Education: The Cardinal & the Cadets

What will become of West Point’s dismissed cadets? To each of them, the Bellman Publishing Co. of Boston offered a free copy of its book, How to Choose That College. But last week, as they quietly left the Point one by one, most of the cadets faced a different problem—how to find a college that would choose them.

Columbia University announced that it would “not even consider” admitting transfers. The University of Virginia wanted no one who had been “dropped or suspended from another college.” Neither did Washington and Lee. Meanwhile, Pennsylvania State College was waiting to see “whether the Academy indicated ‘discredit or dishonor’ on the transcript” before making up its mind.

But this chilly consensus was melted last week by a powerful voice that spoke up in the cadets’ behalf. New York’s Cardinal Spellman announced that he had asked the three Catholic men’s colleges in his archdiocese—Fordham University, Manhattan College and lona College—to admit the cadets. All three colleges said they would—adding that no cadet would be allowed to play on any varsity team. “To err is human,” said Francis Cardinal Spellman, “to forgive, divine.”