University of North Carolina (1793-1962). Board of Trustees. Laws of the University of North-Carolina; Established by the Board of Trustees at Their Session in December, 1799

Laws of the University of North-Carolina; Established by the Board of Trustees at Their Session in December, 1799:
Electronic Edition.

University of North Carolina (1793-1962). Board of Trustees

Funding from the University of North Carolina Library supported the electronic publication of this title.

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Source Description:
(title page) Laws of the University of North-Carolina; Established by the Board of Trustees, at Their Session in December, 1799. [1]-24 p.
Raleigh:
Printed by J. Gales.
1800.

Call number VC378 UA1 (North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

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Library of Congress Subject Headings

Languages Used:

English

LC Subject Headings:

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[Cover Image]

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[Title Page Image]

LAWS
OF THE
UNIVERSITY
OF
North-Carolina;
ESTABLISHED BY THE
BOARD OF TRUSTEES,
AT THEIR SESSION IN DECEMBER,
1799.

RALEIGH:
PRINTED BY J. GALES.
1800.

LAWS

OF THE

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH-CAROLINA.

SECTION 1. Of the Faculty.

1. The Faculty of the University of North-Carolina shall be composed of the President, Professors and Tutors, a majority of whom being assembled after due notice given by the President, or presiding Professor, to all the members, shall be competent to the performance of business.

2. Every matter brought before the Faculty, shall be decided by votes, and it shall be the additional privilege of the President, or presiding Professor, to give a casting vote, where there would otherwise be a tie.

3. The opinion or vote of any member of the Faculty shall not be made known to the students, directly or indirectly, except when express order shall be given to that effect by an unanimous vote of the Faculty.

4. A member of the Faculty shall not be a sitting member of any society of students, nor shall he ever be present at the meetings of a society.

Page 4

5. It shall be the duty of each member of the Faculty to enforce the laws of the University, to prevent or put a stop to the violation of them, and to report to the President, or to the Faculty, such transgressions of them as ought to be punished by that body.

6. The Faculty shall keep a book of records, or minutes, and appoint a clerk, who shall enter therein a fair statement of their transactions, resolutions and determinations; which book shall be laid before the Trustees at each of their stated meetings. The clerk of the Faculty shall be allowed a compensation for his services.

7. No act of the Faculty which is not recorded by their order shall be considered as valid.

8. There shall be monthly meetings of the Faculty, at which every Professor and Tutor shall make a report on the conduct and scholarship of the students, and particularly of those who are under his charge. And the opinions which the Faculty shall then form, shall be registered in a book kept by them for that purpose, which shall be a history of the character and scholarship of every student to his parent or guardian, and to the Trustees.

9. The President shall read or say public prayers every evening, in the Chapel, at five o'clock, except on Saturday evening, and in

Page 5

his absence, one of the Professors or Tutors, shall perform that duty. In the morning, prayers shall follow after the reading of a chapter, or part thereof, in the Old or New Testament, by the Professors and Tutors in turn.

SECTION II.

Of Admission in the University.

1. All examinations for admission into the University, shall be in presence of the Faculty; and no person shall be admitted but by a vote taken by them for that purpose after his examination.

2. Every person, on admission into the University, shall pay the Steward's demand, and the tuition money for the session, in advance.

3. If a student shall arrive to begin business before the session shall be half expired, he shall pay for the whole session; but if he shall come at the middle of a session, or after it, he shall pay for half the session only: but room-rent shall always be paid for the whole session.

4. Every student, on being admitted into the University, shall obtain a copy of the laws from the President or presiding Professor, containing a certificate, with the name of the President, or presiding Professor, signed by

Page 6

himself, of the said student's regular admission into the University, for which he shall pay twelve and a half cents; and these shall be at all times a sufficient, and a necessary testimony of his being a student of the University; to be shewn when called for, to any member of the Faculty.

SECTION III.

Collegiate Duties and Restrictions.

1. The hours of study shall be from the time of morning prayers till eight o'clock, from nine till twelve in the forenoon, and from two till five in the afternoon; and at all other times the students shall observe a proper silence and a respectful deportment.

