GROVE CITY — More than 50 years after Grove City College was sanctioned by a national organization representing university professors, the college has had the nation’s longest-running censure lifted.

The vote to lift the sanction against the college was taken last week at the annual conference of the American Association of University Professors.

College President Paul J. McNulty said the institution is “pleased” with the action, which brought an end to AAUP’s longest-running censure of an institution.

“Being on the censure list for 53 years was not representative of what we are as a faith-based institution and doesn’t reflect our long-standing commitment to fairness and respect for our employees,” McNulty said.

The college found itself sanctioned by AAUP in 1963 after it fired Larry Gara, a history professor at the school whose liberalism and anti-war pacifism conflicted with J. Howard Pew, an industrialist and the chairman of the college board of directors. The AAUP sanction stated that the college did not give Gara due process before dismissing him.

In 2013 the college began talks with AAUP officials to resolve the matter. Last year the college talked to Gara to “acknowledge that under procedures in place today, (his) situation would have been handled quite differently,” according to a college statement.

Robert J. Graham, provost and vice president for academic affairs, called this action a confirmation of the college’s commitment to academic freedom.

“Resolution of this matter is a recognition that Grove City College values and respects academic freedom and due process,” said Graham.