RPI Drops Levy After He Invokes 5th Amendment

When an assistant professor of Chemistry at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N. Y. invoked the Fifth Amendment before a congressional committee, officials of the school decided that his actions warranted dismissal from the faculty.

Arthur L. Levy, a Yale graduate, used the constitutional privilege in April of 1953 before the House Un-American Activities Committee in response to questions concerning participation in Communist activities during his student days at Yale.

R.P.I. president Livingston W. Houston immediately announced that the matter would be referred to the trustees for a final decision. At the beginning of the 1953-54 school year, Levy was officially dismissed as "unfit" for his position.