Gordon Fulks sends this summary of the situation and asks that it be distributed. I’m happy to oblige. For some background on Dr. Drapela’s skeptical views, this slideshow “Global Warming Cracked Open” might give some insight into OSU’s booting him out. – Anthony
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From Gordon Fulks:
Hello Everyone,
In theory at least Oregon State University (OSU) seems to be a bastion of academic freedom, diversity, and tolerance. A wide range of ideas are openly discussed. The most viable rise to the top and the least viable fade away. But it is all a fairy tale, because OSU operates under a politically correct regimen that dictates what is acceptable to say and what is not. Transgressors who dare to be different are eventually weeded out so that the campus maintains its ideological purity.
OSU is not yet as swift or efficient as the Soviet system when Joseph Stalin was trying to quash dissent among biologists who refused to go along with Trofim Lysenko. If warnings to compromise their integrity were not followed, Stalin simply had biologists shot. That quickly thinned the ranks of all biologists and persuaded the remaining ones to comply with Stalin’s wishes. Of course, it also destroyed Soviet biology, because Lysenko was pedaling nonsense. And Russian biology has never recovered.
We learned over the weekend that chemist Nickolas Drapela, PhD has been summarily fired from his position as a “Senior Instructor” in the Department of Chemistry. The department chairman Richard Carter told him that he was fired but would not provide any reason. Subsequent attempts to extract a reason from the OSU administration have been stonewalled. Drapela appears to have been highly competent and well-liked by his students. Some have even taken up the fight to have him reinstated.
What could possibly have provoked the OSU administration to take precipitous action against one of their academics who has been on their staff for ten years, just bought a house in Corvallis, and has four young children (one with severe medical problems)? Dr. Drapela is an outspoken critic of the theory of Anthropogenic Global Warming, the official religion of the State of Oregon, the Oregon Democratic Party, and Governor John Kitzhaber.
Five years ago, Oregon State Climatologist George Taylor went around quietly saying that he was not a believer. Then Governor Ted Kulongoski and many faculty at OSU including Dr. Jane Lubchenco made life impossible for Taylor, and he retired. (Lubchenco is now head of NOAA in the Obama administration.) Under those currently in charge, OSU climate research has grown to be a huge business, reportedly $90 million per year with no real deliverables beyond solid academic support for climate hysteria. A small army of researchers ponder the effects of Global Warming on all sorts of things from tube worms living along the Oregon Coast to butterflies inland. When the climate refuses to warm (as it has for the last twenty years), they just study ‘warming in reverse!’ Most of us call that “cooling,” but they are very careful not to upset their Obama administration contract monitors with politically incorrect terminology.
Skeptics of Global Warming who oppose the OSU approach and oppose the politicians who make it all possible but do not work for OSU also find themselves attacked. Dr. Art Robinson who is running against Peter DeFazio for an Oregon Congressional seat found three of his children under attack at OSU. All were attempting to obtain advanced degrees in the Nuclear Engineering Department and were threatened with dismissal. Because Robinson fought back, we understand that the OSU administration backed down.
As to the latest victim of political correctness at OSU, Dr. Nickolas Drapela gives us an excellent synopsis of what is going on:
“The fact of the matter is that it is now two weeks since I was fired and no one has had the cajones or the common courtesy to even tell me why. I have spoken with the Dept. Chair (Rich Carter) who fired me, and he refused to tell me why. I spoke to the Dean of Science (Vince Remcho) and he couldn’t tell me why. I spoke to HR who set up a meeting with me, then cancelled it an hour before. Then I went to the Vice President of Academic Affairs (Becky Warner) and she sent me back to Rich Carter, the chemistry chair.
It’s just a sad, sad state of affairs that an institution like OSU would fire a good employee for (ostensibly) no reason and then run around and hide from the person they fired. I had stellar teaching evaluations, I won College of Science awards for teaching, and published textbooks. My class sections were always full and I was well-liked by students (see ratemyprofessors.com). I was doing my job very well. But I guess I didn’t march in step with their philosophies.
