The Columbus weekly dispatch., 1908-06-18
LEAVELL CHARGES
NOT SUSTAINED
President Hardy Wins First
Round in A. & NJ. Investiga-
ton Concluded Late
Saturday Night.
The Wellborn Case ComoIeted and
Stenographer Now TransIating
Testimony Upon Which Ver-
dict Will Rest.

The board of trustees of the A &
NJ. College adjourned last Saturday
night at Il o'clock after being in
session from Thursday morning at
$50 o'clock continuously, except for
the little time required for meals and
sleep. The board worked every night
until 2 o'clock and every particle of
testimony was taken down and will
! be transcribed for the benefit of the
trustees and the public. The board
! was called together by Gov. Noel in
response to the provisions of a reso-
luton adopted at the commencement
meeting, which required that they in
vestigate fully conditions existing in
the faculty and among the employees
of the institution in so far as they
/ affected President Hardy. It was
charged that there was lack of con-
| fidence among the faculty and its
members towards the president and
rebellious meetings against his au-
F. thority had been held on the campus
| At the commencement meeting of the
| trustees Capt. I. T. Wellborne the
! deposed commandant of the institu-
ton, filed a long list of serious
charges against President Hardy. and
at that meeting these charges were
received and filed. At the request of
President Hardy, the board reconsid-
cred its action and the investigation
of these charges was gone into. The
entire board was present, the board
being completed by the arrival of Mr..
Davis, of Jackson, on Friday after
noon
Capt. Wellborne began the presen-
tation Of his case on Thursday morn
ing and it was Saturday afternoon be-
1 fore he completed the same. He ask
/ ed for an adjournment utnil Monday
that he might prepare summary of
the testimony, and it was granted to
him. The members of the board de-
cided that they would like to review
all of the testimony presented, and
accordingly the stenographer was in
structed to transcribe the same and
furnish to each member a copy there
of. This will require several DAYS,
and as soon as it is done Gov Noel
will again call the board together to
make a disposal of the Wellborne
case.
After the WeIlborne investigation |
had been concluded the case of Mr.. |
r. H. Leaveu was gone into. Mr.
Leayell presented a series of charges T.
against President Hardy, but as sew
eral of them had been tried in the
Wellborne charges, they were omit
ted, and only those new matters not
investigated, were gone into. Mr..
Leavell presented his own case,
which did not require but a few
hours. He was allowed to make a
summary of the testimony before the
board, after which the board went
into executive session, and none of
the charges against Mr.. Hardy were
sented, together with Mr.. Hardy's re-
ply to the same, which will give our
readers an insight into their charac-
ter. Mr.. Hardy's reply was submit
ted as his sworn testimony in the
case. Mr.. Hardy was exonerated
from every charge and the Governor
instructed to give out a statement to
that effect at Jackson.
The faculty investigation was par
TALLY undertaken, and as a result
several members of the senior class
and others were summoned to ap-
pear before the trustees when they
again meet, which will probably be
within the next two weeks, when the
findings in the We1lborne case will
be made public, the statement upon
which the conclusions reached in the
Leavell case will be issued and the
faculty investigation will be COM
pleted.
The investigation at the college
has attracted great deal of inter
est. The investigation is public and
has been held in the chapel of the in
stitution. Nearly all of the college
employees, members of the faculty
and many of last years seniors, in
Guiding Mr.. Blanton, who enforced
withdrawal is said to have precipitat-
ed the trouble and who took part of
the testimony in shorthand, a num-
ber of juniors and others are in at
tendance upon it.