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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.



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....




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