"She provided information about Lewin’s interactions with her, which began when she was a learner in one of his MITx courses, as well as information about interactions between Lewin and other women online learners."
So it wasn't an isolated incident.
"Based on its investigation, MIT has determined that Lewin’s behavior toward the complainant violated the Institute’s policy on sexual harassment. Following broad consultation among faculty, MIT is indefinitely removing Lewin’s online courses, in the interest of preventing any further inappropriate behavior."
There was an investigation, run by the head of the Physics department, and they determined sexual harassment happened through MIT online materials. The faculty of the department were consulted, and it was decided to remove his material, to prevent any future issues.
He used his online content to prey upon female students. They removed that content. I mean what was the alternative for MIT? Not tell anyone? Leave it up, with a warning that you shouldn't contact the professor because he has harassed women in the past?
Call me old-fashioned, but I think when people abuse their positions of power and authority in order to victimize others, the institutions SHOULD cut ties with those individuals. As far as I know, nothing prevents Lewin, or others, from hosting the videos of his lectures elsewhere.
But MIT is right to disassociate from somebody they have determined to have behaved inappropriately.
I absolutely hate how MIT's statement on the incident completely lacks any details on what exactly he did wrong, presumably in the interests of "political correctness" and all that doublespeak. I certainly do not condone sexual harassment, but with this massive lack of information I can't help but feel there is something else that is suspicious about the whole thing...
I think everyone understands the frustration with taking down these notes on 'hurting so many to get to him?' grounds
but do any of you see the opposite viewpoint? that's the one that barely anyone in this HN thread is discussing? that MIT is basically saying to any profs "you play around with this and you're done"?
I feel like it's extremely encouraging to women, and may very well outweigh the marginal benefits of yet another physics lecture set online, particularly since they can easily be reinstated after the punishment and political message sinks in.
all of this stuff about the sanctity of information rings really hollow in a forum full of cynics anyway. and the skepticism about the accusations is just the cherry on top.
I agree with you. So many seem willing to give this guy a pass based on the quality of his lectures. I think that's bullshit. We need to get rid of the notion that genius academic output forgives sexual harassment. Fuck that. Genius academic output forgives bad dinner party hosting skills or walking around the office in an 8-day-old t-shirt, not harassing women.
However good this guy might be at teaching physics, this "loss" to the community cannot begin to approach the loss of uncountable women who decided to avoid quantitative fields because of the male culture dominance.
Meanwhile, as we discussed a few days ago, image processing researchers continue to use the studio-lit, soft focus, 1970s slide film captured, limited color gamut, badly scanned, low resolution 'Lena' image as if it is even a tiny bit relevant for today's image processing applications.
I'm sure there are many fun and engaging physics teachers at universities big and small across the world who can lecture equally well and don't harass women online. One of them can step up.
I can only hope they're as proactive when a male complains of harassment, even if he's accusing a female. Gendering this problem just feeds in to a sexist culture that discourages men and boys from coming forward when they have problems, which is a self-reinforcing problem.
This is a real travesty. While sexual harassment deserves suspension from future teaching, the existence of Lewin's (highly regarded and instructive) lectures in no wise endorses or encourages sexual harassment, and their loss is truly detrimental.
I agree that the loss of quality teaching materials to the public is an unfortunate result of this. But I can see at least three ways in which this may have been a very reasonable decision.
First, as others have pointed out, the linked statement suggests (without providing details) that MIT was concerned that Lewin would continue a pattern of using his connection with their online courses to harass students. Without being privy to their investigation we don't know what all led to that ongoing concern, but it's plausible to assume they have reasons.
Second, it may be that MIT's policy in these cases is to formally cut all ties with the harasser, or something to that effect. This might be the online equivalent of insisting that a disgraced emeritus professor give up their office on campus. There are clearly downsides to the community for such a policy, but there are indisputable benefits as well.
