UIHistories Project: A History of the University of Illinois by Kalev Leetaru
N A V I G A T I O N D I G I T A L L I B R A R Y
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Repository: UIHistories Project: Book - History of the University (Nevins) [PAGE 111]

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GREGORY'S RESIGNATION

97

apathy in regard to the University galled him. During the latter part of his administration, when the colleges of the State were forming an association, the head of one protested against admitting the University as not a true institution of higher learning at all. I t is said that one of the Governors told Gregory, when the latter was presenting the claims of the University, that nothing could be done, adding: "The State washes its hands of the whole damned thing." Many people in Illinois had never heard of the institution, and the majority regarded it as a queer and unsuccessful attempt at State vocational training. Worries concerning financial matters, too, were constant; even one of the janitors, rebuked for profanity, retorted, "What do you expect for $35 a month, Doctor!" The Regent's health was not of the best, for his incessant labors told on his constitution. In all, he began by 1880 to be thoroughly tired of his position, and to long for a new field. This feeling was intensified by the consciousness that he was no longer held in the old worshipful regard by the students. To this loss in esteem, which might well have proved very temporary, his frequent absences from the University and absorption in administrative cares contributed. Even his brilliant chapel talks, by dint of much repetition, palled upon them. The climax came in the spring of 1880, in the "first military rebellion,'* evoked by a faculty resolution which laid down some new rules for the regulation of military classes and appointments, and in particular one that no student should be recommended for a State commission unless he was conspicuous for excellence in scholarship and gentlemanly conduct; and that these recommendations should not, without unanimous faculty vote, exceed five in one year.