Litchfield enquirer., 1881-06-16
"An Experiment in College Govern
 ment."

merly it was the 'paternap' plan. Young men were monitored and tutored into habits of virtuous industry Still it was found that compulsory chapel and church did not tend to piety but rather to the opposite; that the stu dent viewed his professor with much the same affection as the Irish tenant regards his landlord that the relation, in short, was one of profound distrust on the one side. and pro- found dislike on the other. There seemed as little reason for the stiff-neckedness of the under graduate against college discipline as for Russian Nihilism yet the feeling was not only prevalent, it was universal.
 The reason for this common college bump tiousness has always seemed to us to lie largely in the unwisdom of trying to govern l where government is in the main impossible. In our day the average college student reaches his majority in the Junior year. It seems ab- surd for college faculty to try to regulate the goings out and the comings in of citizen who may deed his land, make the most im- portant contracts, vote for President of the United States. The citizen may submit to military discipline because he knows it is necessary; he is almost certain to chafe under college discipline which he feels to be mere ly an annoyance. It is indeed said with much truth that boys of seventeen or eigh- teen are almost too young to be turned loose in the world. Hence, when, in our grand fathers time, boys of fourteen or fifteen en- tered college and few had arrived at full age on graduation, the college was little more than high school. The age of college stu dents has been steadily increasing as the en- trance requirements were raised, ttill, now, l probably fully half of our college students are of full age.
 But it is not merely because students are young that college discipline" has been en. forced upon them. Our colleges are copies of an English original, and the English original is of monastic origin. Our compulsory col lege prayers, our monitorings and tutorlngs, are relics of monastic discipline. With due respect to the wisdom of our ancestors, we doubt whether the medieval monastery is good model for the American college. Monk ish tradition has banished women from our best colleges it has also established modes of college discipline which we believe to be thoroughly unwise. It is his attempted en forcement of menastic discipline which makes the college professor odious. He is no longer reverenced as an instructor nor even feared as policeman.
 | A thoroughly American method of meeting the difficulty of keeping some sort of order among students and still of relieving profess sors of police duty, has been tried in the H. linois State University. This novel exper iment. and it's success are fully set forth in an article by John M. Gregory in the June Inter- national Review. The plan was first pro- posed by the President of the college to a meeting of students.
 1 In due time the vote was taken, and showed a unanimous desire to undertake the proposed experiment. A committee of some of the old CT and more experiencesfstudents was appoint ed 10 confer with the President. and to pre- pare the draft for a constitution and by laws for the new government. This constitution, | finally adopted, provided for the election of a president, vice. president, secretary. and treas urer, .by the body of students, and the ap- | pointment of marshal and three judges by the President. These judges constituted the college court and all violations of the laws were to be tried by them without jury The law-making power was vested in the general | assembly of the students. but an absolute veto was reserved to the President or Regent Gas he is here called) of the University. Laws | were make for the preservation of uuiet and good order in the dermitory buildings: against gambling, drinking, and keeping intoxicating drinks in the dormitories against violations of sundry rights of students; and against in- l jury of college property. The penalties con- sisted of fines varying Tn amount from few cents to five dollars. Obstinate culprits and those who refused to pay the fines, were to be reported to the Faculty, who retained all power to suspend or to expel student
 The plan has been in operation about ten years As the college grew larger and the meeting of students became too unwieldly for the efficient transaction of business, senate was elected with legislative powers. The election of senators and judges was sharply contested. Mir. Gregory does not deny tLat there have been some evil results of the new system. It has had its periods of declining energy, it has sometimes aroused jealousy of other authority, ard it has led to occasional periods of high political excitement.
 This government has not been without op. 1 position. In a body of over four hundred | students many must be found to whom re- l straint is irksome ana the very efficiency of f the government has made it odious to them. They prefer to take their chances of avoiding the vigilance of the Faculty rather than the more hazardous ones of escaping the student police. Those whe have felt the "halter kAR,n 1f ~t--s-- the law" In a few cases law. abiding but factions students have sought the overthrow of the government: and through the repre- | sentations of these disaffected students, per | sons outside the University have been some times prejudiced against it. In one instance 8 member of the State legislature, in public address to the students, and in the presence of large body of his fellow members denounced l the government as system of unmanly spy 1 ing, and exhorted them to abandon it. No one wondered that he was soundly hssed, not even the august presence in which they were sufficing to restrain the indignation of the students at this attack upon their govern | ment. But the speech had the effect to en- courage the disaffected and it gave rise to long and earnest debates among the students I of all classes. Resolutions were introduced into the general assembly of the students for the abrcgation of the government; but these l resoiutions were rejected Dy overwhelming maJorities. More recently the question of abandoning the government was voted on by ballot at regular election; and again the majority was found largely in favor of it's continuance.
 Mir. Gregory considers the experiment on the whole a-success, chiefly because it organ izes the better elements of the college con- | munity and teaches them to protect them. 1 selves.
 The minor and incidental advantages of 1 the system need not be fully detailed here I they will readily occur to the experienced and l thoughtful. If the great end-that of good l government-be gained, the experiment must be counted success. Thus far through ten years, it has been fairly successful; not in- deed without occasional failures; not with ideal r,arfacticx, Eos,,lt ;t hoo