And finally, it strikes me that MIT has very little leverage to punish a retired professor who damages the university's reputation and community in this way. But this action of taking down a big part of his life's work is a way of hitting him right in his legacy. I know that were I in his shoes, I would be devastated by such a decision. I hope it has a strong deterrent effect on any other faculty who might be prone to similar abuses of their positions.
This is exactly my opinion as well. We don't remove books from the library because the author had moral failings, or even if the author committed genocide. The content has value and should be preserved. The removal of the content from OCW is the step too far. Lewin absolutely should be restricted from further teaching at MIT or on MITx but the work itself should not be considered problematic.
When I was an undergrad at MIT in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Walter Lewin was synonymous with amazing physics teaching. We would watch his videos on MIT's internal cable TV channel, to better understand (or just to understand) our physics homework.
I wasn't surprised to find that Lewin became an online teaching star, and that he was repeatedly praised for his instructional videos. Indeed, just a few days ago, I showed some of his videos to my 13-year-old daughter, who is showing some interest in physics.
So the videos are good and useful, and nothing changes the fact that Lewin is an exceptional teacher.
At the same time, it looks like MIT has investigated these charges of sexual harassment, and that there is truth to them. True, without hearing more details, we have to rely upon their judgment, which is frustrating. But the press release tries to make it clear that the investigation was handled by multiple people, including faculty members, and that it wasn't a one-time occurrence.
So I'm willing to believe, and be profoundly disappointed, as I accept the fact that Lewin engaged in sexual harassment. Such behavior is unacceptable, and I'm glad that MIT wants to stop it.
However, I wonder whether removing high-quality courses from the Internet is the right way to do that. I assume that they removed the videos so as to remove any reputational damage that Lewin's actions might cause to MIT. But there is also some educational damage here, and many people will suffer as a result.
There is no good or right answer here. I think that MIT is trying to do the right thing, but I'm not sure if their actions were, on balance, the right thing to do. I do hope that their actions will make it clear to other faculty members that they simply cannot behave this way, though.
The "First Commandment" of MIT is to not embarrass the Institute, so, yeah, a concern of reputational damage is certainly at the forefront here.
The problem, of course, is that this digital book burning is also causing reputational damage to the Institute, and I would guess quite a bit more. That professors are human is hardly a revelation. That the world's top engineering university would engage in such an overreaction, cutting off students in the middle of study (even if copies are available elsewhere, many will not learn of them, and there's disruption and chaos in the meantime), putting its online teaching efforts into jeopardy ... that's really big.
This is absurd. Ignoring the ever loosening definition of sexual harassment combined with its increasingly retroactive application, what does the man's academic work have to do with these allegations?
Do the excellent lectures he's put online to help millions of students suddenly become illegal material, akin to child pornography?
I find it ironic how the new "politically correct" legions behave increasingly like a subversive fascist movement. "Incorrect" thoughts and opinions become illegal taboos, and alleged "criminals" are assumed guilty without trial.
The irony resulting from the escapades of these so called "social justice warriors" would be comical, if the results weren't so tragic. Walter Lewin's lectures are an incredible resource for the entire world. Taking them down because of alleged misconduct is the height of absurdity. MIT is harming millions of students worldwide who don't have access to any other resources.
The time has come to stop these modern witch trials, and return to a sane legal process. Particularly, innocence until proven guilty.
Not as absurd as you equating private decisions by a privately-run educational institution with legal process. MIT is within its rights to do anything it likes with material it publishes.
MIT is harming millions of students worldwide who don't have access to any other resources.
As we all know there are no other resources available for learning physics on the internet. Surely this heralds a plunge back into the dark ages.
MIT is under no legal obligation to continue to endorse a professor who used his position there as a platform to harass others. I don't see where you're getting "illegal" or "criminal" out of this. (And "without trial" seems like an odd way of describing what the linked article indicated was a pretty thorough internal review.)
Personally, I find a measure of real justice in MIT punishing Lewin for degrading the MIT name by taking what steps they can to deflate his academic legacy. It's the only leverage they have, and it's powerful.
