How patient protest won the day

Without extensive protests from the physics community and beyond, Jeff Schmidt would not have got justice for himself or others. Over twenty-five years ago, Professor Bertell Ollman of NYU was denied a department chairmanship at the University of Maryland because of his political views. Ollman had his day in court, which dispensed the justice that courts frequently offer to progressives and radicals.

In this situation, AIP settled before the case went to summary judgment, even though AIP had good chances to have the case thrown out at that stage, since United States labor law is friendly to employers. Most companies will take a case at least to summary judgment, and settle only if that ruling goes against them, but public pressure forced AIP to settle earlier. Here is a chronology of the protest.

31 May 2000 AIP fires Jeff Schmidt, hustled him out of the building and telling him never to come back 'at any time, for any reason.' The events leading up the firing are detailed in the workplace chronology
9 Jun 2000 The Chronicle of Higher Education, whose review of the book alerted AIP to Schmidt's book, covers the firing in an article entitled 'Physics Today Fires Author of Book on 'Soul-Battering System' of the Workplace'.
12 Jun 2000 National Writers Union protests firing, as described in their press release.
21 Jun 2000 Letter from 16 former Physics Today staff members asking AIP to reinstate Schmidt.
n.d. [2000] Press release from Rowman and Littlefield, the publishers of Disciplined Minds, entitled 'Journalist fired for writing radical book.'
26 June 2000 The Maryland Department of Labor reports its detailed investigation into Schmidt's firing, and rejects AIP's claim that Schmidt engaged in misconduct when he wrote Disciplined Minds. The Maryland Department of Labor awards Schmidt retroactive unemployment benefits.
5 Jul 2000 More criticism from the National Writers Union, this time in an article 'The Schmidt Firing: A Historical Perspective?'.
27 July 2000 Schmidt's statement on the Maryland Department of Labor victory.
2000-2005 Protest letters to AIP written by:
Charles Gregg-Geist   Eric Herring   Guillaume Belanger   James Owens   Paul Bryant   Marlowe Hood   Terry Goldman   Simon Moss   John McClelland   Walter Borst   Robert Mayo   Dan Bolef   Sherman Frankel   Hilliard Macomber   David Waller   Sonya Bahar   Frederick Dolan   Eric Altshuler   Margaret Dobbins   Peter Drummond   Alan Sobel   Vikram Vyas   Richard Magat   Bertram Stiller   Thomas Gilbert   Surendra Gadekar   Friedemann Freund   Steven Mandell   Wayne Saslow   Steven Ross   David Markowitz   Hansen Shih   Guy Robinson   Nick Rivier   Gian Luca Lippi   Igor Alexeff   Doug Allan   Jonathan Allen   M. P. Anantram   Vijay Arora   Anne Miller-Bagwell   Philip Best   Vlado Bevc   T. S. Bhatia   Ben Brabson   James Brasseur   Mikhael Brown   Milan Cirkovic   Ralph Colby   Stephen Davis   Philip Vos Fellman   Richard Firestone   Sean Freeman   Sanjay Gupta   Peter Halevi   Douglas Jackson   David Johnson   Roy Johnston   Jonathan Katz   Kirill Kazakov   Tom Killian   Kajoli Krishnan   Hermann Kurthen   Roderic Lakes   Kristina Lerman   Amand Lucas   Wayne Lundberg   David Maker   Al McInturff   Bill Moran   Normand Mousseau   Thomas Nagy   Marshall Nathan   Peter Noerdlinger   Subra Pendyala   Louis Proyect   M. V. Ramana   Denis Rancourt   Klaus Rieckhoff   Berol Robinson   Bruce Rosenblum   David Talaga   Niekiletta Woullard   Herbert Zeman   Ellen Zweibel   Denis Cioffi  
24 Dec 2000 The Washington Post covers the firing in a story "The Year's Weirdest News".
Dec 2000 Lingua Franca covers the firing in an article: "Stealing Time".
2001 Letter to Schmidt from reader Matt L. as redacted by AIP (see exhibit D). After you play Wheel of Fortune and interpolate the missing text, check your answers here.
16 Jan 2001- Letter from 174 non-scientists, solicited by Noam Chomsky, asking AIP to reinstate Schmidt.
19 Apr 2001 In a policy of 'publish and perish', Schmidt loses his University of Maryland library privileges for writing Disciplined Minds. The University of Maryland chapter of the American Association of University Professors protests and asks the university to reinstate Schmidt's library privileges.
1 May 2001 Science & Government Report covers the firing in an extensive article.
June 2001 Business and Society Review reviews Disciplined Minds in this article [volume 106(2):180-186] by historian Marc Stern.
Summer 2001 National Association of Science Writers covers the growing protests, in an article 'Physics Today Firing of Jeff Schmidt Draws Protests'.
23 Aug 2001- Letter from more than 500 physicists asking AIP to reinstate Schmidt.
24 Aug 2001 Marc Brodsky, CEO and Executive Director of AIP, puts out the party line within AIP, admitting in this email:
Eventually AIP may be forced to issue a public statement.
Public pressure soon forced AIP to make a public statement (see the next item).
31 Aug 2001 Public statement by CEO Marc Brodsky justifying his firing Schmidt.
