Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1964 [PAGE 544]

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1963]

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

499

EMPLOYMENT OF AUDITORS (22) Mr. Williamson, for the Finance Committee, presented the following recommendation and moved its approval. The firm of Lybrand, Ross Brothers, and Montgomery was employed to audit the accounts of the University of Illinois for the year ended June 30, 1961, with the understanding that the firm would be employed for additional years, subject to annual review. The Board retained the firm for the audit for the year ended June 30, 1962. The services of Lybrand, Ross Brothers, and Montgomery have been very satisfactory. The firm proposes to complete the audit for the year ending June 30, 1963, at the prevailing hourly rates for college and university audits, plus cash expenses, with the understanding that the aggregate charges will not exceed the following amounts, which are the same as were approved for the audit for the preceding year: University of Illinois, including reports on revenue bond funds $22 300 University Retirement System of Illinois 2 200 University of Illinois Alumni Association 600 University of Illinois Athletic Association, including Retirement System.. 1 000 University of Illinois Foundation 1 S00 In accordance with the usual practice, the auditing firm will submit its reports jointly to the Board of Trustees and to the Auditor General. The firm of Lybrand, Ross Brothers, and Montgomery is acceptable to the Auditor General. The Finance Committee recommends the employment of Lybrand, Ross Brothers, and Montgomery for the audit of University accounts for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1963.

This recommendation was approved without dissent.

ACTION BY AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS (23) President Henry presented the following report: For the information of the Board of Trustees, I report the receipt of the following letter dated April 30, 1963, addressed to me by the General Secretary of the American Association of University Professors, confirming an earlier telegram: The Forty-Ninth Annual Meeting of the American Association of University Professors today voted censure upon the administration of the University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, by approval of a Committee A recommendation which reads: On April 7, 1960, President David D. Henry of the University of Illinois wrote a letter concurring in the recommendation of the Executive Committee of the College of Art and Sciences that Professor Leo F. Koch be suspended immediately from his academic duties. President Henry's letter also said: "His appointment will terminate at the end of the current academic year." Professor Koch was under contract through August of 1961. Subsequently, in accord with normal academic due process, Professor Koch was given a hearing before a standing committee of the faculty Senate. That hearing group found that Professor Koch had committed a breach of academic responsibility but also held that the University administration had failed to use proper procedures and thereby lessened the teacher's power to make a proper defense. The Senate committee recommended that Professor Koch be reprimanded, that the Statutes of the University be revised, and that the University make clear that the expression of views by a faculty member which might be contrary to prevailing opinion in the community is not a violation of academic responsibility. T h e Board of Trustees held a hearing on the case on June 14, 1960, and dismissed the teacher. Committee A concludes that the prejudgment embodied in the President's letter, the failure of the Board of Trustees, without adequate declared reason, to support the unanimous recommendation of the Senate committee and, most important, the imposition of the drastic sanction of discharge for Professor Koch's public expression of opinion constitute violations of academic due process and academic freedom.