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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