These two 1937 letters to the Minnesota Daily—one from William Kelty who was Executive Secretary of both the Practical Pacifists club and the Patriot League, and the other from the Executive Committee of the Minnesota Students Alliance—take opposing sides on the unfolding controversy surrounding Dean of Student Affairs Edward E. Nicholson. The Minneapolis City Council had called for his dismissal because of an accusation of his role in an unauthorized meeting of the Hennepin County Grand Jury. City Council members also heard complaints from students about Dean Nicholson’s denial of student rights to distribute political information, and his policy of political surveillance on campus. The Practical Pacifists and the Patriot League condemned the Minneapolis City Council and its call for the Dean’s ouster, and expressed concern about attacks on the politics of conservative administrators, while the Minnesota Students Association argued that Nicholson’s “anti-liberal, anti-labor” ideology and “highly arbitrary and discriminatory” policies warranted an open hearing regarding his fitness as an administrator of student affairs.
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