Tag Archives: Student Publications

p. 340 – The Barnett Period, 1962-1969

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Colgate undergraduates and their friends from other colleges an opportunity to meet with leading artists to observe their work, listen to their lectures and engage in discussions. Among new student publications appearing on campus was the Colgate News, a competitor of the Maroon.

Though the official University policy on fraternities since 1955 adhered to the principle that there be no discrimination based on race, creed, color or national origin in the selection of members, there were suspicions that some Greek letter groups were ignoring it. Aware of the problem, the Trustees created in October, 1967, a joint Committee on Fraternities which included faculty, administration, students (fraternity and non-fraternity), alumni, and Trustees to study Colgate’s fraternities and make recommendations. In the spring of 1968 occurred a series of events growing out of the fraternity problem which led to a sit-in demonstration in the Administration Building of some 400 students and 40 faculty members who felt no other methods remained to eliminate discrimination practices. The immediate consequences of the events were the suspension of one fraternity’s charter and the revocation of a second. At their May, 1968, meeting the Trustees reaffirmed the University’s basic policy against discrimination and also approved the Joint Committee’s recommendations: that University rules must supersede fraternity chapter rules and procedures; that election to membership be by affirmative vote of a simple majority; that the University have ultimate supervision of housing and food services and conditions relating to health and safety; that the President appoint a continuing committee on fraternity affairs, consisting of an Assistant Dean of Students for Fraternities and student, faculty, administration, and alumni representatives to work with the Board and its committees; and that fraternity hazing be abolished at once.

Related to the question of fraternities were other issues concerning University government to which faculty and students had called attention. In response the Trustees established an ad hoc Committee on University Organization made up of Trustees, faculty, administration, and students to examine the responsibilities of each group and make recommendations for improvements. A second ad hoc committee, this one to review policies on admissions and scholarship aid and to have a membership from the same constituencies as the first, was also appointed. In October 1968, the Trustees provided that one

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p. 320 – The Case Administration, 1942-1962

Posted on June 21, 2012 by | Comments Off on p. 320 – The Case Administration, 1942-1962
Veteran's Housing, A1000-69, Folder 6, p320    Veteran's Housing, A1000-69, Folder 5, p320

 

January, 1943, was appointed Assistant Dean for the civilian group, and later succeeded by Dr. Paul S. Jacobsen, ’27, of the Political Science Department. Civilian and military students together published the Maroon and Banter. The latter temporarily lost its character as a humor magazine to take on some of the features of a yearbook in lieu of the Salmagundi which did not appear. Members of both groups under Dr. Daniels’ direction staged some noteworthy dramatic productions.

With the release of men from the service at the war’s end the University faced the problem of accommodating a greatly expanded student body in excess of 1,300, a large proportion of them veterans. Dr. George H. Estabrooks of the Psychology Department became Director of Veterans’ Affairs and Dr. James A. Storing of Political Science, Director of Studies for Veterans. George Werntz, Jr., returned from the Navy to resume his duties as Director of Admissions. Many of the faculty members who had been on leave in the armed services or in government positions were back in the classroom and additional staff had to be recruited. An office to assist veterans in obtaining employment was opened in New York City under the supervision of Dr. Clifford E. (Woody) Gates, ’15, Professor of German.

Administrative innovations of the Case period included making

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p. 305 – The Cutten Period, 1922-1942

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freshman caps, attendance at cheer and song practice, and in general maintaining campus traditions, was taken over by the Sophomore Vigilance Committee in 1930. Paddling was a common punishment for violating the rules to be found in the Frosh Bible. By 1939 the senior honorary society, Konosioni, had assumed the duties of the sophomore committee.

Undergraduate support of the honor system had so declined by 1922 that on recommendation of the Students’ Association the faculty abolished it. Many undergraduates had come to believe that the crime was not so much cheating as being caught. Later college generations sought unsuccessfully to create sufficient public sentiment to revive the no-proctoring arrangements.

