The Dismissal of Fifth Amendment Professors
| Author | Harold Taylor |
| DOI | 10.1177/000271625530000112 |
| Published date | 01 July 1955 |
| Date | 01 July 1955 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
79
The
Dismissal
of
Fifth
Amendment
Professors
By
HAROLD
TAYLOR
I SHOULD
like
to
speak
about
the
i
dismissal
of
professors
in
general
be-
fore
dealing
with
Fifth
Amendment
pro-
fessors
in
particular.
A
Fifth
Amend-
ment
professor
is
simply
a
professor
with
a
special
problem,
and
he
has
to
be
considered
first
of
all
as
a
professor.
Dismissing
professors
is
a
serious
and
complicated
affair,
not
to
be
carried
on
by
the
unenlightened.
The
complica-
tions
run
not
just
into
matters
of
tenure
rules
and
academic
policies,
but
into
psychological
and
social
effects
on
the
people
not
dismissed,
on
people
outside
the
universities
who
read
about
dismiss-
als
and
make
up
their
minds
about
in-
tellectuals
and
universities
on
the
basis
of
what
they
read,
on
students
who
learn
to
take
their
attitudes
to
politics,
to
education,
and
to
life
by
seeing
what
happens
to
dismissed
and
nondismissed
professors.
There
are
other
complications.
For
example,
there
is
the
nonreappointment
of
instructors
and
assistant
professors,
which
may
be
another
name
for
dis-
missal.
There
is
the
simple,
straight-
forward
nonpromotion.
But
the
most
complicated
of
all
is
the
nonappoint-
ment
of
teachers.
In
some
cases
non-
appointment
may
be
the
equivalent
of
immediate
dismissal
just
before
hiring;
it
might
be
called
the
doctrine
of
pre-
mature
dismissal.
The
doctrine
is
ap-
plied
in
the
case
of
professors
who
have
been
attacked,
called
before
committees,
threatened,
publicized;
who
have
ex-
pressed
a
liberal
viewpoint;
or
who
have
otherwise
become
politically
vulnerable.
As
we
all
know,
there
are
very
few
valid
reasons
for
dismissing
professors
-incompetence,
dishonesty,
physical
or
mental
incapacity,
conviction
of
a
felony
involving
moral
turpitude
(which
is
a
name
for
personal
habits
which
are
dis-
gusting
and
incurable
and
which
are
at
the
same
time
publicly
known).
To
allow
other
reasons
than
these
would
be
to
put
the
professor
at
the
mercy
of
the
whims
of
individuals
and
of
groups,
both
inside
and
outside
the
university.
In
consequence,
once
a
man
has
received
tenure,
the
tenure
rules
and
the
aca-
demic
policies
of
the
university
com-
munity
are
usually
strong
enough
to
sustain
him
in
his
post
indefinitely,
no
matter
what
level
of
achievement
he
may
subsequently
reach
as
a
teacher
or
as
a
thinker.
a There
is
no
reason
to
change
these
rules
of
tenure
or
the
academic
policy
of
universities
in
the
case
of
professors
who
invoke
the
Fifth
Amendment
be-
fore
a
committee
of
Congress.
The
man
who
in
every
respect
has
shown
himself
to
be
worthy
of
his
post
over
a
long
pe-
riod
of
time
does
not
suddenly
become
a
different
person
because
of
his
refusal
to
answer
political
questions
in
public.
EDUCATIONAL
RIGHTS
AND
RESPONSIBILITIES
When
the
teacher
says
in
public
that
an
answer
to
questions
about
political
affiliation
or
association
with
the
Com-
munist
party
might
tend
to
incriminate
him,
he
certainly
does
arouse
fears
and
indignation
among
members
of
boards
of
trustees
and
educators,
negative
com-
ment
in
the
general
public,
and
anxiety
among
faculty
members
and
students.
But
the
criteria
by
which
his
continued
membership
in
a
university
faculty
must
be
judged
are
his
worth
as
a
scholar
and
a
teacher,
and
his
integrity
and
honesty
as
a
member
of
the
academic
commu-
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