Vanderbilt University - Commodore Yearbook (Nashville, TN)

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year's preparation at Vanderbilt had become merely a prerequisite for admission to such schools, Garland wrote. I am a little mor- tified, Garland added, to see other un- iversities, such as Cambridge and Michigan, working upward and annually increasing the amount of preparation for admission to their courses of study, while we are working downward and lowering the character of our tributary schools. Nevertheless, the 1875 requirements for the Vanderbilt A.B. degree included several year's work in Latin, Greek, English and mathematics, proving the most stringent re- quirements in the South and the equal of any school in the coun- try. It is evident from all that has been said hitherto, Mims con- cludes, that Vander- bilt started off on a high tide. Its en- do Wm e nt, its buildings, its equip- ment all tended to put it out in the lead of southern universities. Requirements or no requirements, high tide or no high tide, Vanderbilt en- countered a period of recession and slowing of progress from 1878 to 1885. Tenure was an issue then, too. Ad- junct Professor of Latin B. W. Arnold, who had been highly commended by the President of the Board of Trust during the previous year, was denied promotion to a full professorship at the 1878 Board meeting. He was dismissed without notice or warning, and his successor was immediately elected. Ar- nold discovered his situation in a newspaper announcement. But Professor Alexander Winchell provided by far the hottest controversy in 1878. Winchell was a lecturer at Vanderbilt, a devout church member and an advocate of the theory of evolution, as explained in his book, The Pre-Adamites. Winchell had been invited by Bishop McTyeire and Chancellor Garland to lecture at the commencement. Then the trouble really started. Winchell was increasingly attacked by church papers, and even Dean Thomas Summers-a staunch defender of religious orthodoxy, though an admirer of Winchell-had been drawn into attacking his colleague. All this brouhaha wasn't lost on the good Bishop. Forty-five minutes before my lecture on 'Man in the Light of Geology', Winchell explained, I met Bishop McTyeire casually . . . He said, in effect, 'We are having considerable annoyance from the criticisms which are passed by our people on some of your positions . . . our peo- ple are of the opinion that such views are contrary to the plan of Redemptioni The Bishop, how- ever, asked Winchell to proceed with his commencement lec- ture, giving him a chance to put himself right. I asked if he wanted me to recantf' Winchell continued. I have no opinions to explain or defend. He suggested that I might considerately decline a reappoint- ment. I asked, Are professors subject to annual appointment? 'Well, yes, special professors are.' No, said I, with in- dignation and storm. I will not on such grounds decline a reappointment... No powers on earth could persuade me to decline. The Board acted within twenty- four hours. A three-year-old lectureship was

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immediately abolished, the evolutionist Winchell was dismissed. And this affair yielded a great deal of copy, both in professional journals and in the news media. Salary reductions provided another issue, dating from a change in the manner of paying salaries. Chancellor Garland and all other affected faculty members sent the Board a letter of protest in 1880. Mims explained, they called attention to the fact that they had been paid for the current year S2,213, instead of 82,500 . . . They cited a definite case to show the clearness of the contract which had been entered into by the President of the Board and every member of the faculty. When it had been necessary, some of these protesters had taken voluntary reductions at schools like Randolph-Macon and the University of Georgia, where such measures were necessary. But this was different. And they complained: If there is an instance of a reduction of salaries by a respectable university or college upon an increase of its ability to pay, we have no knowledge of the fact and we do not believe that any such exists. But if the signers of the protest were unsure of their status beforehand, they were quite certain afterwards. With the exception of Chancellor Garland,who was too strongly established ever to be interferred with, all of the signers of the protest came to regard themselves as marked men in 26