The Suspended Students

The action of the faculty of the Literary Department of the University, ia suspending thirty-nine sophoniores and forty-two freshmen from the privileges of the University until the commencement of the next academie year, will meet with alraost universal commoudation not only in the State, but evorywhero in the nation whore the circumstances which induced the action aro known. The faculty had no alternativo but to pursue the course they did, and the only criticism to whioh the action is susceptible is that it was too long delayed. The occasion was one which demandod not only tirmness, but promptness, and our only regret is that the faculty did not take at an earlier day tho position they finally assumed. As they very properly say the University can better aiford to bo without students than without government, order and reputation. Tlio University will suffer nothing by the temporary absence froui it of those under graduates, who, by confessing their misdeeds with an air of bravavo, attempted to coerce the faculty into receding from action taken with due deliberation. ün the contrary, it will be the gainer on account of the increased esteem in which it will be everywhere held on account of the determinatfon of the faculty therein to not only assert, but exercise their authority over those under their control. Parents will sond their sons with less hesitation to an institution where it is seen there is some controlling power ; while if tho faculty had allowed themselves to be swayed by the students, and theroby tacitly aoknowledged their inability to manage the University, and practically abdicated their functions, the dato of the decadonce of the University could without difficulty have been fixed. But while the action of the faculty is in the highest degree commendable, one of the principie reasons assigned for that action, will not, we think, meet with equal favor. The faculty say : " The public men of the State demand that the Universitity faculties, which are but the servants of the State, shall eradicate from the University the practice of hazing, and every other form of disorder which may bring upon it shame and disgrace, whether it costs the suspension or the absolute expulsión of a hundred or hundreds of those who have been admitted to its privileges." This is true enough, but, it soems to have little bearing upon the aotion of the faculty. There ought to be no occasion for that body to shield themselves behind the publio men of the State. They should havo come out and declared unequivocally that the best interests of the University- interests which it is their duty to subserve- demand the eradication from the University of " the practice of hazing.'and every other form of disorder which may bring upon it shame and disgrace." Suppose the public men of the Stato had demanded nothing- what would the faculty have done then ? Their 'reference to the opinions of any one, except incidentally, has too much the air of an apology to the students for what they feit constrained to do. The students committed offenses for which they deserved suspension, and suspended they should have been without preface or apology. The faculty might very appropriately have gi ven, their reasons for suspension, but they need not have traveled outsido the University to find them.- Free Pres. Tirrc "HAZERS" DISCIPLINED. The University Paculty have determined upon " heroic treatment" for the "hazing" evil, and on Monday suspended for the remainder of the collegiate year the eighty-one young gentlemen who had deñántly proclaimed their participation in this offense and had indulged in ovations to the original victims of a verf proper administration of University discipline. There can be no question but that the course thus taken will be emphatically 8ustained by public sentiment. Such a tone of opinión on a matter of this nature, as the events of the last week have shown to exist among the lower classmen of the Ann Arbor undergraduates, needs radical reformation, and the grave abuse, which is intrenched in such a resolute dis ■ position to resist all attempts at its suppression, should be uprooted at whatever cost. The University is the pride of this State, and it receives generous contributions from the State Treasury. lts doors are thrown open to all qualified applicants for the enjoyment of its educational privileges witb. ouly nominal charges, and the young gentlemen who are admitted to its lecture and recitation-roonis are bound by considerations of common gratitude, leaving the requirements of gentle manliness and of a nianly spirit of subordination out of the question, to refrain from aught that can injure its reputation or impair its continuad usef ulness. " Hazing" harins any educational institution at which it is prevalent, both by deterring self-respecting seekers after knowledge from exposing themselves to such degrading treatment, and by alienating the regard of the cultivated classes.