The San Francisco Chronicle reported that “California State University East Bay has fired a math teacher after six weeks on the job because she inserted the word ‘nonviolently’ in her state-required Oath of Allegiance form.”

Because the state requires public employees to sign this oath to the Constitution, you might be thinking that this is just another example of government subverting peace activism. But in this particular instance, it appears to be the university that’s fighting the battle, not the state.

A spokesman from the state Attorney General’s office told the Chronicle that “as a general matter, oaths may be modified to conform with individual values.” Conversely, the school’s attorney said modifying the oath “is very clearly not permissible.” She then added: “It’s an unfortunate situation. If she’d just signed the oath, the campus would have been more than willing to continue her employment.”

It’s a sad day when higher education exhibits more ignorant nationalism than the government. Shouldn’t university’s be accepting of ideas that both challenge the status quo and promote peace? No wonder so many young people are either uncaring or oblivious to the wars and economic imperialism fostered by this country’s foreign policy.

[The following was added two hours after the original post.]

Just when you think you’ve stumbled onto a rather unique story, along comes another one just like it. Although this one takes place in Israel, the same sad theme of academia’s growing nationalism continues. According to Jonathan Cook of CounterPunch:

An Arab college lecturer is being dismissed from his job because he refused to declare his “respect for the uniform of the Israeli army”. The bizarre demand was made of Nizar Hassan, director of several award-winning films, after he criticised a Jewish student who arrived in his film studies class at Sapir College in the Negev for wearing his uniform and carrying a gun.

The incident raises disturbing questions about the freedom of Israeli academics, sheds light on the veneration of the military in Israeli public life, and exposes the close, verging on incestuous, ties between the army and Israeli academia.

Meanwhile, for many of Israel’s 1.2 million Palestinian citizens, who are nearly a fifth of the country’s population, Hassan’s treatment confirms their fears that decades of discrimination, especially in higher education, are far from over.

Once again, it’s the university that’s defending the state (and not standing up for peace):

In Sapir College’s case, links to the army have been reinforced by its location in Sderot, a poor development town close to Gaza that is the target of most of the Qassam rockets fired into Israel. Under growing pressure, the college’s Academic Council suspended Hassan without offering him a hearing.

Fortunately, in this case, many of Hassan’s students have stood up for him, and defended his opposition to militarism as all-encompassing:

One of two Arab students in Hassan’s film class, said: “When he saw Cohen wearing his uniform, he explained that all military uniforms — of the Israeli army, of Fatah or of Hamas — are symbols of violence and that he does not allow them into his classroom.

If anything belongs in the classroom, it’s teachers like Hassan.