Gibbs Affair

In 1854, the Columbia trustees refused to hire Oliver Wolcott Gibbs (Class of 1841) to become the new science professor, even though he was an alumnus and was the most qualified scientist in America. They were annoyed that he was Unitarian and that other people actually had the gall to tell them who to hire. So out of spite they hired some other guy who turned out to be a confederate spy during the Civil War. Oops. Gibbs went on to become one of America's great chemists - at Harvard.