Case of the Unearned M.Ed.

When Otis Freeman, 62, was appointed president of little (750 students) Eastern Washington College of Education at Cheney two years ago, no one on the faculty wanted to complain. After all, Freeman had been a teacher of geology and geography since 1924, and his colleagues felt he deserved a quick stint in the presidency as a climax to his career. But once in office, Freeman seemed to change--and so did the attitude of his campus.

Backed by his ambitious and unpopular vice president, Clark Frasier, Geographer Freeman ordered his professors around as they had never been ordered around before. A gruff, stubborn man, he refused to listen to their complaints, once bluntly told them to stop flunking students lest enrollment drop. As the months passed, professors began to seethe. But it was not until they hit upon the strange case of the athletic director's unearned M.Ed, that they openly revolted.

Powerful Friend. As everyone at the college knew, Athletic Director William ("Red") Reese had some rather unorthodox notions about earning his advanced degree in physical education. Since he was working for it within his own department, he felt no great obligation to satisfy all the usual requirements. He never finished a thesis, and two of his subordinates admitted that they had given him As in courses he never completed. Reese, however, had a powerful friend: President Freeman, who not only jumped him from instructor to full professor in two years, but also ordered that he be listed as an M.Ed, in the new college catalogue.

When the catalogue appeared, the campus finally erupted. To the faculty, the Reese affair was a symbol of everything that angered them about Freeman's and Frasier's highhanded ways. All seven members of the physical education department threatened to resign unless Reese was dropped. The rest of the faculty started an investigation, drew up an 86-page report for the trustees charging Reese with incompetence. Later, the faculty also voted 69 to 10 to declare "no confidence" in President Freeman, and 400 students followed suit. Finally, just at the end of the academic year, the trustees met.

Exactly 24 Hours. In a packed room, the trustees began their meeting with routine matters (they voted new roofs for some faculty apartments). Then one woman member took the floor, to read a special resolution. As she read, every eye in the hall grew wide in amazement. The resolution, which was promptly passed, fired the seven physical education teachers, removed all department and division heads in the college, gave eleven more professors exactly 24 hours to get off the campus. The trustees also put five more faculty men on probation, and these later quit after refusing to sign a new contract that stipulated they "forget the Reese affair." Cried one flabbergasted citizen of Cheney: "Why, this will become a ghost town." Washington's Governor Arthur B. Langlie apparently agreed: he ordered an investigation of the whole college.

Last week the investigation was completed. Among its recommendations: that the trustees find a new president for Eastern Washington as quickly as possible. But with or without Freeman, who had already resigned anyway--;and in spite of the fact that the trustees were willing to rehire a good many of the dismissed professors--Eastern Washington would have quite a time cleaning up the mess left by the athletic director's unearned M.Ed. For one thing, the athletic director himself was still on campus. "I hope the matter is closed," said Red Reese, who has always been known as a cool sort.

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