Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1892 [PAGE 82]

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PROCEEDINGS OF BOARD OF TRUSTEES.

85

Regent declined to do so, on t h e ground t h a t a tacit understanding had gone out t h a t no action would be taken before Monday, and t h a t if t h e students, or any of them, should be disposed to retract before t h a t time they should have the opportunity. T h a t even a tacit understanding was sacred, and should be fully observed. Monday, February 9th, Capt. Barker came to the Regent, representing himself to be a committee, and proposed t h a t if Mr. Miller could be reinstated as captain under the "emergency" clause the students would withdraw their opposition. The Regent expressed his opinion t h a t t h e Faculty would not undertake to make terms, and advised Mr. Barker, personally, to withdraw his resignation, which he then did. This was but a few moments before the convening of the Faculty meeting at the usual hour. Soon after the Faculty met; two papers were passed in by the Regent's Secretary, which had come from the students. They are as follows:

U N I V E R S I T Y OF ILLINOIS, February 9, 1891.

To the Faculty. We, the undersigned, acting for the military class, withdraw the condition which was attached to the resignations handed in last Tuesday, Chas. A. Gunn, A. L. Pillsbury, E. S. Scheidenhelm, J. P. Hubbell, W. J. Graham, F . M. Spalding, Harlow Bacon, R. C. Yial, C. W. Carter.

CHAMPAIGN, I I I . , February 9, 1891.

To the Faculty. GENTLEMEN: The two military classes, at their meeting to-day, voted to submit to you t h e following proposition as a settlement of the present difficulty, and hope t h a t it may receive your favorable consideration. " T h a t Mr. Miller be appointed as captain for t h e rest of the term, or longer, under t h a t clause of rule 4, which reads as follows: ' I n an emergency, students, others than those specified in rule 3, may be appointed to command.' Also t h a t he be allowed to take an examination, or otherwise make up this term's work in military science, as soon as he has complied with the rules regulating such matters."

E. S. SCHEIDENHELM, Committee.

The Faculty did not deem the withdrawal of the condition originally attached to t h e resignations, as covering t h e case. I t did not a t all alter the fact, t h a t t h e resignations had been made by concerted action in order to coerce the Faculty to adopt a line of action which t h e students had outlined for themselves; t h a t the resignations had been instantly followed by desertion of posts, in the face of duty, to the great detriment of the University, producing disorder and riotous behavior. T h e idea t h a t t h e sergeants were the only ones to be blamed, and t h a t the captains were in their places ready to take charge of their companies is an afterthought, and is not warranted by the facts, as observed at the time. The question before t h e Faculty was not whether t h e men might not, in an orderly way, present their resignations, waiting on duty until their requests could be acted upon, and deferring even then to t h e judgment of the Faculty as to whether the good of the service would permit the officers at once to retire. The acts of the students must be considered in the light of all the surrounding circumstances, and t h e resignations, though less offensive when the condition was removed, had remaining about them enough of evil circumstance to forbid the Faculty from accepting them. Still there remained a doubt as to t h e real sentiments of t h e young men, many of the Faculty believing t h a t some, if not all, were truly of the opinion t h a t they had committed an error, and an offence, which they would gladly retract, if they could see a way to do so.