Sanitation Period

Cigar-puffing President Aubrey L. Ashby of tiny Olivet College, Mich., likes to call his administration "a period of sanitation." Called in two years ago to put Olivet back on its financial feet, he determined to rid the campus of its reputation for leftist-pacifist leanings (TIME, Jan. 24, 1949). In doing so, he raised a bigger academic rumpus than most presidents could raise in a lifetime.

Serving without pay, Alumnus Ashby, a former National Broadcasting Co. vice president, started in by firing four teachers. In the next few hectic months twelve others (including Economist Tucker Smith, 1948 Socialist candidate for Vice President of the U.S.) quit in protest, and 110 out of 297 students left the campus. But after the first flurry, Olivet began to settle back to normalcy.

Last week, 64-year-old President Ashby decided that the sanitation process was complete and it was time to move over. His successor: Dr. Raymond B. Blakeny, Congregational minister and onetime China missionary, who promised "to do my best to build upon the firm foundation of my predecessor."

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