A Tempting Definition?

The University of Washington had taken its stand: last week, it was taking the consequences. As might have been expected, the firing of three professors--two for being Communists and one for refusing to say under investigation (TIME, Jan. 31)--had raised a racket. So far, most of the howls were coming from the protesters.

One Washington professor had already resigned because "of the conspicuous violation of the proper processes for deciding issues of freedom and tenure . . ." Forty-six Princeton graduate students sent a telegram to President Raymond B. Allen denouncing the whole affair. A Students' Organization for Academic Rights had sprung up overnight on the Washington campus. Last week, hundreds of students, accompanied by a handful of faculty members, crowded into the University Unitarian Church for a protest meeting.

Meanwhile, the potent American Association of University Professors laid plans to investigate the case. The A.A.U.P.'s inquiry might take two to four months. If it found that the firings had been unjustified, it could put the University of Washington on its "blacklist" by censuring the administration--a move that might discourage other A.A.U.P. members from accepting faculty appointments there. If, on the other hand, it approved the dismissals, the A.A.U.P. would in effect be standing behind Allen's own definition of academic freedom:

"Academic freedom consists of something more than merely an absence of restraints placed upon the teacher by the institution that employs him. It demands as well an absence of restraints placed upon him by his political affiliations, by dogmas that may stand in the way of free search for truth, or by rigid adherence to a party line . . ."

That would be a tempting definition for other college presidents who had Communists on their faculties.

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