
MIT indefinitely removes online physics lectures and courses by Walter Lewin - clarkm
http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2014/lewin-courses-removed-1208
======
lsiebert
"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.

~~~
userbinator
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...

~~~
RobertKerans
Why? And what the hell has it got to do with political correctness? A person
has committed a serious infraction while employed. His former employer is
washing their hands of him, and the things he has done are tainted. The nature
of what he did necessitates a short statement. But they don't, and shouldn't
have to, go into the exact details just to satisfy the curiosity of
unconnected people, because really, that's what you're asking for. If it were
to go through public court, then it would be on record, but it hasn't, and no
employer with an iota of sense/HR department ever willingly releases detailed
private internal information on an investigation. Sure, it might be great big
conspiracy, but more likely is that he's a huge arsehole who abused his
position and is now on the receiving end of utterly predictable consequences.

Edited in response to comment below, exact same point stands.

~~~
GFK_of_xmaspast
It is "politically correct" in that it is a high status well connected white
man brought low by the bureaucracy and a mere student who also happens to be a
woman.

------
RodericDay
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.

~~~
blt
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.

~~~
anatoly
> 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.

This comparison is completely inappropriate. You're pitching the contributions
of one individual against the mores of the entire society over generations, as
if Walter Lewin is single-handedly responsible for this "loss of uncountable
women". How are you not ashamed to do this?

> 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.

Well, MLK was a plagiarist. Do you think it'd be a good idea to stop
celebrating his life and works, stop citing him, revoke the holiday, etc.?
After all, there are many fun and engaging civil rights activists around the
world. One of them can step up.

~~~
vacri
_Well, MLK was a plagiarist._

For someone calling shame on another for poor debating tactics, engaging in
this level of misdirection is pretty poor form.

Not to mention that MLK has been dead for over 40 years, so it's not like he's
stepping down to leave a place vacant right now.

~~~
anatoly
I don't understand where the misdirection is in what I said. It's not like I'm
actually suggesting to debate whether MLK should be forgotten: I'm making a
point through comparison.

MLK being dead plays to the strength of this analogy, because Lewin is
retired. Removing his lectures on OCW, recorded 15 years ago, is like refusing
to read or watch MLK because of _his_ moral failings. The issue with the MOOC
on MITx, where he participated as late as last year, is different, and I would
agree with barring his participation on the platform in case the
transgressions are serious enough. But if you look over the discussion, it is
the removal of the static, non-dynamic, incredibly popular and famous lectures
on OCW that strikes many people as unjustified.

P.S. Feynman was a creep, and anyone who thinks that fact should cause people
to stop reading his justly famous textbook and prefer that others "step up"
is, not to put too fine a point on it, an idiot.

~~~
dalke
Plagiarism isn't illegal. Were there policies in place where MLK agreed to not
plagiarize?

While on the other hand, MIT has public, written rules against sexual
harassment and takes active measures to reduce sexual harassment. It's also
illegal for MIT to be a workplace which allows sexual harassment.

It's a bit of a stretch then to make the comparison. Why not be more direct
and use Bill Cosby as your comparison? Last I heard neither Cosby nor Lewin
have been charged with any crime. And Viacom has stopped showing reruns of
"The Cosby Show", last recorded 22 years ago.

------
sweettea
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.

~~~
sadfaceunread
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.

~~~
waterlesscloud
It's weird. I'm all for punishing sexual harassment, but I just don't see how
removing his content from OCW does anything but punish society. It's not like
static material is suddenly going to start harassing people.

As you say, they wouldn't remove an author's books in this case. How are
course notes and videos any different?

Poor decision, in my opinion.

~~~
Steuard
I've talked about this at greater length in another comment, but removing OCW
content strikes me as a serious blow to any professor's legacy. For someone
who invested years into that project, that's one heck of a punishment; it's
one of the harshest things I can think of that MIT could do to a retired
professor.

------
Mithrandir
MIT uploaded 8.01, 8.02, and 8.03 (as well as other courses) to the Internet
Archive awhile ago.

8.01:
[https://archive.org/details/MIT8.01F99](https://archive.org/details/MIT8.01F99)

8.02:
[https://archive.org/details/MIT8.02S02](https://archive.org/details/MIT8.02S02)

8.03:
[https://archive.org/details/MIT8.03F04](https://archive.org/details/MIT8.03F04)

Edit: I don't know if all the problem sets are up there.

