PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES:
Physics Institute Settles Suit, Takes Steps to Increase Diversity
Adrian Cho
"This book is stolen. Written in part on stolen time, that is." When
science journalist Jeff Schmidt penned those words, he inadvertently
began a 6-year legal tale that even he didn't see coming. The yarn
ended last month, as Schmidt settled a lawsuit against his former
employer, the American Institute of Physics (AIP), which represents 10
professional societies.
In the suit, Schmidt claimed that AIP, based in College Park, Maryland,
fired him in 2000 for protesting the lack of racial diversity on the
editorial staff of AIP's magazine Physics Today. AIP says it was responding to his claim that he used company time to write his book Disciplined Minds: A Critical Look at Salaried Professionals and the Soul-Battering System That Shapes Their Lives. The book's first line says as much, although Schmidt says he was engaging in hyperbole.
Under the settlement, most of which is public, AIP admits no wrongdoing. Schmidt, who was an editor at Physics Today
for 19 years, receives compensation for lost wages and benefits, pain
and suffering, and legal fees. He also got his job back--just long
enough to resign--and a recommendation that says his work consistently
met or exceeded requirements. "Getting any one of these terms would
have surprised me," Schmidt says. "Getting all of them is amazing."
The Washington Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs,
which helped represent Schmidt, reports in a press release that AIP
also agreed in the settlement to support efforts by the National
Society of Black Physicists (NSBP) and the National Society of Hispanic
Physicists (NSHP) to become nonvoting members. If invited, AIP will
also conduct a science writing course at the next NSBP annual
conference, according to the release. AIP would not comment on the
settlement.
"Historically, AIP has always worked with the NSBP and NSHP to promote
diversity," says Marc Brodsky, AIP executive director and CEO. Brodsky
says Physics Today now has at least one minority editor but that he doesn't generally ask employees about their ethnicity.
As the dispute wore on, Schmidt, 59, became a minor cause célèbre among
some physicists. Hundreds signed a statement accusing AIP of squelching
free expression.
Jean Kumagai, an editor at Physics Today
from 1989 to 1999, says she and Schmidt raised the issue of workplace
diversity with higher-ups. "We suggested that they actually practice
what they had on paper as a policy," says Kumagai, now an editor at IEEE Spectrum magazine. "And that didn't go over too well."
However, Graham Collins, an editor at Scientific American who worked at Physics Today
from 1991 to 1998, says Schmidt deserves some of the blame for the
conflict. "There were serious problems at the magazine, but he was one
who tended to exacerbate the situation."
Schmidt, who has not been employed since he was fired, credits
researchers for speaking out. "I think physicists protested my firing
because it made the institution of physics look as political as other
fields," he says. But, he adds, few voiced concern about racial
diversity.