Persecuted Professor Exposes University of Washington Hypocrisy

Seeing Bigots Under Every Rock | People's Pundit Daily

Professor Cliff Mass of the University of Washington gives a chilling account of being personally harassed, shouted down and vilified for daring to defend freedom of speech on campus in the new age of ‘Woke.’

On his blog, Cliff Mass, a full professor of atmospheric sciences at the university, exposes a highly partisan Dean and her senior staff at UW’s College of the Environment (COENV). He offers telling evidence of systemic violations both of the faculty code and constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech.

He writes:

What I will describe should concern you, no matter where you are on the political spectrum.  Progressive or Conservative, Democrat, Republican or Independent, you should care deeply about the suppression of viewpoint diversity and the restriction of freedom of speech in favor of the partisan agenda of a group of university administrators.

Their actions are a direct threat to the very nature of the University of Washington and our democracy.  And I need your help to rectify the situation.

“Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.” Benjamin Franklin


Initiative 1631 and the Leadership of UW’s College of the Environment

A stunning example of inappropriate behavior by COENV leadership deals with Washington State Initiative 1631.  This initiative, on the Washington State ballot in November 2018, was an attempt to pass a carbon fee, with the proceeds distributed by a board dominated by politically connected groups.  It was highly partisan and lost decisively (by 13{154653b9ea5f83bbbf00f55de12e21cba2da5b4b158a426ee0e27ae0c1b44117}).

Leadership of the College of the Environment was strongly in favor of this measure and expressed their support publicly in many ways:

(1)  Dale Durran, the Chair of the Atmospheric Sciences Department and a member of the College’s Executive Committee, asked the faculty to sign a letter supporting 1631, which was later published in the Seattle Times, signed by 21 faculty members.   Is this appropriate for the Department Chair, who has substantial influence over salaries, sabbaticals and advancement in the department?

(2)    The College Dean, Lisa Graumlich, and several associate Deans publicly supported the measure, signing widely circulated public letters citing their university affiliation, and tweeting their support (such as one by Associate Dean of Research Robert Wood).

(3)   The COENV PCC program website featured Chairman Durran’s letter in support of 1631, which was potentially an illegal use of university resources to support a measure (see below).

But if you were a faculty member in the College of the Environment and you had a different viewpoint than College leadership regarding this initiative, they were prepared to make your life very difficult.  And by doing so, they may have violated Federal law and university regulations.

Let me tell you a story.  My story.

Although I am a strong supporter of carbon taxes and was a very public proponent of I-732, the previous carbon tax initiative, I opposed 1631 for several reasons.  I felt I-1631 was highly regressive, disproportionately taxing low-income individuals and families. It lacked specific guidelines on how the money would be spent.  A partisan group of organizations was hardwired to control and direct the funding, and the public goals of the proposal were highly deceptive (“clean air”).  In addition, 1631’s carbon fee started out too low to be effective (half that of 732). And the highly partisan nature of 1631 would undermine bipartisan efforts on climate change, which I believe are crucial.

I agreed to be a signatory for the statement against I-1631 in the official voter’s pamphlet and did a few blog posts on the subject.  These blogs were in social media completely outside of and had no connection to the University of Washington.

My stance was not popular among the college’s activist students, my department chair (Dale Durran) and the COENV Dean’s office. The pro-1631 students used social media to call me all kinds of names, as did one vocal post-doctoral researcher in oceanography.   They stated that I was in bed with oil companies, was on the payroll of the Koch brothers, was racist, misogynistic, a climate denier, and other names I would not repeat in a family friendly blog (see picture below for a tame example).  It is all documented on twitter.  The Seattle Stranger called me Trump’s Weatherman and repeated the student’s accusations and pictures.

Although unpleasant, I tolerated the student name calling and the nonsense in the Stranger in the spirit of freedom of speech, diversity of ideas, and acknowledging the self-righteousness/idealistic nature often associated with youth.  Tolerance for differing opinions should be in the DNA of all university faculty.

A few of the activist students went to the department chair (Dale Durran) and the Dean’s office to complain about my blogs on 1631.  They particularly didn’t like my blog “If You Worry About Climate Change and Care About the Environment, Vote No on I-1631“  In that blog, I discussed the issue of politically well-connected groups securing funds at the public trough and used the century-old political metaphor of “pigs at a trough”,  not in the text, but in a single picture (see below).

