ERIC Number: EJ1362794
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022
Pages: 18
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1535-0584
EISSN: N/A
Dissenting Students as a Disruptive Force in Higher Education Philanthropy: Indiana University and the 1920s War Memorial Campaign
Kimmel, Dillon
American Educational History Journal, v49 n1 p67-84 2022
In the opening years of the 1920s, Indiana University-Bloomington (IU) faced a dilemma. Enrollment was growing and demand among students for co-curricular and leisure activities was growing with it. But the university had few adequate facilities to support such activities and state appropriations were barely enough to cover expenses related to purely instructional purposes. Given these challenges, president William Lowe Bryan and his administration did what many have done throughout the course of American higher education: they turned to private philanthropy to bridge the gap between demand and available funding. The Memorial Fund Campaign, IU's first mass fundraising campaign, was a clear success when considering the end result. It secured more than $1.4 million (almost $24 million today) in commitments from students, alumni, and community members to support the construction of a union, a women's dormitory, and the first football stadium. This financial success, however, masked dissent among a group of students who used their voices to speak out against a massively popular fundraising campaign they saw as dishonest and threatening to the academic integrity of the institution, serving as a kind of moral conscience for the administration (Howe 2017). The rise and fall of this "outsider" group of students both extends and challenges existing historical treatments of the time period and is a cautionary tale for contemporary leaders about the ramifications of choosing to enshrine and legitimize one student culture over another.
Descriptors: Higher Education, Educational History, Educational Finance, State Universities, Enrollment Trends, Extracurricular Activities, Educational Facilities, Private Financial Support, College Presidents, Fund Raising, Dormitories, Recreational Facilities, College Athletics, Student Attitudes, College Students, Integrity, Ethics, United States History, Moral Values, College Administration, School Newspapers, Peer Influence, Academic Education, Institutional Mission
IAP - Information Age Publishing, Inc. P.O. Box 79049, Charlotte, NC 28271-7047. Tel: 704-752-9125; Fax: 704-752-9113; e-mail: infoage@infoagepub.com; Web site: http://www.infoagepub.com/american-educational-history-journal.html
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Indiana
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A