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

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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
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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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