Dénes Dienes: History of the Reformed Church Collég in Sárospatak (Sárospatak, 2013)

SPIRIT AND MOOD - Student Governments

118

sisted the senior in duties pertaining to management. Furthermore, as direct supervisor of the curator of the butlers, the senior was to oversee the cleanliness of the buildings, the selling of meat at the slaughterhouse and the closure times of the school gates. His responsibilities also included the handling of minor disciplinary infractions and the keeping of the library expenditures ledger. From 1823 on, he also had to monitor fellow students who were the recipients of scholarships. In order to somewhat ease the burdens weighing on the senior, another officer was appointed in 1829 whose responsibility consisted of monitoring scholarship foundations and selecting scholarship recipients.

Any misconduct or shirking of responsibilities by the senior resulted in severe punishment. Truly blatant violations, however, did not occur during this particular period, thus underlining the effectiveness of the selection process. It is worth mentioning the case of János Futó whose error is due much more to irresponsibility than to any calculated intent. In 1807, he erred with a one thousand royal forint amount. Instead of handling it according to its originally intended purpose of augmenting the existing capital, he lent it out for interest. This “melting away” of capital led to an immediate investigation and the subsequent sanction. The case of Mihály Miskolczi, however, was a more serious situation, as we already mentioned, and led to more serious consequences, that is, of his committing suicide. The scandals issuing from the

Students of Patak and the war of independence

In Sárospatak, the events of March 1848 began on the 18th with an orderly procession by torchlight with accompanying music. Students pinned cockades made from ribbon with the national colours to their jackets and hung flags with the national colors on the College building. The quiet solidarity with the events in Pest, however, soon turned into demands of their own. Encouraged by the example in Pest, the students in Patak also compiled a list of nine points and submitted it to the Assembly of the church district in Miskolc in April. The demands primarily focused on changing the organizational framework of their curriculum of study. The first point, for example, demanded the emancipation of teachers by eliminating the practice of differentiating between academic and secondary school teachers. Listed also was the abolition of public examinations at the end of the academic year and, in their stead, the use of grades accorded throughout the year for evaluation. A further demand was the implementation of academic freedom and the unfettered restoration of the rights of the student government. It was only with the last point that the students indicated the need of an objective which was of a more general and political nature: a demand for the establishment of a National Guard.

The Assembly agreed to most of the demands. Only the notions about equality for teachers and the reorganization of the school board in terms of members and numbers were rejected. In June, the students stepped forth with new proposals. They requested the establishing of a library for the Book Society; they also demanded changes in certain personnel decisions which were all related to protecting students’ rights. Once again, most of their demands were met by the Assembly of the church district. It came perhaps as no surprise that, already at the beginning of the summer, Professor János Somosi made reference to the “unbridled anger of youth”. Things got to the point where the Assembly of the church district in Ungvár had to prohibit the students in Patak to approach the superintendent directly - often without prior notification - without first turning to the leadership of the school.

In June 1848, a chapter of a National Guard was established by students under the leadership of the teacher Antal Pálkövi. One fifth of the College’s one thousand students took up arms. One contingent made efforts to assist Görgey’s troops in the battles of Schwechat, Bábolna and Kápolna - with rather modest results. A second contingent of National Guard students fought at Kassa and Szikszó as well as helping to defend Sárospatak. Archival records preserve the memory of other former students, also, of those who fought in other counties.

FROM THE ENLIGHTEMENT TO THE END OF THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE