Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1886 [PAGE 75]

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4. A statement of the Regent of the University concerning its regulations, and the steps taken by the Faculty to protect and enforce those regulations when contravened by the act of said North. The Trustees desire me to ask your opinion upon the questions of law, constitutional or other, raised in these communications, which I conceive to be substantially these, viz.: May the Trustees and Faculty rightfully hold chapel exercises in the manner and form substantially as they have hitherto been held, and may they require the attendance of students thereon? . . . Were the constitutional rights of Foster North duly guarded by the offer to excuse him upon his assertion of conscientious scruples against attendance upon such chapel exercises? I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 8ELIM H. PEABODY. .Regent University of Illinois*

STATEMENT OF KEGENT AS TO THE PETITION OE FOSTER NORTH. UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS. URBAN A, ILLINOIS, September 8, 1885.

To the Trustees of the University of Illinois: GENTLEMEN—In the matter of the petition of Foster North, referred by you to a committee for consideration and report, the Regent of the University begs leave to make the following statement of the customs and regulations of the Institution, the authority on which they rest, and the acts of the Faculty which are complained of by Mr. North in his aforementioned petition. This statement is presented as follows: 1. This University was chartered by act of Hie Legislature of the State of Illinois, approved February 28,1867, and by said act was made the recipient of a grant of land made by the Congress of the United States in an act approved July 2, 1862. By the act of incorporation the authority to make and establish by-laws for the management and government of the University was vested in the Board of Trustees, and by the Trustees has been intrusted to the Regent and Faculty of the University, acting in their behalf, and with their sanction, as is the custom in institutions of higher education of such grade and character. 2. From the opening of the University in March, 1868, the students of the University have been required, and have been accustomed, to assemble daily in some suitable place. This daily assembly has been deemed an important aid in the orderly and methodical conduct of the University business, furnishing an opportunity for giving publicity to such orders, directions, notices, etc., as were suitable and requisite and for giving such instructions of a general nature as might be deemed useful and necessary adjuncts to any course of liberal education. At the time of this general assembly of students, and as a customary part of its public exercises, portions of the New Testament scriptures have been read, hymns or anthems have been sung, and prayers have been offered. For the last live years the prayer offered on each occasion has been that known throughout the Christian world as the Lord's Prayer, recited by the Regent. In. these exercises, particularly in the reading of the New Testament, and in the singing, the students have been invited to take part, and many of them have so taken part, but no person has been required to participate therein against his wish. Before entering into the assembly-room or chapel, the students are gathered into companies, and the rolls are called, the military organization being used for this purpose. The names of all absentees are reported to college officers assigned to receive them, and the absentees are required to present to such officers satisfactory reasons for failure to attend. Up to the refusal of Mr. North to attend, the authority of the University to require attendance has not been questioned, and the requirements to present reasons tor occasional absences, as above stated, has been all that has been needed to secure regular and orderly attendance, without any resort to unusual or severe discipline. It has, however, been held that if any student should present to the Regent or Faculty a statement that his attendance upon the above described general assembly of the students, and his listening to the exercises therein conducted, were in opposition to his religious beliefs, and an infringement upon his rights of conscience, he should thereafter be excused from attendance. Thus, for example, a student who was a Jew has been told that if he or his parents objected to attendance upon the aforesaid exercises because of his Jewish faith, he should be excused therefrom. Mr. Foster North entered the University as a student on the fifteenth of September, 1879, and remained as such, with occasional interruptions made by himself, until the present time. He has not been expelled, as he has sometimes stated. No objections are raised by the Regent and Faculty as to his general deportment or scholarship. After nearly six years of acquiescence in the regulation concerning attendance upon chapel exercises, in March, 1885, Mr. North absented himself therefrom. In the absence of the Regent he was called to excuse absences by the Vice-President of the University, Prof. Burrill, and made reply substantially that the government of the University had no authority to ask his attendance. His answer was reported to the Faculty by Prof. Burrill, and on April 3 the Facultyentered upon its minutes, that "he (Foster North) would be expected to comply with the regulation of the University as long as he remains a student therein," and this action was reported to Mr. North. He still remained absent from chapel exercises; the ease was again brought to the knowledge of the Faculty, April 17, and the Faculty voted the following order i