Oct 2001 The Biological Physicist, a journal of the American Physical Society, one of AIP's governing organizations, interviews Schmidt. Here is the interview as redacted by AIP (see exhibit D). After you play Wheel of Fortune and interpolate the missing text, check your answers here.
Oct 2001 Physics World, the UK equivalent to Physics Today, covers the case in an article 'Magazine firing backfires'.
16 Nov 2001 Marc Stern, author of the Business and Society Review review, learns that Schmidt was fired:
I was furious to hear about what happened and, amazingly, hadn't heard before. My sub to Lingua Franca lapsed and my Chronicle sub didn't start till September, so I missed reading about it. In any event, I am livid about your being fired."
27 Nov 2001 Schmidt is on 'Radio With a View' (WMBR at MIT, 88.1 MHz), co-hosted by Marc Stern. Schmidt is on by phone, from 7:05 to 7:40 pm, and discusses his dismissal and the content of the book.
14 Jan 2002 Response to AIP's Brodsky's public statement, by physicists Talat Rahman, George Reiter, Michael Lee, and Denis Rancourt.
14 Jan 2002 Appeal letter from three physicists, Talat Rahman, George Reiter, and Michael Lee, sent to most members of the American Physical Society one of the ten organizations that govern AIP.
14 Jan 2002-Feb 2006 The appeal letter gets over 750 signatures, including two Nobel Prize winners (Josephson and Karle), and leads to this press release.
24 January 2002 KPFA (Berkeley) news broadcast includes an item by Pejmun Haghighi (then a molecular biologist at UC Berkeley). The item reports the protests against Schmidt's firing and includes at least one sound bite from a physicist organizing the protests.
29 Jan 2002 Marc Stern gives a two-minute update on the case, noting that a protest letter with more than 500 signers has gone to AIP.
May 2002 The Human Rights Committee of the Plasma Science and Applications Committee of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), after investigating AIP's firing of Jeff Schmidt, issues its report 'deplor[ing]' AIP's firing of Schmidt. The report summarizes its position in a resolution:
An investigation by our Human Rights Committee has convinced us that his termination was improper and should be reversed. We urge AIP to rehire Schmidt, openly welcome him back, cease all harassment of him, and give him back pay for the period of his forced unemployment.
23 Mar 2002 Letter to AIP from a majority of the physics academic staff at the University of Ottawa, Canada protesting Schmidt's firing.
17 Mar 2003 Letter to Myriam P. Sarachik, president of the American Physical Society (APS), from five physicists around the world. It details the case, mentioning the important findings of the IEEE report and calls on the APS, the major organization governing AIP, to investigate Schmidt's firing. The APS and President Sarachik take no public action, although there is also internal pressure to discuss it at the APS council.
5-8 Apr 2003 At the American Physical Society's meeting in Philadelphia, physicist Fay Dowker of the University of London hands out this flyer to physicists as they entered and left the parallel session organised by the 'Forum on Physics and Society'.
20 Aug 2003 Letter from a group of nine physics education researchers asking AIP to reinstate Schmidt.
Nov 2003-
Apr 2004
Over several programs, journalist Lyn Gerry reads out Disciplined Minds on her radio show Unwelcome Guests.
27 Jan 2004 Schmidt gives a talk entitled 'The politics of creative work' at the 2004 Winter meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT), one of the ten governing member societies of the AIP. AIP pressures AAPT to cancel Schmidt's talk, but AAPT refuses.
3 Feb 2004 An ad hoc committee, appointed by the Executive Committee of the University of Maryland Senate to recommend action in the Schmidt case, finds that AIP, which is a university affiliate, fired Schmidt 'for workplace activism, including the writing of a critical book'. This particular protest began in 2001.
12 Sep 2004 Letter to Schmidt from reader Michelle Squitieri as redacted by AIP (see exhibit D). After you play Wheel of Fortune and interpolate the missing text, check your answers here.
12 Sep 2004 Letter to Schmidt from reader Susan M. Rosenthal, MD as redacted by AIP (see exhibit D). After you play Wheel of Fortune and interpolate the missing text, check your answers here.
29 Oct 2005 Letter to AIP from Sanjoy Mahajan transmitting a petition calling for Schmidt's reinstatement. The petition was signed by 22 attendees at the 2004 Winter meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers, one of the ten governing member societies of the AIP.
Jan 2006 Canadian Undergraduate Physics Journal publishes 'Thoughts from an undisciplined mind'. Here they are as redacted by AIP (see exhibit D). After you play Wheel of Fortune and interpolate the missing text, check your answers here.
15 Mar 2006 Settlement announced.
7 Jul 2006 Letter from authors and editors at the Canadian Undergraduate Physics Journal protesting censorship of the interview with Schmidt published in Jan 2006.