Are you suggesting that no action can be taken against anyone by anyone for any reason until a court proves the charge? That's nuts. I am allowed to conclude that someone is guilty or not in my own estimation. Unless I'm a juror it has no force of law, but I can assume someone's guilty without trial NO PROBLEM. Obama's guilty of suppressing evidence of torture. Bush's cronies are guilty of torture. Neither will be tried for any crime. How exactly is my opinion a problem? Should I wait for a court to validate it, or what? Courts can be completely, hilariously, 100% in the wrong. Plessy v Ferguson. Citizens United (arguably, anyway).
As a person, I have freedom of association. If I think someone's a rapey asshole because someone came to me with an accusation, it is -well- within my rights to sever ties. Likewise, OpenCourseWare has no particular obligation to host this guy's stuff.
Nobody is stopping him hosting it himself if it's so useful, or CC licensing it, or handing it to Archive.org. MIT isn't stifling anyone. There is no persecution here.
I say this as someone who 1) probably wouldn't want to watch his lectures due to this but 2) think they should still be available for people who would find them useful. It's too bad MIT decided to take it down. But they're big boys and can make the decision on their own.
Yes, idiocy. It likely has more to do with fear of liability rather than political correctness thoguh. I imagine some future student going through "emotional distress" reading works by a "predator" and suing the MIT for millions.
I've been going through these courses slowly. This is a punishment for me, too, as their sudden removal means I can no longer continue.
I think MIT could have left the lecture videos online, prefixing them with a notice, which would have amounted to the same thing (disassociating from Walter Lewin and punishment for him), except that countless people that used those videos would not be punished.
I do hope there is a torrent with the archived Electricity&Magnetism lectures.
I sure hope the Feynman lectures from Caltech aren't next.
People seem really quick to forget that fundamental science endures and political correctness is fleeting. I wonder what the next world threatening catastrophe to make people remember will be.
And we don't know what he was accused of and how serious it was, how strong the evidence was, and how fair the process was that condemned him.
Certainly there are plenty of cases of universities making terrible decisions in this space eg men being expelled for sexual assault, followed by conviction of the complainant for making a false report.
Levin seemed to be very popular with his female students; on one of the courses some of them actually came in at the end and sang him a song of appreciation.
Just want to point out to anyone upset that his lectures and notes have been taken offline: MIT's OCW is typically CC-BY-NC. Anyone is free to share their backup copy of the lectures online as a replacement.
This is true. I actually cite his physics lectures as part of the reason why I got into the online learning tech industry. Walter Lewin's been a bit of a hero to me.
The lectures themselves were a fantastic resource. I had been watching them in order, and was about half way through his 801 physics course. They are extremely entertaining and very well presented. He even addresses the issue of sexism at a few points in the lectures, and is clearly extremely popular with his students.
It's a shame he overstepped boundaries in another way, leading to the removal of a really seriously good resource. On the other hand, one can understand MIT's point of view, given the facts. It would be very wrong of them not to remove his online course and allow the platform to continue to be misused in this way.
I hope that Lewin or a colleague will release a statement, since at the moment there is such an enormous scope in the possibilities regarding the accusations. It could cover anything from otherwise polite, oblique references to students' appearances in a photo, to something overtly sexual and predatory. All kinds of sexual harassment are wrong and unwarranted, but some kinds are much more serious.
This is a reasonable thing for MIT to do. Many comparisons to book burning have been made in various comments, which is not a good analogy. In this situation, the analogue to book burning would be burning his books[1]. MIT is just declining to have their name on the cover of his books (read: lectures) any more.
MIT is not trying to decree that the guy has some egregious objective moral failing. They're saying that they ran an internal investigation, with the help of other physics faculty, and found Lewin to be in violation of their institutional sexual harassment policies, and as a result, they're removing his content from their platform. This is a perfectly good reason to distance themselves from him, as well as making it clear that they take sexual harassment very seriously by impacting his legacy so negatively.
