Below is an email Nathan sent to the biology department and  Kathy Lawton ’s and MaryJo A. Witz ’s responses.

I also overheard various biology faculty discussing in the halls how they should have just "dropped" Trulie from the course at the beginning.


Date: Mon, 19 Mar 2001 10:16:04 -0500
From: Nathan Nobis <nobs@mail.rochester.edu>
To: rconnett@monroecc.edu, sdougherty@monroecc.edu, pemerick@monroecc.edu,  jkaufman@monroecc.edu, ckeery@monroecc.edu, bkrueger@monroecc.edu,
     klawton@monroecc.edu, slong@monroecc.edu, mmarino@monroecc.edu,    jmcphee@monroecc.edu, emellas@monroecc.edu, ppalma@monroecc.edu,
     jmurphy@monroecc.edu, dpearston@monroecc.edu, jpeters@monroecc.edu,  epixley@monroecc.edu, dsmith5@monroecc.edu, jstanton@monroecc.edu,
     ttatakis@monroecc.edu, ttugel@monroecc.edu, mwitz@monroecc.edu
Subject: an invitation

Dear Biology faculty,

Students who have moral and religious objections to animal dissection have successfully brought lawsuits against Ohio State University, the U. of
Pennsylvania, the U. Colorado, and SUNY Stonybrook for attempting to force them to dissect against their religious and moral views.  These cases are
the same as Ms.'s Nobis, the attorney is the same, the only difference is these schools are med, vet, or 4 year + schools, not a CC.  It would seem
very unlikely that court would rule in your favor here.

The "it's in the catalog that there is animal dissection in this course, so it's IMPOSSIBLE for there not to be [I guess, even if lots of human
cadavers were available!?]" defense will not hold up.  If what you say about "articulation requirements" was true, then there wouldn't be about
40 academic studies of alternatives to dissection!  Think about how you'd do a study like this: it would be educationally impossible to do if there
were such "requirements."

As far as I can tell, you are still missing what the point of this grievance is.  You should look into the law and the past cases here.  You
should look into the educational viability of alternatives (I have bibliographies, if you'd like to copy them, as well as some of the
articles on alternatives for anatomy & physiology). Since a likely result of this case is that you're going to have retool ALL of your courses that
involve animals (I wouldn't be surprised if the admin. told you that you  had to go straight hi-tech and cost-effiective from here on out anyway),
I'm totally surprised that you haven't done your homework here.

If any or all of you would like to meet with me about this legal and educational aspects of this issue, I'd be VERY  happy to so.  Connett has
probably told you how "aggressive" I am, but I'd really like to meet you and hear what you have to say about this.  See our page on this issue
below and, if you wish, back up and look at my main page and see what I work on.

INFO ON RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION CASE AGAINST MONROE COMMUNITY COLLEGE:
http://mail.rochester.edu/~nobs/dissection/

Hope to hear from at least one of you, Nathan Nobis


Date: Mon, 19 Mar 2001 15:31:19 -0500
From: "Lawton, Kathy (Biology)" <klawton@monroecc.edu>
To: 'Nathan Nobis' <nobs@mail.rochester.edu>
Subject: RE: an invitation

Mr. Nobis,

I believe the Biology Department has made our position very clear.  Do not attempt to contact me again.  It will be considered unsolicited harassment
and I will inform MCC security.

K. Lawton
Associate Professor, Biology Dept.


Mr. Nobis:

I am not now, or at any future time, interested in meeting with you or receiving further propaganda from you.  Any future
attempts to contact me via MCC email, campus mail, or U.S. Mail will be viewed as harrassment, and I will not hesitate to involve MCC security or
Brighton police in the matter.

                        M. Witz

                        MaryJo A. Witz
                        Instructor of Biology
                        Department of Biology
                        Monroe Community College
                        1000 E. Henrietta Road
                        Rochester, NY 14623
                        (716) 292-2733
                        email: mwitz@monroecc.edu