Sophomore Vigilance Committee tormented students in '29

[hoosier]

Hazing opposed

Local residents "resent UC hazing," headlined the Gazette on Aug. 22, 1929. "Following complaints on the part of Berkeley residents concerning the hazing of California freshmen outside of the campus, Dean Thomas M. Putnam today made an appeal to the Senior Peace Committee and the Sophomore Vigilance Committee to take steps to see that further hazing be conducted in the proper manner."

In contemporary terms, the Sophomore Vigilance Committee was made up of second-year male students who tormented freshmen, while the Senior Peace Committee represented upperclassmen trying to maintain order between the lower division students.

Hazing, Putnam opined, "was California's one relic of old, small college days" and he expressed support for its "speedy termination in the best interests of the University."