunity for "costume study"—perhaps not exactly what the students hoped to get out of the dance. Ever mindful of the responsibilities of the female sex, Swart may have used her position on the school's Social Life Committee to impart new, more restrictive rules for dances and visitation between the genders.

We do know that by 1929, perhaps due to the work of Rose Swart, the Social Life Committee and the Dean of Women had acquired important regulatory powers over the lifestyles of their charges. Through the "Girls Organization", which each female student automatically belonged to, and the house-mother community, the Committee restricted visitation by men to 10:00 pm on weeknights and 11:30 pm on weekends. Normal girls were not allowed to visit any road houses or attend any public dances. "Motoring" after 8:00 pm outside of the city limits was also prohibited, as were weekend visits outside of the city. And while exceptions could be made upon the ruling of the Dean of Women, one wonders just how many road houses met with her approval.