"Disciplined Mind" author victimized--what you can do

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear fellow scientist,

As you may have heard, Physics Today magazine recently gave a very
punishing review to a book written by physicist Jeff Schmidt:  The magazine
fired him.

Jeff was a staff editor at Physics Today for 19 years -- until his
supervisors saw Disciplined Minds (Rowman & Littlefield, 2000), a
thought-provoking critique of workplace hierarchy and the politically
subordinate role of salaried professionals.  The book uses physicists and
physics graduate school to help illustrate points about professionals and
professional training in general.

Within days of learning about his irreverent book, the higher-ups at
Physics Today dismissed Jeff summarily, apparently using the book as an
opportunity to retaliate against him for his workplace activism and to
ignore his widely praised work for the magazine.  Details of Jeff's firing
are given in the statement below, and can also be found on the Web at
http://disciplined-minds.com

Please join us in protesting Jeff's dismissal, by adding your name to the
letter below.  We will send the letter to Marc H. Brodsky, Executive
Director and CEO of the American Institute of Physics, which publishes
Physics Today, and we will also post it on the Web.

To add your name to the letter, please send an e-mail message to
SpeechRights@xxxxxxxx  Include your name and an affiliation, such as your
department and institution.  Please ask others to add their names, too.

You can also write directly to Marc Brodsky, at brodsky@xxxxxxxx  If you
do, please send a copy of your letter to SpeechRights@xxxxxxx so that it
can be posted on the Web.  We may send you updates on this issue (if you
prefer not to receive them, just let us know).

Your support will make a big difference.

Sincerely,

Talat Rahman
Fellow of the American Physical Society
University Distinguished Professor
Department of Physics
Kansas State University

George F. Reiter
Professor of Physics
University of Houston

Michael A. Lee
Professor of Physics
Kent State University

-------------------------

Background info about Jeff Schmidt and Disciplined Minds

By Chris Mohr and Jean Kumagai
Former Physics Today staff members

In Disciplined Minds, Jeff Schmidt challenges professionals to view their
role in society in a new and unsettling way.  He argues that professional
work has both technical and political components, and that salaried
professionals are expected to be technically creative but politically
subordinate.  In particular, they are expected to work creatively to
further their employers' world view rather than their own.  Such
subordination does not occur without a fight, the book maintains, and so
the workplace becomes a battleground for the very identity of the
individual, as does graduate school, where professionals are trained.

Jeff has a PhD in physics from the University of California, Irvine, and he
draws many of his examples from the predicament of employed physicists and
physics graduate students.  (In one chapter, he examines the physics PhD
qualifying examination and shows how the seemingly value-neutral test
identifies candidates who have the "right attitude" about their work.)  His
book details the battle one must fight to be an independent thinker and to
advance one's own social vision in today's corporate society.  It offers
advice on how to make employment more than an exercise in knowing your
place, and how to make graduate school more than an abusive "intellectual
bootcamp" that breaks the individual in to playing a conventional role.
You can avoid the cynicism and intellectual timidity that afflicts so many
professional employees, he says, but doing so is not easy, and he discusses
how it can be done.

While at Physics Today, Jeff played the most prominent role in staff
efforts to improve working conditions, increase staff participation in
decision-making, and broaden the range of viewpoints allowed in the
magazine.  He also led an effort to force Physics Today to live up to its
advertised claim of being an affirmative-action employer, noting that the
magazine was hiring and training only whites as editors, a pattern that
eventually left the magazine with an all-white staff of 16 professionals
and a non-white secretarial staff of 3.

In firing Jeff, the managers at Physics Today cited a statement, at the
beginning of Disciplined Minds, that he had done some work on the book in
his office.  Such use of time constitutes "misconduct," they said.  But to
those familiar with the Physics Today workplace, this charge looks more
like a pretext to get rid of someone who was persistently pressing for
changes in workplace policies.  Indeed, the fact that the magazine's
managers dismissed Jeff after so many years of service not only without a
hearing, but also without asking him a single question about his work on
the book, suggests that they were looking for an opportunity to remove him.