MIT OCW continues to host courses for 8.01 and 8.02, the courses his lectures covered, with lectures given by other faculty[2]. The loss of material to learn from is marginal at best - these videos are for the same courses at the same school with much of the same infrastructure (notes/recitation videos/etc).
I don't know how I feel about this. I mean sexual harassment is just ugly and disgusting, but I did like Lewin. Science is heartless, MIT. So why take those valuable courses offline?
I think a lot of people who are upset about them removing his lectures probably misunderstand how OCW is being viewed by universities. From the perspective of MIT, these OCW materials are not videos and materials to be preserved for future generations, they're a product of the university.
We're not talking about stripping his materials off the shelves of a library. We're talking about taking them off the shelves of a store.
And MIT, as a brand, has no intent to sell products (for charge or not) which are associated with sexual harassment. This is even more important in the higher education space than in other industries because of the fact that the instructor is very much part of the product - it is an expectation of academic materials that the author can be contacted with inquiries about them.
The choice here for MIT, I think, is not about burning books. It's about continuing to present Lewin as one of their products. And when he's been found to have harassed women, it's obvious that they cannot do so.
Removing his lectures seems a bit extreme. It's their content, though. They do only mention "MIT OpenCourseWare and online MITx courses" though, so hopefully the lectures will stay up on YouTube. They really are excellent lectures.
That said, I've watched a good portion of Ramamurti Shankar's lectures from Open Yale courses [0]. They're pretty good, but perhaps not broken down as logically as the three courses of Lewin's.
There is also some really good lectures from Leonard Susskind's The Theoretical Minimum [1]. However, these are perhaps a step beyond the normal undergraduate lecture series.
I'm really anxious about this ambiguity of the "sexual harassment". This guy seems have no way to defend himself if in one of millionth chance that he is innocent.
People need information and actual cases to define the boundary. Just "common sense" is not enough. The way that MIT handles the information of investigation is really scary to me.
I know that smart guy does stupid things. However, a power that can punish people without going through court or public, isn't it scary?
Basically, an investigation conducted by a bunch of people behind the door does not hold more credits than an individual. Anybody has the same feeling?
He's being punished for irresponsible behavior, fair enough.
But the one good he did in the world is now being taken away to the detriment of many. Think of it this way- Right now you can find books in the library written by people who have committed genocides. If we were to ban all the good (or at least of academic value) works of people who also did some very bad things, we'd have to burn A LOT of media, and arguably to the detriment of us all. Cutting off the nose to spite the face...
He should have been punished somehow, but not in this way.
Anyway, I'm sure his lectures will be torrentable, if they're that good.
I can understand MITs decision to remove the materials from OpenCourseWare, OpenCourseWare is not a library. Removing his materials from there distances themselves from him, and his actions. They have however allowed them to be made available elsewhere.
[+] [-] lsiebert|11 years ago|reply
So it wasn't an isolated incident.
"Based on its investigation, MIT has determined that Lewin’s behavior toward the complainant violated the Institute’s policy on sexual harassment. Following broad consultation among faculty, MIT is indefinitely removing Lewin’s online courses, in the interest of preventing any further inappropriate behavior."
There was an investigation, run by the head of the Physics department, and they determined sexual harassment happened through MIT online materials. The faculty of the department were consulted, and it was decided to remove his material, to prevent any future issues.
He used his online content to prey upon female students. They removed that content. I mean what was the alternative for MIT? Not tell anyone? Leave it up, with a warning that you shouldn't contact the professor because he has harassed women in the past?
Call me old-fashioned, but I think when people abuse their positions of power and authority in order to victimize others, the institutions SHOULD cut ties with those individuals. As far as I know, nothing prevents Lewin, or others, from hosting the videos of his lectures elsewhere.
But MIT is right to disassociate from somebody they have determined to have behaved inappropriately.
[+] [-] waterlesscloud|11 years ago|reply
That's not what that statement says, and indeed it's sort of strange to think that's a plausible occurrence.
