College Presidents Discuss Liberties

As the attack mounted against infringements on academic freedom, the presidents of several colleges and universities took their stands. These educators were no longer faced with the mere possibility of investigations and hearings; men from their faculties were being called before the Jenner or Velde or McCarthy committees; some of them were invoking the Fifth Amendment.

Dr. Harold C. Taylor

On February 21, in an address delivered in Bronxcille, New York, Dr. Taylor, president of Sarah Lawrence College, said,"...We cannot preserve the loyalty and political integrity of our students and teachers by Congressional investigations. We can only paralyze their will be think independently and act politically."

Dr. Grayson Kirk

Columbia's new president, in a speech delivered March 12 at the 50th anniversary celebration of the founding of the University of Pureto Rico, said no university should oppose investigations but should insist they be handled fairly. They should not be used by "demagogues who may seek to use an indiscriminate smear campaign in order to further their own selfish political ambitions." Kirk claims he "...would not support the view that he (a teacher) should be automatically and summarily dismissed for refusing to testify. However, he discourages invoking the Fifth Amendement, since"...a professor, like his university, bears some burden of public responsibility, and his refusal to speak will inevitably reflect adversely on both himself and his institution."

Dr. John Sloan Dickey

At a meeting of the Dartmouth Alumni Association of Boston on March 4, the president of Dartmouth claimed Communists are disqualified to teach. He asked for teachers who have "no need to take refuge in any American tribunal behind a privilege against incrimination by their own words." At the same time, Dickey warned against the "foul practices of incrimination by recrimination and insinuation."

Mrs. Millicent C. McIntosh

In reply to a set of questions put to her by a correspondent from the Barnard Bulletin, Mrs. McInstosh, president of Barnard College, said, "If the Senate Internal Security Committee did find it necessary to question an individual instructor I do not believe that such questioning would impair our traditional liberties if it was properly handled." However, she believes "Colleges and universities should themselves take the responsibility for seeing that their teaching is truly free and not dictated by any outside authority..Administrators and boards of trustees should accept the primary responsibility for establishing academic freedom."

Dr. Buell G. Gallagher

At his installation as president of the College of the City of New York, Gallagher looked with "dismay and mounting resentment on the growing tendency in our day for persons, organizations, and groups outside the academic halls to intrude themselves and their ideas upon the college and the university." A few days earlier, two CCNY employees, working in the Registrar's office, were suspended for refusing to testify before a Congressional committee. They were automatically suspended under Section 903 of the New York City Charter, which says that city employees who refuse to answer questions put to them by Government committees automatically vacate their jobs. Gallagher urged that the Section be left intact. Teachers, he said, ought to testify, and thus place the matter of their retention or dismissal in the hands of educational authorities.