ר: GOLLIN ACADEMIC FREEDOM AFFAIR: FACTS.

I've just come across a case of a very good university, the University of Illinois, apparently suppressing a professor's academic freedom to avoid offending diploma mills. A tenured physics professor, George Gollin, set up a website on the subject of diploma mills-- low-quality schools that sell unaccredited degrees-- on the computer used by his high energy physics group. (This computer contained other pages, including a a recipe for stir-fried kangaroo, which apparently the University thinks is appropriate for such a computer.) On July 25, CBS News did a story about his website. The university started getting complaints and threats of lawsuits from the diploma mills.

What happened next is a little unclear, but by October, Professor Gollin had moved his materials to the George Gollin homepage, so, as usual with university attempts to suppress information, the information didn't really get suppressed, but the university was able to demonstrate its strong desire that it be suppressed. What is unclear is why the website was moved. Possibilities include:

The university threatened Professor Gollin with punishment if he didn't move the website.
Professor Gollin was scared of lawsuits, and thought moving his site would protect him (a false hope, since his name is still on the Oregon site, and if the State of Oregon were sued, Gollin would be named in the suit too, just because once a plaintiff brings suit, he might as well add extra defendants in the hopes of getting extra money.) Or, he at least wanted someone to help share defense costs.
The university threatened to repudiate Professor Gollin if there was a lawsuit, and try to reach a settlement that would leave him the sole target.

Below are the two new stories I found. The more complete and ominous story is from The Chronicle of Higher Education, October 24.

Under pressure from administrators at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a tenured physics professor has shut down a Web site he created to make information available about the unaccredited distance-learning institutions often referred to as "diploma mills."
The professor, George Gollin, said administrators ordered him to remove the material from the university server last month because proprietors of some of the online institutions mentioned on his site had threatened to sue the university. The administrators told him that his research into the controversial institutions did not meet the "public service" obligation for faculty members of land-grant universities, he said.
...
But Robin Kaler, a spokeswoman for the university, denied that Illinois had ordered the professor to remove the material. "We were trying to help him find a more appropriate place for his Web site," she said, adding that a Web site about diploma mills should be "housed in a place that deals with accreditation."
The university did not view Mr. Gollin's research into diploma mills as meeting the institution's public-service requirement, Ms. Kaler said, because the work is not related to physics, his area of expertise. "He has a lot to offer the community and the world outside of his discipline," she said. "But for the university support he receives, it's for his work in his discipline."

The other story I found is from the campus newspaper, The Daily Illini of October 21.

Gollin compiled over 100 pages of his research on his Web site, which was taken down after a man who ran one of the diploma mills began sending e-mails complaining about the site in early August.
Other organizations sent e-mails to the physics department head and administrators at the University, Gollin said.
He said the e-mails were very angry and the people who sent them were threatening to sue him.
"I asked to meet with administrators, lawyers and my department head to sort out the legal issues," he said.
"We had a meeting to respond to questions that he raised and decide how to safely portray his information," said Robin Kaler, University spokeswoman.
"Some of his allegations and statements could have been considered personal attacks," Kaler said. "We agreed that a better place for his Web site would be at an accrediting agency."
Gollin said he contacted the Oregon Office of Degree Authorization to find a home for his research.
"They agreed to review it, copyright it and make it their own," Gollin said.
Alan Contreras, administrator of the Oregon Office of Degree Authorization, said the research was "really excellent work."
...
"I feel that I've come out of this well; I feel safer," Gollin said. "What I wanted to accomplish is to have information on these unaccredited schools available on the Internet."

For commentary, go to http://php.indiana.edu/~erasmuse/w/03.10.25b.htm.

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