In 1954, at the height of the Red Scare, this trio of University professors refused to testify about their political beliefs before Congress. Because of their defiant actions, the University suspended all three and fired two of them. At the time, a misled American public feared that subversive communist groups worked unnoticed in a vast conspiracy to overthrow the government. Led mainly by McCarthy's wild accusations, Americans thought her most sensitive institutions were overrun with communists. Anyone challenging McCarthy's notions also faced being labeled a communist. The hearings on the matter smeared a great number of professionals who simply chose not to follow the pathos of the rest of the panic-stricken nation.
Being labeled a communist was a very heavy cross to bear in the 1950s. Suspected communists often found themselves blacklisted and unable to find work. McCarthy's hearings turned a great many people into criminals in the public eye. When America's most brilliant and influential minds should have risen to proclaim the folly of these hearings, too many silently stood and allowed the monster that was McCarthyism to grow.
The University chose to be one of those that remained silent during McCarthy's reign of terror. As an institution of higher learning, the University's duty is to expose its students to many different viewpoints in all manners of academic contexts. When the halls of academia seek to silence those voices with the nerve to question the conventional school of thought, the integrity of education is lost.
An apology would do more than simply acknowledge the wrongdoing that these three men endured; it would demostrate that the University learned from its past mistake. New threats to the freedoms guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution will continue to develop in the future. The University must be ready to stand against those who challenge the freedom this country so dearly prizes.
University President Lee Bollinger gave the lecture to the faculty in 1992, while he was dean of the Law School. Also, Bollinger recently referred to the University's actions against the three professors as "unjust" before this year's lecture. The president's next action should be to take the matter to the University Board of Regents and work to have such an apology and statement acknowledging the mistake granted.
This apology would not make up for the injustices done during McCarthy's brief rise to power. But the statement will set a standard for the University to meet into the next century - one that could prevent such basic unconstitutional actions from occurring in the future.