The article entitled New Frontier for Holocaust Denier - NU Gives Controversial Professor a Home On The Internet which appears on Page 1 of the Sunday, 29 DEC 96 edition of the Chicago Tribune contains a typographical error for the URL of my WWW page for C96 - Last Call & Candor. Please follow the link to http://www.k9ape.com/c96/candor01.html to reach it.

My comments on the article appear at http://www.k9ape.com/c96/candor04.html.

Commentary and a list of related articles appear at http://www.k9ape.com/c96/candor.html.

The reason Dean Cohen fired me is that I have chosen to both speak in class and publish an assignment about the Holocaust - the premeditated genocide of Jews, Gypsies and others deemed unacceptable by Nazi's of Germany's Third Reich during World War II. I have been told that Dean Cohen considers my classroom discussion of the Holocaust inappropriate for a Design Engineering class. Apparently, he fears that if I am permitted to speak about the Holocaust to my students, then other faculty members will use it as a precedent and justification for their teaching about the Holocaust in their classes. My position is that students need to be informed about facts - even if there is a potential for propaganda.

My assignment is called CANDOR - The Language of Engineering. Because the circumstances are not unique in engineering, I want to describe them to you so that you will learn how to confront them in your careers.

As all of you know, a tenured Professor in our Electrical and Computer Engineering Department has used a Northwestern University WWW server to publish articles claiming -among other allegations- that the Holocaust did not occur. When I learned of this during the Spring, 1996 Quarter, my response was to lodge a complaint with Dean Cohen about what I considered an abuse of faculty privileges; specifically, the use of the server to publish a libel against Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Dean Cohen's response was to tell me that Northwestern University had a policy of free speech and that there was nothing that could be done. My response was to tell him that this was not a free speech question; but, a trademark issue because unauthorized use of Northwestern University's URL, name and trademarks brought the University's credibility into question. Dean Cohen disagreed; but, offered to forward my complaint to University President Henry S. Bienen. I asked that this be done.

I then told Dean Cohen that I could not remain silent on the problem for two reasons; namely, 1) my moral obligation to the victims of the Holocaust which required that I teach my students about the facts of German genocide and 2) my determination to disassociate myself and my reputation from the publication of another faculty member which I considered a libel. I specifically told him that I would make a statement about the problem to my class. As I recall, the Dean responded by stating:

• That he had also lost relatives in the Holocaust and the publication brought him great pain;
• That while he strongly advised me to say nothing, he would defend my right to say what I wanted; and
• He thought that any further statements would draw unnecessary attention to the Professor's statements which was exactly what the Professor wanted.

He concluded by stating that he believed that free speech must be preserved - even when it is disagreeable and then related his own example about debate during the time of the Viet Nam War.

After giving Dean Cohen's advice serious consideration, I decided to make an extemporaneous statement to my students and let the matter rest there. This I did and to my dismay, I found that about one-half of the class either had not heard of the Holocaust or lacked reliable information about it.

I spent the Summer thinking about the problem and concluded that it was important to teach my students about the Holocaust because -in part- it was the Engineers who built the engines of death which made it possible for Nazis to execute their tidal wave of death and destruction. My first pedagogical objective, however, was not to speak only to the Holocaust; but instead, to use the Holocaust as an example of horrors that can occur when engineers (and others) do not tell the truth. Hence the title of my C96 Assignment - CANDOR - The Language of Engineering. My second objective was to provide my students with facts and a data base so that they could respond intelligently to a proposition such as The Holocaust is the Jewish Hoax of the Twentieth Century.

In the course of preparing my CANDOR WWW page, I was told of President Bienen's 17 MAY 96 Letter to Rabbi Abraham Cooper and Mr. Mark Weitzman of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. I found the letter to be an inappropriate and ineffective response because:

• It was located at an obscure URL which was unlikely to be known to students;
• It never referred to the author of the libelous material as Professor - thereby, appearing to minimize the man's importance at Northwestern University as a tenured member of the Faculty;
• It lacked any promise of effective remedial action;
• It offered only conclusions without facts that could be studied and analyzed by students; and
• No opportunity or resource was provided to students to discuss questions with our faculty.

From my experience in teaching and in industry, I believe that it is always better to acknowledge mistakes and then inoculate people with facts rather than to tender excuses and isolate people from the truth.

The truth, however, had little impact on subsequent events. Dean Cohen has not seen fit to talk to me since he learned of my WWW publication of CANDOR - The Language of Engineering. I was informed by other members of the faculty that my academic appointment would not be renewed at the end of 1996 because continued discussion of the Holocaust violated Dean Cohen's instructions. So it appears that the right of free speech has received a new definition at Northwestern University.