There were quite a few student protests over this at OSU (Barometer, Facebook, etc.) but to no avail.
I was given no severance and had no warning this was about to happen. In fact, I was lured into the chair’s office under the guise of a fallacious story before being fired.
As you know, I was probably the most visibly-outspoken critic of the Global Warming doctrine at OSU. I gave several public talks on the topic and did research in the area which I regularly posted on the web. I was also on a few talk radio shows in the area. I think they finally just said, we can’t have this.
Can it be that a university whose motto is “Open minds. Open doors” cannot abide even one faculty member who disagrees with their dogma? I suppose I am too naive, but I’m still reeling from it. Unbelievable.
I should say that they regularly read all my email communications, which is why I am writing from this private email address. That has been going on for quite some time now.
As far as my options at this point, like I said I haven’t even really grasped what has just happened. I don’t know what I’m going to do, or what options I have yet. I’m sure OSU wants their story to be tight and perfectly identical among all administration before coming out with an official reason why I was fired, hence the long wait and refusal to speak to me.
I truly thank you for your concern, and I hope there is some recourse, even just for the sake of exposing what is happening at OSU.”
In a separate e-mail Drapela went on to say:
“Thanks so much for your support and your concern. That’s really nice. My students were all really upset about it. They started an email writing campaign to have me re-hired but I guess no one cares what they think.
I find that the people who want to keep things secret all the time are usually the people that have something to hide. It is certainly ok by me for you to disseminate this story. But I’m sure OSU would be horrified.
I’m not sure how I will support my family at this point. We just bought a house in Corvallis. I have four kids, one of whom has a rare, blood disorder and requires regular trips to Doernbecher’s Children’s Hospital for treatment. Now we will be without health insurance.”
We can only speculate as to how the decision to fire Drapela was made. Unlike the decision to force Taylor out (which came from the governor’s office), this decision was likely internal to OSU with the implicit backing of Governor Kitzhaber and NOAA administrator Lubchenco. I would suspect that Dr. Phil Mote (Director of their Climate Change Research Institute) had a hand in the decision, because he has previously been highly intolerant of those who oppose his ideas and could potentially threaten his business empire.
Please join with me in supporting Nick Drapela. Please join with me in supporting objective science, as well as academic freedom, diversity, and tolerance. The issues here go far beyond just Global Warming and strike at the very heart of who we are as scientists and Americans.
Gordon J. Fulks, PhD (Physics)
Corbett, Oregon USA
P.S. Please circulate this e-mail far and wide. The world needs to know what is going on here.
Drapela claims ‘it’s the Sun’,using an uncited reproduction of a graphic of Friis-Christiansen and Lassen’s 1991 paper…hmm.
Such an act goes against their Accreditation. I’d suggest we petition on THAT line.
Once again the eco fascists abuse their authority for all to see…. All I can say to Dr Drapela is to keep embarrassing the University as much as possible over its sacking of him while he goes about finding better employment elsewhere.
If they want to become a University renown for its ecofascism and socialist group thinking…… Then so be it. Let them rot in their own perversity, Dr Drapela wouldn’t want to work there anyway.
The times are changing anyway, in a few years Universities like OSU will be purging their eco fascists and crawling after other streams of revenue while begging scientists who have publicly maintained their commitment to the scientific method to teach in their establishments.
Like the Thompson’s, I find what has happened to Dr Drapela utterly distasteful and unfair. This period in history will be recorded as infamy and it will not be forgotten, nor the main players who perpetrated the worst excesses of the AGW scam.
Pardon, but if the termination was due to ideological differences, then this behavior is nothing new- from the hip and cool- “concerned” left, that is.
How many times have you read about this or that scheduled speaker with a viewpoint contrary to the prevalent leftist ideology being banned, boycotted or physically attacked on modern American university campuses?
This sort of thing happens all the time.
