Disturbance at Hanover College

December 1903

“College in Peril of Disruption,” Fort Wayne Evening Sentinel, 9 Dec. 1903, p. 9.

COLLEGE IN PERIL OF DISRUPTION
CLASS CLASH AT HANOVER HAS CAUSED SUSPENSIONS AND STUDENT BODY STRIKES

Hanover, Ind., Dec. 9. As the result of a battle Monday night between the freshmen and sophomores of Hanover college, in which even members of the faculty, armed with axes, assisted in breaking down the doors of the room in which the sophomores were besieged, ten of the leaders of both factions were yesterday expelled from the institution and fifty upper classmen walked out in a body to show their sympathy with the students under the ban.

Today few students except those in the preparatory classes consider themselves on the roster of the college. Indignation among the ex-students on account of the order of expulsion is general and it is said that there is also dissension among the members of the faculty concerning the affair.

The students against whom summary action was taken by the faculty are Stark, Siphe, Miss Sylva Green and Miss Mann, of the sophomore class, and Vance, Leonard, Gore, Stark and Mann, freshmen. They have the full support of their classmates. The members of the sophomore class, all of whom are under disgrace, are especially belligerent.

SOPHOMORES PLANNED COUP

The trouble which now threatens to disrupt the college originated in an effort made by the freshmen to prevent the sophomores from giving a class party in one of the college halls. Arrangements were made several days ago by a few enterprising sophomores to hold a social function in the basement of the principal building. The plans were kept a secret from all but the members of the class until Monday. Then the plot leaked out and the freshmen saw in the scheme a plan to humiliate them. A council of war was called and the class decided that the party must not be given on the campus.

Efforts were first made to capture the leading members of the sophomores. In this the freshmen were only partially successful. Roy Edwards was seized, but managed to escape from his captors, and appeared later at the gathering of his classmates, minus several articles of clothing and in a sadly dilapidated condition generally.

David Johnson, jr., was marked as another victim and was tied to a bed in his own room. The girls of the class managed to evade the freshmen’s scouts by taking a roundabout path to the campus. They were admitted to the building by the boys, who had already gained an entrance, and no further attempt was made to keep the gathering a secret, although the use of the college buildings for class functions is a violation of the orders of the faculty.

When the noise of merrymaking within notified the shivering freshmen outside that their plans had failed, the besiegers decided to take immediate action. A plan was made to rush the revelers by making an attack down a stairway, but even this was foiled by the prudence of the sophomores, who suddenly deserted the basement and moved in a body up the stairs into the belfry room.

The outwitted freshmen, still more angered by the sophomores change of base, trooped into the building and hurried up the belfry stairs. The besieged students, anticipating an attack, were prepared to meet the onslaught. Crowding into the belfry room, they erected barricades against the heavy door and defied their assailants to do their worst. No course was left to the attacking party but to batter down the entrenchments. Freshmen were seen hurrying in every direction and soon returned with axes and hatchets.

PROFESSORS USE AXES

By this time the unwonted disturbance on the campus had aroused several members of the faculty. Close on the heels of the ax-bearing freshmen came President Fisher and several of the professors. They appealed to the freshmen to desist from their attack and summoned the sophomores to open the door. Both besiegers and besieged refused to listen. Then the dignified instructors of Hanover college took a hand. Some of them, seizing the axes from the hands of the freshmen, began to hack the door behind which the stubborn students still held their position. At length, partly by force and partly by the removal of the obstructions from within, the door was opened and the sophomores came forth.

President Fisher delivered a stern rebuke to both factions and the trouble was ended for the night. Yesterday’s action by the faculty has resulted in still greater complications and a speedy settlement is not expected.

“Sophomores Apologize,” Farmer’s Vindicator (Valley Falls, Kansas), 18 Dec. 1903, p. 2.

Madison, Ind. (Special). Members of the Hanover college sophomore class sent an apology to President Fisher and the faculty for holding their party contrary to rules in the college building. The order suspending the class was thereupon revoked. They will resume their studies at once.