Intellectual Property Law

The McCarthy Era lives on at CSU-Fullerton

By Siva Vaidhyanathan

Chronicle.com:

May 2, 2008
Cal State Instructor Fired for Refusing to Sign Loyalty Oath

A lecturer at California State University at Fullerton has been fired because she refused to sign a loyalty oath to “defend” the U.S. and California Constitutions “against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” the Los Angeles Times reported today.

Wendy Gonaver, a Quaker and a lifelong pacifist, was set to teach American studies at the institution this academic year. She told the newspaper that she had offered to sign the oath if she could attach a short statement expressing her views, but Fullerton wouldn’t allow that.

In February another instructor at Cal State was fired because she altered the oath by inserting the word “nonviolently” before signing it. However, the news-media attention surrounding her dismissal resulted in her being rehired.

Voters added the oath to the state Constitution in 1952 to keep Communists from getting public jobs. —Audrey Williams June

NYU had a similar oath requirement when I started working there, believe it or not. I just "forgot" to sign it for a while. Then I asked them for a copy of the New York Constitution so I could check if I was really ready to defend it. They had no copies. I never heard back about it again.

Full post as published by SIVACRACY .NET on May 05, 2008 (boomark / email).