By Martin D. Snyder

The English language seems to have an unusually rich vocabulary of deception. There are, of course, the rather more ordinary terms, such as betray, cheat, con, deceive, defraud, delude, dupe, entrap, ensnare, fool, hoax, mislead, trick, and outwit. Less current, perhaps, are such colorful words as cozen, hoodwink, and gull, or the gloriously sonorous hornswoggle, flimflam, and bamboozle. There's no doubt about it. When you get ripped off in English, you never want for words to describe the experience.

The founders of the AAUP had a particular interest in deceptive behavior, and they could have incorporated the inelegancy of "bamboozle" into the 1915 Declaration of Principles, if they had accepted a dubious theory about the word's origin. While virtually every dictionary describes the origins of "bamboozle" as shrouded in obscurity, a few etymologists maintain its nautical pedigree. They trace the word to the piratical practice of flying a flag or ensign other than one's own in order to deceive a passing ship or unwitting harbormaster about a vessel's true identity. "Bamboozle" didn't make it into the 1915 Declaration, but its putative metaphor, "sailing under false colors" did.

The framers of the Declaration used the sailing metaphor to illustrate their concern about what they called "proprietary" institutions, that is, institutions "designed for the propagation of specific doctrines prescribed by those who have furnished [their] endowment[s]." Religious denominations, they noted, might establish an educational institution to be used "as an instrument of propaganda in the interests of the religious faith professed by the church or denomination creating it." Such institutions do not, "at least as regards one particular subject, accept the principles of freedom of inquiry, of opinion, and of teaching; and their purpose is not to advance knowledge by the unrestricted research and unfettered discussion of impartial investigators, but rather to subsidize the promotion of opinions held by the persons . . . who provide the funds for their maintenance. . . . [I]t is manifestly important that they should not be permitted to sail under false colors."

The authors of the Declaration would have been interested in the controversy surrounding Joe McGinniss at Soka University of America. The California university, which represents itself as nonsectarian, was founded two years ago with money raised by members of Soka Gakkai, a Japanese Buddhist sect.

Joe McGinniss is a best-selling author with eight nonfiction books and one novel to his credit; he has served as adjunct professor of writing and journalism at Soka. In February the Chronicle of Higher Education reported on McGinniss's allegation that his contract was not renewed because of religious bias: he asserts that officials at the university are partial to hiring members of the Gakkai sect and alleges that there is an undisclosed relationship between Soka Gakkai and the university.

Administrators have denied the charge. "Any charges of religious bias are absolutely false," said Archibald E. Asawa, vice president for administrative affairs. But McGinniss, according to the Chronicle, cites an e-mail from last year in which Alfred Balitzer, former dean of the faculty, says: "Let us not indulge language that suggests that we are a nonsectarian institution or that Soka Gakkai is so far in the background that we never think about it or it never comes to mind."

Though Soka University's history is brief, this is not the first time that it has been charged with religious bias. In a complaint filed earlier this year in Superior Court for the state of California, former faculty member Linda Southwell charges Soka with, among other things, religious discrimination, wrongful termination, misrepresentation, fraud, intentional deceit, and breach of employment contract. A jury will decide the merits of the case.

Thus the question: does Soka University of America sail under false colors? Joe McGinniss certainly thinks so. He maintains that the university has used its nonsectarian status to attract non-Gakkai faculty and students, many of whom have already left or are planning to leave because of the alleged deception.

In an e-mail to McGinniss, one Soka faculty member reportedly wrote: "Even though [Soka] is an institution dedicated to education and the dissemination of information, as you well know, employees are often evaluated more in terms of their loyalty to our leaders and harmony with our fellows than by the thirst for knowledge and insight, to say nothing of justice and fairness." What are Soka's true colors?