By the time Disciplined Minds was published, Physics Today's managers had
already tried unsuccessfully to silence Jeff with repressive measures just
short of dismissal.  At one point, for example, they put gag orders on Jeff
and another outspoken staff editor, warning that they would be fired if
they said anything "counterproductive."  These orders were eventually
lifted due to pressure from coworkers.  Perhaps even more incredibly,
Physics Today also banned private conversations in the workplace,
announcing that all conversations between staff members must be open to
monitoring by managers.  In light of this history, Physics Today's response
to Disciplined Minds is less surprising.

The managers at Physics Today apparently thought the book would look so
provocative to others that no one would object if they fired Jeff.  They
were wrong.  To date, there have been many protests: by sixteen former
Physics Today staff members (including us), by the National Writers Union,
and by 160 scholars, writers and educators in a wide range of fields.  Even
the State of Maryland, after an unemployment benefits hearing, rejected
AIP's charge that Jeff's work on the book at the office constituted
misconduct, finding that Physics Today fired Jeff without evidence that his
spare-time writing interfered with his work for the magazine.  (During the
years that Jeff was writing Disciplined Minds, Physics Today gave him two
promotions and 19 salary increases based explicitly on the quantity and
quality of his work for the magazine.)  Details of the state investigation
are posted on the Web at http://disciplined-minds.com, along with the
protest letters, reports in the press an!
d reviews of the book.

Jeff recently took his case to one of the ten largest law firms in
Washington, D.C.  Lawyers at Dickstein Shapiro Morin & Oshinsky felt that
Physics Today's actions, if left unchallenged, would set a bad precedent
for employees everywhere.  They waived their fees and will do what they can
to bring legal challenges against Physics Today's repressive behavior,
simply for the public good.  Physics Today has hired what union activists
and labor lawyers call the most notorious union-busting law firm in the
country (Jackson, Lewis, Schnitzler & Krupman) to deal with any legal
challenges in this case.  That's revealing, but it doesn't mean that the
law is a likely source of justice for Jeff.  The law generally favors
employers, and so Jeff's best chance for justice is support from the
physics community.

Please consider adding your name to the letter below or writing your own
letter.  You can also spread the word by telling your friends and
colleagues about Jeff's case, by linking your Web site to
http://disciplined-minds.com and, if you are an instructor, by informing
your students about Jeff's situation.

You can contact Jeff at...

Jeff Schmidt
3003 Van Ness Street NW #W406
Washington, DC 20008
jeffschmidt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
202-537-3645

(The above is based on information from Jeff and other former Physics Today
employees, and on relevant documents.  You can contact us at
christophermohr@xxxxxxxxxxx and jean_kumagai@xxxxxxxxxxx)

-------------------------

The letter...

To: Marc H. Brodsky
Executive Director and CEO
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse
College Park, Maryland 20740

Dear Dr. Brodsky:

As physicists and other scientists concerned about freedom of expression in
the science community, we were troubled to learn of your dismissal of Jeff
Schmidt, who had been an articles editor at Physics Today magazine for over
19 years.

As we understand it, you fired Jeff after you saw his book, Disciplined
Minds, and in particular after you learned that Jeff had used some of his
spare time at the office for critical writing about education and
employment in physics and other fields.

While we do not necessarily agree with Jeff's views about the situation of
physicists and other salaried professionals, and do not expect you to, we
believe that free debate within the physics community is healthy.  We
expect you to encourage it, not stifle it, especially because physicists
are known for speaking out when physicists internationally are punished for
expressing their views.  Your actions as head of the American Institute of
Physics help to shape society's view of the physics community.  We urge you
to reconsider your decision, and offer to reinstate Jeff as an editor at
Physics Today.

We ask that you publish this letter in Physics Today, to bring our concerns
to the attention of the wider physics community.

Sincerely,

(This letter expresses the views of the undersigned; affiliations are
listed for identification only.  Those of us whose names are marked with
asterisks worked with Jeff directly, as he edited our articles for
publication in Physics Today, and can attest that he does excellent,
conscientious work.)



Louis Proyect
Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org