The Guardian

In the 41 years since it began, the powerful (37,500 members) American Association of University Professors has been looked upon by facultymen across the U.S. as the guardian of their rights and liberties. But last week, at its annual meeting, the A.A.U.P. was faced with a bitter attack from within its own ranks. In censuring eight campuses for alleged violations of academic freedom, the association seemed to some to be using the very arbitrary methods it had been set up to denounce.

Only If Unfit. For months before the meeting, a special eight-man committee had been examining the records of various campuses and had finally drawn up a statement reaffirming the A.A.U.P.'s stand on the question: Should a teacher be fired if he has pleaded the Fifth Amendment or remained silent while under investigation for Communist ties or sympathies? Its main conclusion: the only way a school can justly fire a teacher is to prove that he is unfit to teach because of "incompetence, lack of scholarly objectivity or integrity, serious misuse of the classroom or of academic prestige, gross personal misconduct, or conscious participation in conspiracy against the government."

Under this rule, said the committee, a school would not even have the right to fire a Communist Party member, unless the teacher is proved unfit as a teacher. Nor should it have the right to dismiss a man solely because he pleads the Fifth Amendment. In such cases the school may have the duty to investigate further. But the burden of proof should lie with the institution, and no final decision should be made until the accused professor has been judged by his academic peers. Though it may be legally indefensible, added the committee, a refusal to answer questions out of fear of hurting others "may not be morally or academically blameworthy."

"I Am Walking Out." Broad as this statement was, the A.A.U.P. was willing to adopt it as its official position. Then it moved on to debate the cases of eight campuses recommended for censure: the University of California, Ohio State, Rutgers, Temple, Oklahoma, St. Louis University, North Dakota Agricultural College, and Philadelphia's Jefferson Medical College. Each school had only ten minutes at the meeting in which to defend itself, and in the end all eight were duly blacklisted. But to some of its members, the A.A.U.P. seemed far from giving the accused campuses the same sort of treatment it was demanding for professors.

Cried Author George R. (Storm) Stewart, professor of English at the University of California and veteran battler against California's regents' loyalty oath: "I am walking out. I will return to the University of California, where I shall inform my colleagues that the action you have taken here is tyrannous. I shall also tell them that they should wear their censure proudly as a badge of torture given by a tyrant." Added Frederic Heimberger, professor of political science at Ohio State: "As a member and loyal supporter of the A.A.U.P. for 25 years, I am shocked and dismayed by this action. There was not the slightest semblance of a fair hearing . . ."

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