The American Quarterly Review, No. 18, June 1831 (Vol 9)Various
History
The American Quarterly Review, No. 18, June 1831 (Vol 9)
Various
Intellectual life -- Periodicals; United States -- Intellectual life -- 19th century -- Periodicals
"No person, other than a student or other member of the
college, shall be admitted as a boarder at the college
table. No liquors shall be furnished or used at table,
_except_ beer, cider, toddy, or _spirits and water_!"
"No student shall be permitted to lodge or board, or without
permission from the president or a professor, go _into_ a
tavern."
And again,--
"If offences be committed in which there are many actors or
abettors, the faculty may select _such of the offenders for
punishment as may be deemed necessary to maintain the
authority of the laws, and to preserve good order in the
college_, &c."
It is always found more easy to make laws, than to have them well
executed. This is, in fact, usually the great difficulty, and formed,
very properly, a subject of deliberation in the Convention. No light
was, however, shed upon it, and the most visionary sentiments were
elicited, denying the necessity of any discipline whatever in the higher
schools. Whenever a number of youths are thrown together within a small
compass, other rules become necessary besides those of the land. The
_esprit du corps_, the influence of bad example afforded by a few, lead
to the commission of offences that demand interposition; accordingly, in
every intelligent and sound thinking community, certain transgressions,
such as gambling, drinking, disorderly behaviour, habits of expense and
dissoluteness, and incorrigible idleness, have been esteemed to merit
serious collegiate reprehension.
Of the different kinds of government adopted in universities, we shall
mention those only which prevail in the United States. The authority is
generally vested in a president and faculty, the former having the power
of inflicting minor punishments; the major punishments requiring the
sanction of the latter. With the president the power is vested of
deciding whether any case is deserving the one or the other. An
objection has been urged against this system, that if the president be
of a timid, vacillating disposition, he may keep every case from the
faculty, and in this there is some truth; he is, however, responsible to
the trustees, and hence it can rarely happen that he will exercise
ill-judged lenity; this danger too, is greatly abated, provided the
faculty be allowed collateral jurisdiction, and can act on cases of
which he has not taken cognizance. If he has already acted, it would be
obviously improper that any additional jurisdiction should be
exercised--in accordance with the common law maxim--that no man can be
put in jeopardy twice for the same offence.
If such discretionary power be not granted to the presiding officer, he
will have to carry every case before the faculty; and thus his office
will be merely nominal, for it would be utterly impracticable to define,
with any accuracy, the cases that must fall under his dominion,
distinctly from those to be assigned for the animadversion of the
faculty.
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