Repository: UIHistories Project: Book - Illini Years [PAGE 24]

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backing On >r) In his Rghf for the panting ol degree*, they wen n ITcctivc workers In helping Peabody bring in the new and more libera] name it caused a furor throughout the State. The practical minded haifed thai ademicians with "robbing the people of a lahci • hool, un-Ameri an v u i «

m to a false p r i d e . . . "

In that same year the fortunes of the I fniversity also i hanged, i ta icpei ted II, If d, h c l p c a m c to land-grant colleges from the federal govcrnmei Wt of 1887 provided $15,000 annually for the maintenance ol an Agricultural Experiment Station. The second "Morrill" Act, in 1890, ina d the year! endowment income from $15,000 to $25,000. Peabody lost no time in mal needed additions to the faculty, lest the legislator! be tempted to ut down on State appropriations. The student enrollment which had declined to all-time low of 332 began to rise again.

Stephen Alfred Forbes, then State entomologist, was one of Peabod appointments to the faculty. He came from N o r m a l and b r o u g h t with him the State Laboratory of Natural H i s t o r y - the nucleus oi the pi-sent-da% Natu 1 listory Museum. |

Peabody had asked for a new drill hall. This was designed by Pn essor Nathan Clifford Ricker, 72, a faculty member at Illinois who had inaugur d the first architectural classes in the Middle West. The drill hall was camp] d

in 1890 and still stands today u n d e r the n a m e of " G y m A n n e x . " Gala plans were m a d e for the new building to be the ne of the 1890 Commencement Day. But a cloudburst which tx AU just I the program high-flown the 1

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opened m a d e such a din on the tin n

f that some of the most

orations of the day such as " T h e Moulders of the Mind.'* ' Plat< and "God in G o v e r n m e n t " had to be a b a n d o n e d . Again the aggn

ive alumni — this time not on the same side ai their

regent — forced a long disputed issue concerning the method oi appointment

of the Board ol Trustees. Alumni pressure succeeded in c h a n g i n g the law. In future, members of the Board of Trustees would be those \ o t e d in by jx^pular election. Peabody opposed this move, arguing t h a t "popular election mean politic al embroilment." T h e opposition of the alumni and the defeat oi his ideas in th

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vsue u c r c DCCt from ox I the

" " much for Peabody. He had never enjoN.al the m e a s u r e o! : to Cregorv. Studen" rrvoltcd

Students that had been accorded

banning of fraternities and . unst the compulsory daiK attendant at chap Pranks on and off the campus became more daring than esc, Once a group of students glued the chapel Bible shut and put IVahodv , ua »h ™ IwMon before the whole University when he attempted to op 11 t , m , , H N M,t ."Vli" 'T " " * « " * « « ol hiichaii in h , r l so ,lu d,Umn h « "when he sat down. During the final torn ol 1891 thing. * ! s,,Ml P ' : " n ned. ^han a doien students we, facing mapriu n. • * Peabody ',,;,;""

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