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Also referred to as the Senior Strike or the Senior Trouble, this was a conflict between the Seniors of NC A&M College and the administration primarily in September 1904. The movement was primarily driven by the college administration's decision to limit the number of days a week Seniors could go into town (often referred to as "liberty" in period documents), though hazing was also banned. In the past, seniors had been allowed to leave campus at a greater frequency than underclassmen, who were permitted to leave only on Friday nights and weekends; additionally, seniors were to some extent allowed to leave campus out of uniform, if they so chose. This situation was not a rule, per se, but an informally accepted tradition which had started in the earlier years of the school.

The issue first presented itself during the commencement exercises in the summer of 1904, when a number of students went into town in plain clothes rather than their school-sanctioned drill uniforms. The incident in the summer led to a little-documented "insurrection" among the students, who were upset about the unequal treatment, but the faculty never punished the offenders; this, according to local opinion, emboldened students to act out when the Fall came around.

While the controversy dissipated over the summer, once students began to arrive on campus, it reared its head again. Senior opposition to the ruling was so strong that the University temporary delayed registration, with several seniors claiming they would not enroll in the school until their demands were met; eventually, however, the Seniors decided that the best course of action would be to register and then write up petitions.

The process of removing the Senior's liberties was started on January 26th, 1904, when Captain Phelps, President Winston, and Professor Hill were appointed to a committee to investigate "the question of granting liberties to visit the City, and other questions of Discipline pertaining to this subject." On May 24th, President Winston made his recommendation regarding liberties. The text read as follows:

That liberty to visit Raleigh on Saturday afternoon and Sunday mornings and Sunday nighst [sic] be given to all cadets not under special restraint, that liberty to visit Raleigh on other occasions be given only on request of the Commandant, or other proper official, except that Seniors be permitted to have liberty for social purposes each Friday night.

(Meeting Minutes 1897-1911 (Vol. 2), North Carolina State University, Faculty Meeting Records, UA 002.004, NC State University Libraries Special Collections Research Center – p. 286; Board of Agriculture in Control of North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, June 1901-December 1906, Minutes, North Carolina State University, Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes, UA 001.001, NC State University Libraries Special Collections Research Center – p. 165).

Though the faculty met and discussed the situation on September 2nd, the first large meeting among the students took place on Monday, September 5th. All 45 of the Seniors in the college held a meeting in Pullen Hall to form a committee of students to mediate discussions with the faculty, and elected C. W. Martin, O. L. Bagley, J. W. Bullock, J. H. Squires, Julian Howard, and Sterling Graydon to discuss a compromise with President Winston or other faculty leaders. The petition written by the Seniors fell through, and the school's faculty voted to extend no additional privileges to the students. Since the Board of Trustees would not meet again until December, it was decided to hold a joint meeting between all of the school's classes. In the end, delegates of the Senior class held discussions with Commissioner of Agriculture and chariman of the Board of Trustees, S. L. Patterson, professor and chairman of the faculty, D. H. Hill, State Treasurer B. R. Lacy, and Governor Aycock. The talks seemed to progress well, with Lacy in particular showing special interest in mending relations.

Early in the morning on Wednesday, September 7th, much of the student body met outside the chapel to discuss what to do going forward. Commandant Phelps broke up the meeting, leading the students to instead meet off-campus. The Seniors went to Pullen Park at 8 AM, where Capt. Phelps followed them and again urged them to disperse. Here, the class stood their ground; Phelps informed the Seniors that the members of the committee would be expelled if the meeting was not adjourned immediately. Given those circumstances, the Senior class decided to withdraw from the college; the paper declaring their intention to withdraw was signed by every Senior, though on the following day, 4 seniors rescinded their signatures.

After the announcement by Phelps of the impending expulsion of the members of the Senior committee, the other classes began to take the side of the Seniors, and held meetings of their own. The Juniors met in the corn field behind the main building at 2 PM, while the Sophomores met simultaneously at the Pullen Park pavillion. During these meetings, every Junior and 65 Sophomores reportedly signed papers requesting increased liberty for Seniors, stating that they would withdraw from the college if their demands were not met.

On Wednesday evening, 100 or more students from the lower grades "swarmed on the streets" of downtown Raleigh on Wednesday, a prohibited weekday, some in their military uniforms, some in civilian clothes. These students generally gathered to discuss their feelings and display their disdain for some of the school's draconian rules, declaring their intent to leave unless modifications were made. The main reason for the rapid escalation was because of the expulsion of Howard, Graydon, and Squires, for their perceived role in leading the revolt, and R. H. Harper, a senior and the Drum Major of the battalion, for disregarding orders not to join the Seniors' meeting. By September 8th, it was reported that 41 out of the 45 Seniors had left the college for their hometowns, and there were threats that 200 or more students would leave the school -- just under half the student body.

In response, the Administration contacted the parents of many students, urging them to encourage their kids to stay in school; then, they doubled down on delinquency, writing that any students who continued to fail to submit to regulations were not wanted and would be expelled. Winston asserted that the students had little time to head to the city given their amount of school work and military training, but eventually conceded and allowed Seniors to head into town on Fridays, in addition to the time during the weekends during which all students were allowed to go.

