History of The University of Redlands - Redlands During and After The Great War Years - Redlands During The Great Depression - The Upton Sinclair Affair

The Upton Sinclair Affair

Although the Redlands community initially supported the faculty's academic freedom, the later affair of Dr. William H. Roberts, a Redlands psychology professor who became the campaign manager for Upton Sinclair's run for governor in 1934, severely strained town and gown relations in the predominantly Republican community.

The affair lead to the undoing of President Thurber. Although he requested Roberts drop all political activity at once, which Roberts promised to do, Roberts later discovered Thurber acted without authorization of the Board of Trustees, so he continued to speak for Upton Sinclair in public under the assumed name of "Allan Brand." Sinclair had already lost the election by the time Thurber found out about it three months later; he was so incensed he charged Roberts with unethical conduct, and furthermore presided over his trial before the Faculty Council as both prosecutor and juryman. While the faculty trial returned a verdict of "not guilty as charged," it recommended Roberts be fired anyway. Thurber himself resigned two years later; too many people had come to view him as both an autocratic authoritarian and inept administrator, though the event was also viewed as a victory for Baptist fundamentalists on the Board of Trustees.