>From: Denis Rancourt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: Victory in Disciplined Minds case
>Date: Thu, 5 Apr 2007 23:54:54 -0400
>
>
>Dear fellow physicist,
>
>Your courage to take a public stand on a close-to-home issue has
>won justice for a fired fellow physicist and has promoted free
>expression within the physics community.
>
>Over five years ago we sent you an appeal beginning: "Physics
>Today magazine recently gave a punishing review to a book written
>by physicist Jeff Schmidt..."[1] For 19 years Jeff was a staff
>editor at our professional journal, Physics Today -- until his
>supervisors saw his book Disciplined Minds. Based upon examples
>from physics graduate training and beyond, it provocatively
>critiques workplace hierarchy in general and the politically
>subordinate role of people hired to do creative work.[2] The
>magazine's review: "...[they] fired him."
>
>The resulting appeal to physicists and others landed in fertile
>soil and, through your efforts, justice has finally been done.
>You will not read about it in Physics Today, and so we are
>writing now to give you the story and to thank you for your
>support.
>
>Your public response, from over 35 countries, was unprecedented.
>More than 1000 scientists, activists, and others in many fields
>-- including the largest number of physicists ever to speak out
>on a freedom-of-expression issue in the United States -- sent the
>American Institute of Physics (AIP), which publishes Physics
>Today, strongly worded demands for justice, all now public.[3] A
>human-rights committee of scientists affiliated with a unit of
>the IEEE investigated and issued a public report[4] condemning
>Jeff's dismissal.
>
>Bringing such public judgment on Jeff's firing was already a form
>of justice because of the toll on AIP's image. Such punitive
>justice is available to any wronged individual unafraid to go
>public. Jeff deeply appreciates and thanks you for your
>support.[2] You can contact him at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>*Compensatory justice*
>
>Encouraged by your passionately expressed view that our
>institutions should uphold our community values, we continued the
>campaign for free expression -- with the goal of compensatory
>justice.
>
>We took your protests to the American Physical Society, which
>plays a major role in governing AIP, and asked[5] the
>organization to oppose Jeff's dismissal, as it does when
>dissident physicists outside the United States are punished for
>expressing their views. APS officials, in what amounts to tacit
>approval of Jeff's firing, refused even to investigate the same
>issue close to home. This prompted us to urge Jeff to take legal
>action.
>
>Hence, Jeff approached the most prominent Washington, D.C.,
>civil-rights law organization, which, impressed by your protests,
>took the case pro bono publico. ("That's Latin for 'free,'" says
>Jeff.) The lawyers filed suit[6] and obtained internal AIP
>documents. After AIP handed over the embarrassing and
>incriminating documents -- which are now public[7] -- it
>capitulated and signed a legally binding settlement agreement.
>Some highlights:
>
>1. Payment. AIP paid Jeff what we estimate[8] to be at least
>half a million dollars.
>
>2. Public settlement. AIP agreed to Jeff's demand that the
>settlement agreement be a public document.[9]
>
>3. Symbolic reinstatement. AIP reinstated Jeff to his position
>at Physics Today magazine.[10] A few hours later Jeff resigned.
>
>4. Public statement by AIP. The American Institute of Physics
>publicly acknowledged that Jeff's supervisors and others praised
>his work and that AIP fired him for his provocative
>expression.[11]
>
>5. Employment reference. AIP has given Jeff a positive
>reference letter.[12]
>
>6. Discrimination remediation. While employed at Physics Today,
>Jeff led a contentious effort to force the magazine to change its
>long-standing pattern of hiring and training only whites as
>editors, and to live up to its claim of being an affirmative-
>action employer. These actions were part of the expression for
>which Jeff was fired.[6,13] Thus, to settle the case, AIP
>agreed[14] to...
>
>..Support the National Society of Black Physicists (NSBP) and
>the National Society of Hispanic Physicists (NSHP) in becoming a
>member society of AIP and appointing a member of the AIP
>governing board.
>
>..Encourage each of the ten AIP member societies to work with
>the NSBP and NSHP diversity council.
>
>..Offer a science-writing course at an NSBP annual conference,
>which will increase the pool of talented minority-group editors.
>
>..Maintain a program of mandatory diversity training for all AIP
>employees.
