Expanded Timeline:
Events of the Loyalty Oath Controversy and Historical Background
November-December
1949
November 1
President Sproul speaks to the national conference of the American
Bankers Association in San Francisco, and addresses the question of
whether academic freedom should permit Communists to be faculty members.
He says no. “No man can be a member of this subversive organization without
taking on the coloration of its leaders and sharing in their guilt.
. .What place in a university can be given appropriately to such purblind
fanatics as those who use a false and brutal hope to persuade the
young and gullible to sign away their American birthright?”
Sproul is careful not to refer to the oath, but the press paints
his speech as a defense of the oath.
November
At their regular meeting The Regents pass a resolution to notify Irving
David Fox (see September 27) that they would “give consideration to
your status in the University of California in view of the testimony
that you gave, or declined to give, before the House Un-American Activities
Committee. . .”
November 30
The Berkeley non-signers meet to further organize themselves, appointing
an eight member steering committee, headed by Edward Tolman, a respected
Berkeley professor. For the next several months the non-signers will meet
most Friday evenings at the Berkeley Faculty Club.
December 8
Nationalist Chinese leader Chiang Kai Shek and his
his government evacuate mainland China for Taiwan. The Chinese Communist
government has won control of the country.
December 13
The Chairmen of the Academic Senate Conference Committee meet with Regent
Neylan, chairman of the Regents’ Committee.
The faculty representatives argue that there are no known
Communists on the faculty, which should be evidence of the ability of the
faculty to screen out Communists without Regental interference in academic
freedom. Neylan argues that
groups of faculty “leftists” and “dupes” are forcing the
confrontation with the Regents, and that there is serious concern that
Communists are University employees.
December 16
Regents meeting. Irving David
Fox appears before the Board, telling them he refused to answer some
questions of the House Un-American Activities Committee on the advice of
his lawyer. He says in
the 1930s he was a member of some organizations that were later viewed as
Communist-front groups, and in 1942 he attended some Communist Party
meetings and participated in discussions, but never formally joined or
signed a membership card. He
says “I began to feel this was not the organization for me” and in
1942 or 1943 he stopped participating because “I decided I did not agree
with them.” (Fox had
earlier signed the special oath required by the Regents, so he was not
among the non-signer UC employees). The
Regents vote to fire him on the premise “that he does not meet the
minimum requirements for membership on the faculty”.
Fox is paid a lump sum amount equivalent to his salary for the
remainder of his one year T.A.’s appointment.
This decision leads to
considerable debate within the University and concern about what the
Regents meant by “minimum requirements” for faculty.
The action is condemned by an informal organization at Berkeley,
the Non-Senate Academic Employees, made up of teaching assistants,
lecturers, and others not eligible for Academic Senate membership.
Compiled by Steve Finacom |
