Young, John C. Report to Board of Trustees (March 24, 1845)

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President's Report March 24th 1845

The number of students has been greater during this session than it has been in any previous session. In the College Proper there have been 128 in all, viz Seniors 21, Juniors 37, Sophomores 27, Freshmen 18, Irregulars 25. In the Grammar School there have been [blank space]. The whole number in College & Grammar School has been [blank space].

While the College has been this prosperous in respect to numbers, it has been in a worse condition in respect to good order than it has ever been since I have been connected with it. There have been more drunkenness & [unclear: rioting?] among the students then have ever been exhibited before. The causes of this exits, as far as my observation & judgement enable me to decide, are these three. 1. Increased temptations to drinking & increased facilities for secret drinking furnished by the taverns of the place. 2. A large increase of Irregular students - of which class few are ever diligent & orderly. 3. The bad influence of a few active and talented students, of popular manners. The faculty in [illegible word] to remedy these evils have dismissed publicly 13 students, viz 3 Seniors, 2 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, & 6 Irregulars & have privately [unclear: induced?] five or six others who were not doing well to leave the Institution. There are two or three others whose parents will be advised to keep them at home. We have thus by public or private actions got rid of about 20. We trust that with the blessing of God upon our steady & persevering efforts to weed out those who corrupt others, & upon such

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[unclear: such?] efforts as may be made to suppress the temptations to vice [unclear: presented?] by the taverns, & to organize a better police in the taverns, the moral condition of the College will be improved & even be made better than it has ever been. It is but [unclear: justice?], however, to the large [illegible word] of the students to say that they are as diligent in study & decorous in deportment as any set that we have ever had. The present Junior class is the largest class that has ever been in College, - it consisted of 37 members. With the exception of two who have been dismissed & one who has been absent for some weeks, this class has contained not an individual whose diligence & proficiency has not been on the whole creditable - while a large portion of the class exhibit highest grade of scholarship.

J. C. [John C.] Young