"Public Relations Lab" from the "1950 Franciscan" yearbook (page 14)

Photograph of students in the San Francisco State College Public Relations Lab with caption, "Miss Mezey and her Public Relations Lab. Students look over a downtown paper for publicity." An editor and writer in the Office of War Information Overseas Bureau in 1944-46, Phiz Mezey had her career cut short at San Francisco State College when she refused to sign the Levering Loyalty Oath in fall of 1950. Issues of academic freedom and civil liberties arose when California Legislature and Governor Earl Warren (1942-1954) passed the Levering Act (Assembly Bill 61) obligating public employees to sign a loyalty oath prior to November 2, 1950. San Francisco State College President J. Paul Leonard fired those who refused to sing, asserting that he had no choice in the matter; he was following the law. Former Mayor Joseph Alioto (1916-1998), then a member of the San Francisco Board of Education, accused San Francisco State of having "an atmosphere hostile to our basic political heritage." When the Levering Act was repealed in 1967, Mezey was reinstated without back pay. Governor Gerry Brown signed SB 920 and AB 1607 in 1979 that reinstated pension rights to those dismissed for not signing the Levering Oath.