For your last C96 assignment, please compare CANDOR - The Language of Engineering with the formal definition of Engineering Design quoted from Accreditation Board for Engineering Technology's program criteria which, in part, states:

... Among the fundamental elements of the design process are the establishment of objectives and criteria, synthesis, analysis, construction, testing and evaluation. The engineering design component of a curriculum must include at least some of the following features: development of student creativity, use of open-ended problems, development and use of design methodology, formulation of design problem statements and specifications, consideration of alternative solutions, feasibility considerations, and detailed system descriptions. Further, it is essential to include a variety of realistic constraints such as economic factors, safety, reliability, aesthetics, ethics, and social impact (Emphasis added).

Following our C96 protocol, please consider the following questions:

1. Does ;CANDOR - The Language of Engineering meet ABET guidelines for an Engineering Design curriculum? If not, then why not? How could it be improved?
2. Is there any statement in CANDOR - The Language of Engineering which is factually incorrect, inappropriate, out of context or misleading in any way? If so, please identify and offer suggestions for improvement.
3. Is the content of CANDOR - The Language of Engineering likely to harm a student or be offensive to a student? If so, please describe how or why the content is harmful or offensive and suggest changes?
4. Am I being punished for what I have published or for what someone else has published? Why is the distinction important?
5. Who or what benefits and who or what is harmed from the termination of my academic appointment under these circumstances?
6. Do you have any reason to believe that such matters of discipline are limited only to academia? Can you recall similar situations in private industry or in government?
7. Will the circumstances of terminating my academic appointment have a positive or negative effect on other faculty members? Potential faculty members? Students? The Electrical & Computer Engineering Department's reputation?
8. What would you do in similar circumstances? Would you expect me, as your Instructor, to do anything different? Now that you understand the punishment I received, what price are you willing to pay as a leader?

Of course, this is not a graded exercise; however, I would appreciate receiving your remarks.

Now, I would like to close with some observations and advice.

First, Dean Cohen is perfectly within his right to fire me or to terminate my academic appointment since I do not have (and would not accept) tenure. However, my departure from campus will not end the debate over whether it is in the best interests of the students and the University to isolate students as opposed to inoculate them with facts of the Holocaust or other genocides and acts denigrating basic human rights. As long as there are people who are eager to appeal to racial, ethnic, religious or nationalist prejudice instead of reason and rationale discourse, the problem of whether or not to discuss the Holocaust will remain.

Second, those of you who currently are students must not do anything which will put your academic careers at risk. In a very short time, you will become alumni and Northwestern University will then be your responsibility. Remember, you have time and youth on your side - so be patient.

Lastly, I will be establishing a new WWW site on a commercial server before the end of the Fall, 1996 Quarter. My new URL will be http://www.k9ape.com. My new WWW site will contain some of our C96 WWW pages - including those on resumes, ethics, leadership and the Holocaust. My new e-mail address is shel@k9ape.com.

Please send me a note when you have time. I enjoyed getting to know each of you.

N.B. The contents of this page are the sole responsibility of its author and have not been approved for teaching purposes by Northwestern University. This page originally appeared on a Northwestern University server as C96 - LAST CALL and CANDOR.

For more information, please see The Chicago Jewish News, 25-31 OCT 96, Page 5 for an article by Todd Weiner titled Tangled Web - Northwestern professor and the Holocaust. The newspaper receives e-mail at Chicago Jewish News E-Mail .

For those not at Northwestern University, you can link to Holocaust Revisitionist material published on Northwestern's INTERNET server. After you have read that page and the pages linked to it, you can also examine that author's use of a Northwestern INTERNET server for his Electrical & Computer Engineering Department teaching. When comparing these sites, what conclusions can you reach? Why did the Accredidation Board for Engineering Technology deny full accredidation to the Elcectrical & Computer Engineering Department in 1994? If you wish, you can e-mail a comment to President Henry S.Bienen, Dean Jerome Cohen, Chairman Abraham Haddad and me.

The Chicago Jewish News News 25-31 OCT 96 issue contains an article entitled Tangled Web - NU professor and the Holocaust.

The Daily Northwestern 29 OCT 96 issue contains an article entitled Prof say Holocaust views cost him his job.

For an excellent WWW site describing the Holocaust, please see Responses to the Holocaust: A Hypermedia Sourcebook for the Humanities by Robert Levanthal of The University of Virginia. In particular, see his page entitled Information and Technology In the Holocaust.

The Chicago Tribune Sunday, 29 DEC 96 edition contains a Page 1 article entitled New Frontier For Holcaust Denier - NU Gives Controversial Professor a Home On The Internet which describes policy issues and how other universities manage their INTERNET resources. My comments about that article appear at http://www.k9ape.com/c96/candor04.html .

Northwestern University Management Responds To My Charges. My remarks are included.

Cable News Network

The New York Times

The Washington Post has an article enttitled Professor's Holocasut Views Put Freedom Issues On Line on its WWW site. Enter the Washington Post Home Page and register. Then enter their search page and ask for an article written by Edward Walsh on 12 JAN 97 containing the word Northwestern.

5 OCT 96 - Last Updated 12 JAN 97