Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1882 [PAGE 213]

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was presented by a committee of three students, each representing a fraternity, in which petition they ask such a modification of the rule as shall permit these societies to exist among students of the Senior and Junior classes. The Faculty gave the committee respectful audience, and listened to the statements which the gentlemen made. The Faculty have requested me to transmit this petition to you, which I do herewith. They have carefully considered this with the other questions which have arisen in this connection, and they desire that I would present with the petition their opinion that it should not be granted. This they say upon the merits of the general question, and without calling in question in any way the good intentions of the young gentlemen concerned. It is, indeed, always better to restrict an evil that cannot be removed entirely. It will be difficult, however, to satisfy the three lower classes, if they are prohibited from any privilege which the two upper classes may enjoy. It will create trouble, for the reason that as yet the lines between classes are not as in other colleges sharply drawn. Even if good faith is fully kept in the presence of the constant temptation to break it, and men in the lower classes are not elected or initiated before they become fully recognized Juniors, the men of those classes will be pledged to join soon after they come to reside here; they will be fretted continually by the rule which restrains them from that which they see others enjoy; and in all questions which concern the general interests of the University, in which for their own advancement the fraternities seek to control classes, societies, and the students' government, these brevet members will be forced to obey their leaders even more implicitly than if they were in full membership. The right of the Trustees and Faculty to take the course they have pursued, has been lately the subject of legal inquiry in a case in which the President and Trustees of Purdue University, in Indiana, were made respondents to an application for a writ of mandamus in the Circuit Court. The decision of Judge Yinton was in favor of the government of the institution, and the writ was refused. The Supreme Court of the State of Illinois, in the case of "The People vs. Wheaton College," has decided by a unanimous court a broader question, in which the principles which must govern this question must be fully settled. "Wheaton College had made a rule by which its students were forbidden to be members of any secret society. In violation of this rule, one of its studenis joined the Good Templars, and "was suspended from the privileges of the institution until he should express a purpose to conform to its rules." A writ of mandamus to compel admission was refused, first by the Circuit Court and afterward by the Supreme Court of the State. The Court used this language: "Whether the rule be judicious or not, it violates neither good morals nor the law of the land, and is therefore clearly within the power of the college authorities to make and e n force. A discretionary power has been given them to regulate the discipline of their college in such manner as they deem proper, and so long as their rules violate neither divine nor human law, we have no more authority to interfere than we have to control the domestic discipline of a father in his family. "It is urged that the Good Templars are a society established for the promotion of tem*perance, and incorporated by the Legislature, and that any citizen has a right to join it. We do not doubt the beneficent objects of the society, and we admit that any citizen has a right to join it if the society consents. But this right is not of so high and solemn a, character that it cannot be surrendered, and the son of the relator did voluntarily surrender it when he became a student of Wheaton College, for he knew, or must be taken to have known, that by the rules of the institution which he was voluntarily entering, he would be precluded from joining any secret society. When it is said that a persou has a. legal right to do certain things, all that the phrase means is, that the law does not forbidi these things to be done. It does not mean that the law guarantees the right to do them at all possible times and under all possible circumstances. A person, in his capacity as a. citizen, may have the right to do many things which a student of Wheaton College cannot do without incurring the penalty of college laws. A person as a citizen, has a legal right to marry, or walk the streets at midnight. <5r to board at a public hotel, and yet it will be absurd to say that a college cannot forbid its students to do any of these things. "The son of the relator has an undoubted legal right to join either Wheaton College or the Good Templars, and they have both an undouoted right to expel him if he refuses toabide by such regulations as they establish, not inconsistent with law or good morals."

AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT.

I present herewith the report of Prof. Morrow upon the Agricultural Department, from which it appears that this important interest makes a fair showing. The season will be remembered as peculiarly severe. Winter wheat on the farm suffered from the extreme cold and frost, and late crops from extreme heat and dryness. Other crops, as oats, hay, and especially corn, gave good returns. Prof. Morrow has given much attention to general repairs, to care of hedges and fences and roads, to cleaning out corners and weedy places, and a consequent air of improvement and cleanliness has been observed, which is certainly of great importance on what ought to be made the model farm of the State of Illinois. I cannot see that he has allowed this in any way to interfere with the actual needs of cultivation as the season required. It appears to have been accomplished by that prudent forethought which keeps farm-work always well in hand, and is one of the evidences of good practical management. The success which attended the exhibition of animals from the University Farm at the Fat Stock Show at Chicago is well known to you. It has called forth numerous and hearty commendations from sources that have hitherto been silent or inimical, and has greatly strengthened our friends in the opinion that the Agricultural work of this-