Behavior guidelines for Fresno State faculty are alarming

When The Bee reported on this subject of behavior guidelines at Fresno State in its Dec. 28 issue, I felt like I was in a “time warp ” and the campus was heading into an academician’s nightmare as some of us professors did in 1968.

It was a terrible way to be acknowledging a 50th anniversary of the firing of a poet, Robert Mezey, who was a professor of the English Department, by the then president of Fresno State, because he exercised his constitutional right to free speech. Unfortunately, some of the faculty and many in the Fresno community thought this was a proper use of presidential authority. Prior to 1968, educational decisions were made by both — the faculty and the administration — under a document called “Consultative Procedures” that were approved by both.

The same subject appears again in The Bee with a lengthy opinion by Lars Maischak, a lecturer in history at Fresno State assigned to online classes. Dr. Maischak correctly has harsh words for the entire concept of behavior guidelines, which is a smoke screen for preventing academicians from exercising their professional commitment to “free inquiry” and to “free expression of ideas.” These prerogatives are encouraged by the U.S. Constitution, but also are emphasized in principles of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP).

Academic freedom and academic due process are cornerstones of all educational institutions. Citizens of a democracy must safeguard these values of knowledge and virtue; it offers a progressive and nonviolent path to the improvement to the Constitution, to justice and to human dignity.

In part, Mezey offered the opinion at a public “Seminar on Pot ” that “bad laws should not be obeyed.” In present-day America many of the marijuana laws have been changed and sales of the plant has increased rapidly.

Mezey found no justice in the courts but joined the faculty of the highly respected Pomona College. During this period he won several awards, as well as an honorary doctorate, for his poetry. His daughter, Naomi, earned a JD degree at Stanford University and has become an award winning faculty member at the Law Center of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Many other administrators, faculty, and students were hurt by events of 1968, which are well documented in Dr. Kenneth Seib’s book, “The Slow Death of Fresno State College.” From the ashes of those years positive things happened. The Fresno Free College Foundation was formed by professors to financially take care of the Mezey family, and to take responsibility for legal actions that were required as well as publishing Seib’s manuscript. The foundation then became a very important part in the cultural and artistic life of the Fresno community. It established a nonprofit radio station (KFCF-FM) that continues to broadcast in the Central Valley as well as on-line.

This story was originally published January 28, 2019 at 11:01 AM.