Rutgers University. Office of Public Relations.

The records of the Office of Public Relations on the Academic Freedom Cases are comprised of the office files of Wallace A. Moreland, University Dir of Public Relations, relating to the cases of professors Simon W. Heimlich, Associate Professor of Physics and Mathematics, College of Pharmacy in Newark, Moses I. Finley, Assistant Professor of History, Newark College of Arts and Sciences, and Abraham Glasser, Associate Professor of Law, Rutgers School of Law in Newark, who were dismissed or resigned after invoking the Fifth Amdendment in refusal to answer questions before the House of Representatives Committee on Un-American Activities.

(Also known as HUAC) and the Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security (also known as the McCarran Committee) in 1952 and 1953 regarding their possible Communist Party affiliations or membership. On December 12, 1952, the Board of Trustees, the governing body of the University, issued a resolution stating that any member of the staff or faculty who refused to answer questions by an investigatory body on the grounds of the Fifth Amendment would face immediate dismissal. This conservative view was widely held by both the University Administration and the public. Rutgers was one of the first Universities in the nation to develop a position on such cses and procedures to review them. A key issue for the University Administration was that it did not separate the private and public lives and beliefs of its faculty. The Professors felt that their teaching ability had not beem impaired in any way and argued that they were being denied legal due process by the University. In his January 1953 statement Academic Freedom and Civic Responsibility, Jones argued that what was in dispute were the moral implications of invoking the Fifth Amendment, as he found the nature of the Communist Party antithetical to academic freedom and was concerned that the professors' behavior reflected badly on their obligations as teachers and as representatives of the University.

The Office of Public Relations, of which Wallace A. Moreland was Director and Edward Robert Isaacs Assistant Director, released official statements to the University Community and the media, maintained communications with outside groups including newspaper editors and administrators of other universitites, and compiled biographical information and relevant newspaper clippings regarding university personnel and events. George H. Holsted, Jr. was Director of the Rutgers News Service, a subdivision of the Office of Public Relations which issued press releases.