Many of us like to imagine the University as a beacon of progress.

We see it as a place where ideas are expounded and values debated. We envision an institution devoted to the education and advancement of its students, a forum where diversity and academic freedom reign.

We assume that whatever the University does - whether it's erecting new facilities or imposing new rules and codes - is intended to efficiently and productively serve its community.

And when we fork over our tuition dollars, even if we aren't under the impression that the University is an infallible bastion of progress, we imagine that, at the very least, it's not an impediment to it. Most of the time, it doesn't disappoint - but only most of the time.

Over the course of its 190-year history, there have been quite a few instances where the University failed to live up to its creed of liberty and equality. The following are just a few events that you probably won't hear Campus Day leaders describing to prospective freshmen and their parents.

Breaches of academic freedom

In the 1930s and '40s, campus was teeming with political activity. Major world events - the Great Depression, the New Deal and World War II to name a few - were fueling a national debate in which students were actively engaged. Radical student groups abounded. Controversial speakers frequented campus. But while the students were making good use of their youthful exuberance and First Amendment rights, it didn't mean administrators were happy about it.

President Alexander Ruthven was less than overjoyed.

In June 1935, Ruthven requested that four students not return to the University for the following academic year. He declared that their "perversive activities" were unacceptable and obstructed the University's work.

In "The Making of The University of Michigan 1817-1992," by LSA Prof. Nicholas and Margaret Steneck, a retired lecturer for LSA and the Residential College, some of Ruthven's original statements about the dismissals are downright alarming.

"Attendance at the University of Michigan is a privilege and not a right," Ruthven wrote in an annual report from the fall of 1935. "In order to safeguard its ideals of scholarship, character, and personality the University reserves the right, and the student concedes to the University the right, to require withdrawal of any student at any time for any reason deemed sufficient to it."

In June 1940, Ruthven continued his "purge" of students. He informed nine more that they would not be readmitted in the fall on charges of disrupting the "University's work."

Clearly, by today's standards, the idea that the University might strip you of your constitutional rights in return for the right to attend seems crass, but even at the time it was shocking to hear the president of a prestigious university refer to freedom of the press and freedom of speech as "sophistries" in a commencement address.

High-handed dismissals were not confined to the Ruthven administration, though. During President Harlan Hatcher's tenure, the University Lecture Committee in 1952 temporarily prohibited two men, who were allegedly affiliated with dissident organizations, from speaking on campus. According to an article in The Michigan Daily on May 20, 1952, the committee was concerned the two might promote overthrowing the government.

Hatcher also ignited protest in May 1954 when he suspended three faculty members who had been ordered to appear before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. The faculty members were called to testify by Michigan Congressman Kit Clardy, who wanted to investigate their alleged ties to communist organizations. Hatcher dismissed two of the members but only reprimanded the third.

In September 1969, things got particularly ugly. University President Robben Fleming, who had previously dealt with student activism in a composed manner, lost it.

Students were demanding the creation of a student-run bookstore on campus, and they wouldn't take no for an answer.

The University Board of Regents agreed to finance the venture, but it refused to cede control of the store to the students. In response, Students for a Democratic Society, a radical activist group, barricaded themselves inside the LSA Building.

Six hundred students protested inside, while 1,000 people showed their support by gathering outside. The students had locked the doors. Faced with a potentially hazardous situation, Fleming ordered about 250 city and state policemen to forcibly evacuate the building. The result? One hundred and seven students were arrested.

Afterward, Fleming remarked that the mass arrests "let students know that there were some things we would not let them do."