His lecture and notes didn't do any harassing. He did, through interaction on the online platform. That's not the same thing.
[+] [-] userbinator|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] serve_yay|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|11 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] cousin_it|11 years ago|reply
Doesn't MIT hold the copyright?
[+] [-] RodericDay|11 years ago|reply
but do any of you see the opposite viewpoint? that's the one that barely anyone in this HN thread is discussing? that MIT is basically saying to any profs "you play around with this and you're done"?
I feel like it's extremely encouraging to women, and may very well outweigh the marginal benefits of yet another physics lecture set online, particularly since they can easily be reinstated after the punishment and political message sinks in.
all of this stuff about the sanctity of information rings really hollow in a forum full of cynics anyway. and the skepticism about the accusations is just the cherry on top.
[+] [-] blt|11 years ago|reply
However good this guy might be at teaching physics, this "loss" to the community cannot begin to approach the loss of uncountable women who decided to avoid quantitative fields because of the male culture dominance.
Meanwhile, as we discussed a few days ago, image processing researchers continue to use the studio-lit, soft focus, 1970s slide film captured, limited color gamut, badly scanned, low resolution 'Lena' image as if it is even a tiny bit relevant for today's image processing applications.
I'm sure there are many fun and engaging physics teachers at universities big and small across the world who can lecture equally well and don't harass women online. One of them can step up.
[+] [-] cbd1984|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sweettea|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Steuard|11 years ago|reply
First, as others have pointed out, the linked statement suggests (without providing details) that MIT was concerned that Lewin would continue a pattern of using his connection with their online courses to harass students. Without being privy to their investigation we don't know what all led to that ongoing concern, but it's plausible to assume they have reasons.
Second, it may be that MIT's policy in these cases is to formally cut all ties with the harasser, or something to that effect. This might be the online equivalent of insisting that a disgraced emeritus professor give up their office on campus. There are clearly downsides to the community for such a policy, but there are indisputable benefits as well.
And finally, it strikes me that MIT has very little leverage to punish a retired professor who damages the university's reputation and community in this way. But this action of taking down a big part of his life's work is a way of hitting him right in his legacy. I know that were I in his shoes, I would be devastated by such a decision. I hope it has a strong deterrent effect on any other faculty who might be prone to similar abuses of their positions.
[+] [-] sadfaceunread|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Jun8|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wavegeek|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Mithrandir|11 years ago|reply
8.01: https://archive.org/details/MIT8.01F99
8.02: https://archive.org/details/MIT8.02S02
8.03: https://archive.org/details/MIT8.03F04
Edit: I don't know if all the problem sets are up there.
[+] [-] vixen99|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] galilyou498|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] reuven|11 years ago|reply
When I was an undergrad at MIT in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Walter Lewin was synonymous with amazing physics teaching. We would watch his videos on MIT's internal cable TV channel, to better understand (or just to understand) our physics homework.
I wasn't surprised to find that Lewin became an online teaching star, and that he was repeatedly praised for his instructional videos. Indeed, just a few days ago, I showed some of his videos to my 13-year-old daughter, who is showing some interest in physics.
So the videos are good and useful, and nothing changes the fact that Lewin is an exceptional teacher.
At the same time, it looks like MIT has investigated these charges of sexual harassment, and that there is truth to them. True, without hearing more details, we have to rely upon their judgment, which is frustrating. But the press release tries to make it clear that the investigation was handled by multiple people, including faculty members, and that it wasn't a one-time occurrence.
So I'm willing to believe, and be profoundly disappointed, as I accept the fact that Lewin engaged in sexual harassment. Such behavior is unacceptable, and I'm glad that MIT wants to stop it.
However, I wonder whether removing high-quality courses from the Internet is the right way to do that. I assume that they removed the videos so as to remove any reputational damage that Lewin's actions might cause to MIT. But there is also some educational damage here, and many people will suffer as a result.