~~~
vixen99
Excellent! Thank you. Cuts across the problems alluded to for those who want
to hear the lectures whatever (it is their decision).

------
reuven
Wow, this is a tough one.

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
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.

~~~
rada
_That professors are human is hardly a revelation._

Did you just equate being human to forcing unwanted sexual interactions on
individuals under your power and stewardship? Wow. Just wow.

 _cutting off students in the middle of study..._

It may cut off a few students this one time but the overall effect is to
improve study conditions for multiple students for years to come.

~~~
hga
" _Did you just equate being human to forcing unwanted sexual interactions on
individuals under your power and stewardship? Wow. Just wow._ "

Yes, it's well within the arc of normal human behavior (power corrupts and all
that). If you weren't surprised to learn of this event you should agree,
unless:

More generally, another MIT professor said, to great acclaim from the class
including myself, that " _Original Sin is an empirical observation_ ". And
this is the precise fault line between the right and the modern left: is man
"fallen", or perfectible?

And getting back to this case, if the latter, what do you do with those you
can't perfect? From that comes, among other things, examples like this of
making people unpersons.

~~~
reuven
I can completely understand removing Lewin from the faculty as a professor
emeritus.

I can understand getting rid of his e-mail address and office (which I believe
were also done).

If he really engaged in sexual harassment, then he deserves to have the book
thrown at him.

The question isn't whether to punish him or make an example out of him. The
question is whether we should remove all of the high-quality work that he did
because of his moral or legal failings.

I'm not sure. Emotionally, I like the idea of removing his work from EdX. But
I find it hard to justify pedagogically.

~~~
hga
Revenge, for that is the best possible interpretation of MIT's deletion
action, and is I assume related to your emotional desire, frequently makes
poor policy. If it _is_ motivating you, you should think really, really hard
about it, preferably at a remove from what sparked it (and if you can't
achieve that, e.g. victims and those close to them, then have some people you
trust provide that).

Heck, his " _Banned in Boston!_ " works might achieve greater fame, lure of
the forbidden fruit, and plenty of us had never particularly heard of him
before now....

------
FD3SA
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.

~~~
anigbrowl
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.

edited for typo

~~~
spacemanmatt
> Not as absurd as you equating private decisions by a privately-run
> educational institution with legal process.

I just wanted to repeat this bit for emphasis.

MIT does not wield the state's authority. Only the state can effect
censorship; private choices are not enforced by state power.

------
ilamont
Lewin was a superstar in online education circles, and very highly regarded at
MIT. The NYT, among others, covered this:
[http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/19/education/19physics.html?_...](http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/19/education/19physics.html?_r=0)

------
jwr
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.

------
byerley
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.

~~~
wavegeek
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.

~~~
Steuard
I continue to be amazed at the degree to which "no actual harassment happened"
is the _strong_ default belief for so many people here, despite the fact that
a thorough investigation _has already happened_ and decided otherwise. A group
of smart people (led by _MIT physics professors_ who are friends of the
accused, for goodness sake) looked at the evidence and concluded that serious
harassment occurred. Doesn't that merit at least a _bit_ of a Bayesian update?

I'm similarly amazed that the existence of examples of false accusations is
taken as a more salient fact than the overwhelming weight and history of
cultural indifference toward sexual harassment (or even approval). False
accusations are the "man bites dog" story: they get attention because they're
so far from the norm.

~~~
anatoly
Consider that these people updated, you just don't share their conditional
probabilities. In particular, they might think that P(response by MIT as
given|harassment nonexistent or relatively trivial) is fairly high, given
their understanding of or experience with the academic climate in the recent
years, internal politics in academia, standards of institutional ass-covering
etc. It's also notable (given that sexual harassment is a crime) that no
involvement by authorities is described or even hinted at.

You do make a good point. "no harassment happened" shouldn't be the strong
default belief (I'm not sure it actually is for many people here). But based
on the statement and what is known about the relevant politics in academia,
"serious harassment definitely occurred" shouldn't be one either.

------
grayclhn
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.

------
gamesbrainiac
Why does MIT have to remove the video content? Lewin's lectures are one of the
best sources to learn physics. Period.

