Backgound: How Amarillo College Was Censured By The American Association Of University Professors (AAUP)

In 1960, Dr. Albert B. (Duke) Martin was named president of Amarillo College. Martin, VP for Academic Affairs at Florida State University, succeeded Dr. Joseph Ray. Ray left AC to assume the presidency of the University of Texas at El Paso. In the transition period, a farewell dinner (attended by faculty and staff) was held for the outgoing President Ray with the incoming President Martin at the head table.

Entertainment was supplied by Professor Elizabeth ('Beth) Miesse. Miesse taught business courses, but had moved to the position of chief information officer for the College on a release time arrangement. Miesse, as MC, thought that she would roast Dr. Ray. Suffice it to say, it was an embarrassing evening. Nothing worse than jokes that don't work. The harder Miesse tried, the worse it got. Unknown to Miesse (or anyone else at the College), the incoming President Martin had a volcanic temper. Miesse's lame efforts angered Martin.

That summer—while Miesse was away from campus at summer graduate study in Colorado— President Martin relocated her office as far away from his own in Ordway Hall as possible. Further, he removed Miesse as the public information officer for the College. In addition, Martin did not restore Professor Miesse to fulltime teaching. She arrived back at Amarillo College to discover all of the changes in her absence. Miesse went to a local attorney for advice. The attorney called Dr. Martin; both were members of the Downtown Rotary Club and the attorney assumed a friendly relationship. Martin hung up on the lawyer and sent Miesse a registered letter informing her that her employment at Amarillo College was terminated for contumacious conduct. When I came to the College in 1972, the term was still in the Faculty Handbook: obstinately disobedient, rebellious, insubordinate. Martin had been a Navy officer prior to moving into higher education and the term probably came from a military justice handbook.

Professor Miesse was a tenured member of the Amarillo College faculty. She also was a member of the American Association of University Professors. The AAUP will investigate arbitrary dismissals of tenured faculty. In 1964, a investigating committee was sent by the AAUP National Office to seek resolution of Professor Miesse's grievance. Dr. Martin refused to meet with the AAUP committee. The Board of Regents — in support of Dr. Martin — also refused to meet with the AAUP committee. The Board had concurred with Dr. Martin's recommendation that Professor Miesse be terminated. Miesse was denied a hearing by the Board. Meeting this stonewall, the AAUP committee issued a report condemning Amarillo College for its denial of due process and the administration's and Board's unwillingness to discuss this matter. The AAUP, in its national meeting in June 1968, placed Amarillo College on its list of censured institutions. Amarillo College has remained on that list longer than any other college or university on the list.

All of the principals in this affair are deceased: Dr. Martin, Professor Miesse, and the members of the Amarillo College Board of Regents. Martin suspended tenure at Amarillo College and imposed a regime of terror with the threat of immediate termination for anyone incurring his displeasure. In 1970, with the imminent visit of the accreditation team from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, Dr. Martin reinstated tenure, allowed the faculty organization (the AC Faculty Association) to resume meeting, and hired a local businessman (former president of the Amarillo Chamber of Commerce) to smooth relations between town and gown.

By 1974, the businessman — Charles D. Lutz, Jr. — had risen to Executive Vice President of Amarillo College. Lutz, formerly in charge of the family business of his wife, was the son of the former superintendent of schools in Gary, IN and a graduate of Harvard University (class of 1941 with classmate John F. Kennedy). Lutz had no prior experience in education, let alone higher education. IN the summer of 1974, Lutz engineered a palace coup with the support of most of the AC faculty and several members of the Board of Regents (friends of Charles Lutz). Dr. A. B. Martin was forced into involuntary retirement. Roughly 10 years later, Martin and his wife were living in a retirement home. Martin excused himself at lunch and went upstairs and killed himself with a handgun.

Charles Lutz also possessed volcanic temper and a conspiratorial view of the AC faculty. Just as he had gotten Dr. Martin, there were those at the College —after the honeymoon had ended — who were out to get him. Another aspect of Lutz's leadership was cynicism. He proclaimed his discomfort with the AAUP censure, but he was unwilling to do what the AAUP demanded. In essence, a symbolic reinstatement of Professor Miesse with an exchange of letters of reappointment by the College and a letter of Miesse's resignation to retire. In addition, the AAUP demanded that the College adopt guarantees of due process and academic freedom for its faculty. Nothing happened and Lutz died at his desk in 1979.

In one final aside — illustrating the Martin leadership style — Lutz had displaced the former Executive Vice President and Dean as he moved into position to displace Dr. Martin. Dr. William E. Rabb had been a loyal Martin henchman, but Dr. Martin was convinced that Rabb had to go in order to present the image that AC was making efforts to improve relations with the faculty. Vice President Lutz announced at a General Assembly (held once a month by Dr. Martin) that a Search Committee had been assembled to fill the vacant deanship. The committee was chaired by Lutz and was made up of representative senior faculty members (loyal to Lutz). At the beginning of the search, the committee met in the Board of Regents meeting room. The door was thrown open and Dr. Martin stepped in and announced: I would like to introduce the new Dean! Behind Dr. Martin was Dr. R. Eugene Byrd (still Vice President — ultimately — and Dean for the past 30 years). Dr. Byrd had been forced out at Oscar Rose Junior College in Midwest City, OK and Dr. Martin interviewed him and hired him on the spot.

That is the convoluted story of the censure of Amarillo College by the AAUP. I was given access to the Miesse file by President Lutz. I was told of the Byrd hiring by President Lutz. I contacted Dr. Byrd in June 2003 about the AAUP censure. His reply was that the AAUP had made unreasonable demands as a condition for the removal of censure. The Greatest Teacher of All once said: A pearl of great price is not had for the asking.