Don’t look for anyone in academia or the MSM to take up the cause of intellectual freedom.
It is the same even in the fossil fuel industry. It is very dangerous to speak the truth. Most large industrial companies have already several high level people whose careers are founded upon promulgating the CAGW myth, often several of the top executives have fallen for the myth. After all, CAGW is a problem of such grave proportions that all those execs, who take themselves a bit too seriously, actually enjoy going around pontificating about saving the planet – it is so much more grandiose than worrying about mundane things like “shareholders returns”!
It is Oregon, after all. If it were a nation it would be third-world. The most important thing ever to happen there is that the scabland floods rose to 400′ in the city of my birth. Sadly, the waters receded. Yes, my greatest sorrow and lingering shame is that I was born and raised in Portland (Portlandia), Oregon. Is it any wonder I post anonymously.
Robert Phelan is correct and, while sad that such seemingly obvious grievous behavior is alloed to occur, the notion of “at-will” employment is not only a boon to both employees and employers alike, it is also how things should be. The workforce has grown so accustomed to being “entitled” to a job they have forgotten what a serious breach of individual rights it really is. of course, it swings both ways and he can certainly attempt to sue (though will not likely win) and embarrass them for their crass behavior (legal or not, such terminations are childish).
Hopefully he will find a better gig with a better contract, one that allows him to speak freely.
Mark
“Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels – men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.”
— Dwight D. Eisenhower
I’m afraid we didn’t listen, again.
It’s just a sad, sad state of affairs that an institution like OSU would fire a good employee for (ostensibly) no reason and then run around and hide from the person they fired.
This is how the left operates…. in secret. It’s not just limited to the egregious examples we’ve all seen in climate science. It runs from the highest levels to the lowest levels. This problem is not getting the widespread attention it deserves.
I quit a special interest club a couple years ago that I had been member of for 25 years because the lefties running it would no longer publish meeting or board minutes and financial statements in the newsletter and shut down any critical comments on the mail list of how the club was being run. I was told such discussion was not appropriate.
This sort of behavior needs to be exposed wherever we see it.
Nick says:
June 11, 2012 at 7:13 pm
Drapela claims ‘it’s the Sun’,using an uncited reproduction of a graphic of Friis-Christiansen and Lassen’s 1991 paper…hmm.
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So what?
To the Oregon climate change N*zis: have a nice day, buddy
Yeah but McCarthy was right, there were communists in our government.
pa32 I think you better rethink your position. I don’t know the details of this case. But it is certainly possible to fire a teacher in my state with no cause stated. Being a Republican or a global warming proponent or asking for a competitive wage are all things I know of that have ended careers. If you don’t have to state a cause than unfair firing laws or claimed civil service protections become meaningless.
On the evening of January 17th 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave his farewell speech to the Nation. This speech is known to us as Eisenhower’s “Military Industrial Complex” Speech. However imminently following Eisenhower’s warning about the Military Industrial Complex, Ike launched into a five paragraph, warning about the real dangers a scientific elite posed to liberty, and the democratic process. Below is this warning. Do you think it has any bearing???
“Akin to, [the military industrial complex] and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.
In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.
Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.
The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by Federal employment, [coma]… project allocations, [coma]… and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.
Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific technological elite.”-Dwight D. Eisenhower 01/17, /1961
I’ve blogged a link to the same subject matter by Joanne Nova.
Oregon State University: A Place of Dogma Training
I suggest that the OSU staff who do not protest at the dismissal and treatment of relatives of sceptics be henceforth referred to as Dogma Trainers. 🙂
I am not saying that this is right under any circumstance, but I do believe any company or organization should have the right to terminate anyone for any reason. I believe that telling an individual or company that you have to hire or can’t fire this person because of race, religion, sexuality, weight, or beliefs is overregulation. Do I think he should have been fired, no. I think colleges are too busy indoctrinating people and not busy enough doing their jobs at educating them.
This kind of …. (fill in the blank) … is why I don’t comment using my real name.
