Loyalty oath, veterans memorial

From this morning’s Inside Higher Ed

The California attorney general’s office on Tuesday issued a letter backing the way California State University East Bay fired an instructor who wanted to modify the loyalty oath required of all state employees. Cal State has been much criticized by faculty and employee groups for its decision to dismiss Marianne Kearney-Brown, who tried to insert the word “nonviolently” before a pledge of support for the U.S. Constitution. Many Cal State employees — including some posting comments at Inside Higher Ed — have said that they made similar changes in the past, and did not get fired as a result. But a letter to Cal State from Jacob A. Appelsmith, senior assistant attorney general, released by East Bay Tuesday, said that Kearney-Brown’s situation was handled correctly. Appelsmith noted that the oath does not require anyone to commit a violent act. He said that Kearney-Brown appeared to be acting “in good faith,” but said that court decisions backed a strict interpretation of the oath requirement. Allowing Kearney-Brown to modify the oath would “introduce uncertainty and equivocation,” he wrote. For these reasons, he said, Cal State acted “appropriately in requiring Ms. Kearney-Brown to sign the oath as written.”

From yesterday’s OC Reg: Saddleback College breaks ground on veterans' memorial:

.....Saddleback College breaks ground Wednesday on a memorial to honor the college's and city's veterans.
.....The event begins with four veterans discussing their experiences in the attack on Pearl Harbor, D-Day, the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp and combat in the Vietnam and Iraq wars.
.....The concrete and ceramic memorial has been in various stages of development since 2005, when college administrators began considering ways to leave a mark on the city. When the idea for a veterans memorial surfaced, administrators formed a committee of veterans to consult for different designs.
.....When the two designers, Richard White, chair of Saddleback College's art department, and Fred Olsen, an associate professor, presented the design to the committee, there was a “silent moment” of approval among the veterans, said Saddleback College President Richard McCullough.
.....“The general consensus of the committee was that's it,” he said.
.....White and Olsen sculpted a model of the memorial using the “fire in place” technique, which allows them to create large, hollow pieces of ceramic that would not fit in a traditional kiln. McCullough said the men are two of the few artists who know how to use the technique, which made the design unique to Saddleback College.
.....“We have the expertise here,” he said. “We didn't want to bring something in that somebody else built; we wanted to design it ourselves.”
.....White said he and Olsen designed the memorial to be interactive, with a seating area and a space for visitors to walk through. He said he hoped the memorial would reflect the relationship between the public and the military, which he said has been much more positive during the Iraq war than it was during the Vietnam war.
....."Even though this war is unpopular, everybody sees that the soldiers are serving us, and they’re protecting us," he said.
.....Several cities and service organizations have donated to the memorial, which will cost about $250,000 and is slated to open next fall.
.....The veterans forum will take place at noon in room 212 of the Student Services Center of Saddleback College, 28000 Marguerite Parkway. The groundbreaking is at 1 p.m. outside the Administration and Governance building. Parking will be free across campus all day.