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.
Jim Watson says:
June 12, 2012 at 7:38 am
The ’60s Liberals have become everyhing they originally fought against.
They were fighting against the contemporary power elite. Once they gained power for themselves, all they did was drop the false flag and hoist their true colors.
izen says:
June 12, 2012 at 7:22 am
The final slides of his presentation contain false information.
The final slides (75ff) of his presentation consist of
•75. Summary/Conclusion: Global Warming doctrine is a powerful force in our world today, affecting every aspect of society. Techniques such as fear, bigotry, stifling opposition, and appealing to authority are being used to advance this doctrine. Because of its inextricable ties to oil, Global Warming doctrine is a tool for absolute control of the world by one body resulting in the loss of our freedoms
•76. Thank You
•77. Part Four: Epilogue So if not CO 2 , then what?
•78. Solar Activity Theory: Scientists have proposed the following: Sunspots go through cycles of activity and inactivity. Higher frequency (shorter) sunspot cycles create stronger solar energy output. This deflects cosmic rays and reduces cloud formation. This increases earth temperatures
•79. Solar Activity Correlation [through 1985]
•80. Why don’t we hear about this? The sun cannot be controlled It cannot be used to manipulate for power and money.
So, where’s the false information, izen?
It depends on what professional level you are talking about. I live in an “at will” state and for the average employee who signs an at will employment agreement, it is much easier to fire an employee. You can be called in to the personal office told you no longer work there and are escorted to your desk to pickup your things then to the door. This is in fact quite common in the IT industry due to the security implications of a worker who has been given notice.
As a matter of “good practice” employees are expected to give two weeks notice that they are leaving. In that case the employee is still immediately terminated but typically continues to receive pay for the remaining 2 weeks as though he was still working. The employee has 2 weeks paid time with no obligations to the company to look for a new job and the company does not have to worry about a disgruntled employee on the premises who still has access to confidential information and log in access to computers etc. I have seen this play out multiple times in the IT industry, a co worker violated some security guidelines and was literally walked to the door after being told he no longer worked there. In another case a department head gave notice that he had accepted another job, and was immediately terminated but payed for the period of his notice.
In blue collar jobs such as auto mechanic etc. they may or may not get the 2 weeks of paid time. Only at the higher professional level employment such as senior managers where specific employment terms might be custom negotiated to recruit the employee are you like to find a severance contract terms as generous as you say are common in the UK.
It is only in environments like government employment where it becomes extremely difficult to fire a worker. In those environments (as a protection against law suits) the managers first build a long history of the employees poor performance before firing. That is one of the reasons that in such environments employee personal evaluations are very important and are often used to “create” a history of poor performance by management suddenly giving poor reviews and finding fault with performance.
Here in America typical, employees realize that they are providing a “service” to the employer and just like any service employee can be dropped at any time. Likewise good employers realize that good employees are hard to find and try to be fair with their workers. For example a friend of mine just got advised of a reduction in force at his place of employment and told he and a large number of his co-workers would be out of work at the end of the month. To my knowledge he will get no other severance than that months paid time (although he will still be expected to do his work and close out the tasks he is responsible for in that time. His wife a few years ago got laid off from a similar white collar job and was simply let go, no notice no severance just a final pay check and a cardboard box to carry her stuff to the car.
Perhaps this is one of the reasons American workers consistently are the most productive labor force, as those of us with real (non-bureaucratic jobs), actually spend the day producing something of value.
http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-500395_162-3228735.html
boston12gs says:
June 12, 2012 at 7:14 am
“pa32r says:
June 11, 2012 at 5:35 pm Sorry, no sale. In this litigious day and age no one with the slightest level of sophistication fires someone with no cause and with out making that cause known to the person fired (as an employer of 350 people, I know from painful personal experience). It’s a great way to rally the troops but I’m calling BS here.”
You’re simply wrong, at least in an “at will” state in the US.
Every corporation I’ve ever worked a contract for has an “at will” stipulation — it’s both a way to keep people from going rogue in a potentially chaotic environment overseas and a means to keep them toeing the corporate line when stepping over the line could result in a charge of contract non-performance from the government. There’s no compelling reason to have an “at will” in an academic environment, because it’s a tool to prevent workplace turbulence under austere conditions.
izen.
Whatever way this plays out I have learned one thing.
You are a truly nasty piece of work.
Think “Portlandia”…as state full of clueless people.
