The University of North Dakota's 1912 Dacotah yearbook reported that president Edward Robertson of Wesley College envisioned Sayre Hall, the men’s dormitory, as a place “where tossing, stretching, room stacking, and other relics of barbarism intended to strike terror into freshmen … would have no place, for the founder had high ideals.” The yearbook continued, “The knowing ones shook their heads and murmured: ‘Wait and see, time will tell.’”
Wesley College, a school associated with the Methodist Episcopal Church, had moved to Grand Forks from Wahpeton, becoming affiliated with UND, where a very different take on hazing came the following year, in 1913. A report published in The Student, UND's student newspaper, described the annual hazing of freshmen from Budge Hall, calling it a “a very delightful evening’s entertainment.” An automobile light was on so that the women of Davis Hall, the site of Gamble Hall today, could watch their male classmates being whipped with blankets and beaten with paddles.
Later, “the whole company paid President McVey a visit,” at which time President McVey delivered a speech, which the student paper described as emphasizing “the importance of good-fellowship, which is the underlying tone of the right sort of initiation.”
With President McVey's blessing, the mob then crossed University Avenue and invaded Sayre Hall at Wesley College. The Student reported: “At Sayre, the men already initiated were pressed into service wielding the blanket.” The lights at Larimore Hall, the women’s dormitory at Wesley College, were turned on so the women could again watch their male classmates being whipped with blankets and beaten with paddles.
The freshmen were forced to make degrading yells and sing humiliating songs, including a variant of “Jingle Bells” called “Tingle Butt.”
Such hazing apparently continued throughout UND President McVey’s administration. Today, the university and all of the UND fraternity chapters do not condone or tolerate hazing of any kind.
Dakota Datebook by Andrew Alexis Varvel
References:
- “Sayre Hall” (pages 197-198) in “The Dacotah 1912: A Chapter in the History of the University of North Dakota” (Grand Forks: University of North Dakota, 1911)
- “TOSSED AND PADDLED: Freshies Now Feel Much More At Home – That Old Familiar Feeling,” The Student (Grand Forks), 2 October 1913, page 4.
- “FRESHMEN DULY AND THOROLY INITIATED: Rumored That Co-Eds Were To Be Included But Escaped,” The Student (Grand Forks), 1 October 1914, page 4.
- “FRESHMEN INITIATED ON LAST FRIDAY EVENING: An Evening Of Enjoyment And Festivity To Be Remembered: PROFOUND IMPRESSIONS: Freshmen Were Paddled And Tossed – Much Oratory And Music Manifest.” The Student (Grand Forks), 8 October 1915, pages 1, 4.
- Picture of gleeful torturers wielding paddles from Thomas W. Howard, “Students”, in “A Century on the Northern Plains: The University of North Dakota at 100” (Grand Forks: The University of North Dakota Press, 1983), page 74.
- “ANNUAL FRESHMEN INITIATION QUIET AFFAIR,” The Student (Grand Forks), 6 October 1916, page 4.
- The entry for the Founders' Day Minstrel Show from the 1916 Dacotah yearbook expresses escalating contempt toward President Robertson.
- “Founders' Day Minstrel Show” (page 198) in “The Dacotah of 1916” (Grand Forks: The Junior Class of the University of North Dakota, 1915?)
- https://commons.und.edu/dacotah-annuals/9
- George A. Henry, “A Good Investment: the Story of Wesley College and that of the Mother Institution – Red River Valley University – as well as the Story of Still Earlier Plans of the Methodist Church to Promote Educational Work of College Rank in North Dakota” (Good Investment), August 1948. UND Publications, 21. Page 44.
- https://commons.und.edu/und-books/21
- Edward P. Robertson, “The Story of the Affiliation of Wesley College with the University of North Dakota” (Robertson Typescript), 16 February 1935, pages 4-5. Wesley College – Wesley Center of Religion Records. UA 63, Series 4, Box 4, Folder 27. Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections, Chester Fritz Library, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks.
- About Wesley College's residence halls, President Robertson wrote, “When the Wesley College residence halls were erected they were at once thronged with student applicants because of the then lack of housing accommodations for students. President Merrifield declared these residence halls to be of incalculable value to the University at the time they were opened to welcome students. They were intended to serve the educational purpose of Wesley College, but all students of the campus have been welcomed to residence.”
- Robertson Typescript, page 4.
- During the McVey administration at UND, there were calls within the Methodist Church of North Dakota to establish a Methodist university in Bismarck. These attempts were ultimately unsuccessful.
- Good Investment, pages 104-107.
- President Robertson wrote, “Bismarck would have been my choice of location for the college if it was to be relocated as a full curriculum college, and a committee of men of Bismarck invited me to that city for conference to urge the claims of Bismarck as the most inviting location for a college. They gave assurance of heartiest support of the people of Bismarck. Even yet some of these men tell me we made a mistake when we did not choose to locate in Bismarck. I confess that I have at times felt a bit that way when I have visited the capitol city and thought of the luxury of being 'The College' of a city and area, and receiving all of the volunteer publicity of the local press and social conversation. And there were men of wealth in Bismarck. I assured the committee that to me, personally, Bismarck was the most appealing location open in the state for a full curriculum college if such college should be adequately equipped and supported.”
- Robertson Typescript, page 4.
