1890 Headlines: Battle Creek College Students Expelled

**The following is an exact transcript of an article published in the Kalamazoo Telegraph on June 6th, 1890**

The Advent College Trouble

The details of the sensation at the Battle Creek college, which caused the expulsion of two students recently are as follows: About'a week ago a number of young people from this city attended the presentation of "Chris and Lena" at the Academy of Music, Kalamazoo. Among the party were Glen Ingham of Allegan and Carl McPherson of Grand Rapids, students at the Adventist college, and Fred G. Fisher, a well known young man here. The boys were accompanied by respectful young ladies, whose names are withheld. The party took supper at the Kalamazoo house, in this city, attended the theater and returned home on the midnight train.

The faculty of the college allow the students very little liberty, and they were incensed at this infraction of the rules, and wrote letters to the parents of the students stating their side of the case in very serious terms. The action of the faculty became known and caused a wide breach among the students, some taking sides with the faculty.

Battle Creek College (Courtesy - Willard Library)

The fathers of the boys went and tried to arrange the matter, but the president of the institution announced that the wayward students must go.

The faculty discovered that Fred L. Hibbard, an employee of the sanitarium, had made a trip to Kalamazoo the same evening, and they decided he also must leave the city. The sanitarium people want to manage their own affairs, and they told the faculty so, and the result was a ruction between the managers of these two institutions. Friday morning, the students of the college were called together in the chapel and it was announced that Ingham and McPherson had been expelled from the college for coming to Kalamazoo with young women and putting up at a public house in this city, also that Fred Hibbard was a member of the party.

The students were warned not to be caught in the same predicament, and not to associate with such young people. This caused a bitter feeling not only among the students, but among the prominent people who were acquainted with the facts. The expelled students returned to their home, but their friends among the citizens and students are up in arms against the faculty, for the manner in which they handled the matter.

The impression exists among people in general that the faculty have acted unnecessarily harsh. The faculty says that they are bound to be obeyed and will have the rules observed at any cost.