UIHistories Project: A History of the University of Illinois by Kalev Leetaru
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Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1871 [PAGE 282]

Caption: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1871
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274 enumerated in his diploma everything he has studied. So every boy's diploma will certify as much as he makes it and no more. We have dormitories. I wish we had none, but they were given to us, and we use them, of course. "We could not use the building very well for anything else. In the management of the students who occupy the building—about 150—we have adopted the same plan that President Welch has adopted. I said to the students, after one year of governing the institution by the Faculty, " Y o u are young Americans; you expect to govern yourselves and will be governors of the country by-and-by; why not begin now?" We offered them at their option the privilege of undertaking their own government in the Institution. They had a meeting and unanimously voted to undertake the government. We have a semi-military organization as we have had from the outset. Every corridor has its Hall Sergeant, whose business it is to assemble the men, lead them to the chapel, etc. I suggested that they should appoint a council, and a council of five or six men was appointed with a president, who act as a court, the Adjutant of the building being the chief executive officer. The Hall Sergeant in each hall reports any offenses to the Adjutant, and they are then tried by the court. They have appealed to me but two cases only in the whole time. Shortly after the opening of their government, they said they had caught in one of the rooms a number of boys, with some one fiddling, having a dance, and it was against their rules, and asked what they should do in the case. I said to them, "Is it a violation of the rules?" They said, "Yes." "Can you prove the guilt of the parties ?" "Yes." Said I, "Then there is no option ; you must enforce the law." I never heard anything farther about the matter. The other case that came before me was that of a young man who declined to pay his fine. They didn't tell me what his offense was, and I did not ask, but told him he must obey the rules, or leave the school. They have written out their constitution and by-laws, and put them up in the library, and govern matters their own way. I must say it is well governed, and better than I could govern it with the whole Faculty. I want to say there has been in the State thus far a pretty good feeling;—much better than I could have anticipated—between this and the other institutions, and I do not think there is very much danger of any rupture of the harmony. I have said, whenever I meet gentlemen of the other institutions, the only difficulty, I suppose, that would occur, would be a little feeling of jealousy for fear one institution would get more than its share of patronage. But there is a plenty of material to fill every college of the State. We want more educated men every-