Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. IV.djvu/248

208 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS A committee of seven trustees presented a re port at the commencement of 1907, endorsing the President s plan for "the social co-ordination of the University" and the report was accepted. There were twenty-seven trustees. Twenty-five voted for the plan and one against. One member was absent. A circular outlining the plan w r as sent to the clubs and was read there by hundreds of returned alumni on the Friday night before commencement of the same year 1907. A cry of protest went up and continued through the year. The Alumni Weekly carried communications attacking the President for his high-handed attempts to "make a gentleman chum with a mucker," or to force men "to submit to dictation as to their table companions." The trustees, frightened by the noise the alumni had raised, on October 17 requested President Wilson to withdraw the proposition. Yet another matter of serious controversy arose with the question of the establishment of a Gradu ate College. Bequests made for this purpose con tained conditions which seemed to require of Presi dent Wilson that he should abrogate powers which he believed it his duty to exercise, and this he re fused to do. It ended in Princeton getting her magnificent Graduate College and losing her president. Mr. Wilson felt that he could be of no more service to Old Nassau. When therefore an opportunity to serve his fellow men came with the