The "Ki Yi Yi" Revolt was a student riot that took place in early 1850. Originating with a dispute between the administration and the Philodemic Society, the revolt culminated with a series of riots and expulsions that led students to leave campus and issue demands to the administration. Ultimately, students returned to campus and ended the revolt when the administration agreed to revoke the expulsions in exchange for apologies from the expelled students.
Background and Initial Riot
In early January of 1850, the first prefect, the head of the student prefects in charge of overseeing younger pupils, withheld permission for the Philodemic Society to meet after hours on a Sunday evening. After the Society went ahead with their meeting, the first prefect suspended all meetings of the Society for a month and deprived them of late night study privileges. The school rejected the students’ petition for a lighter penalty, and the Society and sympathizing students lashed out. They began by engaging in small acts of disobedience; refusing to read in the dining room, serve mass, read prayers, or remain silent in the study hall, but once night fell, there was chaos. For three hours, rocks flew through the air and firecrackers exploded.1
Administrative Response and Further Riots
The vice-rector, the then second-highest University official, responded by expelling three of the leaders. Two left campus, but one remained. When that student prepared to give a speech at the end of dinner, the vice-rector dismissed the students, cutting off his opportunity to speak. The students stormed to the office of the vice-rector and complained about the three expulsions pointing out that a lot more students were involved. When the vice-rector pressed for additional names, the students all claimed involvement, and the vice-rector responded by dismissing them all. With that, the students stormed out smashing doors and windows and shouting “Hurrahs” and “Ki Yi Yis” as they left.2
Student Demands and Aftermath
The students holed up in the Globe Hotel where they issued their demands: they refused to return until all students were invited to return and the first prefect removed. The vice-rector refused to negotiate. By mid-January, the college had only fifty students remaining from its original one-hundred and eighty. With President Ryder away on a preaching tour, the provincial superior was forced to step in. He appointed a new vice-rector, Angelo Paresce. Paresce supported the idea of a young prefect, Bernard Maguire, who had worked out an agreement by which all the students were returned to Georgetown in exchange for a formal apology for any scandal or offense they had committed. Soon after, Maguire assumed the position of first prefect and then the position of Georgetown’s president in 1852.3
William Willis, the expelled student who had remained on campus to give a speech, graduated from Georgetown in 1851, went on to earn his law degree from Harvard University, and later returned to Georgetown in 1858 as a professor.4