How horrid, Dr Drapela, that you and your family are paying this huge price for your contrarian position on the cause and nature of global warming. The vast majority of those of us who speak out are of retirement age. We are ready to accept retirement if it comes.
If I had been a 40 or even a 50 year old and still employed by ABC or one of the other networks when this scientific controversary arose, I would have faced the test of personal fortitude; speak out and suffer the consequences or remain silent. I cannot tell you what I would have done.
But, a University is supposed to be different; a special enclave free of these pressures where contrarian views and debate are treasured and protected. I witnessed this throughout my youth as the son of a Communist college professor. Clearly your Univerisity failed to meet the high standards. But, what can I, or all of us, do to change the situaiton. I feel helpless. But, I am in your corner, for what it is worth. Good luck.
Sorry to hear of your troubles. I have given a few talks down in Corvallis over the years and helped with several projects. Nice campus and much more open minded then U of O in Eugene.
Sometimes it is nice to talk to someone who understands these matters better.
For example: http://www.employmentlaw-nw.com/
OSU is a wonderful campus. In fact, Michelle Obama’s brother Craig Robinson is the head coach for the Beavers at OSU.
Best wishes.
This doesn’t surprise me. Some of my friends and, yes, some of my relatives, show contempt and disgust towards me just for putting forward facts that contradict the AGW mantra. They don’t consider that they should even explain why the react that way – the facts must be wrong, end of story. So to hear it happen at an employment level, well…. it don’t surprise me one iota. I do hope the students have the courage to demand loudly and publicly that the university maintains an open approach to other peoples’ views and is seen to be doing this by actively supporting the right to differ.
The problem is obvious, Corvallis is in the heart of a very green green valley. The sun goes away every October not to return until the following May. In the inbetween times they suffer through intense guilt for having logged every decent hemlock and fir from Coos Bay to Hebo and a gray pergutory of cloud mass gathers and drizzles insessently, mother nature shedding her tears as only she can, until the institutional inmates go a bit clock work orange so to speak.
[Moderator’s Note: This Mike is not the same as the other Mike and this one has been commenting longer. -REP]
But the salmon and dungeness are good around there.
[Moderator’s Note: This one isn’t that other Mike either. -REP]
Oy — now they’re resorting to drive-by’s:
“I’m not sure how I will support my family at this point. We just bought a house in Corvallis. I have four kids, one of whom has a rare, blood disorder and requires regular trips to Doernbecher’s Children’s Hospital for treatment. Now we will be without health insurance.”
I hope the professor looks into the chemistry opportunity at Hillsdale.
kramer says:
Yeah but McCarthy was right, there were communists in our government>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
What do you mean “were”….
As I’ve pointed out a couple of times here in the past, this sort of thing is old news for us fighting the smoking ban folks. Prof. James Enstrom was fired from his 30 year post at U of California because his views “conflicted with the mission” of the University. The excuse they used was some recent work he’d done on diesel emissions, but the great bulk of the thrust came from the research he’d done a number of years earlier that used a huge database to blow the ETS myth out of the water. See:
http://www.forces-nl.org/download/CPhillips.pdf
Your comparison with Lysenko is the same one that both he and I have made repeatedly over the years: See his article in Epi Perspectives:
http://www.epi-perspectives.com/content/pdf/1742-5573-4-11.pdf
As those of us in the Free Choice fight have learned, it’s very VERY difficult to fight the establishment when beliefs are so solidly entrenched and the advocates hold all the power. One place to look however is to ranks of retired academicians and researchers. They no longer have Lysenko’s noose around their necks. As Professor Phillipe Even of France’s “Necker Institute” said when he spoke out about the secondhand smoke fraud and was asked why he hadn’t done so earlier: “I’m retired now.”
Michael J. McFadden
Author of “Dissecting Antismokers’ Brains” and who has been in the enviable position of not HAVING a job to be fired from for his hertetical views! LOL!