Montana labor news., 1939-12-07
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act of the board.
Moreover, our University is a
member of some Of the OF ganiza-
tons mentioned in your letter and
as such has committed itself to the
principles of tenure agreed upon by
these organizations. AS you state,
one of these principles of tenure is;
Termination for cause of a con-
tinuous appointment, Or the dis
missal for cause of a teacher .previ-
Gus to the expiration of a term of
appointment, should, if possible, be
considered by both a faculty COM
mittee and the governing board of
the institution"
The should, if possible, be con-
sidered by both a faculty committee
and the governing board" in this
statement goes to the heart of the
principle to which our university
has committed itself. The program
adopted by the board in the present
instance is a definite reputation OF
this principle. The possible" re-
~striction does not in any way save
the board in this case. The neces-
sary faculty committee is already in
existence (our Service Committee,
which was created for just this pur-
pose) and there is plenty of time
since we have the whole year for it.
The members of the faculty with
whom l have conferred (and l have
conferred with many believe, as ]
do, that the reason the board has
departed from its heretofore in
variable custom and has definitely
repudiated a principle to which il
has become committed by joining
certain association, is that in this
case the conclusions from a hearing
before the board are, in their minds
predetermined and that it is desired
to avoid possible contrary conclu-
sions by the Service Committee
That is, these members of the fac
ulty, including myself, believe that
we are up against a kangaroo court
which has written the verdict before
the trial begins.
The case now seems to stand like
this:
a. The board picks out the indi.
viduals to be tried.
b. The board formulates the
charges.
C. The board tries these charge,
before itself.
One needs but slight acquaintance
with Anglo-S Saxon ideas of justice t
appreciate the preposterous charac
ter of this procedure. Here we have
the grand jury, the prosecuting at
torney, the judge and jury, all il
the same person. We have to go
long way back in history Tor els'
east of the Rhine) before we fine
anything like it.
Finally, it is a grave question al
to whether the very announcement
made by the board, in the manner
it was made, is not in itself a def
mite violation of the tenure provi
sion. This announcement is in sub
stance: "You hand in your resigna
ton in thirty days (by October Is
1880 to take effect September l
1910, or we will prefer charge
against you and give you a hearing
before this board at a special meet
ing" This evidently means that i
found guilty" the professor may b,
dismissed at once. Certainly it wa
taken to mean that by the two pro
f%essors who resigned under thi
threat. (These men would not havI
the slightest fear of being "founC
guilty" by our Service Committee.
Advice was taken on this point boil
of attorneys and of people VIII,
know the present temper of some o
the members of the board, and thes,
men acted upon. the advice thus re
ceived. The deciding point witt
these men was that they might b.
out of work, say from Jan. l, 1910
to Sept. l, of that year, since uni
versity appointments are normal,
made to begin Sept. l or Oct. / o
each year. 1t should also be men
toned that these designations wer,
asked for publicly without tn
slightest premonition to any of tn
victims that anything untoward wa
about to happen. No charge of an,
sort was conveyed to any of then
except the general charge of 'lacl
of cooperation" which was frs
made publicly at the time the re
quest for resignation was announced
This, l think, is a fair picture of
part of our situation, and l think i
is probably a part of which you will
not even get a glimpse from d.
Simmons reply to your letter.
Yours very truly,
N. J.. LENNES.