Interclass rivalry was a marked feature of student life in the ’20’s, especially between the Freshmen and sophomores, as had been true in the past. From time to time it was channeled into supervised events such as athletic competitions, the salt rush, and the pushball contest but the most violent encounters were likely to come when the classes held their banquets, usually off-campus, and before Moving Up Day in the spring. In 1923 they pelted each other in the center of the village with decayed eggs and the next year repeated the performance on two successive nights, on the second of which nearly the whole student body seems to have joined them. Irate businessmen with befouled storefronts and innocent bystanders who had been in “line of fire” demanded an end to such misbehavior and town and gown efforts averted it thereafter. The normal relations between students and merchants were very cordial and the latter were among the staunchest supporters of many campus activities, including athletics.

The undergraduate publications of the preceding years continued in the Cutten period. The Maroon editors by the middle ’20’s gave more space to non-athletic news items than formerly and in the spring of 1924 introduced “The Weeping Willow,” a column of comment and gossip which lasted until the fall of 1940 and at times gave considerable spice to the paper. The Salmagundi changed from a Junior to a Senior yearbook in 1934. Banter, the humor magazine, enjoyed the distinction of being suspended by the faculty in 1928 for publishing “objectionable” jokes. The literary magazine, The Willow Path, expired in 1931 for lack of support.

Dramatics made a strong bid for student attention. Russell F. Speirs, a Syracuse graduate in 1923, joined the faculty that year as a member

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Madisonensis becomes The Colgate Maroon (p. 276)

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teams, and careful preparation and skillful coaching, all joined to produce outstanding achievements. Intercollegiate opponents included many of the leading Eastern institutions but Ohio Wesleyan was a perennial rival. Colgate made forensic history in 1917 by being the first men’s college to debate a team from a women’s school, the occasion being a contest with Vassar in which, by previous agreement, no decision was rendered.

Two new publications appeared on campus in the ’20’s. The first was Banter, typical of the contemporary college humor magazine with its jokes, often borrowed, drawings, and slick, bright covers. The first number with Henry N. Burke, ’21, as editor, ‘came out for the 1920 Junior Prom. The second publication, The Willow Path, was a student venture sponsored by the English Department to afford an outlet for undergraduate literary productions. It began in the spring of 1922 with a sizeable issue of 82 pages; Horace A. Woodmansee, ’22, was Managing Editor. The Madisonensis, meanwhile, had undergone various transformations in format and with the April 8, 1916, number became The Colgate Maroon.

As early as 1913 some undergraduates had built a “wireless apparatus” in Lathrop Hall and formed the “Radio Club of Colgate” to study radio communication and operate the station. Within a year, however, the group had reorganized as the Physical Society, a departmental club, and their initial interest was absorbed into a wider program.

Outdoor recreation was promoted by the Outing Club established in 1914 with the assistance of Professor Goodhue and patterned after a similar group at Dartmouth. Its emphasis was primarily on winter sports and in 1915 members represented Colgate at Dartmouth’s ski and snowshoe meet and winter carnival. Apparently their experience led the club, with fraternity cooperation, to sponsor a similar meet and a dance at Colgate a few weeks later, thus beginning the local Winter Carnival tradition. The club also promoted ski hikes and weekend trips to Big Moose Lake in the Adirondacks.

By 1910 Patrons’ Day was no longer observed and the students had taken over the occasion for Junior Prom, “the” social event of the year. One of its features, introduced in 1912, was the Freshman Circus in which the first-year men exercised their ingenuity in burlesquing faculty, students, and campus happenings.

