Monday, Oct. 24, 1927
At Columbia, President Nicholas Murray Butler accepted the Casa Italiana, $315,000 hall donated by U. S. men of Italian descent as an expression of goodwill.
Harvard announced plans for an international debate against a team to be composed of students from three English universities. The subject to be debated (in Cambridge, Mass.): "Resolved, That the only effective attitude toward war is an uncompromising "pacifism" Harvard will take the affirmative.
Yale appointed Charles Seymour, suave & able Chairman of the History Department, to be Provost of the University; appointed also Shakespearean Actor Douglas W. Ross to be drama coach, to succeed Edgar M. Woolley.
At Hampton Normal Institute, large Negro school at Norfolk, Va., faculty & student body took issue. Four hundred students went on strike, refused to atend classes or sing at church service. The faculty countered by suspending classes. Thereupon, 900 of the 1,200 students entrained for home. The striking students may return to Hampton provided they apply in writing, pledging loyalty & obedience. Otherwise they are automatically ousted. The controversy resulted from the students protesting by strike against the illumination of Assembly Hall during cinema performances. The illumination was insisted upon by the faculty because, darkened, the room had been used by men and women students for improper practices.