Minard W. Stout, 1952 - 1957
Stout, a former high school principal and a professor of education from the Midwest, brought a stern leadership style when he arrived on campus. Early on, according to “The University of Nevada: A Centennial History,” he “startled a number of faculty members with … rough talk in early meetings.” Stout had strong chain-of-command feelings that ran counter to academic freedom. He seemed to take offense when Biology Professor Frank Richardson, had shared a scholarly article about nationwide university entrance requirements. Soon, Richardson another respected faculty member, English Professor Robert Gorrell, and three others, all professing the right as tenured faculty to express their views that the University needed to maintain high entrance standards, were fighting for their professional lives as efforts were made by Stout to remove them.
This led to the eventual resignation of several key faculty members, including Nevada’s most famous novelist of the time, Walter Van Tilburg Clark, who resigned from his position in the English Department. Van Tilburg’s words, which indicted Stout for wanting to create a “manageable mediocrity” at the University, appeared in Time Magazine. More than 300 students demonstrated against the Stout administration. Richardson eventually left the University; a dean was removed and salaries of faculty who were supportive of the academics’ right to freedom of expression were reduced, all as retribution by the Stout administration. The American Association of University Professors censured the University for its treatment of the faculty. Stout was eventually fired.