Interclass rivalry continued to give zest to student life. The Mercury

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p. 256 – The Merrill Presidency, 1899-1908

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amused themselves clothing it with undergarments or painting it various bright colors. Once it turned up on the Hamilton Female Seminary lawn with its outstretched hand pointing to the window of the most popular girl there. It appeared again in 1884 at the Class of 1887’s “Burning of Livy” after which it passed into Professor Taylor’s custody only to be rediscovered in the fall of 1899 by Harry Emerson Fosdick, ’00, and Herbert W. Marean, ’01. Familiar with the Amherst Sabrina tradition, they decided to institute a similar custom at Colgate to foster college spirit. After they had buried their find in a “secret” place on Bonney Hill they drew up rules for the passing of “the bird” from class to class and turned him over to the juniors. Thereafter, until 1919 when the faculty abolished the tradition, a series of wild escapades ensued as rival classes battled with each other over possession of the statue and putting it on display at their banquets and at public occasions. Some of the choicest memories of alumni of these years center around this custom. Dr. Fosdick, writing in the Alumni News, confessed in retrospect twenty years later “I am inclined to think that I did no great service for my Alma Mater by starting all the rumpus that followed. It was a college man’s lark and Marean and I enjoyed getting the thing under way. We had no prevision, however, of the developments that were to follow.”

Student publications improved notably at the turn of the century, especially in design and art work. From 1902 to 1904 the Madisonensis covers featured considerable art nouveau. The Salmagundi after 1905 was notable for drawings by Ernest Hamlin Baker, ’12, who, even as an

Party decorations, Old Gymnasium, c. 1905
Picture of Old Gymnasium

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The first band (p. 235)

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Glee Club, 1891. First known picture.
Picture of Glee Club

be disassociated from Patrons’ Day it remained a highlight of the spring calendar and became the antecedent of “Spring Party.”

After the spring of 1891 students could no longer look to the Hamilton Female Seminary for dates because that school had come to an end. For a brief period in the middle ’90’s, a successor, Emily Judson Hall, was in operation, but for the most part, they turned to local girls or, for special occasions, they sometimes invited guests from outside. There were the perennial suggestions for coeducation or even what might be called a “co-ordinate college” but all of them were rejected by the Trustees who in 1892 voted that no women should be accepted as students in any department though the few young ladies already in the Academy might complete the course. Perhaps the most compelling reason for this attitude was the difficulty of finding additional funds which educating women at Colgate would require when they were already having problems in meeting regular expenditures.

Throughout the ’90’s student publications and musical groups-the glee club and others-continued to flourish. The editors of the Madisonensis called for new Colgate songs and vainly attempted to revive the old “Alma Mater” of the 1860’s. In the fall of 1895 the first

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Salmagundi yearbook commences publication (p. 211)

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The Madisonensis continued as the student newspaper and literary magazine. Regularly featured were editorials, essays, campus and village jottings (or gossip), college exchanges and alumni notes. There were also occasional poems, book reviews and reminiscences. President Dodge held to a no-censorship policy for the paper even though some items might seem to call for deletion or correction. He regarded the printed comments as “a vent to what was more likely to be harmful if repressed.

The first number of the yearbook, Salmagundi, appeared in 1883. Published by the Junior Class, its editor was James C. Colgate. The title, meaning a miscellany or medley, may well have been suggested by the Washington Irving, James K. Paulding periodical bearing the same name. Its contents, which covered the wide gamut of college activities included lists of faculty, fraternities and other organizations and their membership. Its antecedents were The Madisonensian, which first appeared in 1858, and other publications issued at commencement to inform alumni and friends of the extracurricular achievements of the past year.

Student government, as such, seems to have become dormant after 1872, perhaps because the growing interest in class organizations and other specific groups brought students together. The Dormitory Association, established in 1886, was helpful in maintaining cleanliness and quiet in the college buildings. The Society of Inquiry, which had been active in earlier periods, became moribund but was not to be dissolved until 1893. The Young Men’s Christian Association, founded in 1881 as a branch of the national organization, moved into its place. The Y’s emphasis was on the implications of Christianity in campus and community life rather than on foreign missions. In 1885 the Academy students set up their own YMCA which carried on an active program. There were also other short-lived clubs to foster special interests such as in history, German, and debating.

