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| Many significant events in the life of the College took place
between 1889 and 1897. The faculty and student body increased in numbers as did the
variety of courses offered. Students began publication of The Reveille,
a monthly magazine sponsored by the literary societies on campus. Two major additions were
made to the College building; dormitories and other outbuildings were erected. The YMCA
established a vigorous chapter in January 1891, and after several years of ups and downs,
intercollegiate baseball and football teams were approved by the Trustees. Two national
fraternities organized chapters on the Austin College campus, and at least one fraternity
house was built. Electricity and plumbing came to College Hill, and William Jennings Bryan
came to Sherman. At the same time, amid the glitter and pomp of ceremony and drill, faculty/student relationships strained. A cauldron of resentment and rebellion simmered, occasionally boiling over. Mischievous pranks gradually evolved into truly outrageous, even dangerous, behavior, and the Faculty, with a sense of growing tension, became increasingly severe in its reactions and judgments. The Trustees, under pressure to retain students, frequently undermined Faculty discipline. Filled with extraordinary color and excitement along with a nervous sense of potential disaster, crowned in June 1897 by the resignation of the entire faculty, the military era came to an end with an audible, collective sigh of relief from students, parents, faculty, and trustees alike. |
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