2. Every student shall regularly and punctually attend the recitation of his class at the place appointed by his instructor, and at the time when the bell shall be rung to give him notice. His Professor or Tutor shall call him to an account for absence or delay, in the presence of his class, and shall be the judge of his excuse; and if a good reason be not shewn for his delinquency, he may be ordered at any time before the Faculty to answer for it.

3. The progress of a diligent student shall not be retarded by the indolence of others of the same class; therefore no one shall be required

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against his inclination to continue the study of any book on which he has passed an approved examination; but after a student has entered a class, or a course of study, at the beginning of the session, he shall not, without completing the same, forsake it to enter another during that session, unless with particular permission from the Faculty.

4. For the improvement of the students in public speaking, two or more of them shall each deliver an oration of their own selecting every evening immediately after prayers, on the stage in the public hall; and to this duty they shall be called in alphabetical rotation, that all may have the benefit of this exercise; nor shall any student be exempted from it, except on account of natural impediments, or other disqualifications, of which the Faculty or President may judge.

5. On Saturday forenoon, all the students shall recite grammar or passages in the Latin or Greek classics, or read pieces of their own composition, as the Faculty shall conceive to be most useful; and English Grammar shall invariably be a subject on which every class shall be examined at every semi-annual examination.

6. There shall be one public examination in each year; which shall commence on the 22d of June annually, unless that day shall happen on Sunday.

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7. Should any student be absent from examination, he may be summoned before the Faculty to shew the reasons of such absence; and he shall be examined publicly by the Faculty before he shall be permitted to join his class.

8. No student shall absent himself from the University during the session, without permission first obtained from the President, or in his absence, from the Faculty; but leave of absence from recitation may be granted to a student by his Professor or Tutor.

9. If any student shall be habitually indolent or inattentive to business, or shall be absent from prayers, from recitation, or public worship, or at any other time when it shall be his duty to attend, he shall be punished according to the aggravation of his offence.

10. If a student, at an examination, be found deficient, he may be publicly mentioned as a bad scholar by the Faculty or Trustees, admonished to greater diligence, or put into such a class as shall suit his standing.

11. On the day of commencement, the candidates for degrees shall perform such exercises as shall be appointed them, and no candidate shall refuse the exercise assigned him, under penalty of being refused his diploma.

12. Nothing indecent, profane or immoral, shall at any time be delivered on the public

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stage, under penalty of such censure as the Faculty or Trustees shall judge proper. And with a view to preserve all the public exercises of the students from impropriety of any kind, every student, during the whole of his senior year, and previously to his commencement performances especially, shall shew to the President, or presiding Professor, the whole of what he proposes to speak, and shall not fail to observe such corrections as shall be made of his performances; and if any student pronounce any thing in public of a censurable nature, in contradiction to the directions or corrections of the officer to whom he has shewn his piece, the President or presiding Professor is requred to stop him on the public stage, and he shall be otherwise censured as the Trustees or Faculty shall determine.

13. There shall be a Monitor to each class, or to as many classes together as the Faculty shall find convenient, who shall mark the absentees from prayers, or from public worship on Sunday, and who shall also note all profane swearing or gross and vulgar language, and present an account of those who offend to the President or presiding Professor at prayers on Monday evening. If any Monitor shall fail in performing these duties, he shall be considered as betraying the trust confided to him in the University.

Page 10

SECTION IV.

On the moral and religious Conduct of the Students,
and their Conduct towards the Faculty.

1. Every student, whether in the College or in the village, shall attend public prayers morning and evening in the Chapel, and during the worship, shall refrain from all noise, conducting himself with such decorum and reverence as is suited to these solemn services. On Sunday it shall be the duty of every student to be present at the reading or delivery of a sermon in the Chapel, at the hour appointed by the Faculty for that purpose. No whispering, talking, laughing, or indecent behaviour of any kind, shall be manifested on such occasions.

2. The students shall attend such instructions in morals and religion, as their Professors and Tutors, or the Faculty jointly, shall appoint on Sunday. And if any student absent himself, or evade such instructions, or conduct himself indecently while attending them, he shall be punished by his instruction, or by the Faculty, according to the nature of his offence, due regard being paid in this as well as in all other cases to the rules hereafter prescribed, pointing out the different degrees or grades of punishment which the Faculty shall be at liberty to inflict.

