Fresno State should stand up for free speech

By Dr. Alex Vavoulis

(Updated Sunday, September 28, 2003, 4:00 PM)

In 1968 the distinguished poet Robert Mezey, an assistant professor of English, was denied retention as a member of the Fresno State College (now California State University, Fresno) English faculty.

While the college administration claimed that his nonretention was based solely on his merits as a teacher, evidence developed during a protracted campus grievance hearing, and later in a civil suit, clearly indicating that Mezey was not retained because members of the administration were displeased with his exercise of free speech both on the campus and in the community.

In community gatherings, Mezey was an outspoken critic of the Vietnam war and racial discrimination. On the campus, as a panelist discussing the marijuana laws, he spoke of the viciousness of these laws. His public utterances on controversial issues unleashed a fury in the community, and the college administration came under enormous pressure to fire him.

The firing of Mezey demonstrated how fragile are the principles of academic freedom and freedom of speech. Today the campus and the community are once again faced with emotionally charged domestic and foreign issues. And we are faced once again with the temptation to restrict the free speech of those with whom we disagree. A case in point is the Revolutionary Environmental Conference that took place last February on the campus, organized by professors of the Political Science Department.

Although President John Welty did not yield to pressure from some faculty and community members to stop the conference from taking place, the pressure was great enough on the administration that police were called to the campus during the conference. In spite of the ideologically based fears that inspired this police presence, there were no incidents requiring police action. But the effort to intimidate the 1,000 people who attended the conference was a warning to anyone in our community who would exercise the freedom to assemble to consider controversial issues.

A similar effort to suppress an open debate on controversial issues is found in the case of the Fresno State series entitled Middle East Forums. It is sponsored by a variety of groups on campus. The series' purpose is to share ideas on problems in the Middle East with the campus and community by bringing experts of various opinions on these matters to the campus. An attack on the series has come from reactionary ideologues on the campus who claim that the series involves "a lack of balance." The campus achieves "balance" when it permits both the Young Republicans, the Young Democrats and the Young Greens to pursue their respective agendas. The attempt to place subtle restraints on academic freedom and freedom of speech, as the history of Fresno State demonstrates, is the precursor to their outright suppression.

If freedom of speech is a linchpin of democracy, then academic freedom is the foundation for the free inquiry that gives rise to humanistic, social, scientific and technological progress. When the administration fired Mezey, it denied the campus and community the presence of one of America's leading poets.

Mezey was hired by Pomona College, one of the country's most prestigious four-year, liberal arts colleges. While a member of that faculty, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1977, and the highly prestigious Ingram Merrill Fellowship (in 1972 and 1989). In 2002 he received the Poet's Prize for the best book of poetry by an American poet. The book is entitled "Collected Poems, 1952-1999."

Pomona's gain

Upon his recent retirement from the Pomona faculty, the Huntington Library acquired Mezey's papers and the drafts of poems for its scholarly archives. Thus, the arbitrary and capricious firing of Mezey from Fresno State proved ultimately to be Pomona College's gain in academic prestige.

During the months of anguish of the Mezey case, a group of sympathetic faculty sought to provide Mezey's family with financial and legal support. To this end, they formed the Fresno Free College Foundation. For the last 35 years, the foundation has committed its resources to nurturing genuinely open forums in the classroom, public lectures and publications in which all ideas, opinions and research findings, however controversial, may be expressed and heard. Its most well-known public presence is found in the FM radio station KFCF (88.1), which it owns and operates.

Each generation must discover for itself the extent of its understanding and commitment to academic freedom and freedom of speech. It is the mission of the Fresno Free College Foundation to assist in this constant process of renewal of public commitment to these vital principles.

Dr. Paul D. Bush, professor emeritus of economics at Fresno State, contributed to this commentary.