None.
The records may not be photocopied; an initial attempt has already damaged the cover of one volume.
(Identify the item), Stenographic report, Senate Committee Investigating Hazing Conditions at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, Texas Legislature. Archives and Information Services Division, Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
The Texas Legislature's Senate Committee Investigating Hazing Conditions at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas was created by Senate Resolution 44, 37th Legislature, Regular Session, 1921 (authored by Senator Archie Parr). The resolution called for a full investigation of the hazing charges repeatedly made against students at the A&M College of Texas, to either exonerate the university or to place responsibility for violations of the 1913 hazing law. The 1913 law (Senate Bill 222, 33rd Legislature, Regular Session) prohibited hazing in state educational institutions and provided penalties for those who performed or permitted it. Specifically, students who engaged in hazing were guilty of a misdemeanor, expelled, and were to pay a fine and/or receive jail time, while faculty, staff, and all others who permitted hazing were to be removed from their positions and were not to be rehired in a state educational institution for three years.
As per Parr's resolution, three members of the Senate (W.H. Bledsoe, J.H. Baugh (Chair), and Archie Parr) were appointed to the hazing committee on February 8, 1921. The committee held three hearings, first on February 16-18 in Austin, then on February 25 and 26 in College Station, and finally on March 4 in Austin. Shortly later, on March 11, the committee submitted a majority report to the Senate. The report stated that hazing was almost universally practiced by the sophomores against the freshmen and that the practice should be stamped out, but that the practice was inevitable given the college's strong traditions and the pervasive influence of the Alumni. The report also criticized the 1913 hazing law as being unduly harsh and in need of modification, as it made no distinction between degrees of hazing and the penalties prevented the disclosure of the truth in hazing investigations. Senator Parr disagreed with the majority report, tried to have the adoption of the report reconsidered, and promised to submit a minority report during the next session.
The record consists of what appears to be an original copy of the stenographic report of the hearings conducted by the Texas Legislature's Senate Committee Investigating Hazing Conditions at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas in 1921. The report contains the testimony of witnesses before the committee and letters read into the record. The committee spoke with assorted students, former students, alumni, and officials of the college to investigate charges of hazing. Transcripts for each of the committee's three hearings have been bound separately; the pages are tightly bound together with a ribbon in a manner that precludes photocopying.
To prepare this inventory, the described materials were cursorily reviewed to delineate series, to confirm the accuracy of contents lists, to provide an estimate of dates covered, and to determine record types.
The records for each hearing are bound separately; the three volumes are in chronological and page number order.
Nancy Enneking, July 2000
Accession number: 2000/172
These records were transferred to the Archives and Information Services Division of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission by an unknown agency, probably in the first half of the 20th century. A modern accession number was assigned for purposes of control on July 18, 2000.