This metaphor is frequently used in the media and books, such as Arianna Huffington’s hard hitting book on political corruption in America, which described the greed of the politically connected (see below).

The activist students claimed that such a metaphor was racist because some members of the 1631 consortium were from minority groups.   They ignored the fact that the 1631 coalition was overwhelmingly white and well-to-do. The fact I was expressing political opinions outside the UW did not seem important to them, nor did they care about the concept of freedom of speech.  They wanted the department and college administration to do something about me and my blog.

  Will the College of Environment Deans Accuse Arianna Huffington of Racism?  Or Australian Adam Schwab?

And shamefully and potentially illegally, the Atmospheric Sciences chair and COENV Deans, ignoring First Amendment protections and the essential principles of an academic institution, did exactly what the students wanted.

Between the end of October and early November 2018, Department Chairman Dale Durran, COENV Associate Dean of Research Robert Wood, COENV Associate Dean of Administration Stephanie Harrington, and COENV Assistant Dean of Diversity Terryl Ross wrote a letter attacking my blog that was formally approved by Dean Lisa Graumlich.  (all of this is documented in their internal emails).

Their letter, “Message on Departmental Civility”, was sent to MY ENTIRE DEPARTMENT (including staff, faculty, and students—over 120 people) on November 22, stating that my blog “included imagery and text that was racially insensitive and caused offense.”  The letter accused me of racism through the statement “Racism is in direct contradiction to our shared values and has no place in our college”  as well as suggesting that I harmed the community through my blog.

This letter was not only inappropriate and arguably unethical but a violation of University of Washington faculty code, including the protection of academic freedom.  

UW administrators were sanctioning and shaming a faculty member inside the university for expressing political free speech outside of the UW:  also an apparent violation of constitutionally protected freedom of speech at a public university.  Importantly, freedom of speech is protected BOTH inside and outside a public university by the U.S. and Washington State constitutions.

The actions of the COENV Deans appeared to be a direct violation of UW Faculty code 24.33:

Faculty members have the right to academic freedom and the right to examine and communicate ideas by any lawful means even should such activities generate hostility or pressure against the faculty member or the University. Their exercise of constitutionally protected freedom of association, assembly, and expression, including participation in political activities, does not constitute a violation of duties to the University, to their profession, or to students and may not result in disciplinary action or adverse merit evaluation.

Furthermore, COENV leadership apparently violated several other sections of the faculty code, which required the atmospheric sciences chair to meet with me before making any accusation (Faculty code section 25.71 B), that I be notified of any charges before taking disciplinary steps, and by the Dean’s refusal to meet me in person when I requested it.

But the situation was about to get far more serious.

After the letter was released, I protested that it was both illegal and unfair, which led Atmospheric Sciences Chair (and publicly declared 1631 proponent) Dale Durran, with the knowledge of the Dean’s office, to call a DEPARTMENT WIDE meeting on December 5 to discuss my blog.

Everyone in the department was invited and refreshments were offered (including chicken wings).  With the promise of both controversy and catered food, there was a large crowd—including students, staff, and faculty.  Department Chair Durran dictated that no outsiders could come to document the gathering.   It was a gathering that ended up more like a spectacle at the Roman Coliseum than an academic proceeding at a leading research university.

UW 2018?

The University Ombud, Chuck Sloan, was supposedly going to run the meeting.  He did not.    The meeting began with Chuck Sloan saying a few words, but rapidly it was taken over by Atmospheric Sciences Chair Dale Durran.  And the gathering turned dark quickly.

Durran called on the activist students, who made a range of comments critical of my blog.  As I tried to talk about the concept of freedom of speech, Dale Durran started screaming at me, telling me to stop.  When I protested I wasn’t finished speaking, he screamed even louder.  This went on for a while, with both of us talking at the same time, before the Ombud Sloan said I should be allowed continue.

But a minute later Dale Durran started screaming at me again to stop, preventing me from finishing.  Then he called upon several more “offended” students and one staff member, who went on the attack, accusing me of racism and worst.  One of the students stated that I would be “held accountable” for my blog and opposing 1631.  It was a direct threat.  And no one said a word about it.

Afterward, several faculty who had attended the gathering told me they were afraid to speak in my defense.  One, a full professor and past chair, told me that what had happened was very wrong but he was scared to talk.

Another faculty member, who was originally from China and lived through the Cultural Revolution told me it was exactly like the shaming sessions of Maoist China, with young Red Guards criticizing and shaming elders they wanted to embarrass and remove.