There is no good or right answer here. I think that MIT is trying to do the right thing, but I'm not sure if their actions were, on balance, the right thing to do. I do hope that their actions will make it clear to other faculty members that they simply cannot behave this way, though.
[+] [-] hga|11 years ago|reply
The problem, of course, is that this digital book burning is also causing reputational damage to the Institute, and I would guess quite a bit more. That professors are human is hardly a revelation. That the world's top engineering university would engage in such an overreaction, cutting off students in the middle of study (even if copies are available elsewhere, many will not learn of them, and there's disruption and chaos in the meantime), putting its online teaching efforts into jeopardy ... that's really big.
[+] [-] FD3SA|11 years ago|reply
Do the excellent lectures he's put online to help millions of students suddenly become illegal material, akin to child pornography?
I find it ironic how the new "politically correct" legions behave increasingly like a subversive fascist movement. "Incorrect" thoughts and opinions become illegal taboos, and alleged "criminals" are assumed guilty without trial.
The irony resulting from the escapades of these so called "social justice warriors" would be comical, if the results weren't so tragic. Walter Lewin's lectures are an incredible resource for the entire world. Taking them down because of alleged misconduct is the height of absurdity. MIT is harming millions of students worldwide who don't have access to any other resources.
The time has come to stop these modern witch trials, and return to a sane legal process. Particularly, innocence until proven guilty.
[+] [-] anigbrowl|11 years ago|reply
MIT is harming millions of students worldwide who don't have access to any other resources.
As we all know there are no other resources available for learning physics on the internet. Surely this heralds a plunge back into the dark ages.
edited for typo
[+] [-] Steuard|11 years ago|reply
Personally, I find a measure of real justice in MIT punishing Lewin for degrading the MIT name by taking what steps they can to deflate his academic legacy. It's the only leverage they have, and it's powerful.
[+] [-] roywiggins|11 years ago|reply
This is how courts work.
This is not how humans work.
Are you suggesting that no action can be taken against anyone by anyone for any reason until a court proves the charge? That's nuts. I am allowed to conclude that someone is guilty or not in my own estimation. Unless I'm a juror it has no force of law, but I can assume someone's guilty without trial NO PROBLEM. Obama's guilty of suppressing evidence of torture. Bush's cronies are guilty of torture. Neither will be tried for any crime. How exactly is my opinion a problem? Should I wait for a court to validate it, or what? Courts can be completely, hilariously, 100% in the wrong. Plessy v Ferguson. Citizens United (arguably, anyway).
As a person, I have freedom of association. If I think someone's a rapey asshole because someone came to me with an accusation, it is -well- within my rights to sever ties. Likewise, OpenCourseWare has no particular obligation to host this guy's stuff.
Nobody is stopping him hosting it himself if it's so useful, or CC licensing it, or handing it to Archive.org. MIT isn't stifling anyone. There is no persecution here.
I say this as someone who 1) probably wouldn't want to watch his lectures due to this but 2) think they should still be available for people who would find them useful. It's too bad MIT decided to take it down. But they're big boys and can make the decision on their own.
[+] [-] limaoscarjuliet|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rdc12|11 years ago|reply
Well they performed a review and appear to have found him guilty
[+] [-] spacemanmatt|11 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] ilamont|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jwr|11 years ago|reply
I think MIT could have left the lecture videos online, prefixing them with a notice, which would have amounted to the same thing (disassociating from Walter Lewin and punishment for him), except that countless people that used those videos would not be punished.
I do hope there is a torrent with the archived Electricity&Magnetism lectures.
[+] [-] byerley|11 years ago|reply
People seem really quick to forget that fundamental science endures and political correctness is fleeting. I wonder what the next world threatening catastrophe to make people remember will be.
[+] [-] wavegeek|11 years ago|reply
Certainly there are plenty of cases of universities making terrible decisions in this space eg men being expelled for sexual assault, followed by conviction of the complainant for making a false report.
