The Board of Higher Education of New York today voted 15 to 4 to exonerate Prof. William E. Knickerbocker of charges of anti-Semitic discrimination against a student. The Board’s action repudiated the findings of a City Council committee which charged the former head of the Romance Languages Department of City College with being guilty of “reprehensible and unworthy” conduct.
The Board’s resolution declared that the Council report advanced no new material concerning alleged anti-Semitism in the Romance Languages Department and that the Board’s original decision on the case in 1946, clearing the instructor, was still valid. The City Council report was written after a ten-month inquiry.
The Board’s resolution followed a closed meeting lasting five-and-a-half hours. For a short period representatives of the Jewish War Veterans and the American Jewish Congress were permitted to argue for the dismissal of Prof. Knickerbocker. During the meeting 100 students picketed the building with posters denouncing Prof. Knickerbocker’s retention. Last week some 20 students walked out of a class rather than accept instruction from Prof. Knickerbocker.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
