Statement by Robert S. Boyer to the Faculty Council, University of Texas at Austin

December 11, 1995

Mr. Chairman,

Because I am not a member of the faculty council, I am most grateful for the opportunity to speak.

I rise to introduce a document entitled "Let's Call It Muller Hall". Copies are available to all present, and the information is also available on the web at http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/boyer/fp. The document contains information relevant to the controversy over the naming of the new molecular biology building for Jim Bob Moffett, chairman of Freeport-McMoRan, and his wife.

Within the document you will find the famous letter from OPIC alleging serious environmental damage caused by Freeport mining activity in Irian Jaya (West Papua), the report of ACFOA about torture, murder, and disappearances near the Freeport mine site in Irian Jaya (West Papua), and the reports of the Bishop of Irian Jaya (West Papua) and of the Indonesian Human Rights Commission about these shocking human rights abuses. The document also contains a heavily annotated bibliography of many other sources of information and opinion relating to this controversy.

I have also included a letter from Steven Feld, a noted UT anthropologist, resigning his UT position in protest over the naming of the building for the Moffetts and related Freeport-McMoRan issues. I include my own Daily Texan op-ed piece which describes my position on the building naming question. I there indicate a course of action that I believe the faculty should take.

I ask the members of the Faculty Council to read these documents with care.

Robert S. Boyer

Here is the document handed out at the Faculty Council Meeting.

Let's Call It Muller Hall

On Renaming the Moffett Building

Presented to the Faculty Council of
The University of Texas at Austin
December 11, 1995

Robert S. Boyer (boyer@cs.utexas.edu), Professor Computer Sciences, Mathematics, and Philosophy Departments University of Texas at Austin

Copying costs paid with personal funds. Naturally, nothing here should be interpreted as representing the official position of the University of Texas.

Dear Members of the Faculty Council,

Background. Five years ago, a deal was struck between Bill Cunningham and Jim Bob Moffett, chairman of Freeport-McMoRan Inc., to name a building for Moffett and his wife in return for a donation to UT of several million dollars. A year ago, the regents officially decided to name the new molecular biology building for Moffett and his wife. Last spring, the UT Student Government voted to condemn the decision of the regents to name the building for the Moffetts. Very recently, over three thousand UT students signed a petition asking that the regents choose another name. The students collecting these signatures held a peaceful 37 hour vigil on the steps of the Main Building to commemorate the deaths of 37 Amungme natives who were murdered or disappeared in Irian Jaya (West Papua), on the island of New Guinea, where Freeport-McMoRan has a mine. Two months ago the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, a quasi-governmental agency of the U. S. government, cancelled a $100,000,000 risk insurance policy of Freeport's in Irian Jaya (West Papua), charging extreme environmental damage.

Time for the Faculty Council to Speak. I believe it is time for the Faculty Council to consider this naming question. Attached is some relevant information. I hope that Faculty Council members will read it; some of it is blood curdling. I believe one can find in this information grounds for asking the regents to choose another name for the building. However, I am reasonably sure that the regents will ignore any such request. Therefore, I suggest the Faculty Council take two additional steps. First, recommend to the regents an alternative name for the building. Second, ask that faculty and students use the proposed alternative name until the regents choose a new one. I suggest the name Muller Hall; attached is a very brief essay about geneticist H. J. Muller, apparently the only person ever to have done Nobel Prize winning work at UT.

About this Information I obtained most of the attached information from UT Professor Steven Feld, a distinguished anthropologist who has this semester resigned from UT over the naming of the building for the Moffetts and related Freeport-McMoRan issues. Feld has done anthropological studies of New Guinea for almost 20 years. All of the attached information, and much more, is available on the Internet at URL {http://www.utwatch.org/corporations/freeportfiles/index.html}. In the attached text, underlining is an indication that further information, often an entire report or article, is available under that topic on the Internet merely for clicking with a mouse at that point, while viewing the text via a network browser, such as Mosaic or Netscape.

Robert S. Boyer