Even though he is no longer at Harvey Mudd College, controversy surrounding Professor David Noble continues to raise debate on HMC’s campus.

When it came time to select this year’s commencement speaker, Noble was voted by students to be their first choice. Disappointing students, HMC President Jon Strauss found Noble to be a bad choice for such an event, and selected an alternative speaker.

Noble, the first recipient of the Hixon/Riggs visiting professorship taught courses related to science, technology and society at the college from the fall of 1997 until the spring of 1999. HMC Senior Class President Sunny Shimizu had a class called Science, Technology and Gender with Noble. He found Noble to be a very powerful lecturer and a refreshing change from a traditional professor.

When it came time to select this year’s commencement speaker, Shimizu, along with other students, faculty and members of the administration devised a list of possible speakers, on which Noble’s named appeared.

"At the committee meeting, Grauss said that student input would be very important. But later in the meeting when someone mentioned Noble he seemed like he was backing off [his previous statement]," Shimizu said.
According to Shimizu, the agreement made at the meeting was that he would send out a list of nominees to members of the senior class via e-mail and then have each vote for three people, with the ultimate goal of narrowing down the list of candidates. After this, the agreement was to have a discussion and later conduct another vote to determine the graduation speaker.

About 80 members of the class responded to the e-mail. Professor Noble received the most votes, followed by Bill Nye "The Science Guy" and Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Noble said he was contacted by Shimizu and told that he topped the list of potential speakers.

"I was very flattered when Sunny asked me," Noble said. "I take teaching seriously, and this told me that I got through to the students. This was a real statement by them."

After not hearing back from Strauss for some time, Shimizu decided to talk to Strauss to see what progress had been made. When he met with Strauss, Strauss told him that he had gone ahead and asked Bill Nye to be the commencement speaker, an apparent break in the prior agreement. However, Strauss maintains that Shimizu knew that Noble most likely would not be a favorable choice for speaker.

"The student recommendation is advisory, not determinory [sic.]," Strauss said. "Commencement is a celebration and a right of passage, and I think the community wants it to be a positive celebration. I just couldn’t assure that with David as the speaker. I just didn’t believe that he would be the best choice for the community as a whole."

Although Strauss admitted that he has talked to some students who have expressed anger over deciding against Noble, he has also spoken with numerous faculty members and some students who are content with his decision. And, although Nye has yet to accept the offer, Strauss does not see any real possibility of Noble ending up as the graduation speaker.

"I think of lot of people are obviously disappointed, but it just gets to a point when we don’t have enough time on our hands to deal with this anymore," Shimizu said.

Noble is aware of the situation surrounding graduation and says that he is infuriated by what has happened. "Commencement is a beginning for students to really take control of their lives," Noble said. "It’s a real egregious violation of students’ rights to take the decision away from them."

Pomona Professor of Politics Rick Worthington is well aware of the controversy that Noble creates. Worthington, who was involved in the committee that selected Noble for the professorship, said that Noble is often noted for his strong views on issues related to the impact of technology on society. Noble, like his friend Green Party Founder Ralph Nader, holds the view that corporations have unchecked power in America.

"David is an activist and a critic, and he is serious about it. I admire his courage," Worthington said. "He thinks in provocative ways and can sometimes be interpreted as being confrontational."

As part of the agreement as a visiting professor, Noble was required to host a conference on the topic of his choice. He chose "Digital Diploma Mills" for the title of the conference, which examined the Internet’s role in revamping the education system. According to Noble, although the college was fully aware of his intentions for the conference’s subject matter well in advance, a dean at the college requested that he change the topic. Noble refused.

According to Noble, earlier in the year, during a lecture which several trustees attended, Noble expressed views which angered some trustees. He heard that one trustee may have even requested that the college dismiss him. "Harvey Mudd was worried that the conference would damper the ardor of its financial sponsors," Noble said.

HMC Director of Public Relations, Leslie Baer, said that it’s part of the college’s policy to host thought-provoking, often controversial speakers. She sited one year when Clifford Stole, author of the highly controversial Silver Snake Oil, was invited to speak.

"We relish discussions and different points of views from our professors and from our speakers," Baer said. "You can never have everyone agree. From where I sit, he offered an interesting, outside perspective on some important issues."

However, when the conference was featured in The Chronicle of High Education, the last two sentences of the article indicated that HMC officials took pain to distance themselves from the event.

"The irony in all of this is that they came to me in the beginning. I didn’t go to them," Noble said. "In the letter that they sent me, it said that the position was created with someone like me in mind. I did what I said I was going to do and raised awareness on several issues. The irony is that rather than take advantage of what I taught, which could have put them on the map as a forward-looking institution, they chose to worry about what the trustees would think."

Not only did Noble strike a bad note with the trustees, but he also struck a soft spot with his criticism of the college’s prized Clinic Program. Strauss calls the program, "The hallmark of the Harvey Mudd program."

The Clinic Program, developed over 30 years ago, pairs teams of students with corporations to work on problem solving, research and analysis. Companies pay $36,000 to HMC to sponsor the projects, which are required for students in most of HMC’s departments.

"We believe that there is an incredible learning value that goes with the program," Baer said. "It gives students real world experience so they are not caught off-guard when they go out into the real world. This program has been copied at schools across the nation."

Noble claims that both the school and the corporations are cheating students because they are not given full-recognition for their accomplishments. "The Clinic Program was designed to habituate students to the corporate ethos," Noble said. "The students sign away their knowledge and do what they are told. In the real world people get paid for doing that stuff. At [HMC] they pay $30,000 and they don’t have any choice for the most part about doing it."

Although Baer said that the college encourages different vantage points, she said that Noble crossed the line during his introduction for Ralph Nader last spring. In his opening remarks, Noble openly criticized the Clinic Program and one of its founders, Professor Woodson.

"His comments about Professor Woodson were thought to be inappropriate by many. They were very hurtful and derogatory comments made about a man who was a great man for the college," Baer said. "Perhaps had he researched more he would have been more careful."

Although his differences of opinion may have got him in trouble with the administration, it was this quality that made Noble so popular with his students. In several of his classes he had students stop and analyze certain aspects of the school, one of which was the Clinic Program.

"I treated the students with respect," Noble said. "It’s a real boot camp there. The students are worked to death; they don’t have any control. I gave them the space they needed to slow down and think about things."

"He was a love him or hate him guy," said Josh Wentlandt (HMC) ’00, who took a class with Noble during the fall semester of ’98. "He was good in that he let us think for ourselves, but he did definitely let us know what his opinions were."

Although Noble does not look back on his two years with anger, he does feel frustrated with the college for its "narrow-mindedness."

"I learned a lot there. The students there are some of the best students I’ve ever had," Noble said. "However, the real problem is political. I made it very clear where I stand and Harvey Mudd is narrow. There is little room for serious discussion."

Noble is no stranger to controversy. He was employed at MIT for nine years before being fired over controversial comments he made about the university. He also worked for the Smithsonian before getting fired. Noble currently is a Professor of History and Social Science at York University in Toronto, Canada.

"I think he is one of the best scholars in the world," said Worthington a supporter of Noble’s views. "He cuts through the hypocrisy in society and says what he thinks and then lives with the consequences."