As was true in many colleges, the literary societies, the Adelphian and Aeonian, deteriorated, thanks doubtless to the flourishing fraternities which took over their objectives of promoting an interest in public speaking and writing as well as maintaining boarding clubs and providing opportunities for social life. The Greek letter societies were definitely in the ascendant. Faculty hostility had changed to acceptance and Dr. Dodge, a loyal Alpha Delta Phi since his college years at

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Madisonensis (Colgate Maroon) and school colors (p. 167)

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they shall resort to no tavern or other place where intoxicating drinks
are kept for sale . . .
[they] shall not play at cards or any other unlawful game . . . nor
shall they use intoxicating liquor.
The faculty minutes abound with cases which called forth admonition,
suspension, or expulsion.

With the introduction of student publications and athletics, some of this adolescent exuberance was diverted. The ephemeral Madison
University Literary Annual and the Madison University Gazette came
out at commencement time in 1857 and 1858. (later Madisonian ) which first appeared in August 1858, was issued annually for ten years. The first two ran stories, poems, and humorous articles, while the third, which had characteristics of a college year book such as listings of organizations, their officers and members, resembled similar publications at Hamilton and Williams Colleges. There was no regular campus newspaper until the Madisonensis began in August 1868; it continues to the present as the Colgate Maroon .

Croquet enjoyed a large following in the late ’60’s. Quoits, once popular, now attracted few devotees and interest in muscle-building gymnastics had declined notably since the ’50’s when students built a makeshift gymnasium. Primarily to distinguish Madison students from their opponents participating in extramural athletic contests, the first University colors, blue and magenta, were adopted in 1868. General recognition of the wholesome contribution athletics can make to college life, however, did not come until nearly two decades later.

The student generations of the ’60’s seem to have gotten considerable enjoyment from informal singing. In 1863 appeared a 24-page pamphlet, Songs of Madison, the first of its kind, which includes college songs of the period as well those of Madison students. Of particular interest is what must be the first Alma Mater which begins:

 

Alma Mater! Alma Mater!
Heaven’s blessings attend thee;
While we live we will cherish,
Protect and defend thee.

 

The most profound influence on the life of the students in the 60’s was, of course, the Civil War. They watched its approach as they read the newspapers in the library reading-room and listened to speeches of

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Hamilton Student, the first student newspaper (p. 136)

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and Spear. In a joint session, the University and Education Society Trustees agreed on replacements and thus enabled Henry Tower, the new President of the University Board, to give out their names at the close of the week’s exercises when he announced that instruction would be resumed as usual in the fall.

During the period 1847 to 1850, teaching had often become secondary to the question of location. One or more of the faculty was usually absent from classes on removal business, especially Eaton and Raymond. As was to be expected, the students took sides on the exciting issue. Influenced by the professors who favored Rochester, several were eager for relocation. When the Gridley injunction in the spring of 1850 obviated that possibility they eagerly awaited the announcement of the opening of the new institution so that they might enroll and in due time 21 did. Others, uneasy because of the strained atmosphere on the campus and the University’s uncertain future, withdrew, 24 going to Union College. Registration shrank from 216 in 1847 to 140 in 1850. The losses were particularly severe in the collegiate department where the decline was from 140 to 93. Students had been warned on all sides that the institution would soon be dead. Yet not all could believe this prediction. A minority swayed by William T. Biddle, Class of 1849, then in the theological department, and a few like-minded companions, agreed that if classes met in October they would return.

Numerous cases of student discipline reflect the unrest which resulted from the Removal Controversy. The most serious, that in connection with Professor Maginnis’s delivery of Dr. Kendrick’s funeral sermon in January, 1849, has already been mentioned. Disturbances in the dormitories were frequent. George B. Eaton, son of Professor Eaton, no doubt greatly embarrassed his father by instigating several, one involving the exploding of gunpowder under the bed of a fellow student. In many cases the culprits were required to make public confession in chapel as part of their punishment.

The most recalcitrant, perhaps, was George G. Ritchie, Class of 1849, who won distinction for starting the first student publication. As a freshman he discussed with some of the faculty his plan for issuing a paper and, notwithstanding their apparently mild objections, got out the first number on November 2, 1846. He called it the Hamilton Student with the subtitle, “A Semi-Monthly Mirror of Religion, Litera-

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Posted in Chapter 7, p. 136, The Removal Controversy, 1847-1850, timeline

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