Conant Appoints Committee to Investigate Walsh-Sweezy Case

The complete text of President Conant's report to the Overseers may be found in column four.

Admitting "the existence of substantial doubt within the University as to the justice or wisdom of the University's action" in regard to the Walsh-Sweezy case, President Conant wrote a letter to the Overseers dated May 26th in which he announced he had appointed a committee to investigate the affair.

The committee will be made up of the nine professor who received a memorandum from 131 junior teachers requesting a report on the issues involved.

At the same time President Conant wrote both Walsh and Sweezy announcing that he very much regretted the misconstruction of the University's April 6th statement "as a reflection on your teaching capacity and scholarly ability." In the last paragraph of the letter the President pointed out that the committee will investigate not only the case of the two men but also "the larger questions involved in the promotion of younger men.

The text of the President's letters to Walsh and Sweezy follow:

Text of Letter

"I understand that the University's statement issued on April 6 has been misconstrued in some quarters as a reflection on your teaching capacity and scholarly ability. I very much regret this. No such reflection was intended; the statement in my opinion cannot justly be taken as implying that you are not an able teacher or scholar. All that was meant or implied was that your political views and activities outside the University had nothing to do with the decision and that the choice among several candidates was made according to academic criteria.

"I am writing you this letter, after appointing a committee to investigate your case and some of the larger questions involved in the promotion of younger men, in order that you may not be under any misapprehension as to my personal feelings toward you. "Very sincerely yours,   James B. Conant."