Encyclopedia Trinitiana

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{{tag>organizations students}}

====== Grand Tribunal ======
[{{:img_8782.jpg?400 |Grand Tribunal broadside featuring coffin, tombstone, and skulls and crossbones iconography, 1861. Photo Credit: Student Scrapbook, Trinity College Archives}}]

The Grand Tribunal was a student-led mock court, comprised of junior and senior students, with the purpose of enforcing the behavior first of sophomores, then of first-years. While the true origins of the Grand Tribunal have been lost to history, this tradition of underclassman hazing dates back to at least the early 1840s. 

The court was led by a Grand High Chancellor, who presided over the sessions. Sophomores who were suspected to have been involved in misconduct were brought in front of the court for judgment. The validity and seriousness of the group are uncertain, considering the court sometimes went over a year without meeting. However, the court was seen as practice for the real world of law, and students involved in it held a status similar to that of a modern-day student government officer. Even faculty members were involved, acting as a type of police during court sessions.

Eventually, first-years were also brought in front of the court. In the fall of 1860, the Tribunal "sat" in Odd Fellows Hall in [[hartford|Hartford]] and each first-year student was put through a trial. Three students refused to participate and for this, they were punished. One was brought to Zion Hill Cemetery and lashed to a tombstone, while another was suspended inside an old well in the city to wait out the night. 

The third student, Preston D. Sill, anticipated that similar punishment was waiting for him, so when "agents" of the Tribunal attempted to seize him while leaving Evening Prayer on October 11, he pulled out a revolver and shot at the nearest agent. Though he missed, faculty and students believed Sill had shot the agent and rushed to the scene. The city of Hartford turned Sill into a hero, but the College saw things far differently. His actions were labeled as cowardly, but ultimately absolved him of any blame. Still, Sill left the College quickly, never to return.

By the late 1860s, the Grand Tribunal had ceased to serve its original function and had turned into something like another [[fraternities|fraternity or secret society.]] Like the other fraternities, the Tribunal rented living spaces in downtown Hartford and held late-night initiation ceremonies with a coffin, human skeleton, and flames, attracting the attention of the Hartford townspeople. This concerned the College, which sought an end to the group. The Tribunal did not disband completely, but by 1874, membership was limited to only seniors. 

From 1881 until 1890, the Grand Tribunal existed with only a meager handful of members, but never more than 10. After 1890, the Tribunal ceased to exist. 

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===== Sources =====

[[https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.34547613|History of Trinity College]] (1967) by Glenn Weaver, pp. 103, 161-162, 218-219.


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