Due in part to the strong-fisted nature of Dr. Winston's response and in part by the requests of their parents, many of the underclassmen reneged on their signed statements of the 7th, claiming that many of them signed the document as a group, and that if individuals backed out, their signatures were void; on Thursday night, the Sophomore and Junior classes decided "by the great majority" to disregard their statement signed on Wednesday, though four or five from each class were still holding out. Despite this, the Seniors stood strong, and though all but 6 of the Seniors were accounted for during roll call on Thursday night, "at least" 35 of the remaining Seniors were "determined to remain out of college at the present condition" (The (Raleigh) Morning Post, September 6th, 1904, p. 7; The (Raleigh) Morning Post, September 7th, 1904, p. 2; The (Raleigh) Morning Post, September 8th, 1904, p. 2; News and Observer, September 8th, 1904, p. 5; The (Raleigh) Morning Post, September 9th, 1904, p. 5; News and Observer, September 9th, 1904, p. 5; Agromeck, Vol. III (1905), pp. 26; 61-63).

Dramatic reports of the situation circulated throughout the state, with numerous papers publishing a report where one father reportedly asked the administration to "use a hickoy stick on his boy," and quoted a second father who asked the administration to "Thrash my son soundly and stand by your rules," adding "You ought to have had them [the rules] all along." Included in this report was also a report that a "prominent football player" attempted to leave the school with about $20 (about $575 in 2019) worth of goods from the Athletic Association in his trunk, though members of the Athletic Association reportedly went to the depot and made him return the goods. Though similar report could not be found in Raleigh papers, it is certainly plausible, as two of the expelled students (Howard and Squires) were both related to the football team: Julian Howard was elected to be the team's manager at the completion of the 1903 season, and Squires was one of the team's stars in the previous years; neither student returned to school, though Howard did request to be re-admitted; his application was initially denied. Thomas Sadler, a freshman, also left around the same time. Oddly, the minutes of the Board of Trustees and the Faculty Meetings contained no mention of a similar event (The Charlotte News, September 9th, 1904, p. 1; News and Observer, September 9th, 1904, p. 8; Meeting Minutes 1897-1911 (Vol. 2), North Carolina State University, Faculty Meeting Records, UA 002.004, NC State University Libraries Special Collections Research Center – p. 298).

Eventually, though, things began to settle down. Though the college opened at first without a senior class, by September 11th, it was reported that the strike was over, and the four Seniors expelled earlier, as well as a fifth Senior, Charles W. Martin, who had been expelled in the mean time, were re-instated. Additionally, another 10 Seniors applied for re-admission. Through this time, Dr. Winston retained his aggressive pursuit of non-leniency, with papers stating that "No committees nor agents will be treated with," but adding that "The college will inflict no harsh or vindictive punishment, but will require the entire acceptance of the regulations and obedience to authority. By September 20th, it was reported that all but 3 of the students "whom the faculty decline to receive" would return to the college, largely because of the withdrawal of the expulsions; eventually, 41 of the Seniors returned (The (Raleigh) Morning Post, September 11th, 1904, p. 7; News and Observer, September 11th, 1904, p. 10; The (Statesville) Landmark, September 20th, 1904, p. 2; News and Observer, September 28th, 1904, p. 5).

The event escaped direct mention in Red and White. According to Lauren Greene, social media editor for Technician, "the student editors [of Red and White] conformed to the viewpoints of the college in order to avoid conflict and backlash," making the omission of the turmoil unsurprising. The event did not, however, escape the purview of the editors of Agromeck, who were all students. "At the beginning of our Senior year, the Class met its Waterloo," and went on to list out specific students who were "Thugs" among the Senior class, and even a few "Honorary Thugs" among underclassmen, even including the portraits and brief descriptions of Charles Seifert (former football player) and Julian Howard, mentioning that both students specifically chose to forgo their Senior years due to the "Senior trouble." Agromeck also presented a short summary of the events of the Thug Movement which was fairly unbiased throughout much of the writeup, but closed with the famous Thomas Carlyle quote: "Men seldom, or rather never for a length of time and deliberately, rebel against anything that does not deserve rebelling against" (100 Years of Technician, p. 7; Agromeck, Vol. III (1905), pp. 61-63).

Unfortunately, however, this event had a lasting impact on A&M's football season. As former-manager Julian Howard was one of the students who was expelled and not admitted back to the college, the football team was unable to compete in their schedule as originally planned. In early October, a Nashville, Tennessee-based newspaper wrote that they had been contacted in late September and told that "the manager of the North Carolina [A&M] team had been expelled or left school," and that "When he left he carried off with him all records, including contracts made for football games." Despite efforts by Vanderbilt to reschedule the game, it proved futile. Despite the short notice, Vanderbilt was still able to schedule a replacement game against the local Georgetown College, of Georgetown, Kentucky (Nashville Banner, October 5th, 1904, p. 6).

The situation was explained a little further in Atlanta. While the same introduction to the situation was given, it was explained that the (still-unnamed) manager was expelled, and that the difficulty in re-arranging games with the Aggies was caused because "the second manager went ahead and arranged a schedule to suit himself." Logically, this second manager was either Graduate Manager O. Max Gardner or Assistant Manager C. W. Hodges, whose names and titles never appeared in that role in the Vol. V (1903-1904) editions of Red and White, but promptly showed up in the first (September) issue of Red and White in Vol. VI (The Atlanta Constitution, October 7th, 1904, p. 9; The Atlanta Constitution, October 10th, 1904, p. 7).

It does not appear that any other games were lost due to the scheduling change, but it's difficult to say for certain.