One Oath Is Enough

After swearing allegiance to the U.S., should a college student who gets a federal loan also have to file an affidavit that he is not subversive? Yes, according to the National Defense Education Act. No, according to 16 colleges and universities that now refuse to take part in the $30 million Federal Student Loan Program, and to many others who participate unhappily. When Harvard and Yale recently quit in protest (TIME, Nov. 30), they declared that the "disclaimer affidavit" is i) superfluous and 2) discriminating against students. Yale's President A. Whitney Griswold called the affidavit reminiscent of "the oppressive religious and political test oaths of history, which were used as a means of exercising control over the educational process by church or state."

Last week President Eisenhower confronted the growing controversy at his press conference in Washington. Said Ike: "I personally am ready each morning to take an oath that I am not a Communist and that I am loyal to the United States. I think, however, that when we begin to single out any group of citizens and say, 'This is a matter of legal compulsion,' I can see why they are resentful."

Most college presidents still feel that they cannot give up federal funds for needy students, however much they might wish to follow the Harvard-Yale principle. Ike voiced sympathy: "I rather deplore that universities have found it necessary to find, for the moment, a narrow dividing line and therefore keep a number of citizens out of taking advantage of the loan provisions that the Federal Government set up." But the President also put his full weight behind a possible compromise at the next session of Congress: repeal of the disclaimer affidavit, retention of the oath of allegiance. "For my part," said Ike firmly, "I should think that the loyalty oath, the basic citizenship oath, is sufficient."

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