sentences:  Following a public outcry over life-saving facilities and transportation safety, in 1871, the federal government granted the university a lifeboat and later, in 1876, constructed a life-saving station, both of which were manned and operated by students, near the Grosse Point reef and lighthouse.By the time the Coast Guard assumed control of the station in 1916, it had remained the nation's only student-manned life-saving station; Northwestern students were credited with saving more than 400 people.Northwestern was also home to several literary societies predating fraternal societies.