ACADEMIC FREEDOM AND THE DISCLAIMER AFFIDAVIT OF THE NATIONAL DEFENSE EDUCATION ACT: THE RESPONSE OF HIGHER EDUCATION

The National Defense Education Act, signed into law on September 2, 1958, included a security requirement which some in higher education protested. The security requirement, found in Title X, Section 1001(f), mandated that all beneficiaries of the act complete an affidavit disclaiming belief in the overthrow of the United States Government. Some in higher education opposed the disclaimer affidavit, as it came to be called, because they said it attempted to control beliefs and as such violated academic freedom. A small number of institutions refused to accept funding under the student loan program established by the act because of the affidavit requirement.; This study investigates the response of higher education to this impairment of academic freedom. The public protests of Barnard College, together with Yale and Princeton Universities are examined. The public protests of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the American Council on Education also are investigated. After four years of generally ineffective protest the disclaimer requirement was finally repealed. Repeal in 1962 was spurred by an incident extraneous to the protest which proved the affidavit requirement inadequate.; Although higher education in general did not raise an effective or coordinated protest in defense of academic freedom, there were some notable exceptions. President A. Whitney Griswold of Yale University, a number of small colleges on the eastern seaboard, and the AAUP, among others, forcefully protested the requirement.