Following is a letter I just got from UT Austin

Bill Clark,
I hope all is going well with your relocation to Leon County. I cannot
help but feel that creating a measure of distance between yourself and
the Austin area will open you up new opportunities as you finally close
this chapter of your life. Just the elimination of the stress alone
will no doubt add years to your productive life. I am very encouraged
by your recent statement that you intend to return to the practice of
engineering and will soon begin interviewing with major Aerospace
companies around the nation, and I certainly wish you well in this
endeavor.

Your recent email suggests to me that there may be some confusion
regarding the application of the Privacy Act (FERPA) to the document
you refer to as your "dissertation". The unsolicited document that you
hand delivered to my office last August is indeed a University record,
but it is not an "educational record" covered by the Privacy act. It
is, however, covered by the Copyright Act. Because the University is a
state agency, the document to which you refer is a state agency record
subject to normal state agency record retention, inspection and
destruction policies established under state law (The Texas Public
Information Act), provided only that "copies" can only be made with the
permission of the copyright holder, and that would be you. With that
understanding, please note that while anyone can "inspect" that
document pursuant to state law, we will not provide "copies" of that
document to anyone without your permission.

Although you are now moving on with your life and all of this will soon
become ancient history, just for the record, I thought this might be as
good a time as any to correct just a few of the false statements that
run through some of your emails and web postings that may simply be
additional points of confusion.

- You state, falsely, that you have a "grievance" pending with the
University over your dismissal. The truth is, because all of your
administrative appeals have already been exhausted, there are no
additional "grievances" that can be pursued, at least not within the
University.

- You state, falsely, that you were "never given" any reason for your
dismissal from the PhD program. The truth is, you simply disagree with
the reasons you were given.

- You state, falsely, that you were a PhD Candidate that "completed all
for Ph.D. but dissertation defense". The truth is, you were never
admitted to PhD Candidacy because you never satisfied the requirements
for PhD Candidacy.

- You state, falsely, that the written material you posted on your
website and delivered to myself and various individuals as your "PhD
Dissertation". The truth is, a research paper is only that, and does
not become a "dissertation" until a faculty committee approves it as
such, and that never happened.

- You state, falsely, that the engineering faculty never evaluated the
substance of your research. The truth is, a faculty panel engaged in a
thorough examination of substance of your research and you simply
disagree with their determination that your research was, essentially,
unscholarly.

- You state, falsely, that you cannot now get an engineering license
and that UT is somehow responsible for this. The truth is, you were a
licensed engineer before you were admitted to the PhD program and your
academic status, or non-status, with the University presents no
impediment whatsoever to your engineering license. The truth is, you
voluntarily surrendered your perfectly valid engineering license and,
except for satisfying the continuing education requirements, you are
eligible to have your engineering license reinstated any time you wish.

- You state, falsely, that you cannot get employment and that UT is
somehow responsible for this. The truth is, you were a practicing
engineer without a PhD before you voluntarily surrendered your license
and there is nothing prevents you from reinstating your engineering
license and practicing engineering again any time you wish. As for
your ability to obtain letters of recommendation, by their nature,
letters of recommendation are voluntary honest expressions of the
personal opinions of the writer. No faculty member can be compelled to
provide a letter of recommendation and no faculty member can be
compelled to say positive things that they do not honestly believe
about a a person's scholarship and compliance and progress and
cooperation. The faculty members in our College of Engineering that
are familiar with your lack of scholarship, lack of compliance, lack of
progress and lack of cooperation with the reasonable requirements of
your supervising faculty, have all stated that they do not choose to
give you a letter of recommendation. This is their choice. It strikes
me that you want letters of recommendation, you will have to find
someone outside of The University of Texas that holds you in
sufficiently high regard that they can honestly recommend you, because
am not aware of anyone here that fits that description.

BIll, as I have said, I wish you well in your new endeavor. Let me
know how you are doing.

Lee Smith
Associate Vice President
for Legal Affairs
The University of Texas at Austin