3 Professors Dismissed At Washington College

Three instructors at Washington College, Chestertown, Md., have been notified that their teaching appointments will not be renewed for the coming academic year.

None of the three-R.C. Simononi, head of the English Department, James W. Kerley, assistant professor of History and Political Science, and H.L. Yager, assistant professor of Mathematics--was on permanent tenure, but all three have charged that there has been foul play.

Simononi had been on the Washington staff for two years. In March, 1950, Acting President Frederick G. Livingood wrote to Simononi telling him that he did not "fit into the permanent picture" and that the curriculum committee of the Board of Governors was not retaining him.

Simononi has contended, in a letter to the CRIMSON, "I should like to state that I am convinced that at bottom my activity in the Washington College Chapter of the American Association of University Professors was the chief reason for my dismissal.'

Founder of A.A.U.P.

The English professor was one of the founders of the A.A.U.P. chapter in the fall of 1949 and was elected its first president. During the past year the chapter has enrolled a majority of the Washington faculty and has prepared a report comparing Washington teaching salaries unfavorably with those paid in other Middle States colleges.

The second teacher, Kerley, has made similar charges. He was told last March that he was not reappointed in order to replace him with "a person who is trained primarily in Political Science." Kerley has stated that he was adequately trained in political science, and he has cited in evidence letters of approval from the university's acting President and from his department chairman.

Kerley has said that his work on the A.A.U.P. salary committee and also his "New Deal Democrat" political views have caused him to be the subject of "injustice, blind reaction, and undemocratic actions."

Yager, the third professor, started teaching in 1947, but was told in March, 1949 that he would have to be replaced by a teacher with a Ph.D. degree, which Yager does not hold. (One Board member also explained that Yager had reached the retirement age of 65.)

A.A.U.P. Seen Root

Yager has stated that when he first considered coming to Chestertown he was given no indication that his appointment was to be temporary. Yager, like his two colleagues, has stated: "Many of us on the faculty believe that the organization of (the A.A.U.P.) last autumn ... has been the cause of dismissal."

Followers of the three teachers who claim that the A.A.U.P. activities caused the terminations cite as evidence a column written by Harry S. Russell, member of the College Board, in the Chester-town Enterprise, which he edits.

Russell's column, which appeared last January, did not condemn the A.A.U.P., however. It did say that professors were akin to "hired hands" and that the A.A.U.P. resembled a trade union more than an association of scholars.

Both Russell and Acting President Livingood, while refusing to comment further on the reasons for the Board's action, have insisted that the A.A.U.P. and its actions had nothing to do with the non-reappointments.

On April 1, 1950, the Board of Governors refused to reconsider the actions of its curriculum committee; this made the terminations final. At the same time, however, the Board stated that it had confidence in the A.A.U.P. "as an active cooperating professional organization with the Board."