FC: More on student loses speech case against Univ of California

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

**********
In response to: http://www.politechbot.com/p-02037.html

I am copying university officials who have been involved in this affair at 
one time or another in case they would like the opportunity to reply.

-Declan
**********

From: "Harvey A. Silverglate" <has () world std com>
To: <declan () well com>, <politech () politechbot com>
Cc: "'Brown, Christopher'" <cbrown () peoplelink com>
Subject: RE: Judge sides with Univ of California in student free speech case
Date: Thu, 17 May 2001 12:37:43 -0400
In-Reply-To: <5.0.2.1.0.20010517110806.02004380 () mail well com>

Declan,
        I just want to add a couple of points to Chris Brown's report on the status
of his litigation.
        (I speak, incidentally, in my role as a co-Director and officer of The
Foundation for Individual Rights in Education ("FIRE") <www.thefire.org>,
which has been supporting Chris from early-on, has been in communication
with the University, and has been cooperating with Chris' attorneys.)
        The thesis committee had approved Chris' thesis, as a mater of academic
evaluation and judgment, until the committee members learned that a
"Disacknowledgement" section had been tacked on to the thesis as finally
submitted. Thus, there is no doubt that the only reason the thesis had been
rejected was because of his criticism of the University. Indeed, when the
refusal to give him his degree became public, they granted him the degree
but refused to file the thesis in the normal course.
        Correspondence that I had, in my capacity as an officer of FIRE, with
University officers, demonstrates clearly that the University's position is
that they don't have to "publish" something that they view as obnoxious or
personally critical of them or of the University. Hence, this is a very
clean-cut First Amendment issue.
        Finally, the University rests its refusal in large measure on its claim
that to allow the thesis to be filed officially and formally would be
equivalent to the University's adopting in some way the contents, including
the Disaknowledtgements. This raises the issue not only of whether a
university's approving a thesis is equivalent to "adopting" it somehow, but,
more specifically, whether an "Acknowledgement" section or a
"Disacknowledgement" section is part of the thesis for such purposes, or
whether it states the personal views of the author and cannot be attributed
to the University or its officers or faculty. It seems clear to me that the
latter is true.
        The trial judge in this case seems to have acted with an unusual degree of
ignorance of the law and disregard of the facts. As Chris said, given this
particular judge's reputation we were not expecting otherwise. Onward to the
appellate court.

                                        Harvey A. Silverglate
                                        The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education





-------------------------------------------------------------------------
POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list
You may redistribute this message freely if it remains intact.
To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html
This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------