The Hounds of Academe

In the 1960 Spring Bulletin of the American Association of University Professors, its general-secretary, Dr. William P. Fidler, angrily refuted a charge by Professor Anthony Bous-caren (Human Events, Jan 7, 1960) that the AAUP was more concerned with the infringements of the rights and prerogatives of Liberal or Communist teachers that it was with the rights of conspicuous anti-Communists. (Bouscaren had cited the formal AAUP vote of censure against several universities which had fired Communists and Fifth Amendment takers and the refusal of the AAUP to act in the case of a former Communist professor who had been ousted by American University only after giving friendly testimony before a congressional committee.) As a clincher in his rebuttal of the Bouscaren piece, Dr. Fidler cited the action taken by the AAUP in the case of a former Nazi, Dr. Edward Sittler, who had recently been forced to resign from C. W. Post College in Long Island. Let us see what the AAUP has done for Edward Sittler.

The road back for the American Nazi was, as it should have been, a difficult one. The formal, legal obstacles were considerable. But there were others he had to cope with. In 1949, Northwestern University refused to renew Sittler’s contract as a lecturer, succumbing to a whisper and poison-pen campaign instigated by a fellow teacher. In 1950, he was dismissed from the College of Mining and Technology in Houghton, Michigan after Congressman John Bennett angrily protested his appointment. In the spring of the same year, a rumpus was raised when it transpired that Sittler had completed his doctoral dissertation at Northwestern and stood to receive his Ph.D. Northwestern meticulously investigated his background, and finally sent Sittler his diploma through the mail. (To the credit of the faculty, the vote for awarding the diploma was 122 to 3.) In 1952, Sittler was refused an appointment at Oberlin College because of his “background”; in 1956, the now-defunct Shurtleff College in Alton, Illinois also got rid of the contaminated Dr. Sittler. In each of these cases Sittler, a member of the AAUP, appealed to the association for help and in each case, his appeal was either turned down or ignored.

PL

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Priscilla L. Buckley

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In the 1960 Spring Bulletin of the American Association of University Professors, its general-secretary, Dr. William P. Fidler, angrily refuted a charge by Professor Anthony Bous-caren (Human Events, Jan 7, 1960) that the AAUP was more concerned with the infringements of the rights and prerogatives of Liberal or Communist teachers that it was with the rights of conspicuous anti-Communists. (Bouscaren had cited the formal AAUP vote of censure against several universities which had fired Communists and Fifth Amendment takers and the refusal of the AAUP to act in the case of a former Communist professor who had been ousted by American University only after giving friendly testimony before a congressional committee.) As a clincher in his rebuttal of the Bouscaren piece, Dr. Fidler cited the action taken by the AAUP in the case of a former Nazi, Dr. Edward Sittler, who had recently been forced to resign from C. W. Post College in Long Island. Let us see what the AAUP has done for Edward Sittler.

The road back for the American Nazi was, as it should have been, a difficult one. The formal, legal obstacles were considerable. But there were others he had to cope with. In 1949, Northwestern University refused to renew Sittler’s contract as a lecturer, succumbing to a whisper and poison-pen campaign instigated by a fellow teacher. In 1950, he was dismissed from the College of Mining and Technology in Houghton, Michigan after Congressman John Bennett angrily protested his appointment. In the spring of the same year, a rumpus was raised when it transpired that Sittler had completed his doctoral dissertation at Northwestern and stood to receive his Ph.D. Northwestern meticulously investigated his background, and finally sent Sittler his diploma through the mail. (To the credit of the faculty, the vote for awarding the diploma was 122 to 3.) In 1952, Sittler was refused an appointment at Oberlin College because of his “background”; in 1956, the now-defunct Shurtleff College in Alton, Illinois also got rid of the contaminated Dr. Sittler. In each of these cases Sittler, a member of the AAUP, appealed to the association for help and in each case, his appeal was either turned down or ignored.