University of Virginia Library

Court Kills Instructor's Bid
For Reinstatement In UNC

By JEFF DICKERSON

The U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of
Appeals has upheld the University of
North Carolina's refusal to renew the
contract of an instructor who suspended
his class to attend an anti-war
demonstration.

The ruling applied to David Blevins, a
former part-time social studies instructor
at the university's Charlotte campus.

According to court records, on Oct.
15, 1969, Blevins suspended his social
studies class to participate in a Charlotte
area demonstration involving the National
Vietnam Moratorium.

A university committee held that
Blevins' refusal to meet with his class had
violated a university policy forbidding the
disruption of classes.

Blevins' contract for the 1970 spring
semester was not renewed. Asking that
the university be ordered to reinstate
him, he filed suit in the U.S. District
Court at Greensboro, N.C.

Blevins contended that the
University's failure to renew his teaching
contract violated his constitutional rights
to freedom of expression and equal
protection of the law.

Blevins appealed to the Fourth Circuit
Court after U.S. District Court Judge
Eugene A. Gordon refused to order the
university to renew his contract.

The court said that a state university
can constitutionally require professors to
teach their classes on a day designated by
private organizations for the boycotting
of classes to express a political view.

The court said that the university has
the authority as long as the university
does not selectively apply such a policy
so as to support the expression of some
viewpoints and to discourage expression
of others."