Revelations that physics professor Jonathan Katz maintains a Web page on a University server-on which he argues that homosexuals caused America’s AIDS epidemic-have raised questions about whether Washington University should censor individuals for voicing views that other University members may find morally repugnant.
The University’s answer: the doctrine of academic freedom allows Katz and everyone else the right to express the views they wish.
“People can say what they think,” said Dennis Martin, an associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences who oversees the college’s computer services. “That’s the whole point of this in a way. A university is about ideas and their free exchange, so he can say whatever he likes.”
To ensure the free exchange of ideas on the University’s computers, Martin points out that the Computer Use Policy has a clause that reads: “While the University encourages respect for the rights and sensibilities of others, it cannot protect individuals against the existence of materials that may be offensive to them.”
Eugene Volokh, a law professor at the University of California at Los Angeles who specializes in freedom of speech and technology issues, said universities across the country have a similar policy.
“Generally speaking, most universities are happy to give their professors Web space on an unrestricted basis and want people to branch out of an area beyond their expertise,” he said. “In fact, most universities let you use your Web site however you please.”
In an interview, Katz said that as a professor, he considers himself a “public intellectual,” whose job it is to comment on topics outside his specialty. “It’s a part and a privilege of a professor’s job to speak freely,” he said.
The controversy over Katz’s Web site started after Student Life Forum Editor Jeff Stepp called Katz’s opinions “offensive, discriminatory and bigoted” in a Sept. 26 column.
The Web site, which is hosted on the physics department Web server, features essays on topics ranging from problems with University administration to the validity of learning disabilities.
In the essay “In Defense of Homophobia,” Katz wrote, “I am a homophobe and proud.”
He further commented on the AIDS epidemic, saying that it was caused by “gross homosexual promiscuity.”
Since then, students have called for the censoring of Katz’s opinions.
“Katz can have whatever opinion he wants, but whether or not that opinion should be voiced on Wash. U. Web space is certainly something that needs to be looked at,” senior Ryan Collins said in a letter to the editor.
“The problem with the comments in Student Life is that no one bothered to offer a different point of view,” Katz said. “They just said censor this; we don’t like it and that’s a very unhealthy response. If you think something is wrong, then you need to make your case.”
Volokh said that while he “doesn’t endorse [Katz’s views],” he doesn’t think that they should be censored either.
“Part of public debate is the right to express views that are harshly critical of homosexuals,” he said. “If those views urge discrimination against other groups, there’s nothing prohibitive about that.”
This isn’t the first time a college professor has come under fire for expressing views on the school’s Web space.
In 1997, Arthur Butz, an electrical engineering professor at Northwestern University, published a Web site on the University’s server with links to Web sites and essays that support Holocaust “revisionist” theory, the idea that the Holocaust never happened.
Butz had made his views public long before. Twenty-one years earlier, in 1976, he wrote “The Hoax of the Twentieth Century.” But the University tolerated him because he kept his views out of the classroom.
After the Web site was published, many students and Jewish scholars were outraged that Butz was using Northwestern Web space to express his views.
Henry S. Bienen, Northwestern’s president, called Butz’s views a “contemptible insult” to those families and victims affected by the Holocaust, but insisted Butz was protected under the principle of academic freedom.
“Well that’s obviously nuts,” Katz said of Butz’s beliefs. “I think people say things that are so absurd that they discredit themselves. There’s abundant physical and eyewitness evidence that the Holocaust happened. But it’s his right to say it. No one is going to take him seriously, unless they’re equally crazy.”