I invited university officials to reply. What they said is below, and I thank them for taking the time to respond. Background on "disacknowledged" case: http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=disacknowledged http://www.politechbot.com/p-02046.html -Declan ******** Date: Mon, 21 May 2001 09:42:18 -0700 To: Declan McCullagh <declanat_private> From: Charles Li <liat_private> Subject: Re: More on student loses speech case against Univ of California In-Reply-To: <5.0.2.1.0.20010518232157.020bca10at_private> The University respects the First Amendment rights of any individual. In the case of Mr. Christopher Brown, he has the right to say, write and publish whatever he wishes. The faculty of a university also has First Amendment rights, and the University must respect that also. In this case, the relevant First Amendment right of the faculty is their freedom to choose to endorse or not endorse any statements of another individual. In a thesis, the first page states that the thesis represents the partial fulfillment of the degree requirements and it is approved by the faculty committee that supervises the thesis. At the bottom of this first page, each member of the Thesis Committee signs his/her name. Signing this first page is tantamount to endorsing or approving the content of the thesis from cover to cover. Members of the Thesis Committee most exercise their judgement to decide whether or not they wish to endorse and approve the entire thesis from cover to cover. The University as an institution, just like a publishing company, a television broadcasting company, has the First Amendment right of deciding whether or not it wishes to publish the writing of an individual. Making a thesis available to the public who requests and pays for it is publishing the thesis. I have presented the First Amendment rights of three parties: an individual, a faculty member serving on a thesis committee, a university. None of these First Amendment rights can or should override the other. ___________________________________________________ Charles Li Professor of Linguistics, Dean of Graduate Division University of California, Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA 93106 Tel: 805-893-2013 Fax: 805-893-8259 ******** Date: Mon, 21 May 2001 17:11:49 -0700 To: Declan McCullagh <declanat_private> From: "Christopher M. Patti" <christopher.pattiat_private> Subject: Christopher Brown v. Charles Li et al. Dear Mr. McCullagh: I am the attorney representing the defendants in Christopher Brown's lawsuit. They have passed your email soliciting a response to Mr. Brown's and Mr. Silverglate's statements about the lawsuit on to me. The defendants' position is quite comprehensively set out in the various briefs they filed in court. Please let me know if you would like copies of any of those court filings. Regards, Christopher M. Patti University Counsel University of California 1111 Franklin Street, 8th Floor Oakland, CA 94607-5200 Tel: (510)987-9800 Fax: (510)987-9757 ******** From: Chris.Brownat_private Received: from noteslax1.peoplelink.com (noteslax1.peoplelink.com [216.34.204.20]) by smtp.well.com (8.8.5/8.8.4) with ESMTP id UAA14263 for <declanat_private>; Sat, 19 May 2001 20:16:41 -0700 (PDT) To: declanat_private Cc: politechat_private MIME-Version: 1.0 Subject: Re: FC: More on student loses speech case against Univ of California Date: Sat, 19 May 2001 20:18:07 -0700 Message-ID: <OF138DD0E0.C34427F6-ON88256A52.0012232Aat_private> Declan and politechbot readers, Concerning me censored thesis, we filed the notice of appeal to the Ninth Circut Court of Appeals this past week. In a little more than a year, we can expect a hearing. Because of ongoing litigation, it is unlikely that you will get a response from the university, other than from Christopher Patti in the Office of the UC General Counsel. (FYI, Patti took over this case from David Birnbaum. I do not have Patti's email address otherwise I would share it.) Until the Court of Appeals has a chance to review the case, politechbot readers and researchers in my field will not be able to go to UCSB's Davidson Library to read my federally funded research. This illuminates a double wrong. Not only has the university denied my academic freedom and free speech rights, it has also cut-off other students and researchers from access to ideas and opinions. In these all-to-frequent censorship cases, the greatest loser is always those who have refused access to controversial works. In this case, the administration clearly did not think that its community should be exposed to honest criticism of the university. One would think that this has to be embarrassingfor the academic community involved. The usual gauge of a scientific paper is the caliber of the research and not whether it measues up to the Mennonite upbringing of one of the faculty. Interested parties might be able to get the complete document by making a public records request to the University of California, Santa Barbara Pubic Records Office. Call or write: Huerta, Raymond Coordinator, Public Records Information Office 805-893-2089, 805-893-2701 2121 Cheadle Hall Santa Barbara, CA 93106 Fax: 805-893-5482 E-Mail: Raymond.Huertaat_private and ask for THE MORPHOLOGY OF CALCIUM CARBONATE, FACTORS AFFECTING CRYSTAL SHAPE, by Christopher Brown. It will be very interesting to see how the university deals with multiple public requests for a federally funded research that should be otherwise readily available . They will likely try to 1) deny the existence of the document, 2) Claim they are not in posession of such a document. (We have it on good information that it's in the special collections vault of the Davidson Library). 3) Refuse to relinquish it because it is the subject of legal proceedings. ( Again this should not stand because the university itself is not a party to the litigation, it's officers in the individual capacity are.) If one or more of you make a request, I would be interested in hearing how it turns out. Cheers and Free Thinking and Writing to All, Christopher Brown BS University of California, Berkeley (yes, the home of the Free Speech Movement) MS University of California, Santa Barbara ******** ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if it remains intact. 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