“Turn out President Fairfield”

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As Hillsdale College approaches the end of its 170th anniversary as an institution of higher learning, few controversies have plagued campus like the Great Rebellion of 1866. Today, students complain about visiting hours, but in 1866, students protested the administration’s rule against the admittance of females into student groups.

The Great Rebellion started when Hillsdale College President Edmund Fairfield and the college faculty forbade literary societies to admit female students.

At the time, these literary societies were the most popular components of student life. They featured numerous oratory events and competitions throughout the school year, and were regarded as some of the best of their kind in the country. One Hillsdale editor wrote “no star spreads a brighter sheen over the literary firmament of the West than our own favorite institution – Hillsdale College.”

When Fairfield decided to ban the admission of female students into the literary societies without his written consent, the Great Rebellion took form.

The literary groups refused to comply with this new rule and a school wide backlash ensued. Many students sought honorable dismissal from the college or sought to transfer to other schools.

Faculty initially came to the defense of the college president. They placed an injunction on students’ property and did not allow them to leave, only making matters worse.

One Sunday morning in May, a banner above the pulpit in the chapel read: “TURN OUT PRESIDENT FAIRFIELD.” Similar advertising material was displayed throughout campus. Students were upset up with the administration and organized a response to voice their concerns.

Franklin Bailey, a Civil War veteran and college student found himself at odds with his peers. He stood by the college administration through the conflict and tore down the rebel students’ posters. He also assisted the administration by keeping watch over campus buildings during the night.

“Last night the college steps, doors and halls were covered with advertisements, put up by the rebel students,” Bailey wrote.

The response by the student body devolved shortly after however, when Bailey found all of his personal belongings – clothes, books, and bedding- thrown into the mud because of his allegiance to the administration. The burglars who trashed Bailey’s belongings were never found.

“Good many of the students are leaving and are a bad state of things generally,” student Wayland Dunn said.

A professor also found himself at odds with the college president. Ransom Dunn, Wayland’s father, argued he could grant permission to the females in his own department. He accepted all ladies on campus into his Theological Society meetings and allowed students to sign their own permission cards.

Before the school year was out, the students and the Hillsdale College administration reached an acceptable compromise. Over the summer months, however, Fairfield reinstated the rule.

The issue was put to a vote and resolved in the spring of 1867 when faculty sided unanimously with Dunn, forcing Fairfield to eliminate his controversial rule. The literary societies reorganized and admitted female members back into their groups.

The students that had left Hillsdale because of the conflict were granted amnesty and received permission to return.