Levin seemed to be very popular with his female students; on one of the courses some of them actually came in at the end and sang him a song of appreciation.
[+] [-] grayclhn|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gamesbrainiac|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gravity13|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] henrikgs|11 years ago|reply
http://theoreticalminimum.com/courses/classical-mechanics/20...
[+] [-] wbhart|11 years ago|reply
It's a shame he overstepped boundaries in another way, leading to the removal of a really seriously good resource. On the other hand, one can understand MIT's point of view, given the facts. It would be very wrong of them not to remove his online course and allow the platform to continue to be misused in this way.
I hope that Lewin or a colleague will release a statement, since at the moment there is such an enormous scope in the possibilities regarding the accusations. It could cover anything from otherwise polite, oblique references to students' appearances in a photo, to something overtly sexual and predatory. All kinds of sexual harassment are wrong and unwarranted, but some kinds are much more serious.
[+] [-] pakled_engineer|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jabelk|11 years ago|reply
MIT is not trying to decree that the guy has some egregious objective moral failing. They're saying that they ran an internal investigation, with the help of other physics faculty, and found Lewin to be in violation of their institutional sexual harassment policies, and as a result, they're removing his content from their platform. This is a perfectly good reason to distance themselves from him, as well as making it clear that they take sexual harassment very seriously by impacting his legacy so negatively.
MIT OCW continues to host courses for 8.01 and 8.02, the courses his lectures covered, with lectures given by other faculty[2]. The loss of material to learn from is marginal at best - these videos are for the same courses at the same school with much of the same infrastructure (notes/recitation videos/etc).
[1] http://www.amazon.com/For-Love-Physics-Rainbow-Journey/dp/14...
[2] http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/physics/8-01-physics-i-fall-2003/
[+] [-] galilyou498|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thejdeep|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jcrawfordor|11 years ago|reply
We're not talking about stripping his materials off the shelves of a library. We're talking about taking them off the shelves of a store.
And MIT, as a brand, has no intent to sell products (for charge or not) which are associated with sexual harassment. This is even more important in the higher education space than in other industries because of the fact that the instructor is very much part of the product - it is an expectation of academic materials that the author can be contacted with inquiries about them.
The choice here for MIT, I think, is not about burning books. It's about continuing to present Lewin as one of their products. And when he's been found to have harassed women, it's obvious that they cannot do so.
[+] [-] dmunoz|11 years ago|reply
That said, I've watched a good portion of Ramamurti Shankar's lectures from Open Yale courses [0]. They're pretty good, but perhaps not broken down as logically as the three courses of Lewin's.
There is also some really good lectures from Leonard Susskind's The Theoretical Minimum [1]. However, these are perhaps a step beyond the normal undergraduate lecture series.
[0] http://oyc.yale.edu/physics
[1] http://theoreticalminimum.com/courses
[+] [-] purplescarf|11 years ago|reply
People need information and actual cases to define the boundary. Just "common sense" is not enough. The way that MIT handles the information of investigation is really scary to me.
I know that smart guy does stupid things. However, a power that can punish people without going through court or public, isn't it scary?
Basically, an investigation conducted by a bunch of people behind the door does not hold more credits than an individual. Anybody has the same feeling?
[+] [-] lectrick|11 years ago|reply
But the one good he did in the world is now being taken away to the detriment of many. Think of it this way- Right now you can find books in the library written by people who have committed genocides. If we were to ban all the good (or at least of academic value) works of people who also did some very bad things, we'd have to burn A LOT of media, and arguably to the detriment of us all. Cutting off the nose to spite the face...
He should have been punished somehow, but not in this way.
Anyway, I'm sure his lectures will be torrentable, if they're that good.
[+] [-] new299|11 years ago|reply
https://archive.org/details/MIT8.01F99
I can understand MITs decision to remove the materials from OpenCourseWare, OpenCourseWare is not a library. Removing his materials from there distances themselves from him, and his actions. They have however allowed them to be made available elsewhere.