The January/February 2005 issue of The Penn Stater magazine (p. 25) includes an article about how attendance at morning and evening weekday chapel services, in addition to Sunday services, was mandatory for students at Penn State University [then, Pennsylvania State College] until 1927 [and Sunday services until 1930]. According to a letter written in 1924 by C. Mervin Palmer [my great uncle and a founder of State College Friends Meeting (which held its first business meeting January 17, 1925)], "the group of student Friends attending the Pennsylvania State College [had] been holding unofficial religious meetings on First-day during the college terms...". I'm curious what the Quaker students thought of the mandatory chapel attendance, how they coped with the conflict with Quaker discipline, and whether their Friends services were in addition to or in lieu of the mandatory services. Tina: Does the source for your article indicate whether attendance at other church services could substitute for the chapel services? Quaker-Rooters: Does anyone out there know of any Quaker Penn Staters who might remember those days? This could be useful for a piece I'm preparing about Mervin as part of a genealogical work about "The Descendants of Charles and Arletta Palmer", so any nuances or personal insights would be greatly appreciated! And long these lines... I've discovered that no official repositories seem to have the Friends Union's newsletters or other archives. [I've checked the Penn State library as well as the Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore.] "Friends Union" was a sort of Quaker fraternity at Penn State started in 1920. I've seen a copy of one Friends Union newsletter and found it to be a unique source of valuable genealogical and historical information, but am afraid that a complete set may be lost to history. I'm certain that some members of this e-group must have inherited a set of these materials without recognizing their value... It would be of great service to the historical record if you could offer copies for donation to a library. I'd be very interested in receiving copies of whatever you might have which I would then be delighted to forward to the Penn State, Swarthmore and other Friends historical libraries! Jeff Palmer - jap@highstream.net * * * Quote of the Week: "A state too extensive in itself, or by virtue of its dependencies, ultimately falls into decay; its free government is transformed into a tyranny; it disregards the principles which it should preserve, and finally degenerates into despotism." -- Simon Bolivar, 1815 -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 265.8.6 - Release Date: 2/7/05