<p>
[quote]
MIT is indefinitely removing retired physics faculty member Walter Lewin’s online lectures from MIT OpenCourseWare and online MITx courses from edX, the online learning platform co-founded by MIT, following a determination that Dr. Lewin engaged in online sexual harassment in violation of MIT policies.
[/quote]
<p>It seems a bit pointless to remove his lectures from MITx. I can understand banning him from actually teaching the courses on MITx, but physics students around the world use his lecture videos as a valuable resource. I’m a physics major, and I have personally used them. I don’t see what exactly is being accomplished by completely removing them. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It’s not really supposed to be logical. The purpose was to “send a message” to people that his conduct was unacceptable. </p>
<p>I suppose it would be similar to one of your close friends on Facebook getting busted for some serious crime. Would you still want to be friends with him/her and have them posting things on your wall? </p>
<p>We live in sensitive times. If MIT keeps the lectures available, some people will read that as implicit support of Lewin’s behavior. MIT is playing the “better safe than sorry” game.</p>
<p>Bummer. My son and some other kids were using those videos and the associated problem sets during a required study hall to learn AP Physics C, Mech. </p>
<p>Darn. His lectures were really helpful in my physics class.</p>
<p>No reason to be mad with MIT, though. They were caught between a rock and a hard place.</p>
<p>His lectures will still be up on youtube by other accounts. I know the 8.01 lectures will never be taken down completely but his less famous 8.02 and 8.03 lectures may be after a while.</p>
<p>I really want to know what the complaint was though because their is a huge difference between saying “Hey baby you’re too pretty to honestly think you’re good or ever will be good at physics” (Still bad) and “Hey girl your’re going to fail this class if you don’t have sex with me”.</p>
<p>It should also be noted that there might be another lecture series that MIT puts up in order to replace Walter Lewin’s lectures. So, we’ll have access to two sets of great teachers.</p>
<p>I’m surprised that a head instructor on EdX would have any direct interaction at all with a student. They have community TAs to help students on the forum; even the staff rarely logs on and replies to a student.</p>
<p>This is all very odd. </p>
<p>"I suppose it would be similar to one of your close friends on Facebook getting busted for some serious crime. Would you still want to be friends with him/her and have them posting things on your wall? "</p>
<p>I’m not going to be “unfriend” my friends because they’ve been busted for a serious crime. That’s not how friendship works. </p>
<p>This isn’t punishing Lewin as so much as struggling physics students all around the world. I used his lectures to study for my physics exams and found them helpful…</p>
<p>I don’t really see a winning move for MIT. They can take the series down and face complaints from people who want to take the course (understandable), or leave them up and receive complaints that they’re “enabling” his improper conduct. From a game theory perspective, MIT made the right choice, although is sucks that our society forced them to make the decision in the first place. There hasn’t even been any criminal charges brought against him, and even if there were, I don’t believe that one bad deed automatically invalidates a whole career of brilliant contributions.</p>
<p>First of all his videos are still available on you tube, so anyone that wants them can veiw them can and students like Sophia7X can still use them to help study for exams. 2nd MIT, can find other excellent professors to teach online physics courses. And third, it wasn’t society who forced MIT to make this decision; it was the professor that acted in an inappropriate manner that forced MIT to make this decision. Professors are expected and should be expected to act in a professional manner with their students. </p>
<p>@comfortablycurt, this is not like a friendship, this is like an employer and an employee, and the reputation that a company must preserve; a professor’s conduct with students is very important to any institution’s reputation.</p>
<p>I wasn’t suggesting that it was. I was responding to a comment made by another poster. </p>
<p>A bit more context, direct from a brilliant MIT Physics Alumna: </p>
<p>“I personally have interacted with him several times for extended periods of time (hours) and it is clear that the pseudo-celebrity status of being on OCW has really gone to his head. By all accounts he was a vile human being long before OCW (just ask anyone in the astro division) but it seems that being celebrated for these videos has made him think that he is above basic human decency. People are equating taking down the videos to burning books, and that’s not at all an apt comparison. The videos are all over the internet and they are quite easy to find. Taking the videos down off of OCW is more analogous to a publishing house deciding not to print a book anymore to protect its brand. What’s more, I think MIT has an obligation to the victims of sexual harassment to take the videos down, both out of respect and for the purpose of maintaining OCW as a safe space for people to learn.”</p>
<p>I feel like the vague language they used regarding “interactions” really lends itself to instigating this feeling of screwing a Professor Emeritus over excessively. It honestly sounds like Lewin merely flirted or something with that lady over the course and it doesn’t sound serious. I don’t know what exactly happened, but I feel like if I knew the extent of Lewin’s “interactions,” it would prevent me from dubiously hating on MIT for taking down those videos, the lady who filed the complaint, and societal pressure in general (since “interactions” in an online course to me doesn’t really sound like “sexual harassment” but just “flirting”). </p>
<p>Just wondering, does anyone know how harassing Lewin was?</p>
<p>Let’s not forget that it’s not just one person accusing Lewin of sexual harassment (from the story in The Tech):
</p>
<p>The committee that investigated, lead by the (male) head of the physics department, found that Lewin had violated MIT’s policy on sexual harassment, which is [here](<a href=“http://web.mit.edu/policies/9/9.5.html]here[/url]:”>http://web.mit.edu/policies/9/9.5.html):</a>
</p>
<p>If I had to guess, I’d guess that a) it would have to be pretty bad for somebody to go to the trouble of reporting to MIT; b) it would have to be pretty bad to be found to violate that policy (i.e., “Hey sugar, how ya doin’,” while obnoxious, does not seem to rise to the level of violating that policy), and c) it’s generally considered an ethical violation for a professor (who is in a position of power) to merely flirt with or date a student consensually, let alone non-consensually, and most people in academia are pretty clear on that point.</p>
<p>EDIT: Also, they stripped him of his professor emeritus status – it’s not just the EdX stuff. Whether or not more information is ever released, I will bet so much money that it’s Real Bad. </p>
<p>I so respect Rafael Reif. He summed it up elegantly in the quote in the article.</p>
<p>MIT President L. Rafael Reif says, “Students place tremendous trust in their teachers. Deserving that trust is among our most fundamental obligations. We must take the greatest care that everyone who comes to us for knowledge and instruction, whether in classrooms or online, can count on MIT as a safe and respectful place to learn.”</p>
<p>The message to everyone: This is MIT, people. Bring your best to this institution, both in your science and your behavior. Step up. </p>
I hope people don’t mind that I’m reviving this thread. I’d seen the Lewin lectures before, and just now wanted to return and do the entire course, so I just today became aware of this controversy.
I regret to say that @molliebatmit is correct. It was REAL BAD. The accuser came forward in January. She was an online student in the physics MOOC. She set up a Facebook group for other online students. Lewin joined the group, and immediately started harassing her. And she wasn’t the only online student who was harassed; she found ten other women who were also victims.