Lincoln Hall Project
Illinois at the Crossroads
Momentous Times for Leaders
(Photos courtesy of University Archives)
An End to Compulsory Military Service
In 1963, following several years of studies by universities across the country and the Department of Defense, the Board of Trustees announced that compulsory military training for freshmen and sophomores would end. “I can hear the cheers in Urbana now,” said Board of Trustees President Howard Clement.
The Clabaugh Act Runs Its Course
One of the era’s defining laws was the 1947 Clabaugh Act, a state law and product of the “Red Scare” sponsored by State Rep. Charles Clabaugh of Champaign. The law prohibited universities from allowing on campus any “subversive, seditious, and un-American organization,” or their representatives. Students, faculty, and administrators opposed the law nearly from the beginning on the grounds of free speech, and the issue came to a boil in 1967 when the University Board of Trustees refused to recognize the W.E.B. Du Bois Club for allegedly harboring Communist sympathizers. University students filed a lawsuit, and in 1968 a court struck down the controversial law.
A President Takes a Stand
President George Stoddard arrived on campus in 1946 with much fanfare, and as time went on he proved popular with students and faculty. He didn’t see eye to eye with the Board of Trustees, however, and their disputes came to a head in 1953 when a vice president of the University’s medical colleges created a stir by announcing that he had discovered a drug to cure cancer, called Krebiozen. Medical experts doubted the claim, and Stoddard refused to allow research on the drug to occur on campus. The Board of Trustees disagreed, and Stoddard quickly resigned after the board delivered a vote of no confidence. He later reconciled with the University, returning for a ceremony in 1968 honoring his contributions to Illinois. Kriebozen was never proven to cure cancer and analysis showed that it was only an amino acid, creatine, dissolved in mineral oil.
