Reuben Andrus, pictured here, was one of the early founders of Illinois Wesleyan and later president of Depauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. McPherson was inspired to implement the crops for tuition program not only by colonial-era tuition practices but also by how Andrus paid for his education. According to Andrus’ memoirs, he used crops to pay for his degree at Illinois College during the 1840s. In his first semester, Andrus and his father hauled 30 bushels of corn to pay for his tuition. Each summer Andrus would work harvesting crops to pay for the following year’s tuition. The crops for tuition program thus drew on the experiences of one Illinois Wesleyan founder

 

This article from the September 9, 1932 edition of the Illinois Wesleyan student newspaper, The Argus, describes the crops for tuition program. It confirms that President McPherson, along with Illinois Wesleyan business manager Nate Crabtree, founded the initiative. The article also describes how the program was inspired by a similar program at Harvard University during the Colonial Era and that the crops would be valued above market prices. The New York Times story is from August 29, 1932. The Chicago Tribune story is from September 8, 1932. We have not located the Los Angeles Times story mentioned.
 

This is a photo of John Dickinson III from Abingdon, Illinois. He was the first student at Illinois Wesleyan to take part in the crops program. John Dickinson was the grandson of an early president of Hedding College. Because the college closed due to financial reasons, it is quite fitting that Dickinson would be the first student to take part in Illinois Wesleyan's program. Uncredited in this photo is President McPherson, standing on the far right.

These are two articles in the September 21, 1932 edition of the Illinois Wesleyan student newspaper, The Argus. In the first story, “Farm Products for Tuition Scoop for ‘Eyes and Ears of the World’," details the making of 'How's Crops Dean.' It begins by describing how Virgil Martin, head of the publicity department at Illinois Wesleyan, worked with Paramount to produce the film. This article includes the names of all the students who were featured. The second story, “More Interesting News About Our Tuition Plan,” describes the business implications of the program. Additional papers in which the program was featured are mentioned, including The Bloomington Daily Pantagraph, The New York Sun, an unnamed San Diego paper, The Minneapolis Journal, The Minneapolis Scripts-Howards Papers, and The Indianapolis Star.


 

This is Justin Alikonis. He was a chemistry major at Illinois Wesleyan. In “How’s Crops, Dean?,” he was the student who traded in the pig. “Isaac Rosenberg” was an alias Alikonis used for the film, to which he may have been a spontaneous addition. According to the September 21, 1932 Argus, the filming was about to call it quits when Alikonis was found chasing a pig that he planned to use to pay for his tuition.