Students and Staff Sign Texas Oath

Texas has a loyalty oath, a short, squat slip of paper which every student, officer, and employee of a Texas-supported institution of higher learning must sign.

The oath replaced an April, 1949 resolution of the state legislature, which would have empowered the presidents of state colleges to expel "all or any persons found to be disloyal to this nation." The new loyalty oath asks the signer to swear, among other things, "I am not and have not during the past two (2) years been a member or affiliated with any society or group of persons which teaches ... that the government should be overthrown or destroyed ..."

A University of Texas spokesman says, "The Loyalty Oath has been accepted here with almost complete indifference." There have been complaints about the oaths lengthening Texas' already long registration process, but no one has refused to sign.