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In 1850, territorial governor Brigham Young created a Board of Regents comprised of 14 leaders from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint to oversee an institution of higher education called the University of Deseret.

Given license, these regents could hire and fire professors and instructors at will. It wouldn't be long before all hell broke loose.

Under the regents' purview during the first two years, classes were held sporadically in private homes or places such as the Salt Lake City Council House, Utah's first public building.

When lack of funding forced the school's closure for 15 years, the Board of Regents remained inactive until the school reopened in 1867 with Mormon pioneer David O. Calder at its helm.

John R. Park soon followed in 1869. He served for 23 years and struggled to establish a strong curriculum and a permanent campus.

The school was renamed the University of Utah in 1892, President Joseph T. Kingsbury planted the school's roots in Salt Lake City's east bench on land granted by the U.S. Army's Fort Douglas in 1900.

Embracing a broad field of learning, university faculty and student enrollment grew rapidly. The regents, however, appeared insular to issues of academic freedom.

"While they diversified in terms of religious affiliation by the early 1900s, their stipulated role to serve as 'fathers and guardians' of the institution had not changed," Allyson Mower and Paul Mogren wrote in "When Rights Clash."

In 1913, 47 faculty members petitioned the board to consider "the nature of the relationship that should exist between the teachers and the university." Their request was tabled "indefinitely."

Striving for freedom of speech, tensions also escalated over faculty matters such as tenure, contracts, salaries, raises and professional development.

In February 1915, Kingsbury fired four non-Mormon professors without discussion or efforts toward appeal. The board supported his action.

When questioned, they responded: "It is argued to the board that professors and instructors should have the right of free thought, free speech and free action. The board, however, has the same rights. When the rights of the two clash then it is for the board to determine which is right."

Infuriated, the university's Alumni Association, school faculty and students demanded an investigation. When not forthcoming, 14 professors resigned in protest. Listed among them was Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences Byron Cummings who had served the university for 21 years.

"Unless the University of Utah is to be a place where men and women are to deal frankly and openly with each other and where the young men and women of the state are to be taught to think and act for themselves and have a respected voice and part in the affairs of this institution, I do not see how we are going to train them to be self respecting, independent and capable citizens of a commonwealth," Cummings wrote in a March 1, 1915, Salt Lake Telegram editorial. "An education that is less than this has no right to be called higher education."

On campus, some 300-plus students rallied. They held a mock funeral promising to not return the following year unless the professors were retained. Copper magnate Col. E. A. Wall determined to withdraw his scholarships supporting the university's archaeological department.

On March 20, 1915, The Salt Lake Telegram reported the Federation of Women's Clubs of Utah called for a mass meeting so "no stone be left unturned to get at the facts … which has stirred every citizen having the best interests of the school at heart."

Employment "at will" no longer worked.

Needing a radical change, the first Academic Senate, comprised of faculty members, deans and students, was organized in April 1915 to play "an integral part in the shared governance of the University . . . and build strong working relations with the administration."

One hundred years later, the U's Academic Senate is still a campus model of free speech and self-governance.

Eileen Hallet Stone, author of "Hidden History of Utah," a compilation of her "Living History" columns in the Salt Lake Tribune, may be reached at ehswriter@aol.com. Source: "When Rights Clash: Originals for the University of Utah Academic Senate," a 2014 University of Utah publication.