Education: Sign Here

When the Board of Regents of the University of California drew up a loyalty oath last summer for its 11,000 teachers and staffmen, the faculty’s Academic Senate flatly refused to accept it (TIME, rune 27 et seq.). Later, the oath was toned down a little; instead of having to wear that they had never joined, supported, or even believed in a subversive organization, faculty members would simply have to swear that they were not members of the Communist Party. But after eight months, 13.5% of the faculty had still not signed. Last week the Regents issued an ultimatum: any C.P. member, they said, automatically “has violated the terms on which he is employed . . . and shall be dismissed.” For the 13.5% still holding out on the loyalty oath, whether hey were Communists or not, it had become a question of signing or resigning.