Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1898 [PAGE 68]

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68

UNIVERSITY O F I L L I N O I S .

[Mar.

9

The University authorities are investigating every scrap of information bearing upon the unfortunate affair, with the intention of requiring all who have forfeited the privileges of the University to withdraw therefrom. As was to have been expected, we are experiencing some difficulty in securing reliable evidence fixing the responsibility upon individuals, but we have much information and the net-work is ; beginning to draw closely about a relatively small number who are apparently guilty. With your better facilities for compelling the attendance of all witnesses and examining them under oath, and with the aid of judicial forms and experience, I am sure you can locate the blame with greater certainty and come nearer reaching all who are culpable^ We shall be glad to put you in possession of such information as we have and will support you in all ways we can. If you should.think that you need the assistance of associate counsel, the University will provide it, and we will be obliged to you for any evidence touching the guilt of students, which you or the police may have. TJie most energetic action by the University and the public prosecutor, acting together, is demanded by all the circumstances of the case. There is every reason to believe that only a small number of students are seriously implicated. The rest should be relieved of the stigma which must rest upon all unless the guilty are punished. The people of the State who support this University, and who have a pride in its development, must be, shown that the University is able to rid itself of the unworthy and that the people of the cities in which it is located haye moral sense, civic pride, and nerve enough to take a course which will prevent a recurrence of such a flagrant violation of the public peace. Very truly yours,

A. S. DRAPER,

President. The investigation revealed the fact that the chief of police of the city of Urbana was intoxicated upon the evening of the disturbance and was really in league with the mischief makers. The mayor of that city was advised by me, in writing, of that fact, and an offer made to aid him in securing the evidence which would establish the charge, but nothing was done by either the State's Attorney or mayor in the directions indicated. A patient and painstaking investigation finally established the guilt of nine students, and as a result one of them was suspended for the rest of the year and eight were expelled. No mistakes were made, for in each case there was a subsequent admission of the correctness of the finding of the council. No student was expelled who did not procure, distribute, or use the chemical, and who, in addition tothis, did not either refuse information or answer untruthfully. Subsequent to this investigation, at my request, all the members of the freshman class and all save half a dozen of the sophomore class have joined in assurances to the Council of Administration that they will attend no more secret class gatherings and will not engage in any assault upon students, and that they will do what they can to uphold the authorities of the University. It will scarcely be appreciated by one not upon the ground, but it isnevertheless a fact that this affair caused us more trouble and put upon the University authorities a heavier weight of responsibility than we have heretofore been called upon to bear while I have been associated with the institution. To expel so many students, and thus break up their college course, is a serious matter. It involved a great deal of sorrow as well as perseverence on the part of the University authorities, and nothing but humiliation for the accused and grief for parents and friends. I am sure that if all students could have seen all phases of the matter, there would be no repetition of the conduct which necessitated this action. We have-done what we could to impress a useful lesson upon all connected with the University. I have no sympathy whatever with the idea that there is a standard of conduct and honor for college students which is at all different from the standards which all good citizens uphold and observe. Nor can.