American Faculty Association Places Yale in Wrong in Dismissal of Davis

Yale University was not justified in its dismissal of Professor Jerome Davis of the Divinity School, according to a resolution which was adopted unanimously by the Council of the American Association of University Professors at its regular spring meeting in Chicago on May 1.

The opinion is based upon a twenty nine page report made by a special committee to investigate the circumstances surrounding the University's refusal to renew Professor Davis's appointment for more than one year, or promote him to a full professorship from the position of associate professor.

Arthur N. Holcombe '08, professor of Government at Harvard was chairman of the committee. Other members included Professor E. E. Cheatham of Columbia, Professor B. D. Gideonse of the University of Chicago, and Professor George H. Sabine of Cornell.

According to the report of the committee. Yale was only to be condemned as violating the principle of academic tenure. It criticizes particularly the fact that it took the Divinity School faculty and the Yale authorities twelve years to decide on Professor Davis's fitness. "The obligations of Yale University to Dr. Davis after his long service could not be discharged by a final appointment of one year." The resolution adopted by the council was based solely upon this point.

It had been charged by the New Republic, by the report of the American Teacher's Association, and others that Yale authorities and the Corporation had infringed upon the liberty of speech and academic freedom of certain members of the faculty. However, in the case of Professor Davis, the investigating committee decided after an extensive examination of all evidence available, including a six day hearing at New Haven, that the Corporation did not violate these principles. They found "no conclusive evidence that objections to Dr. Davis's political and economic opinions or to his civic activities were the sufficient or the decisive consideration in causing the President (Angell) to oppose Dr. Davis's retention of his chair."

Although Yale was exonerated on the two main points of academic freedom and civil liberties, President Angell was sharply rebuked for his letter, characterized as "ill-advised" and "indiscreet," to Dean Weigle of the Divinity School, written when its faculty board was about to vote on Professor Davis's reappointment. The report quoted the following phrase from the letter: "I must say that I think Jerome is becoming an increasing nuisance and my patience is inevitably wearing rather thin."

Angell's charges were withdrawn before the final vote on Davis's reappointment, but Dean Weigle did not propose a reconsideration of the four test votes that had previously condemned him. However, the committee, at the same time as condemning Angell, stated that it did not believe Angell's letter had "appreciably affected" the final vote of the board.