USRA’s Non-Deletion Deletion of LPI Website Material

Keith’s note: a week ago I posted Erasing NASA Diversity Abstracts Is Not That Easy saying “The NASA DEI Erasure Squad has been busy. If you search for past LPSC abstracts on DEI, DEIA, diversity etc. you’ll see that they have disappeared and prior meeting agendas have been altered.” Well they have been busy and huge amounts of material are simply vanishing. USRA did this stealthily until too many people started to notice – only then did they have the notion that they should say something using some classic Orwellian Double Speak. (More below)

According to Nature: ‘Orwellian’: planetary scientists outraged over deletion of research records: “Over the past several weeks, hundreds of meeting abstracts have quietly vanished from the websites of research conferences organized by the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI) in Houston, Texas — a NASA-funded research institution that maintains key archives and information about US planetary science. The abstracts have a common theme: diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). These topics were banned from receiving government funding by a 20 January executive order from US President Donald Trump, who called them “illegal and immoral discrimination programs”. The LPI did not seek permission from the abstract authors to remove the material.”

I got this from USRA last night “Statement Regarding the Removal of DEI Content from LPI Websites“ which said “After consulting with our counsel and in a good faith effort to comply with these Administration directives to the best of our understanding of their terms, USRA/LPI removed (not deleted) all DEI-related content from the public-facing websites, which are maintained under USRA’s cooperative agreement with and grant from NASA.”

Wait a minute: “USRA/LPI removed (not deleted) all DEI-related content’” Huh? USRA took it offline. It has been deleted from the website. It is gone. Vanished. Absent. Disappeared. What kind of Orwellian Double Speak is this? Where is it? But they say “If and when USRA is advised by an authoritative federal body that we can restore that content, with or without a disclaimer, USRA will promptly do so.”

USRA still took this material offline with no mention whatsoever in advance that this was going to happen – or why. Only when everyone started to notice did they finally decide to admit what they were doing with a press thing sent out after hours.