In March 1933, President Hamilton Holt fired John Andrew Rice, an atheist scholar and unorthodox teacher, whom Holt had hired, along with three other "golden personalities" (as Holt called them), in his push to put Rollins on the cutting edge of innovative education. Holt then required all professors to make a "loyalty pledge" to keep their jobs. The widely publicized case was investigated by the American Association of University Professors, and it is known as the "Rollins College Case" among historians of tenure.