Tom O'Connell '50 Wins Alexander Meiklejohn Award

Thomas E. O'Connell '50, president of Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield, Mass., is the recipient of the 1973 Alexander Meiklejohn Award for Academic Freedom, given by the American Association of University Professors.

The award to O'Connell was made in recognition of his role in the recent loyalty oath controversy in Massachusetts, and, in particular, at Berkshire Community College, where some'31 faculty and staff challenged the reinstatement of the oath as a requirement for employment. In nominating him for the award, the local AAUP chapter at Berkshire Community College cited President O'Connell for the "democratic, civilized, and gentlemanly way" in which he assisted the state in collecting the oaths, and for the fact that he alone among the presidents of the community colleges, the state colleges, and the state university, expressed public support for the efforts of those who sought to overturn the statute through the courts and the legislative process.

O'Connell's involvement in the loyalty oath matter, said the nomination citation, "is indicative of the strong, consistent and certain support which he has given to the ideal of academic freedom ever since he joined Berkshire Community College as its first president in 1960."