Steinberg's response to my initial letter

Office of the Provost
Carnegie Mellon University
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213-3890
412-268-6684
Fax: 412-268-2330

Leonard N. Foner
187 Arsenal Street
Watertown, MA 02172

Dear Mr. Foner:

I think that your letter of February 27, 1995, to President Mehrabian, with a copy to me, is based on a misapprehension. Any student, faculty member, or staff member can reach any material on the Internet from almost all of the 9,000 computers on campus.

Your letter says that the "CMU administration ... unilaterally attempt[ed] to deny access to certain parts of the Internet to its entire community." Even if we wanted to do that, it is technically impossible. You can check that fact with one of your computer science colleagues at MIT.

We stopped mounting six sets of bulletin boards on our own servers. That in no way interferes with anyone's access to anything.

I should also point out that much of the other information someone gave you is also not correct. We did, for example, consult our own counsel. And one of our lawyers sits on an all-university committee that for some months has been considering a set of recommendations to make to the president on how such matters should be handled.

We're sorry that so much misinformation has been spread so widely; but once it reaches the newswires, there is no way to retrieve or counteract it.

I've enclosed a talk that I gave at the Duke Law School on the subject. If you would care to comment on what I said there, I'd be happy to have your response.

Yours truly,

Erwin R. Steinberg
Vice Provost for Education

cc: President Mehrabian