~~~
henrikgs
Anyone seen both Lewin and Susskind[0] got any thoughts on the differences? I
was thinking about starting on one of these.

[http://theoreticalminimum.com/courses/classical-
mechanics/20...](http://theoreticalminimum.com/courses/classical-
mechanics/2011/fall)

~~~
anatoly
Susskind is much more advanced. Realistically speaking you need to understand
and internalize the content of Lewin (or comparable) before you take on
Susskind.

Lewin = undergraduate-level physics Susskind = graduate-level physics,
converted to minimize math and maximize accessible explanations, but still
graduate-level physics.

------
wbhart
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.

------
pakled_engineer
Time to site rip and create an OCW torrent in case other materials and
lectures disappear.

------
jabelk
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).

[1] [http://www.amazon.com/For-Love-Physics-Rainbow-
Journey/dp/14...](http://www.amazon.com/For-Love-Physics-Rainbow-
Journey/dp/1439108277/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0)

[2] [http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/physics/8-01-physics-i-
fall-2003/](http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/physics/8-01-physics-i-fall-2003/)

------
galilyou498
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?

------
thejdeep
Absurd. Don't think there is a need to remove his lectures ,which benefit the
many in the student fraternity, from the edX or MIT OCW.

------
jcrawfordor
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.

------
dmunoz
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.

[0] [http://oyc.yale.edu/physics](http://oyc.yale.edu/physics)

[1]
[http://theoreticalminimum.com/courses](http://theoreticalminimum.com/courses)

------
purplescarf
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?

------
lectrick
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.

~~~
new299
I believe the OpenCourseWare materials were made available under a permissive
license. And the lectures are available on archive.org e.g.

[https://archive.org/details/MIT8.01F99](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.

~~~
lectrick
That seems reasonably fair, then, all things considered.

Found a positive article on him. Seems like a really cool prof, those are hard
to find, sigh

[http://www.technologyreview.com/article/426949/the-
professor...](http://www.technologyreview.com/article/426949/the-professor-
who-brings-physics-to-life/)

What bothers me is that we're entering a world where most of the things that
are considered "real" live online, so this is a rather large hit to the legacy
of this guy, looking back on this day from the future.

------
NamTaf
I understand why they did what they did, but it's a real shame because he was
a fantastic teacher and the material on both OCW and edX was incredibly
valuable. I took two of his courses on edX and both were among the best of the
10 or so courses I've done on there.

I hope another copy of them pops up. It'd be great for them not to be lost
from public availability without MIT having to support it.

edit: Of course, I don't think I ever archived a copy of these edX courses (it
was difficult to) but I'll check when I get home.

------
venomsnake
Sack the guy, prevent him from teaching. Leave the courses online.

Having and excellent resource and not using it is stupid.

------
davelnewton
It's good they took immediate and decisive action.

Aren't the courses pre-recorded/-written/-etc. materials?

------
ps4fanboy
This feels like a digital book burning.

------
kendallpark
Wow. I'm really sad to hear this. His online courses got me through E&M back
in college.

------
paulmcb
Right when I needed to study for my Physics E&M Final...

------
kercker
This resembles the practices of universities in China, that when a famous
alumnus is accused of corruption, all that remind people of his existence in
the campus are removed.

------
paulmcb
More like Walter Lewinsky...

------
Rolpa
Steve Jobs was an irrefutable dick. So tell me, should we throw all
Macintoshes and iPhones into an incinerator?

~~~
prawn
Was he using them as a particular channel to harass people?

~~~
gravity13
Steve Jobs touched my sister's boob.

~~~
general_failure
So he married your siter?

------
DaveSapien
This is going to turn around and bight them in the ass...

