IP: Univ of California officials reply to free speech case post

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Date: Fri, 25 May 2001 13:15:33 -0400
> To: politech () politechbot com
> From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
> Subject: FC: Univ of California officials reply to free speech case post
> Cc: li () graddiv ucsb edu, christopher.patti () ucop edu
>
>
> 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 <declan () well com>
> From: Charles Li <li () graddiv ucsb edu>
> Subject: Re: More on student loses speech case against Univ of
>   California
> In-Reply-To: <5.0.2.1.0.20010518232157.020bca10 () mail well com>
>
> 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 <declan () well com>
> From: "Christopher M. Patti" <christopher.patti () ucop edu>
> 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.Brown () peoplelink com
> 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 <declan () well com>; Sat, 19 May 2001 20:16:41 
> -0700 (PDT)
> To: declan () well com
> Cc: politech () politechbot com
> 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-ON88256A52.0012232A () peoplelink com>
>
> 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.Huerta () aao ucsb edu
>
> 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
>
> ********
>
>
>
>
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