in 1937 when by Ministry decision universities were granted the right to regulate the seating of Polish and Jewish students. On October 5, 1937, the Rector of Warsaw Polytechnic ordered the establishment of the institution of ghetto benches in the lecture halls. Within a few days, similar orders were given in other universities of Poland. Over 50 notable Polish professors (including Marceli Handelsman, Stanisław Ossowski, Tadeusz Kotarbiński, and Manfred Kridl) criticized the introduction of the ghetto benches, and refused to enforce either a quota, or the ghetto bench system, but their voices were ignored together with those gentile students who objected to the policy; they would protest by standing in class, and refusing to sit down. Rector Władysław Marian Jakowicki of the Stefan Batory University in Wilno (Vilnius) resigned from his position in protest of the introduction of the benches. Another rector who refused to establish ghetto benches in his university was Prof. Stanisław Kulczyński of Lwów University. Facing the decision to sign the order introducing segregated seating, Prof. Kulczyński resigned from his position instead of signing it. Nevertheless, the instruction ordering special "mandatory seats" for all Jewish students still was issued by the vice-rector of Lwów University the next morning. The only faculty in Poland that did not have ghetto benches introduced was that of the Children's Clinic in the Piłsudski University of Warsaw led by Professor Mieczysław Michałowicz, who refused to obey the Rector's order. Some fifty-six professors of universities in Warsaw, Poznań, and Wilno signed a protest against the Ghetto benches in December 1937. The list included the "elite of Polish scholarship," such as Tadeusz Kotarbiński; sociologists Józef Chałasiński, Stanisław, Maria Ossowska and Jan Stanisław Bystroń; biologists Stanisław Kulczyński and Jan Dembowski; psychologist Władysław Witwicki; physicist Konstanty Zakrzewski; as well as historians Seweryn Wysłouch and Tadeusz Manteuffel. The introduction of ghetto benches was criticized internationally by the Anglophonic nations. Over 300 British professors signed an anti-ghetto bench manifesto. In New York, the League for Academic Freedom published an open letter signed by 202 professors condemning ghetto benches as "alien to the spirit of academic freedom." Despite the arguments by Sanacja government that introduction of ghetto benches would stop the disturbances, the clashes between Jewish and gentile youth resulted in two fatalities among the Jewish students, and further assaults, or even an assassination attempt on Polish professor Konrad Górski critical of the segregation policies. Aftermath The ghetto bench