Northwestern University's Response
To Charges of Management Failure
Relating To The Use Of Its WWW Server
For Publishing Holocaust-Revisionist Propaganda
The Chairman of Northwestern University's Electrical & Computer Engineering Department sent the following e-mail message to me:
Subject: Re: Butz
Date: Wed, 8 Jan 1997 15:13:38 -0600 (CST)
From: Abraham Haddad <ahaddad@beb.ece.nwu.edu>
To: shel@k9ape.com
Shel
I wonder how big a cut are you getting from Butz's income from his revisionist organizations. Otherwise, I see no logical reason for you to provide him with so much free publicity. If you have not thought of that, it is not late to ask for a fair share.
Abe
At the same time, I was advised of a new WWW page by the Dean Jerome B. Cohen of Northwestern University's McCormick Engineering & Applied Science School which states:
Response to the Epstein/Butz Controversy
There have been comments about us "firing Professor Epstein" for his response to Professor Butz's views on the Holocaust on the NU Net.
In the first place, Sheldon Epstein was not a Professor, but an unpaid volunteer instructor. We usually have many of these appointments in any given year, with term appointments. His was due to expire on December 31, 1996 and it did. He was NOT fired. We had decided to make a change much earlier in the year for several reasons. For example, the last three times he taught his course, 50% or more of the students dropped the course. We obviously needed a better approach.
The material on the Holocaust that Mr. Epstein proposed for his engineering design class was inappropriate for this course and so we asked him not to use it. He chose to do so and we did NOT stop him from doing it.
He could have rebutted Dr. Butz via the same Net, or he could have given a public lecture or he could have taken his students to lunch to discuss his views. He did not do so. This certainly did not help his situation.
Everyone reading this should understand the power of the Net, to distribute patently false and misleading information rapidly and to a large audience. People often send things when they are angry or without first cooling down. We are going to have to learn to live with this new technology, without eliminating our basic freedoms.
In case anyone has a question, I abhor Dr. Butz's views. His presence here is an affront that I have tolerated for many years.
Jerome B. Cohen,
Dean McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science
Northwestern University
January 8, 1997
The following message was then received from Dean Cohen:
Subject:
Date: Fri, 10 Jan 1997 09:22:06 -0600 (CST)
From: cohen@elmo.tech.nwu.edu (Jerome Cohen)
To: shel@k9ape.com, ahaddad@eecs.nwu.edu CC: ahaddad@eecs.nwu.edu, m-weston@nwu.edu
IF you continue to write to people and tell them you were fired , you will be sued. This is a falsehood and we will no longer tolerate your exaggerations and self serving misstatements. The biggest emabarrassment we have right now is that we ever let you in the door! Butz we learned to live with a long time ago.
President Henry S. Bienen issued another statement on 6 JAN 97 about the publication of Holocaust-Revisionist material on Northwestern University's WWW server. You may wish to consider whether his statements are contradictory in light of the Accreditation Board for Engineering & Technology's requirement that I was given which mandates instruction on an engineer's ethics and social responsibilty in the course that I was asked to teach:
In regard to Mr. Epstein, it is important to note that Mr. Epstein first discussed the issue of Mr. Butz's Web site with Jerome Cohen, Dean of the School of Engineering, who warned Mr. Epstein not to make the issue part of his class curriculum because it was not pertinent to the subject of the class. Mr. Epstein's decision to include materials not appropriate to the class in his discussion and assignments directly contravenes University policy, as well as the direction he received from the dean.
. . .
A university, by its very nature, is a place where such issues are explored and debated fully and vigorously.
On Wednesday, 7 JAN 97, I received a request from Ms. Joan Drummond of Cable News Network's Chicago bureau for an on-air interview. During that conversation, Ms. Drummond asked me to respond to some of the allegations made by Northwestern University officials. The following is a copy of a FAX that I sent to her:
January 8, 1997
Ms. Joan Drummond
CNN
312:645-8855 FAX 312:645-8560
Tribune Tower
Chicago, IL 60611
Dear Ms. Drummond:
Thank you for yesterday’s telephone call asking me for an on-camera interview regarding Northwestern University’s firing of me for using the Holocaust as a focal point in teaching engineering students about Ethics and Social Responsibility. In the spur of the moment, I agreed to accept your invitation for a Thursday interview. On further reflection I concluded that there are better people than me to represent the Jewish community on television. ... [The name of a suggested spokesman has been deleted.].
