A History of Shared Governance at East Carolina
The Nadir
Presented Tuesday, December 2, 2014
John Tucker, University Historian
In early 1943, when a state audit revealed that East Carolina Teachers
College President Leon Meadows, who regularly handled non-state
funds – including student funds – through his personal bank account,
was unable to adequately account for approximately $18,000 (roughly
$250,000 in 2014 dollars), ECTC faculty were
watching. So too were a number of students.
Among the faculty who found President
Meadows’ administration of non-state funds
objectionable were M. L. Wright, professor of
sociology and director of the Department of
Sociology, as well as mastermind of campus
beautification projects including the circle in front of Wright Building.
M. L. Wright
E. L. Henderson
Herbert ReBarker
Another was Professor E. L. Henderson, director of School
Administration and coordinator of graduate studies. A third of note was
Professor Herbert ReBarker, director of the Department of Mathematics
and dean of men at ECTC.
Professors Wright, Henderson, and ReBarker, along with another
half dozen directors of academic departments, soon contacted Clyde
Erwin, State Superintendent of Public Instruction and ex officio
chairman of the ECTC Board of Trustees. The faculty apparently met to
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urge Erwin and the ECTC Board of Trustees to
encourage President Meadows to resign before the
matter discredited the college. Rather than heed
faculty wisdom, Erwin met with President
Meadows and the board to formulate a solution:
bring about harmony and high morale on campus
by removing those personnel as necessary.
Clyde Erwin
On December 20, 1943, Meadows sent letters to at least seven
faculty members – including Wright, Henderson, and ReBarker –
informing them that they should submit their resignations because they
“have been unable to support the administration of the college.”
Meadows added that if these select faculty declined to resign, that he
would recommend to the Board of Trustees that their “connection with
the college be severed at the close of the school year.” Several recipients
of the letters reportedly convinced Meadows of their loyalty. Wright,
Henderson, and ReBarker made no attempt to do so.
The final audit report, when submitted to Governor J. Melville
Broughton, prompted him to call a meeting of the ECTC Board of
Trustees in Raleigh on March 10, 1943. The meeting
lasted for three days and resulted in Meadows
exoneration. Two days later, Meadows retaliated,
informing Professors Wright, Henderson, and
ReBarker that they were summoned to appear before
the Board of Trustees to answer “the charges of
disloyalty to the administration of the college.”
Melville Broughton
ECTC student protests followed. The News and Observer declared, “Dr.
Meadows must go!” The Daily Reflector published a front-page
editorial asserting its position: Dr. Meadows was a liability and should
resign for the sake of the college.
Governor Broughton listened again. On March 28, Broughton
called Meadows to Raleigh once more. Following the meeting, the
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governor announced that he had accepted President Meadows’ request
for “early retirement, at the close of the academic year.” Broughton also
endorsed Meadows’ decision to withdraw his request that certain faculty
resign.
On April 24, the Pitt County District Court indicted Meadows,
charging him with sixteen counts of false
pretense and embezzlement.
The next day, the trustees again met in
Raleigh, this time to make Meadows
retirement effective immediately. Howard
McGinnis, the registrar since 1927, was
appointed acting president.
Although Meadows was tried, the first trial – the longest in state
history – resulted in a mistrial. A second trial, even longer than the first,
resulted in his conviction and sentencing to three years in prison.
Meadows at first announced intent to appeal, but then decided to serve
his sentence rather than endure another trial.
In the interval, the ECTC Board of Trustees indeed fired
Professors Wright, Henderson, and ReBarker for “inciting students to
insurrection” and “exerting an unwholesome influence on the campus.”
An AAUP investigation was conducted, and protests and petitions
poured in, yet before exoneration, M. L. Wright died of a heart attack.
Herbert ReBarker, soon diagnosed with a terminal illness, did not
contest his dismissal. E. L. Henderson alone lived to sue the board for
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back pay and eligibility for retirement, which he took. In 1983, at age 98,
Henderson received the rank of professor emeritus from Chancellor John
M. Howell. The AAUP report on the dismissal of Professors Wright,
ReBarker, and Henderson exonerated all three faculty and declared the
board remiss in handling the entire matter.
One cannot help but wonder what difference a faculty senate
might have made at this juncture? The college faculty had grown too
large for meetings of the whole group, but clearly something was needed
to ensure academic freedom, shared governance, and collegiality on
campus.
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