The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1906-10-11
HENDERSON. N. c.. THURSDAY, OCTOBER -
Hazing at State Colleges.
Wilmington Messenger.

|
According to the Durham cores
pondent of the News and Observer.
several sophomores tried to enter
| the room of @ freshman at Trinity
College to haze him and he fired bis
pistol through the panel of the door.
No one was hit, but one of the hazers
had a close call, as the ball passed
through the lapel of his coat. This
occurred day or SO before theshoot-
ing under similar circumstances at
the State University, and, though
effort was made to keep it quiet the
public has gotten hold of the news.
1t is said that it was this affair which
caused the faculty of Trinity to take
such stringent measures even before
the shooting at Chapel Hill to put a
stop to hazing. 1t is also announced
that four students have heen expelled
from the Agricultural and Mechani-
cal college for hazing.
AS to the hazing at Trinity the pub
lie has nothing to do. That is pri-
vate institution, supported from pri-
vate sources. II the authorities of
the college and its patrons choose to
put up with such conduct of the stu
dents it is nobody else s business; but
the general public, the State at large
represented by the tax payers, has
interest in the conduct of the two
other institutions mentioned. They
are kept up at public expense. The
State taxes the people to raise funds
to support the University and the
Agricultural and Mechanical college.
Therefore it is the peoples right to
demand Of those in authority at
those institutions that young men
who go there to study and receive an
education at the expense of the State
be allowed to pursue their studies in
peace and be not deprived of the op-
portunity by the rowdy conduct of
other students.
When young men who go to the
University are compelled to sleep out
in the woods at nj ght and in the day
time to skulll about the grounds in
going from one building to another
in the performance of their college
duties in order to avoid being tor
mented and subjected to indignities
they are being deprived of the privi-
leges and opportunities for study
they are entitled to and for which the
State is paying.
The University authorities and
those of the Agricultural college ore
not doing their duty when they allow
such interference in the studies of the
young men who go there to acquire
an education. They are paid their
salaries to aid young men in getting
education, and when they do not give
the aid they are not earning their
wages, and the people OF the State
are being taxed to support them
without getting any returns therefor
in the way Of educational advanta-
ges to the young men of the State
who go there to take advantage OF
the States bounty. To allow such
conduct toward certain students by
Others is a gross neglect of their duty
to the State by the authorities of
those institutions and continued per-
sistence on their part in this neglect
of duty will work serious injury to
the institutions they are employed
to aid in fostering. There are other
objections to hazing, such as its un-
manliness, and often brutality and
cowardice, but with them the public
is not concerned in like manner as
with the objection on the ground OF
interference with the privileges Of the
young men who 60 to college to
study.