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3. At all times the students shall conduct and express themselves respectfully towards the Faculty, and towards every member of it. And any deficiency in these respects shall be considered as essential departures from the laws and principles on which the institution is founded, and by which it must be governed, and they shall be punished accordingly.

4. No insult shall be offered by a student, or by any number of students, to the people of the village or of the country around the University, or of any other place. No attack shall be made upon property to its injury or destruction, or in any way to deprive the owner of his exclusive and rightful use of it. But if any student shall commit depredations or destructive attacks upon property, on complaint being made to the Faculty by the owner, or by any other person, and on such proof being adduced as shall be satisfactory to the Faculty against the student accused, he and the owner, with the consent of the latter, shall each choose an indifferent person, not belonging to the University, and the Faculty shall choose a third, who may estimate the damage done. And the author of the mischief shall be compelled to pay the owner according to such estimation; and to pay one shilling to each of the persons chosen as above, and the receipt of

Page 12

each of these shall be produced to the President, or to the Faculty, in three days after the award shall have taken place. If the student shall refuse to comply, the Faculty shall punish him as they may judge proper. But if this method shall not be pursued, the Faculty may choose any other which these laws allow for the punishment of the student who shall have offended.

5. No student who does not live in the village, shall go into it on any account in study hours without leave from the President or some member of the Faculty.

6. A student shall not make horse races, nor bet thereon, nor shall they keep cocks or fowls of any kind, or for any purpose.

7. No student shall raffle, play at cards or dice, or bet at any game, without being punished by the Faculty according to the aggravation of the offence.

8. No student shall keep a dog or fire-arms; nor shall he use fire-arms without permission from some one of the Faculty.

9. No student shall have spirituous liquors in his room without particular permission from the President, or from some member of the Faculty.

10. Every student who shall be guilty of intoxication, shall receive an admonition before

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the Faculty for the first offence, and on repetition of the crime, shall be publicly admonished or suspended, according to the nature and aggravation of his conduct.

11. If a student shall be called on to give information before the Faculty concerning his fellow student, and shall refuse to give such information, he shall be admonished or suspended.

12. Should a combination ever be formed by any number of the students to transgress the laws, or to prevent their execution, or to shew disrespect to the Faculty, or to any one of its members, or to introduce disorder in any shape, the Faculty shall either punish the whole body according to their demerits, or they shall select such as appear to be most active and forward, as the sole objects of punishment. The Faculty shall choose either of these methods as to them shall appear most expedient.

13. All swearing, and profane, blasphemous or impious language, shall be utterly excluded from the University. The student who shall be guilty of these practices, and on being warned to forsake them, shall still persevere, shall be admonished, suspended or expelled, according to the extent of his offence.

14. On Sunday the students shall refrain from their ordinary diversions and exercises.

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They shall not fish, hunt or swim; nor shall they walk far abroad. They shall perform no manual or corporal labours, but such as are absolutely necessary, unless they shall obtain permission from the President, or from some member of the Faculty,

15. If any student shall use any indecent gesture or language to any other student or person, he shall be liable to be admonished.

16. If any student shall be convicted of lying, he shall be admonished: if he shall be guilty of direct and malicious falsehood, he shall be suspended or expelled, according to the nature of the offence.

17. If any student, on being requested by any member of the Faculty to open the door of the chamber in which he shall be, and shall refuse or delay to comply, the door may be forced open, and the student compelled to make good the damage, and be otherwise punished as the Faculty shall judge proper.

18. If any student shall be sent for by a member of the Faculty, and shall fail to come, he shall be held guilty of a high contempt of authority, and be punished accordingly.

19. The students shall keep their rooms clean, and shall not put or procure to be introduced into the College, filth of any kind. Nor shall they throw on the outside of the College,

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against the walls or within twenty yards thereof, any sort of dirt or filth, under the penalty, (besides removing the same) of such censure as the offence may deserve.

SECTION V.

On Punishments.

The punishments common to the establishment, and to the preparatory school, shall be.

1. Private admonition by a member of the Faculty.

2. Admonition before the Faculty by the President, or, in his absence, by any one of their members whom the Faculty shall appoint.

