28 - My Dismissal from the University

Summary

While I was making my modest contribution to our attempts to get back Transylvania in its entirety, Alexandru Roşca and Cupcea, who had registered with the Communist Party after August 23, were making every effort to have me removed from the university. They filed a complaint with the department council, cosigned by Professor Goangă, accusing me of irregularities in the management of the Psychology Institute and the Psychotechnic Institute, as well as of neglecting my academic duties because of my obligations as scientific adviser in charge of labor organization at the industrial works at Reşiţa and ASTRA Braşov. To these they added my reactionary attitude toward the country's new socialist order, exemplified by my being a member of the Romanian-American Association of Transylvania, which was despised by the Communist Party leadership in Cluj, mostly made up of Hungarians, who—just like Roşca and Cupcea—had collaborated with Hungary's Nazi government, but then signed up for the Communist Party right away. The department council did not endorse the complaint. Upon their request, however, Daicoviciu, who was dean, and Petrovici, who was rector, forwarded the complaint to the Ministry of Education, but the minister, Ştefan Voitec, a member of the Social Democratic Party, did not endorse it either. The minister knew of my contribution to the Societatea de Mîine magazine, printed by Ion Clopoţel, a member of the Social Democratic Party, and also knew of my help in organizing the Workers University for the Union of Workers Trade Unions in Cluj. He greatly appreciated the two experimental technical schools at Reşita and the ASTRA Braşov industrial works, which cleared the way for apprentices to study toward an engineering degree. Engineer Manciu, who helped me set up the school in Braşov, was a former colleague of his from Bucharest Polytechnic. His cabinet secretary, Mrs. Iorgulescu, a psychology graduate, had told him about my struggle against the legionnaires and the progressive and anti-racial character of my papers and books.