When Wendy Gonaver was offered a job teaching American studies at Cal State Fullerton this academic year, she was pleased to be headed back to the classroom to talk about one of her favorite themes: protecting constitutional freedoms.
But the day before class was scheduled to begin, her appointment as a lecturer abruptly ended over just the kind of issue that might have figured in her course. She lost the job because she did not sign a loyalty oath swearing to “defend” the U.S. and California constitutions “against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”…
As a Quaker from Pennsylvania and a lifelong pacifist, Gonaver objected to the California oath as an infringement of her rights of free speech and religious freedom. She offered to sign the pledge if she could attach a brief statement expressing her views, a practice allowed by other state institutions. But Cal State Fullerton rejected her statement and insisted that she sign the oath if she wanted the job.
“I wanted it on record that I am a pacifist,” said Gonaver, 38. “I was really upset. I didn’t expect to be fired. I was so shocked that I had to do this.”
This comes on the heels of the firing – and reinstatement – of a CSU East Bay instructor who modified the oath – she too was a Quaker. The article in the LA Times does an excellent job of showing the background of the oath and the different ways it is treated in California higher ed – whereas the UC system advises signers of their rights to modify the oath to suit their religious needs, CSU campuses do not.
It suggests that there should be some sort of investigation of the CSU system, to see if there have been any directives that were sent from the central offices to campuses regarding strict – and illegal – interpretations of the oath.
All this demonstrates is how absurd this oath is. There is no good reason for it to remain as part of our state’s constitution – the Soviet Union is dead and buried and communism is barely clinging to life – literally and figuratively – in the few remaining outposts it has where it hasn’t morphed into neoliberalism.
Last month Alan Lowenthal authored a bill to drop the oath – to which the Yacht Party cried that the oath was necessary to guard against terrorist groups.
Perhaps someone should inform the Republicans – and the CSU system – that Quakers are not terrorists?!