The Student Strike of 1924

By Shelley Burtner Wallace

One late November evening in 1923, the male students of Hartwick Seminary gathered in their dormitory and presented themselves at the door of fellow student Donald H. Karg. In his pajamas, Karg was led from the building and taken to nearby Burdick Brook, where the students ducked him in the water. They then removed his pajama top, poured molasses over him, and coated him thoroughly with pillow feathers. Before allowing Karg to return to his dorm room, the students handed him a typewritten copy of “14 Points of Behavior,” and told him to abide by those regulations in the future.

This was not a prank. The 16-year-old son of a Lutheran minister, Donald Karg was an unpopular student at the Seminary. Students complained of his “use of profanity in the presence of girls” and his general “overbearing manner.” They did not receive much support from President M.G.L. Rietz, who was a good friend of Donald Karg’s father and was outraged by these late-night theatrics. In taking matters into their own hands, the students hoped that their actions on that November evening would encourage Donald Karg to be more respectful. Not surprisingly, they aroused his resentment and spite.

Karg returned from the Christmas break with a small dog. Although pets were strictly prohibited, he managed to hide it from the authorities. Not only was the dog a nuisance in the dormitory, but Karg occasionally placed the dog’s waste on other students’ desks or beds. This enmity finally came to a head on February 1, when the Academy principal/professor John Dudde recommended that Karg’s parents withdraw him from the school for disobeying a professor, insulting another student, and “general violations of the rules.” President Rietz called a faculty meeting where a vote was taken on this recommendation. The one other Academy professor–John G. Traver, and the three Academy instructors–Harold C. Baldwin, H. Irene Seybold, and Louise Clark, voted with Principal Dudde for Karg’s dismissal. The two Seminary professors–Archibald Deitz and Frank Wolford–voted against such action. President Rietz, however, overruled the 5-2 vote.

The following Tuesday, Rietz brought the matter to the attention of the Seminary Board of Trustees. The Board determined that the disciplinary committee should “consist of the President and regular professors only.” The Board then referred disciplinary action of Donald Karg back to this committee. On Thursday, the committee, now reduced to Rietz, Dudde, Traver, Deitz, and Wolford, cast their votes a second time with the expected outcome that Dudde and Traver favored Karg’s expulsion, while Deitz and Wolford voted against it. Naturally, the tie vote was broken when President Rietz cast his vote against expulsion.

The next morning at chapel, Donald Karg stood and apologized to Principal Dudde and to the student he had insulted. Dudde then rose and read his resignation, which he’d sent earlier to the Board. A student shouted, “If you go, we go too!” The students marched out of chapel en masse and returned to their dorm. The male students immediately selected E. Wertman “Larry” Lawrence, Cornelius Thomas, and Herman Briele as their spokesmen. Accompanied by the stern caution that everything was to be done “orderly and in man fashion,” they resolved to stand by Principal Dudde and see that justice was done. The girls sustained the boys’ decisions; signed a petition for the retention of Professor Dudde; and agreed not to report to classes until their demands were met. Spokesman Lawrence telephoned Dr. Charles Leitzell, the president of the Board of Trustees, explaining the students’ position and notifying Leitzell that he would be receiving a letter with full details.

No classes were held that Friday, February 8. On Monday morning, President Rietz suspended all of the students and summoned Sheriff Converse and three deputy sheriffs from Cooperstown. They marched into the dormitory, disrupting the student’s private chapel service, and served notice that all rooms were to be vacated by 4 p.m. Although no one was forcibly removed, a number of boys stayed until late in the afternoon. Students whose families lived nearby returned to their homes. The remaining students found lodging with the supportive residents of the local community.

The Board of Trustees called an emergency meeting for Wednesday, February 13. The board members, the president, the faculty, and a student representative convened at 1:00 p.m. at the First Lutheran Church in Albany, NY. During the afternoon session, the Board members grilled President Rietz for more than three hours. At the beginning of the evening session, the student representative presented the students’ formal demands: the resignation of President Rietz and the authorization of Professor Dudde to be in charge. A group of reporters, who waited outside the door, described the meeting as a “stormy session” with many “heated arguments.” The evening session lasted all night, and finally at 5:30 a.m. President of the Board Charles Leitzell emerged and spoke to reporters. During the 16-hour session, the Board had resolved to:

  • reopen the Seminary;
  • accept President Rietz’s resignation, effective immediately;
  • pay the President’s house rent through June and his salary through March, in appreciation of his services;
  • terminate the suspension of the student body;
  • express “disapproval of the method pursued by them in expressing their “protest” and to “refer to the Faculty the imposing of such penalties as they deem best”;
  • not accept Principal Dudde’s resignation;
  • assign Principal Dudde with taking charge of the affairs of the Seminary;
  • dissolve the disciplinary committee formed at the February 5 meeting and authorize the principal with discipline and authority over the entire student body, except in cases of suspension or expulsion, when a two-thirds vote was required of the entire faculty–principal, regular professors, and instructors.

The local newspapers reported that the acceptance of President Rietz’s resignation was largely due to the suspension of the student body. “That the boys and girls of some of the finest families in the State should be thrown out of the Seminary by a sheriff was termed as ‘an outrage and a disgrace’ by members of the Board, while other ‘conditions’ at the school were described as ‘shocking and not to be tolerated.'”

On Thursday, February 14, Dr. Leitzell traveled to Hartwick Seminary and at the evening meal in the Seminary dining room announced to the student body the decisions of the Board, followed by an eloquent inspirational address in which, according to The Oneonta Star, he proclaimed, “We must not think that our lives are our own. They are given to us to do something of service. We must have a vision of the future and realize the significance of the hour and then fit ourselves in the best possible manner to meet the emergencies and the opportunities of life when they come.” The students requested a few moments to themselves, at which time they agreed to consider the incident closed and return to classes the next morning. No mention was made of Donald H. Karg, who returned to finish the year and graduate.

Although no disorderly conduct among the students had been reported throughout the strike, the news media speculated that the incident might cause a factional split in the New York Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. However disgruntled people were, a schism did not occur. Nonetheless, “a vision of the future” had definitely emerged. There was a secret understanding that at year’s end Principal Dudde and the three instructors would resign. In June, they submitted their resignations, Charles R. Myers was appointed president and principal of the Seminary, and by spring 1926, the Board endorsed “A Greater Hartwick” campaign that involved expansion to a four-year collegiate program. Certainly without preconception, the Hartwick Seminarians had upset the administrative balance just enough to encourage growth and broader opportunities, and the Board of Trustees had recognized the “significance of the hour” and had met “the emergencies and the opportunities of life” with decisiveness and resolve.

[This article was published in Hartwick’s alumni magazine The Wick in April 1997.]

Paul F. Cooper, Jr. Archives

Hartwick College
Oneonta, NY 13820