Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 July 1893 — THE STATE NORMAL SCHOOL [ARTICLE]

THE STATE NORMAL SCHOOL

Culmination of the Trouble Over Prof. Tompkins' Removal. A sensational climax in the Indiar.a State Normal controversy at Terre Haute between the board of trustees and the faculty on one side and the 1,000 students sustaining Prof: Tompkins, the deposed professor, on the other, was reached, Thursday, and there was much excitement as a result. At 4:30 o’clock the full board of trustees who went to attend the commencement exercises, Friday, submitted a statement in the nature of an ultimatum to the entire graduating class of sixty-nine students, demanding that they return it signed before 6 o’clock, disavowing both individually and collectively the recent attacks on the trustees and faculty in the matter of Prof. Tompkins’ removal. The entire class of men and women refused to sign the statement, and at once packed up their books and effects and left the building, not one of them remaining. The students who sympathize with the graduates did the same thing, and soon the building w'as emptied of all except the trustees and President Parsons. The greatest excitement prevailed. Many graduates and students crowded to the railroad offices, purchased tickets and left for their homes in various parts of the State on the first train. Eighty-four countfes i of Indiana arc represented in the schdol. President Parsons declined to give out the ultimatum sent to the graduating class. Gov. Matthews arrived on Friday and tried to pacify the stiideritSj but was not successful. The commencement exercises were declared off, and the names of those who were to graduate were stricken from the rolls. The fueling among the students against President Parsons is intense.