Copy your
letter to SpeechRights@aol.com
4) Inform colleagues who may be interested in the case.
5) Use any media contacts you may have to publicise the case
The
following is the letter to APS Council members:
17 March 2003
To: Myriam P. Sarachik
President, American Physical Society
Department of Physics, CCNY-CUNY
Convent Avenue and 138th Street
New York, NY 10031
Dear Myriam Sarachik,
After a long investigation -- the most detailed to date by scientists -- an
IEEE human rights committee has issued a disturbing report on the dismissal of
physicist Jeff Schmidt by the American Institute of Physics. As you know, Jeff
was fired after 19 years at Physics Today magazine, upon publication of his
book, Disciplined Minds.
The IEEE committee joins a long list of individuals and organizations that have
publicly condemned AIP's action as suppression of dissent within the physics
community. Among the 800 scientists and other scholars who have gone on record
against AIP's repressive behavior are more than 500 physicists, mostly APS members
-- the largest number of physicists ever to speak out on a
freedom-of-expression issue in the United States.
In one of the scores of protest letters, APS member Al McInturff notes that if
we fail to take a stand against suppression of dissent, then "by our
silence we concur." This is especially true when the repression is carried
out in our name, as it was in this case, because the American Physical Society
is the leading organization that governs the American Institute of Physics. APS
cannot say, "We aren't responsible for AIP's behavior."
The 500 APS members who are objecting to Jeff's firing would, of course, like
their Council to be responsive to their concerns. On their behalf, we ask you
to raise the issue formally with the APS Council, of which you are a member.
Specifically, we request that the Council hold an on-the-record discussion of
the issue and take the following action:
1. Call publicly for Jeff's reinstatement.
2. Instruct the APS representatives on the AIP Governing Board to press for Jeff's
reinstatement.
To date, there has been no serious investigation of Jeff's case by any APS
official, as evidenced by the simple fact that no one from APS has ever
contacted Jeff to give him the opportunity to address whatever issues APS deems
decisive in the case.
When we looked into Jeff's dismissal ourselves, we concluded that it was a
clear case of suppression of dissent -- a reprisal for Jeff's critical research
and writing about physics education and professional careers, and in particular
for his views on workplace practices and working conditions at Physics Today. A
revealing statement by AIP CEO Marc Brodsky, prompted by protests against
Jeff's firing, confirmed for us that we hadn't missed any significant facts
when we assessed the matter.
While at Physics Today, Jeff consistently completed his work far ahead of
deadline, invariably received job performance ratings of "Meets job
requirements" or "Exceeds job requirements," and was widely
praised for the quality of his work. The evidence indicates that Jeff would
still be employed by Physics Today, just as he had been for 19 years, if he had
not been a workplace activist and if he had written but not published
Disciplined Minds. As far as we know, no AIP manager has disputed this, either
publicly or privately. Therefore, we conclude that Jeff was fired for
expressing critical views within the physics community. Ironically, reviewers
have treated his book as a valuable contribution. (See, for example, the review
in the APS Forum publication, Physics and Society, July 2002, and the author
interview in the APS Division of Biological Physics publication, The Biological
Physicist, October 2001.)
Jeff's treatment like a heretic reflects poorly on our organization and
undermines the science community's efforts to be seen by the public as
open-minded. We would like to work with you to make sure that the next round of
publicity in this case is positive -- based on a clear demonstration by APS
that physicists will not tolerate the exclusion of critical views from debate
within the physics community. We are sure that you, as a fellow physicist,
share our high expectations for our organization.
Jeff has not taken his dismissal to court, preferring first to give individuals
and organizations such as APS the opportunity to speak out publicly for
justice. Forgoing this opportunity would take the matter out of the hands of
the physics community and would likely put APS in the awkward position of
co-defendant. (When Jeff was fired, he was banned from APS headquarters as well
as AIP headquarters, being told never to reenter the American Center for
Physics "at any time, for any reason.") What would APS's lawyers say?
"Firing Jeff was perfectly legal"? "It's all AIP's fault"?
APS is known for speaking out when scientists in other countries suffer
reprisals for expressing their views. We must not give repressive foreign
authorities the opportunity to question our credibility and dismiss our
protests as hypocritical because we are silent about repression within our own
organizations.
We will, of course, report the Council's response in this case to the hundreds
of concerned APS members, physics graduate students, and people outside of
physics who have been following the case with great interest. Thus, this is not
only an opportunity to do something for justice close to home, but also an
opportunity for APS leaders to build their reputation among both physicists and
human rights activists.
Enclosed is a copy of the human rights committee report mentioned above.Marc
Brodsky's statement to the committee (and to others) is posted on the web at
http://disciplinedminds.com. We asked Jeff if he had any testimonial evidence
from physicists that he did good work at Physics Today, and a copy of what he
sent us in response is enclosed. We thought you would also appreciate the
perspective of the enclosed article from Physics World magazine.
We would appreciate hearing your views. Please feel free to contact any of us
-- our addresses and telephone numbers are at the top of this letter.We would,
of course, be happy to provide additional information. We have written to other
members of the Council to ask their views, too. Please fell free, as well, to
contact Jeff directly, at 202-537-3645 or jeffschmidt@alumni.uci.edu.
Best regards,
[signed: Michael A. Lee]
For Talat Rahman, Michael A. Lee, George F. Reiter, Denis G. Rancourt, and Fay
Dowker