One of my graduate students was in tears.

To have such a scene occur at a public university was a violation of both faculty code and the basic principles of the university.   But Department chair Dale Durran and the COENV Dean’s office saw nothing wrong with it.

Some local and national media, and nation-wide blogs, found out about the situation from others and described what happened.

Considering the grievous nature of what occurred, I went to the Secretary of the Faculty for guidance.    He acknowledged what had happened was very serious and arranged for mediation.   The faculty secretary also noted that the UW lacked a policy to deal with the issue of social media and faculty freedom of speech.

Over the past 6 months, a number of media outlets have contacted me regarding doing major stories on what occurred.  I have put them off, feeling that the situation was so serious for the UW that it would be better to resolve the situation quietly and internally.  I expected that UW leadership (President and Provost), once aware of the situation, would quickly take steps to ensure that such serious violations of academic freedom and first amendment protections did not happen again.

The COENV Dean’s office and Dean Graumlich have refused to acknowledge the inappropriateness and illegality of the letter and shaming meeting, and so far neither the UW President nor Provost have acted to address the situation.

The mediation ended a few weeks ago; that is why I am writing this blog now.

Hypocrisy

Stephanie Harrington, the Associate Dean of Administration for the COENV, told me that is was appropriate for them to send me the racism-accusation letter and hold the shaming meeting.  She explained that since my blog (the CLIFF MASS WEATHER AND CLIMATE BLOG) had no visible disclaimer that it was not speaking for the UW, some people might confuse my blog for an official UW statement.   Furthermore, she noted that my blog had an invisible metatag in the html code that indicated I was a UW professor.  Therefore, the College had the right to send me a letter calling me a racist.  This makes no sense.

The claims of Dean Harrington, a staff member of the College, were baseless and apparent attempts to avoid responsibility for serious violations.  Freedom of speech does not require a disclaimer in one’s outside social media.  Nor does UW faculty code.  So there was no legal basis for her claim.   And I should note that after writing over a thousand blogs and received tens of thousands of comments, NO ONE has ever suggested that I am speaking for the UW.  My name is on the blog, not the UW.

But now we get to the hypocrisy part.  Members of the UW Dean’s office are making partisan and political comments all the time in the media and social media WITHOUT any disclaimers. So Dean Harrington’s “rules” don’t seem to apply to them.

Take Dean Lisa Graumlich.  She attended the January 2019 State of the Union speech as a climate scientist protestor as guest of Congresswoman Jayapal (D. WA).   Dean Graumlich was quoted widely in the media as the UW COENV Dean, with no attempt to clarify that she was not speaking for the UW when she provided politically laden comments.  And her political activities were spotlighted in the College’s official newsletter.

Associate Dean Rob Wood, one of the main authors of the shaming letter, was busy tweeting his support of 1631—done without a disclaimer (see below).

I could give you more examples, but clearly the actions of College leadership do not suggest concurrence with Stephanie Harrington’s novel theory on why the Dean’s office can invade academic freedom.

And talking about partisan activities within the College, in the weeks after Trump’s victory, the chair of my department held a departmental meeting to discuss student fears of the impacts of the new President.  This was totally inappropriate in a public university. 

Can you imagine an official university gathering on campus to talk about the negative implications of Barack Obama’s election?  It would have been correctly deemed racist, inappropriate, and offensive.  But apparently such activities are perfectly fine when a Republican wins. This meeting sent a clear message regarding the “approved” politics in my department.   Some moderate and conservative students told me how uncomfortable they were.  They felt excluded and minimized, and afraid to discuss their different viewpoints.

The bottom line is that a highly partisan group leading the College of the Environment are willing to dispense with basic academic freedom and constitutionally guaranteed rights to suppress views they don’t like. 

Read more at cliffmass.blogspot.com


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Comments (3)

  • Avatar

    Judy

    |

    It Seems even worse than the James Cook University versus Peter Ridd case in Australia. Are universities in USA funded by the federal government? If so, maybe Donald Trump can stop funding them. Maybe then Australia’s prime minister can follow trumps example.

    Reply

  • Avatar

    jerry krause

    |

    Hi John,

    Thank you for allowing Professor Cliff Mass tell his story to the ‘world’. I live in Oregon little more than 200 miles from the U of Washington and had never heard or read one word about his case.

    Have a good day, Jerry

    Reply

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