3. Admonition before the class to which the student belongs, by the President, or, in his absence, by one of the members of the Faculty.

4. Public admonition before all the students.

5. A public confession of the fault committed before all the students, followed by an admonition from the President, or from one of the Professors or Tutors.

6. Suspension for a fixed time, not exceeding six months.

7. Suspension for a fixed time, not exceeding six months, and admonition before the Trustees.

8. Expulsion; which punishment shall not be inflicted but with the approbation of five Trustees convened for that purpose.

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9. Besides the punishments already mentioned, the Tutors of the preparatory school, with the approbation of the President, or presiding Professor, expressly given, and in every instance specially had, may inflict corporal chastisement on the scholars of that school.

SECTION VI.

Miscellaneous Regulations.

1. If any student shall wish to live in a room in the College during the vacation, it shall be considered that he pledges himself to the Trustees that he will not do any damage to his room, or to the buildings, without making reparation.

2. The students, on leaving their rooms at the beginning of the vacation, or at any other time during its continuance, shall put the keys of their chambers into the hands of the steward, or of some member of the Faculty.

3. Should all the members of the Faculty be absent from the University in the time of the vacation, the President, or presiding Professor, is hereby empowered to employ some person to take care of the buildings, whose duty it shall be to prevent them from being injnred.

4. It is recommended to the students to be plain in their dress, but it is required of them always to appear neat and cleanly; and if any student shall be grossly negligent in ihis respect,

Page 17

it shall be the duty of the College officers to admonish him for it, and see that he preserve a decent appearance.

5. Should a student not be present at the University on the first day of a session, he shall forfeit the title he had to any room he may have inhabited the preceding session, and such room may be occupied by any student or students who shall be present at such time.

6. No student, without permission obtained from the President, or presiding Professor, shall build or retain a hut, for any purpose whatever; nor shall he go out of sight of the buildings of the University, or out of hearing of the bell in study hours, or at any other time when the bell may call him to his duty, without particular permission from some member of the Faculty.

7. If the Faculty shall judge any house in the village improper for the reception of boarders, on account of the irregular manner in which they are permitted to live, or on account of the disorderly and pernicious examples that are set before them, they shall make report of such their opinion to the Trustees, at their annual or semi-annual meeting, to the end they may take order thereon.

8. No student on the establishment shall be permitted to live out of College, till each of

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the rooms shall have four inhabitants. And if any student, before the rooms are thus filled, shall lodge and diet in the village, he shall be compelled to take his place in College. But if a student shall produce to the Faculty, a certificate from a physician, which shall be satisfactory to them, that his state of health is such as to require peculiar diet, the Faculty may permit him to board in the village, although the rooms in College shall not be filled.

9. At the ringing of the bell the first time in the morning, all the students shall rise. As soon as the bell shall ring a second time, they shall repair to the hall without delay, and attend prayers.

10 A student shall not wear his hat inside of the College buildings.

11. If damage shall be done to any room in College, the inhabitants of the room shall make it good, unless they can prove to the Faculty that such damage has been done by some other, in which case, he against whom the proof is made, shall make good the damage.

12. If damage shall be done to any other part of the buildings of the University, not within a room, the person doing such damage shall make it good.

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SECTION VII.

Of the Dining Room.

1. At the ringing of the bell for dinner, breakfast and supper, the students shall go peaceably to the door of the dining-room, where they shall regularly arrange themselves in their several classes, each class giving the precedence to the one next above it, and in this manner they shall wait five minutes, if necessary, for a Professor or Tutor.

2. The students shall sit in their several classes at the tables, according to the order which the Faculty shall appoint, and shall behave themselves with decorum, carefully observing all the regulations which the Faculty shall make for their decent and proper behaviour. Any officer of College attending at the dining-table, shall have full power to send out of the dining room, any student who shall behave in any respect indecently or improperly.

3. If any victuals shall be found on the table, against which a student shall think himself entitled to complain, and if he shall resolve to make complaint, he shall send the victuals to one of the Professors or Tutors present, who shall order them to be taken away from the tables, if they be not such as, in his opinion, they ought to be. But if the complaint shall appear to be wantonly and unnecessarily made,

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the plate shall be returned, and the person who sent it may be reprimanded.

