ustxtxb_obs_1965_05_14_50_00011-00000_000.pdf

Higher Education in Texas Reappraisals at Tech Eight years ago, the board of directors of Texas Tech in Lubbock fired three professors for apparently political reasons. The American Association of University Professors placed the board on its censured list. This spring, spurred to self-inquiry by former Tech professor David Welborn’s indictment of recent conditions at Tech in the Observer in January, the college paper there; the Daily Toreador, has inquired into the effect of the censure on Tech and why it has not yet been lifted \(a subject also involved in last issue’s item, “A QuesW. Eugene Smith, a reporter on the Toreador, reported: “For the last eight years, Texas Tech has been a ‘black sheep’ in the American college family, because of the censure. . . . ‘You go to a professional meeting somewhere and you feel sort of like an illegitimate child,’ said one government professor . . . . “Dr. L. L. Blaisdell, who was president of the local AAUP chapter last year, said . . . many teachers . . . listen closely to the AAUP opinions and wouldn’t consider a position at a censured school. Several men new to Tech said they all considered the censure, but came on to Tech for various other reasons. “Martin Kornbluth, an instructor in the English department, came here from of my friends said I was nuts to go to a censured school,’ he said. . . . ” ‘It places the teacher in a position of taking a calculated risk,’ said Dr. Robert Lawrence of government. ‘I came here from Kansas, but I haven’t bought a house. It makes the young teacher feel that he needs a job in his pocket, just in case.’ .. . “Dr. Wilkes Berry said the censure appared ‘a little ominous’ when he considered Tech, but other factors overshadowed it. Dr. R. C. Goodwin [president of Tech] said he has received reports that some people had turned down positions here because of the censure. . . . ‘I’m confident that many qualified people never consider Tech because of it,’ said Blaisdell. ‘And then there’s the situation where we are competing with other schools for a person’s services, and they decide against Tech because of the censure. In some cases, it has forced Tech to accept less than the best.’ “One government teacher said he knew of a man who was being considered as head of his department but withdrew his. name because of the censure.” Smith quoted the chairmen of the history and English departments and the dean of the graduate school that they had never had any recruiting difficulties they could attribute to the censure. Roy T. Bowles, an assistant professor, said in a letter to the Toreador, “One highly recommended [faculty] candidate recently refused an offer of a position in sociology explicitly because of the censure. In previous years candidates in sociology and in other disciplines have mentioned the censure as a reason for not coming to Tech.” APPARENTLY Tech’s failure to provide any compensation to the three fired professors has been one main impediment to the lifting of the censure. Dr. Goodwin was quoted that a definite effort is being made to have the censure lifted. In an editorial, the Toreador’s editor, Aronson Havard, said, “Tech is not demonstrating good faith by pursuing negotiations with the AAUP.” Ralph M. Durham, head of the Tech department of animal husbandry, said in another letter to the Toreador that Dr. Blaisdell had said that he did not think the college should be taken off the censured list. “A major stumbling block is our own AAUP. I believe the college has done pretty well in the area of academic protection. A tenure policy was established and at least one case has been tried before the special committee set up according to tenure rules,” Durham said. “. . . I think it is time . . . to discontinue mourning over eight-year-old issues, even ‘though they may have been regrettable ones.” Hugh W. Stephens of the government department, the AAUP secretary at Tech, rejoined: “Dr. Durham is entirely wrong in stating that the local chapter is a stumbling block to removal of censure. . . . [He] ignored the fact that the board of directors is under censure because it arbitrarily dismissed three members of the faculty in 1957. The board will rightly remain under censure until compensation is made to the victims. The board’s failure to take remedial action indicates that academic freedom, despite the tenure policy, is still far secure on this campus. . . . “Dr. Durham . . . is in effect asking his fellow faculty-members to forget unrequited injustices done to their colleagues. Such attitudes only encourage further depredations upon a faculty already weakened by continuing departures and numerous refusals from able prospects. . . . This school has an odious reputation brought upon it by the board . .” Durham retorted by letter that Stephens came to Tech in 1963, and “One wonders why . . . with his attitude such as it is.” Durham advocated compromise and said often harm “cannot be undone.” “Since the summary dismissal cases of 1957,” Earl Gilmore, an associate professor of math, wrote in to the student paper, “we have seen two of our colleagues effectively ‘fined,’ without any hearing what “What is done unto anyone, may be done unto everyone.” John Lilbourne, upon his being banished by Parliament in 1652 for printing unlicensed books “The American Civil Liberties Union [is a] useful and thoroughly patriotic organization. . . . To equate patriotism with conformity, orthodoxy, and name-calling is dangerous nonsense; and this cannot be pointed out too often.” The New York Times “During the 43 years of its existence the American Civil Liberties Union has played a significant role in defending our basic democratic freedoms. Your voice has always been raised clearly and sharply when our liberties have been threatened. America is a stronger nation for your uncompromising efforts.” John F. Kennedy History is unaffected by silent concern. The ACLU leader to contact in your part of the state is: AMARILLO, William R. Nichols, 104 No. Alabama St., DR 3-4807. *AUSTIN, Walter Dunkelberg, President, Central Texas chapter, 2523 Winsted Lane, GR 7-1808. CORPUS CHRISTI, Rev. Walter C. Jolly, 5901 Idlewood, TE 5-9971. *DALLAS, Fred Weldon, President, Greater Dallas chapter, 1601 National Bankers Life Bldg., RI 1-4656. EL PASO, Richard T. Marshall, Southwest National Bank Bldg., 533-6919. *FT. 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