[phas-undergrad] [phas-dept] Fwd: APS membership and social media issues
Carlos Bertulani
Carlos.Bertulani at tamuc.edu
Mon Apr 25 12:47:27 CDT 2022
This email thread touches delicate issues that we should all be aware of.
The original article is attached. Other relevant links are listed in the email exchanges.
Carlos
http://faculty.tamuc.edu/cbertulani/
Begin forwarded message:
From: Cortney Bougher <bougher at aps.org<mailto:bougher at aps.org>>
Subject: Re: APS membership and social media issues
Date: April 25, 2022 at 12:27:37 PM CDT
To: Alexis Knaub <avknaub at gmail.com<mailto:avknaub at gmail.com>>, ABIGAIL LOUISE FERRIS <alferris at wisc.edu<mailto:alferris at wisc.edu>>, "carlos.bertulani at gmail.com<mailto:carlos.bertulani at gmail.com>" <carlos.bertulani at gmail.com<mailto:carlos.bertulani at gmail.com>>, "Hagmann, Joseph A. (Fed)" <joseph.hagmann at nist.gov<mailto:joseph.hagmann at nist.gov>>, Emily Belli <bellie at fusion.gat.com<mailto:bellie at fusion.gat.com>>, "mzientek34 at gmail.com<mailto:mzientek34 at gmail.com>" <mzientek34 at gmail.com<mailto:mzientek34 at gmail.com>>
Cc: Jennifer Pirnat <ruberto at aps.org<mailto:ruberto at aps.org>>
Hi everyone,
Writing to make you aware of two items that have recently been posted relating to the paper recently published in Phys Rev PER:
Physical Review PER Editorial<https://journals.aps.org/prper/edannounce/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.18.010001> - co-authored by PER Lead Editor, Charles Henderson, and APS Editor in Chief, Michael Thoennessen
APS News Back Page<https://aps.org/publications/apsnews/updates/respect.cfm> - co-authored by Frances Hellman (President), Robert Rosner (President-Elect), Young-Kee Kim (Vice President), S. James Gates Jr. (Past President), David G. Seiler (Treasurer), Robin Selinger (Speaker of APS Council of Representatives), and Jonathan Bagger (CEO)
Best,
Cortney
On Fri, Apr 1, 2022 at 4:51 PM Cortney Bougher <bougher at aps.org<mailto:bougher at aps.org>> wrote:
Hi everyone,
Thank you for raising this issue and sharing your concerns and perspective. APS is internally documenting the reaction to the paper and I will make you aware of any forthcoming response from APS leadership.
Please keep in mind that APS members, program participants, volunteers, and elected officials are expected to adhere to the APS Guidelines on Ethics.<https://aps.org/policy/statements/19_1.cfm> Through your role as a committee member, if you are subject to any form of discrimination, harassment, or retaliation and you need to seek support, please reach out to me directly. In situations where you prefer to place an anonymous report in confidence, you are encouraged to file a report online via aps.ethicspoint.com<http://aps.ethicspoint.com/> or by phone: (844) 660-3924. The ethicspoint system is an appropriate route to report harassment that you may observe or be subjected to.
Cortney
On Wed, Mar 30, 2022 at 7:11 PM Alexis Knaub <avknaub at gmail.com<mailto:avknaub at gmail.com>> wrote:
I'm not sure what this committee can do, either, but from our page<https://www.aps.org/about/governance/committees/commemb/index.cfm>: "The Committee suggests to Council means for improving the relationship between the Society and its members, for enhancing services, including APS publications that the Society provides to its members on payment of their membership dues, and for improving other activities in the area of membership as delegated to it by the Council."
For clarification, APS will pursue complaints if we file them, but the documentation and filing is following onto volunteers. Given the number of tweets and what I suspect is pretty bad (I personally haven't looked, but people I trust have conveyed as much), I don't think it should be up to the volunteers. The issue Louise identified is a factor- evidently, some tweets have been deleted.
-A
On Wed, Mar 30, 2022 at 12:04 PM ABIGAIL LOUISE FERRIS <alferris at wisc.edu<mailto:alferris at wisc.edu>> wrote:
Hi all,
I am not exactly sure what we can do as a committee, but I just wanted to reach out and say I definitely would love to do something about this, and probably sooner rather than later considering the impermanence of social media. I would agree that it is certainly not sitting well with me that APS doesn’t seem interested in doing anything about it, but I would say that as an extension of APS we may be able to make an impact here.
As a queer scientist myself, the idea that members of the community may be uncomfortable or even actively against inclusion makes me a bit sick to my stomach. Needless to say, if there is anything we can do as a committee, I am fully on board.
Regards,
Louise
Sent from Mail<https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for Windows
From: Alexis Knaub<mailto:avknaub at gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2022 9:42 AM
To: Emily Belli<mailto:bellie at fusion.gat.com>; carlos.bertulani at gmail.com<mailto:carlos.bertulani at gmail.com>; mzientek34 at gmail.com<mailto:mzientek34 at gmail.com>; Cortney Bougher<mailto:bougher at aps.org>; ABIGAIL LOUISE FERRIS<mailto:alferris at wisc.edu>; Hagmann, Joseph A. (Fed)<mailto:joseph.hagmann at nist.gov>
Subject: APS membership and social media issues
Hi all,
Without going into all the details, there has been considerable backlash against a DEI paper published in Phys. Rev.- PER. Some of this backlash is on Twitter (possibly other social media), and several people believe it may be serious enough that APS should or could take disciplinary action. That is, whatever is being tweeted might be in violation of APS' ethics policy or Code of Conduct.
Someone has inquired whether APS would look into this, by documenting what is going on and who is saying what. It appears APS will not do this kind of documentation and pursue this. It was suggested that volunteer members do this kind of documentation and then determine whether the egregious tweets or posts are from APS members.
I don't think this is appropriate for APS volunteers. According to the social media metrics for this paper, there have been over a thousand tweets. I think it can be difficult to discern what is just obnoxious behavior and what needs to be reported, as well as potentially being traumatic for volunteers. Is there anything that the committee can do, either now or at our next meeting? This does fall under our mission, and it's not sitting well with some members that APS seems to not want to take the lead on this effort.
Courtney or Emily, feel free to add others who are part of this committee.
Thank you for reading.
-Alexis
--
Cortney Bougher
Director of Membership
American Physical Society
301.209.3271
bougher at aps.org<mailto:bougher at aps.org>
Pronouns: she/her
--
Cortney Bougher
Director of Membership
American Physical Society
301.209.3271
bougher at aps.org<mailto:bougher at aps.org>
Pronouns: she/her
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