Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1964 [PAGE 545]

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500

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[May 15

Committee A recommends that the University of Illinois be placed upon the Association's list of Censured Administrations. While I do not feel that a full response to the Association's communication is in order at this time because there is still pending before the courts of this state litigation instituted by Mr. Koch, I take this occasion to comment on the issues cited in the A A U P action and to correct certain statements appearing therein. All of the materials upon which the following statements are based were before Committee A of the A A U P and were authorized by the University for distribution to the A A U P convention delegates.

A. REFERENCES TO REPORT OF THE URBANA SENATE COMMITTEE ON ACADEMIC FREEDOM

The Committee A recommendation adopted by the Association and quoted above states that the Urbana Senate Committee on Academic Freedom, after finding that Mr. Koch had committed a breach of academic responsibility, (1) held that the University "had failed to use proper procedures and thereby lessened the teacher's power to make a proper defense"; (2) recommended that Mr. Koch be reprimanded; (3) recommended that the Statutes of the University be revised; and (4) recommended that the University state that "expression of views by a faculty member which might be contrary to prevailing opinion in the community" does not constitute a violation of academic responsibility. (1) The procedural issues raised by the Senate Committee. The Urbana Senate Committee on Academic Freedom did state in its report dated May 13, 1960, that the actions of the administrative officers of the University were regarded as being in some respects "contrary to the standards of proper procedure in dismissal cases." However, conformity with the dismissal procedures established in the University Statutes was questioned only on the point of my informing Mr. Koch in the April 7, 1960, letter that his contract would be terminated, when the power to discharge was reserved to the Board of Trustees in the University Statutes. It is important to note that at no time in the proceedings did Mr. Koch or his attorneys assert they were being denied a full opportunity to present all of his defenses. Even the A A U P communication acknowledges that "Subsequently, in accord with normal academic due process, Professor Koch was given a hearing before a standing committee of the faculty Senate" and "The Board of Trustees held a hearing on the case on June 14, 1960. . . ." The Senate Committee's suggestion that Mr. Koch could be subject to prejudice in the final outcome of his case by certain procedural steps was directed mainly to the wording of my April 7, 1960, letter and its public release and the lack of a formal hearing prior to suspension. It is clear, as noted above, that the letter did not in any way diminish Mr. Koch's powers to present a defense, nor did it in fact compromise his position before the Board of Trustees. Both in the Board's Findings and Conclusions entered on June 14, 1960, in the Koch proceedings, and in the later September 21, 1960, report of the Board's Committee on General Policy in response to an Open Letter from certain members of the faculty, the Board of Trustees found that the exceptional circumstances existing in the Koch situation justified the public statement of charges in advance of hearing and that such public release and the language of my April 7, 1960, letter did not operate to his prejudice in the Board's consideration of his case. You will recall that your findings in the Koch matter on Tune 14, 1960, included the following: 30. This Board of Trustees further finds that the action of the President of the University in releasing to the public press on April 7, 1960, the press release . . . was rendered desirable, appropriate, and proper in view of the publicity which Assistant Professor Koch's above mentioned letter to The Daily Illini and its publication in that newspaper had received . . . and this Board of Trustees further finds that the making of said release to the public press did not violate or infringe upon Assistant Professor Koch's academic freedom or operate to his prejudice in the consideration and disposition which this Board of Trustees is making of the charges preferred against Assistant Professor Koch by the President of the University and the recommendation submitted by the latter to this Board of Trustees that action be taken by it terminating Assistant Professor Koch's appointment at and employment by the University on August 31, 1960.