- When it is supplemented, as it was at Ann Arbor, by a boid attempt to resent its punishment as something passing the bounds of justice and as an exercise of authority deserving defiance and not respect, it is calculatsd to créate a most injurious lack of public confidence. Therefore the culprits in this case Bhowed a gross lack of appreciation of their duty as the recipients of the State's bounty, which was probably due in a great degree to tho'tlessness, but which nevertheless called for effectual measures of correction. The action of the Faculty was thus absolutely necosary, and none too severe in its terms, and it will strengthen the position held by the University in the esteem of those who have watched with interest its remarkable growth, and hope to see it maintain ia all the future its place in the front rank (alike in its educational and moral influences) of the higher institutions of learning upon this continent. - Detroit Tribune. TUE UNIVERSITY ORDER. The f aculty of the Michigan State University have not, in a long time, done an act so deserving of general commendation, or which has been or will be so generally approved, as its action in suspending the students who havo been guilty of the ungentlemanly and dishonorable practice of " hazing." Public sentiment throughout the country will heartily sustain the faculty. Wherever there is a manly feeling, or the sentiment of personal honor, the order of the faculty will be thoroughly approved. The practice of " hazing" is one of the most utterly unchivalric prácticos conceivable. He who indulges in it simply venturas, under the safe cover of numbers and of custom, to put a personal affront upon one whom he might not dare to insult unless backed by a crowd. He who submits to it, submits to an insult to his person, which, if offered by a single opponent, would be resented by any manly spint as an unpardonable outrage. lts whole tendency is degrading. On the one side, it is a niob deeming it safe to insult a single person. ün the other, it is an unmanly submission to a personal degrada tion, because it proceods from many, and has been backed by custom, and is offered in a spirit of mischief. and may not be intended to be oonsidered as an insult. Yet how far it is a personal degradation, and an outrage to personal dignity, may be understood if one fancies, for a moment, how a brave man would resent any rude liberties taken with bis person or his rights comniitted by other men. The people of this State have a right to expect, and do expect, that the education of their sons at the State University will tend to make gentlemen, and not roughs ; high-minded and orderly eitizens, jealous of their personal rights and diguities, and neither inembers of nor disposed to submit to any mob. The practices of dueling and of boxing have been very properly disoouraged in American colleges, and forbidden by the laws of the land. In their place, we have depended upon law, and Christian chivalry, to protect the dignity of the person from insult or outrage, and to teach what is indignity and outrage. Hut it is sometimes questionable whether our young men are not losirig that fine sense of the sacredness of the person which was formerly a marked charactoristic of gentlemen, and which is still prevalent ainong brave men in the military and naval service of all countries, and which is a recoguized principie in good society. Since our advanoiiig civilization has supprossed the old mothods, it is all the more tho duty of college faculties to toach, by stern discipline, the lesson that indignities oftored to the person, no matter whether the victiui complains or not, aro unmanly and degradiug ; just as unmanly and degrading when put upon or submitted to by any student as if put upon or submitted to by the President of the University, or the Governor of the State, or a Justice of tho Supreine Court, or any high-minded gentleman. The spirit which offers and tho spirit which submits to them, are aliko degrading. Whoever has that high feeling whioh never forgets that " I, too, am a gentleman," will not hold his person or nis rights any oheapor than tho highest in the land. If there is any criticism of the order issued by tho faculty, it is most likely to be that it is too lenient, rather than that it is too severa. There are, however, many reasons for forbearance. The fault agaiust which the order is directed is of long standing. The culprits have, we may presume, been led into it by custom, and without a proper appreciation of its character, or of tho disgust with which it is regarded by public opinión. In beiug merciful, as well as firrn, the faculty have probably considered all mitigating circumstances, including the future of the offenders. They have the high examplos of the Seoretarv of War and the ry of the Navy, in dealing with the same evil at West Point and Annapolis, in the Military and Naval Academies. They may safely follow those examples further, if necessary, in enforcing discipline. The recent order of the Secretary of the Navy shows plainly that the practice of " hazing" is viewed among honorable gentlemen as disgraceful, and unworthy of those who aspire to be ranked amoug the brave or the manly. The State Univeraity ought to be, in the perfection of its discipline, no less than in the standards of its scholarship, the pride of Michigan. It should be a great center of law, order, and honorable manhood, as well as of learning. The people, whose institution it is, expect this; and they will earnestly approve every effort of its faculty to inako it what it should be- in discipline, and in social and moral influence, as well as in scholarship, the just pride of the State, so that Miohigan may hereafter proudly say of its graduates : " These are something nobler and better than mere students : thev