In your discussing Northwestern University’s firing of me because of my stand on the use of its INTERNET server to publish Holocaust Revisionist propaganda, I emphasized the following points:
1. As a tax-exempt institution, Northwestern University is party to a social contract to devote its energies to the search for and publication of the truth and the proper education and ethical training of our children.
2. The First Amendment - Free Speech claims made by Northwestern University are inappropriate in this case because the University is not a branch of government and because there has been a complete dereliction, under the excuse of Free Speech, of the faculty’s obligation to self-police its members which the faculty undertook in exchange for obtaining tenure. In any case, I was the person who was fired and I am not claiming any right to Free Speech.
3. The problem is not one between Northwestern University and Sheldon Epstein; but, between Northwestern University and the community at-large and, more specifically, the Jewish community. It was Jewish men in leadership positions at Northwestern University who solicited donations and students from the Jewish community while conspiring to maintain secrecy about the use of Northwestern University resources to publish Holocaust-Revisionist propaganda. It was also those Jewish men who knew that the Jewish community contributes 25% of all donations made to Northwestern University and therefore it is up to us to meet our communal responsibility for full disclosure to alumni, donors, students and their families.
It is my understanding that CNN would like to air these points during their interview. You also told me that CNN is proceeding with interviews of Northwestern University officials and students. [Information relating to the suggested spokesman has been deleted.] I appreciate your reasons for asking me to reconsider; however, I firmly believe that the issue has now become a Jewish community question and that it would be inappropriate for me to appear to represent the Jewish community during a television interview because I have never held any leadership position. I trust that you will agree with both my rationale and decision and that you will make arrangements for an interview with ... a leader of the Jewish community. I will assist in this in any way that I can.
Please call me with your questions and suggestions.
Sincerely,
Sheldon L. Epstein
My Remarks
The statements of Northwestern University ECE Dept. Chairman Abraham Haddad and Dean Jerome B. Cohen speak for themselves. Having read them in conjunction with President Bienen's 17 MAY 96 Letter to Rabbi Abraham Cooper and Mr. Mark Weitzman of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and his 6 JAN 97 Press Release, you must ask yourself,
You should know, for example, that Professor Butz wrote his book on his own time with no University involvement of any kind.
These are important questions - not whether I was a competent instructor.
While much of what Dean Cohen alleges is misleading as he tries to change the focus of the debate from what he and his colleagues have done to what he alleges are my inadequacies, he is correct in stating
He could have rebutted Dr. Butz via the same Net, or he could have given a public lecture or he could have taken his students to lunch to discuss his views. He did not do so. This certainly did not help his situation.
What Dean Cohen's self-contradictory statement proves is that he still does not comprehend that I was not only challenging the publications of Prof. Butz; but, that through the CANDOR - The Language Of Engineering class assignment, I was illuminating the management failures of President Henry S. Bienen, Dean Cohen and Chairman Haddad in refusing to mandate high standards for the self-government of tenured faculty, the use of tax-exempt university property and the endorsement of the Northwestern University trademark. The issue is not Prof. Butz nor is it Instructor Epstein (who declined to accept a salary which was offered) - it is Northwestern University's management and those individuals who could not or would not discern important ethical and social responsibility issues relating to the new technology of the INTERNET.
When this day is done, what has been said on this page will be of little consequence on campus until the Northwestern University Trustees, the alumni, the tenured faculty, the students, their families and the Jewish community act. Until that day,
My role in this controversy has been to alert both the campus and the community to what I consider a serious lapse of moral courage and leadership. Through the use of the INTERNET, I have illuminated the facts and brought them to your attention. Having read these pages, now you also have a moral responsibility to act.
8 JAN 97 - Updated 14 JAN 97