Showdown in Hawaii

Lee moved to Hawaii in 1963 to take a temporary teaching position at the University of Hawaii (UH). The temporary job was extended twice and, in 1967, the department voted seven-to-one to offer Lee a permanent post. He received a letter of intent from the university granting tenure.

Within a week, it had been revoked.

In the intervening days, an anti-war group called the Student Partisan Alliance (SPA) had distributed a statement on the draft advocating that anti-war activists join the armed forces and then encourage desertion, destroy weaponry, divulge classified information--and even "eliminate officers and non-coms in combat."

Lee was faculty advisor to the group. He says he supported the SPA's position on the war but felt killing officers went too far. Nevertheless, on the basis of some informal reading of Supreme Court decisions on sedition and the First Amendment, he assured the students they were on sound legal ground.

When news of the flyer hit the presses, Dean of the College W. Todd Furniss and President Thomas Hamilton withdrew their offer of tenure and said Lee's appointment would be terminated at the end of the year.

Lee appealed.

Throughout the process, administrators defended their action and accused Lee of ignoring "academic responsibility."

"The protections of academic freedom," Furniss told the faculty committee, "do not and were not meant to extend to irresponsible behavior by a faculty member."

Robert E. Potter, who was an associate dean at the time, defends President Hamilton against charges that he disregarded the right of free speech.

"Hamilton was a strong supporter of academic freedom," Potter says. "Along with that academic freedom, there must be the responsibility to use that freedom wisely."

However, in December 1967, the hearing committee returned its verdict: the university had erred in removing Lee without due process and been unjustified in revoking its tenure offer.

Within 24 hours, President Hamilton announced his resignation.

Neither the resignation nor the committee's verdict got Lee his job back. Nor did the student takeover of Bachman Hall in support of Lee's cause that spring. Lee joined the sit-in on the second day and was carried out of the building that night as one of 153 persons arrested by the police. After getting bailed out, Lee and the protesters returned to Bachman and camped out for nine days before folding their tents.

Lee's battle looked lost until the fall of 1968 when the powerful American Association of University Professors weighed in on the case. At its convention that year, the group said UH had violated Lee's academic freedom when it revoked his tenure offer.