Olivet College, Olivet, Michigan, was founded 109 years ago by Father Shipherd, a revivalist minister who had helped found Oberlin College, and who told his followers, "Be not conformed to this world" and "Dare to do what we acknowledge to be right."

Last February, a group of Olivet students and teachers took Father Shipherd's precepts to heart, split off from Olivet College, and announced their intention to form a college of their own, to be known as Shipherd College.

The secessionist movement brought to a climax a controversy over faculty tenure and administrative and educational policy which has agitated Olivet, Michigan, for almost one year.

Olivet's troubles started when Dr. Malcolm Boyd Dana resigned in April, 1948, after four years as president.

Dana had helped draw up a faculty constitution which gave teachers a voice in matters of education, promotion, and business administration. And on June 4, Olivet's Trustees approved in substance a tenure system first proposed under Dana's administration.

"Olivet Policy"

Dana had also furthered the educational experimentation which had characterized the 325-student Liberal Arts college for decades. The "Olivet Policy" had taught "self-realization" and social perception and had used occasionally unorthodox methods to accomplish this.

The "Olivet Policy" had come to be known in some circles as "radical," "screw ball," and the chairman of the Board of Trustees claimed that its critique of "big business" discouraged endowments.

Olivet needed money badly. Some teachers were owed several months' worth of back salaries. So a business man and lawyer was brought in as the new President, Aubrey L. Ashby, Olivet '08, a former vice president and general counsel of the National Broadcasting Company.

Ashby was installed at a meeting of the Trustees on July 21. He spoke to the Board for two hours, and during this session the Board decided to dismiss two central figures in the "Olivet Policy," Professor T. Barton Akeley, who had taught political science at the college for 12 years, and his wife, the college librarian.

Ashby later said, "I knew this action would take place before I accepted my appointment."

The Akeleys had been notified in April that the Trustees were satisfied with their work, and that they would be expected to return in September.

The Letter

But on August 9, without any previous warning, Akeley received a letter which said the Board had unanimously decided that his "usefulness . . . had been fulfilled" and that he was not to resume work in the College. "You can advise me," chairman Frank W. Blair said, "whether you desire to treat the next academic year as a sabbatical year or whether you now decide to present your resignation."

Akeley refused to resign. He needed his salary.