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David Saxon once defied university policy by refusing to sign an oath pledging that he was not a member of the Communist party, and was dismissed as a professor at UCLA, putting his career in jeopardy. He would overcome that setback, however, to go on to be president of the University of California.

In the midst of growing Cold War hysteria, Saxon – who died at the UCLA Medical Center Thursday – along with 30 other University of California faculty members, were dismissed from their positions in 1950 because they would not sign a contract stating that they were not communists.

The 1949 loyalty oath was created by the UC to appease the state legislature so it would not take the power to determine an employee’s loyalty to the U.S. government into its own hands.

In a speech given to the American Bankers Association on Nov. 2, 1949, then-UC President Robert Sproul articulated the university’s reasons for requiring the loyalty oath.

In the address, he emphasized that universities “must ask of those who teach in them a higher standard of conduct and a more complete assurance of loyalty to the democratic state than is required of men in less responsible walks of life,” the Daily Bruin reported on Nov. 3, 1949.

But some professors believed that signing the oath would impede their ability to teach freely and honestly, arguing that the oath undermined the UC’s intellectual independence.

In a speech he gave at the Loyalty Oath’s 50th Anniversary Symposium in Berkeley in 1999, Saxon said one of his reasons for not signing was that the university should remain a place for academic freedom and resist pressure from external political forces.

“I felt it was a great threat to the intellectual independence of the university, it was inconsistent with my concept of the university, and it was something that I simply was not prepared to go along with,” said Saxon, who was one of two UCLA professors dismissed over the issue.

Choosing not to sign the oath held larger implications than just supporting academic freedom.

By refusing to sign, Saxon “put his career, his livelihood, ability to feed his family on the line,” said John Sandbrook, a long-time UCLA administrator.

A struggle ensued between the UC Board of Regents, the Academic Senate and UC faculty members. Questions arose about the university’s right to require employees to declare non-affiliation with the Communist Party and to dismiss employees based on their political beliefs.

The university maintained the stance that members of the Communist Party should not be allowed to hold a position at the UC because they would negatively influence students and be unable to uphold their duty with respect to free pursuit of truth.

Charles Muscatine, who was an assistant professor of English at Berkeley in 1950, refused to sign the oath because it violated the Constitutional principle of academic freedom.

“I was teaching freshman English and telling my students to ... stick by your convictions. I didn’t see how I could face my class if I signed the oath,” he said.

The UC felt the effects of the controversy on campus.

Fifty-five courses were dropped as a result of the 37 faculty members who resigned in protest of the dismissal of the 31 non-signers.

In 1950, the California Supreme Court ruled the loyalty oath unconstitutional, and the regents were required to offer employment to non-signers.

Both David Saxon and Charles Muscatine were among those who returned to their respective universities.

Muscatine said he was happy to come back to a faculty that had shown a great deal support and sympathy for the non-signers.

Though the majority of the faculty at Berkeley chose to sign the oath for various reasons, they set up a fund to pay the salaries of those who did not sign. Muscatine admired the fact that so many members of the faculty were against the oath.

“It took a certain quality in the faculty to oppose the oath in the first place,” he said.

Though Communism is no longer targeted by the university, UC employees are still required to sign a state oath swearing to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of California against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

With reports from Jennifer Mishory, Bruin contributor.