>
>*Freedom of expression not embraced*
>
>Although AIP's repressive behavior backfired, the organization
>has not welcomed free expression within the physics community.
>To settle the case, AIP demanded various censorships, including
>deleting text from critical articles published by the American
>Physical Society and by the Canadian Undergraduate Physics
>Journal.[15] AIP's behavior prompted the Canadian Undergraduate
>Physics Journal to lodge a strong, public protest.[16] It is
>posted at
><http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/sanjoy/schmidt/chronology/aipletter.pdf>
>
>After the settlement, the American Institute of Physics,
>represented by the notorious union-busting law firm Jackson
>Lewis, slapped Jeff with a half-million-dollar legal action[17]
>to silence him and to prevent physicists from discussing the
>settlement. AIP claimed that snippets of text posted at the
>disciplinedminds.com website (such as the two words, "symbolic
>reinstatement," and the five words, "Schmidt's concessions to
>AIP's demands") each did $20,000 worth of damage to AIP, for a
>total of half a million dollars. AIP told Jeff that it would
>stop its legal action if he removes those phrases from the web
>and refrains from "all commentary regarding the settlement." We
>therefore regard AIP's legal filing as a SLAPP action (strategic
>lawsuit against public participation), one whose primary purpose
>is to stifle discussions of public interest.
>
>We found this repressive behavior unacceptable for an institution
>of physics, which should show the public that physicists come to
>the truth through free discussion, not through censorship and
>intimidation. We wrote to AIP twice[18] demanding that it drop
>its SLAPP action and reverse the censorship of articles published
>by the American Physical Society and the Canadian Undergraduate
>Physics Journal.
>
>AIP has not undone the censorship or compensated Jeff for the
>legal costs of defending against its SLAPP action, but -- in
>another victory for free expression -- AIP announced, in its
>response to our letters, that it would stop pursuing the legal
>action.
>
>*We would like to hear from you*
>
>Thank you for taking a public stand.
>
>We hope that you will share your thoughts with us. Please share
>your thoughts with AIP too. (Send us a copy and, with your
>permission, we'll post it on the web.) Do let us know if you
>would like to know about further developments in this case or
>about similar cases. You can reach us at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>(Denis Rancourt), and you can reach AIP at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>(AIP governing board chair Mildred Dresselhaus).
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Denis Rancourt for
>
>Fay Dowker, Physics Department, Imperial College London, UK
>Sanjoy Mahajan, Physics Department, University of Cambridge, UK
>Talat Rahman, Physics Department, University of Central Florida
>Denis Rancourt, Physics Department, University of Ottawa, Canada
>George Reiter, Physics Department, University of Houston
>
>-------------------------
>
>References
>(Copy addresses into browser)
>
>1.
><http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/Schmidt/protests.htm>
>2. <http://disciplinedminds.com>
>3. <http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/Schmidt/index.htm>
>4.
><http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/Schmidt/investigation.htm>
>5.
><http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/sanjoy/schmidt/chronology/APSXappealX--Xsarachik.html>
>6.
><http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/Schmidt/complaint.htm>
>7. <http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/sanjoy/schmidt/discovery/>
>8. <http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/sanjoy/schmidt/coverage/sgr2006.pdf>
>9. <http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/sanjoy/schmidt/>
>10. <http://disciplinedminds.com/settlement-a-performed.pdf>
>11. <http://disciplinedminds.tripod.com/settlement.htm/>
>12. <http://disciplinedminds.com/settlement-c.pdf>
>13.
><http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/sanjoy/schmidt/discovery/07%20(D1457-1458).PDF>
>14. <http://www.washlaw.org/news/releases/032006.htm>
>15. <http://disciplinedminds.tripod.com/>
>16.
><http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/sanjoy/schmidt/chronology/aipletter.pdf>
>17. <http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/sanjoy/schmidt/slapp/slapp.pdf>
>18. <http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/sanjoy/schmidt/slapp/anti-slapp1.pdf>
>and <http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/sanjoy/schmidt/slapp/anti-slapp2.txt>
((((((((((((((((((((((( ( ( (o) ) ) )))))))))))))))))))))))
William J. Beaty http://staff.washington.edu/wbeaty/
Research Engineer UW Chem Dept, Bagley Hall RM74
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Box 351700, Seattle, WA 98195-1700
ph:206-543-6195 fax:206-685-8665
