Finger Lakes history · regional story
The Wells students who wrote the rules
The college’s library traced student self-government to an 1897 trial. The rules reached into exercise, bedtime and Sunday music—and the library did not become quiet simply because a code existed.
Exercise, bedtime and Sunday music were matters for rules at Wells College. In a 2016 account based on the college archive, librarian Tiffany Raymond traced a student-designed system to 1897. A group first signed a trial code. According to her account, Collegiate then adopted it unanimously and students elected a committee to enforce it. Origins of the Honor Code.
Some provisions were quite specific: 45 minutes of outdoor exercise each day, bed at 10 p.m. with an extra half hour for seniors, and no instrument playing between 3 and 5:30 on Sunday afternoons. The account also preserves a limit to the experiment. Chapel attendance was said to improve; the library was still noisy. Origins of the Honor Code.
Student self-government appears in an earlier source too. Lowe’s 1901 history describes it as a way of making students responsible for community life, alongside musical, athletic and literary clubs. It shows that the college was presenting self-government as part of its educational life by 1901. It does not supply the 1897 code, the names of its signers or a record of the vote. Wells College and Its Founders: An Historical Sketch.
These sources let us see rules becoming something students helped administer. They do not tell us whether everyone welcomed that responsibility. The signed code and committee records would help distinguish the college’s approving account from the ways students actually lived with it.
Sources & research notes
Review status: Developing history. Human editorial review is pending.
Written and source-checked with AI assistance under an owner-authorized editorial process. This is not a personal review by Riley or an independent historian. Sources and unresolved questions are listed below; corrections are welcome.
- What the records establish
- A named librarian’s archival account describes the 1897 trial, adoption and rules. The inspected 1901 college history separately documents how the institution described student self-government at that time.
- What remains uncertain
- The original signed code, committee minutes and individual students’ accounts have not been inspected. The 1897 date, vote and reported outcomes remain attributed to the 2016 library article; the 1901 book does not independently establish those details.
- What we are researching next
- Locate the signed trial code and Collegiate minutes, identify the committee records and compare contemporaneous student letters. Keep later traditions and 1959 protests separate unless dated sources establish a connection.
Sources
- Wells College and Its Founders: An Historical Sketch — Walter Irenaeus Lowe; 1901. Locator: Title page / PDF 5 and printer imprint / PDF 6; printed 12–15 / PDF 16–19: Aurora location, August 9, 1888 main-hall fire, named temporary village buildings, 1890 occupation, library contributions and Margaret Bogart Morgan memorial alcove. Printed 18 / PDF 22, opening paragraph: institutional description of student self-government, responsibility for community life and musical, athletic and literary clubs. This passage supplies no 1897 adoption date or text of a signed code.. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Origins of the Honor Code — Tiffany Raymond, Reference and Instruction Librarian, Wells College Long Library; November 29, 2016. Locator: Complete article, narrative paragraphs 1–5: 1897 self-government, signed trial, Collegiate adoption, elected committee, exercise/bedtime/Sunday music provisions and reported chapel/library results; author and print-collection attribution.. Accessed October 22, 2026.