Invidiousness, Innovation, Immorality, Inebriation, and Impishness: Five I's

The freshman class of 1888, determined to play host to their own social event commensurate with their elder peers, planned a freshman dance. The sophomores, believing the freshman to have "social aspirations beyond their years", [1] determined to end this blasphemy. When the evening of the dance arrived, the sophomores were ready, and "students were kidnapped, others were intimidated, chemicals, ill-smelling and irritating, were introduced into the [dance] hall, eggs were thrown, and a few people were pretty roughly handled". The dance went on, however, and was such a success that the following freshman class planned their own, and so the freshman-sophomore dance wars became a tradition for many years. [2]

The dance wars were not the only source of tension between the freshmen and sophomore classes. Hazing was just as popular in the early days of the University as it is today. By 1910 the University had borne the brunt of several Springfield editors which had proclaimed that "all young men who attend[ed] the University [were] hoodlums or bums", while sidestepping "how many representative young people there [were] from their own neighborhoods". In reaction, the University enacted tough anti-hazing policies and it was said that "the sophomore of the future who is caught in a hazing episode might just as well pack his suitcase and move on".[3]

The lawns of campus are taken for granted today, serving as an outdoor lounge to a student basking in the sun of a summer afternoon, or simply providing a quick shortcut for a student late to class. Students do not think twice about treading upon the grasses of campus, yet these lawns were opened to students less than a century ago. It was not until 1908 that: [4]

the custom which was begun last year [in 1907] of allowing students the freedom of the cumpus [sic] between the hours of four and eight p. m. daily, was so successful, and of so much general satisfaction to students, that the Vice-President has this fall announced that until further notice the practice may be continued. The students apparently have taken to the privilege very kindly, and there has been no evident deterioration in the character of the lawn

In 1912 scandal broke on campus when "the Illini made the sensational charge that R. T. Crane [a Chicago businessman] had employed detectives to collect scandal in the student community". The two men, which had stayed in a house on Healy Street from mid-November until December 20, had "made nightly expeditions through the student district" and "were noticed taking notes at several dances and were repeatedly detected peeping in at the windows of fraternity houses". The men, which had been uncovered through careless conversation with residents, had "collected a considerable amount of evidence regarding student immorality" and were suspected in a number of burglaries which had occurred at fraternity houses during the time they had been active on campus. [5]

Although many today labor under the belief that alcohol problems on campus are a modern problem, the University has wrestled with such issues since its inception. In the early 1900's, the University had passed regulations banning alcohol consumption in fraternity houses. However, then, as now, students found a myriad ways to escape the rules, such as drinking next door, or on the lawn, and so in 1913 Dean of Men Thomas Arkle Clark addressed alcohol consumption during one of his meetings with the representatives of the campus fraternities. He stated that "drinking in the house next door, across the street, or in the back yard, amounts to the same thing. It is the spirit of the rule that counts." He believed that it was better to "get together and talk things over [with students] than to try to enforce regulations that can easily be violated." [6] However, his speeches did little to curb alcohol consumption on campus, which has gradually become a staple of campus life for many.

A Halloween tradition on campus in the late 1800's was for students to push the University cannon from its position outside the Military Drill Hall into the Boneyard. The hooligans would also run rampant through surrounding neighborhoods, stealing outhouses and loading them on Illinois Central coal cars passing through town. [7]