4. After the students shall have arrived at their places around the tables, the presiding Professor or Tutor shall ask a blessing before they take their seats, and when the presiding Professor or Tutor shall rise for the dismission of the students, they shall desist from eating, and also rise; and they shall stand in their places till the Professor or Tutor shall return thanks, after which they shall pass out of the room without bustle or noise.

5. A student shall not take his seat after the blessing is pronounced, without particular permission from the presiding Professor or Tutor, nor shall any one go out of the room till the general dismission without permission from the same officer.

Certificate of Admission.

I certify, that [------] was regularly admitted a student of the University of North-Carolina, on the [----] day of [------] in the year of our Lord

Signed,

SECTION VIII.

Of the Library and Librarian.

1. There shall be a room appropriated to the library, apparatus and curiosities of the University.

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Shelves shall be put up in it, at the expence of the Board. Fire shall be made and kept up in the room once every week for two hours, by order of the Librarian, and then be entirely extinguished. And no person but a Trustee, or member of the Faculty, shall be admitted into the room of the library, without the presence of the Librarian; but either of these shall be admitted whenever they require it.

2. The Librarian shall be appointed by the Faculty every half year, who shall make a report to them as often on the state of the library. He shall also account to the Treasurer of the Board for the monies he has received as Librarian.

3. Every student on the establishment of the University, may use the books of the library on paying fifty cents into the hands of the Librarian, for the session in advance. The Encyclopædia shall not be taken out of the library, by any student not belonging to the senior or junior classes; and no other shall ever consult them, except in the presence of some member of the Faculty.

4. The Librarian, when he delivers a book out of the library to a student, shall write a receipt for the book, which shall be signed by the student who takes it out.

5. A volume not be kept out of the library more than three weeks, without being returned

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to the Librarian, and the receipt of it renewed. And if any other person shall want the volume at the end of that time, the person who has before had it, shall not be at liberty to take it out again at that time.

6. If a student, who shall take a volume from the library, shall by any means deface or abuse it, he shall pay according to the damage done, as estimated by the Faculty, even to the replacing of the set; and if he shall lose it, he shall pay the Librarian for it the price at which the Faculty shall value the set, or else he shall replace the whole as before. If he shall not return it in three weeks after taking it out of the library, he may be deemed to have lost it, and the Faculty may proceed accordingly. If the student shall refuse to comply with the decisions of the Faculty, he shall be admonished, suspended or expelled, as the nature of the case may require.

7. The Librarian shall keep a book, in which he shall have a catalogue of all the books of the library. And if any book shall be presented to the University, the name and place of residence of the donor shall be recorded.

8. The Librarian shall appoint a day and hour for giving books out of the library, and he shall attend once a week at the time appointed, for that purpose.

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9. If books be hired from the library, the price to be paid shall be fixed by the Faculty, and the person who obtains the book shall pay in advance.

APPENDIX.

An Ordinance

Appointing Visitors of the University.

WHEREAS between the teachers and students of the University of North-Carolina, and between them and officers of said University, controversy may hereafter arise, and a competent authority to settle the same is proper to be established,

Be it therefore ordained, That six members of the Board of Trustees, exclusive of the President, who shall always be considered as one, be appointed Visitors of the University.

And be it further ordained, That on complaint made to the President, by any teacher or officer of the University, or student (whose

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complaint shall always have been made to the Faculty in the first instance) the said Visitors, or any three of them, if the complaint shall be deemed worthy of enquiry, shall have power and authority, and they are hereby authorized to hear and determine, on visitations to said University, all such complaints and controversies; and their judgment, sentence or decree thereon, shall be decisive, until the general Board of Trustees shall otherwise direct and determine: Provided, That nothing herein contained, shall affect the powers of the Faculty to punish, agreeably to the laws of the University.

And be it further ordained, That the Visitors of the University shall be appointed by ballot, at each annual meeting of the Board of Trustees.

BENJAMIN WILLIAMS, President.

W. E. WEBB, Secretary.

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Laws of the University of North-Carolina; Established by the Board of Trustees at Their Session in December, 1799: Electronic Edition.