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aware we must reckon with the practical
difficulty of making it palatable to the
academicians who would have to pass on it.
"In the end I was obliged to turn down
the whole idea because both the Dean and I
faced up to the fact that having once made a
financial commitment, I would lose all control
over what was being taught and publicized.
In other words, I could not be at all
sure that within a few years the Chair would
not be used to further liberal or even
socialistic ideas.
The most recent CACBE proposal
seeks to get away from the possibility
of the faculty setting standards for any
Free Society Center staff members, by
having the center responsible directly
and presumably solely to the university
President and Board of Trustees. President
Perkins pointed out one problem
any such staff would have, that of being
"marked men." By this he appeared to
say such men would be thought by other
members of the university community
not to be open-minded, to be required
instead to uphold a particular point of
view no matter what.
The feeling of CACBE on this point
is stated by one of their strong supporters.
Even though all parties cannot agree
on the need, or the existence of an "unbalanced"
situation at present, he said,
"It is the obligation of the university to
be darned sure that both sides are presented
and well presented."
Another part of this question is where
the university would draw the line if it
accepted Mr. Tuller's proposal. The
President raised this in his first letter to
Mr. Tuller, the question of "how far you
would extend the principle you suggest
for the development of special academic
arrangements to teach material in the
way you have in mind, should this option
be open to others so that those who
have a particular concern could see them
reflected in a special school. I can see
some problems with groups on the other
side of the argument asking for equal
privileges and equal attention, not feeling
that the current faculty represents
their views either."
Thus are the points of view presented,
and have been presented in varying
forms for some eight years since Mr.
Tuller first followed up his original idea
of establishing a chair, and then moved
to other proposals.
What effect has all this had on the
university and the large list of alumni
who have been receiving his criticisms
of the balance of the existing faculty
and his proposals for a new scheme?
As nearly as can be judged they have
served as a lightning rod for many sorts
of criticism of Cornell, all universities,
and US society in general. Alumni-circuit
speakers, university officials, volunteer
fund raisers for Cornell—all attest
to the fact that Mr. Tuller's message has
gotten through, and his criticisms are
accepted as true in some quarters. Alumni
receiving even a small number of the
Tuller series of 500-plus letters are
bound to have been affected.
It should be noted, however, that
there appears no effort on the part of
CACBE supporters themselves to punish
the university for its presumed imbalance.
A careful reading of quite a portion
of the series of Tuller letters does
not reveal any such attempt. The continued
willingness of Tuller and others
to contribute to the university they criticize
speaks of their intent. Tuller himself
was a considerable contributor to
the Olin Library and Emerson Hinchliff
'14, a CACBE Executive Committee
member, endowed a $250,000 chair in
Spanish literature in 1964. The continued
support of the Tower Club members
of CACBE appears as further evidence
of their attitude.
This has not prevented their criticisms
of the university from catalyzing others
to further criticism and to withhold contributions
and write Cornell out of their
wills. Some correspondence in this connection
was turned over to me during
my work on this piece, spelling out how
violently one alumnus reacted to a particular
piece of news about Cornell. He
had, he wrote, taken Cornell out of his
will and was not going to give another
cent to the place. A CACBE Executive
Committee member received the letter.
He sent back a detailed explanation of
the particular piece of news that had
upset the alumnus, and told of how the
university had acted in several other,
related incidents. Among other things he
wrote, "an underlying trouble is that
Activists, on Campus as in the nation,
grab the headlines, get appointed to committees
and chairmanships, and raise a
stink." He concluded with a kindly personal
comment and the advice that "the
'dumbness of mankind' will always be
with us, so don't let its current manifestations
get you down."
Dan Tuller concluded a letter in late
1965 with "an excerpt from a letter by
a former college president, a non-Cornellian,
to whom these letters are being
sent: 'From the material sent me I
gather that your Cornell Committee is
making steady, if not electrifying, progress.
I fear the situation is such that
the effort can only bear fruit slowly, but
I think not less surely for that reason.
I greatly admire your patient, step-bystep,
tactics. Too many Conservatives
14 Cornell Alumni News