Series III: Office of the Vice Chancellor, 1924-1961, inclusive

This series commences with background files for counsel that, as above, intermingle with material from the Office of the Chancellor and include some letters from the Dean. (There is limited correspondence to or from Chancellors Heald and Newsom.) Series III concerns the later negotiations about quittance pay and continues discussion of moral turpitude (Box 3, Folder 3), tenure (Box 3, Folders 4, 5), and the AAUP (Box 3, Folder 5). While the Vice Chancellor's role in this case is lightly documented, his opinions seem to have been valued.

Relative to tenure, Professor Horace Cooley's reminiscences (Archives H) reveal that new tenure rules were enacted the day before the Bradley suspension was finalized, thereby disallowing his participation in their broader privileges. Cooley was the sole dissenting opinion in the Senate Committee and was the AAUP representative and author of the report on NYU which contributed to its censure. Academic freedom at NYU is highlighted in the reply of Dean Pollock to a suggestion by counsel that students report on Bradley's advocacy of Communism in the classroom. Checking on faculty in such a fashion was not a policy of New York University, and Pollock affirmed that it was action, not ideology, that was involved in Bradley's trial.

Council files and exhibits (Box 3, Folders 6, 7) contain the original documents transmitting charges from the Dean and Chancellor to Bradley. Their presence here explains their mention (but absence) from the files of their origin in Series I and II. Of interest is the note of the change of wording of one Council resolution to avoid the mention of moral turpitude. No explanation is given for the dissent of Mr. Hudson in protest of the implication, or for the action of Judge Vanderbilt, who disqualified himself from Council deliberations. Reference to full Council Meeting minutes reveal that while serious attention was always paid to the Bradley matter, it was one of many items considered of importance to University governance, and only in its initial and final stages was it granted more than a routine attention in deliberation.