Controversy of 1923

In 1923 Ada Withers was not retained because she declined to teach related arts (as opposed to studio art) as required in the terms of her appointment. An initial AAUP investigating committee sided with the institution. The same year, Jessee W. Sprowls, a teacher in secondary education, was notified he would not be reappointed because of inadequacy in fieldwork and extension, although there was a persistent belief that he was actually terminated because of his assignment of Robinson’s The Mind in the Making, viewed as teaching evolutionary concepts. (Education Dean Thackston vetoed use of the book, and the bookstore was prohibited from selling it.) An initial AAUP investigatory committee sided with the university in Sprowls’s dismissal.

In order to quell unrest in the university and lessen attacks from the local newspaper, particularly upon President Morgan, Dean of the University Hoskins and Dean of Liberal Arts James Porter interviewed faculty thought to be at the center of the unrest. The interviews were recorded in shorthand and then typed and presented to the deans, who voted not to reemploy Robert S. Ellis (psychology and philosophy), Asa A. Schaeffer (biology and zoology), Maurice Mulvania (bacteriology and premedical course), and R. S. Radford (Latin and Roman archaeology). Dean McDermott’s request that law professor John R. Neal also be dismissed was also approved. An open meeting with the professors and the board of trustees was held after much verbal and printed acrimony. The trustees upheld President Morgan’s recommendations, with Governor Peay and one other trustee voting no. Seven professors, therefore, were not offered another one-year contract.

At its national meeting of 1925, the AAUP passed a resolution somewhat at variance with its investigating committee, saying that none of the dismissals were justified and criticizing conditions at the university. This was the strongest penalty the AAUP applied to any university at the time. The AAUP censured the university at its annual meeting of 1939.

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  • Title Controversy of 1923
  • Author
  • Keywords Controversy of 1923
  • Website Name Volopedia
  • Publisher University of Tennessee Libraries
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  • Access Date August 27, 2025
  • Original Published Date
  • Date of Last Update October 6, 2018