Keating as a 'hell raiser,' the original DPS, and some questions

When Keating was a student at Wilton, he was a "hell raiser" and a co-founder of the original Dead Poets Society.

The film takes place in 1959 as evidenced by Nolan's speech at the beginning that the school was opened 100 years ago in 1859.

So Keating has to be at least in his early 30s or even older if he graduated at 18, went to college, then most likely graduate school (for an M.A. in English), possible military service in late WWII, Korea, or even later (Elvis was drafted in peacetime in 1956), and then several years teaching in London.

Unfortunately, we don't learn much about his activities at Wilton and those of the original DPS. They couldn't meet in the library, in someone's dorm, or somewhere else on or near campus to hold their meetings without being monitored by the staff? Practically all schools at the time had literary or poetry clubs for students. What made the DPS stand out that would get them in trouble? They just read classical verse and poetry and probably nothing from the Third World authors whose work would start to be included in campus curricula around the 1980s with calls for diversity, etc. Maybe their own work might have crossed some lines at the time (if they included explicit sex and bad words) if recited within earshot of teachers, but they still could have met somewhere in private besides a damp cave.

So how did the original DPS inspire its members? Did they lobby for the admission of black and Jewish students? (You don't see any black faces in 1959 on campus.) Did they raise money and arms for the Republican side in Spain during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)? Did they support involvement in the European War, oppose it, or were divided?

I just wish they provided more details. And if Keating was as "controversial," as he is made out to be, there would have been teachers, administrators, and staff who would have remembered him, some of whom might have urged that he not be hired. Shouldn't Nolan, who said he once taught English at the school, have remembered or been familiar with Keating if the latter had been that notorious and an "honors graduate"? (Maybe Nolan had left for a job at other school in between teaching and becoming an administrator and thus missed Keating and the original DPS.) Was Nolan even familiar with the original DPS?

I just wish it was a little more clear. All it meant was a few extra lines of dialog that wouldn't have lengthened the film by much.