I agree with Izen. Any scientist who misrepresents or withholds data, particularly contrary data, is a liar and ought to be terminated.
Paging Phil Jones, Keith Briffa, Michael Mann, Kevin Trenberth…. please report to HR.
@- Bill Tuttle
“So, where’s the false information, izen?”
Slides 78 and 79
The correlation between temperature and solar activity failed several decades ago.
[SNIP: Izen, for language like this, real names are required. If you are unwilling to stand behind your words, then don’t bother posting them. -REP]
Izen @ur momisugly “It is only possible to speculate, but while I agree that different points of view should not be arbitrarily silenced, false information presented to students as factually accurate might be a reason for non-renewal of his contract.
The final slides of his presentation contain false information.”
Izen in Australia we have a name for a person like you. No doubt the mods wont permit its use here. The man is now unemployed, has four children to support and you heap a slander on an outrage. Crawl back to from where you came.
Smokey says:
June 12, 2012 at 6:25 am
Gary,
There is always a reason. What was the reason, and why are they so reluctant to admit it?
Annual renewable contracts such as the one described here are subject to non-renewal for various reasons: changes in the course structure, sometimes visiting faculty to be accommodated, change in course enrollment numbers etc. I’ve seen all of these and more, it’s a precarious existence. Someone above said that his classes had lower pass rates which would certainly be a reason.
I presume the professor was untenured? Unfortunately, this happens all the time.
I’ve been terminated in the past (unfairly, IMO) but I still respect the right for an employer to hire whom they please and fire whom they please. Contrary to the opinion one person has expressed here, we do have a social safety net in this country and most people, even small government advocates like myself, do support maintaining a social safety net.
Dr. Drapela is eligible for COBRA for health care coverage. This has nothing to do with ObamaCare and has been in place for decades. Their is also SCHIP for helping with his children’s healthcare, and again, this has nothing to do with ObamaCare.
If only Obama’s supporters had any clue about things before they opened their mouths, we’d be hearing a lot less from them.
@Bill Tuttle
“So, where’s the false information, izen?”
79 – the unattributed graph from Friis-Christensen & Lassen 1991. It contains a known (and subsequently corrected) mathematical error that “hides the decline” towards the end of the graph. It is superceded by later work by Lassen and others, and there is no excuse for not acknowledging the truly massive divergence an up-to-date plot shows.
http://i.imgur.com/H0q1Z.gif
Take the University to Court and make them reveal why he was fired. Peel back that rancid onion one layer at a time. Force the University to re-instate him with back pay and legal fees.
While in grad school I communicated with George Taylor and received data for a project. He was very gracious and made an impression that is still favorable today. I also met Dr Lubchenko when she gave a presentation to our department. My impression was she seemed highly compentent. However I can’t say that I still hold much of a good impression of the Dr since she ‘s become a bureaucrat. I realize that is most likely unfair, as I am not in her shoes.
If one more of you say ” it is so sad” I will puke. Is that all it is, just sad? Search your vast vocabulary o all you mild mannered chickens.
A sobering reminder that the people behind the CAGW fantasy are still rather powerful.
[SNIP: Language with “deniers” requires you to comment under your real name. -REP]
Please bear in mind that the Bill of Rights is a compact between the citizens and the Federal Government, not citizens and their respective employers. He might look to his state constitution for relief, but unless his activities are protected by statute under some civil rights legislation, he can’t look to the U.S. Constitution for cover.
Just remember, bad laws are not necessarily unconstitutional, and constitutional laws are not necessarily good.
Speculation isn’t evidence. (Do I sound like Mosher, or what?) Looks suspicious, yes, but who knows at this point? Reserve final judgement until all the facts are known.
izen says:
June 12, 2012 at 9:14 am
@- Bill Tuttle
“So, where’s the false information, izen?”
Slides 78 and 79
The correlation between temperature and solar activity failed several decades ago.
[SNIP: Sorry, Bill, but this was snipped from Izen’s comment rather belatedly. If he wants to make this assertion it will have to be under his true name and not a screen name. -REP]
If you run into Dr. Svalgaard at a cocktail party, stick with discussing the soccer scores.
Slide 78 plainly states that the slides following are *theory*, and are presented as examples of that theory.
By stating that those slides present false information, you are affirming that the 77 slides preceding them are true — so am I to understand you have now come over to the Skeptical Side?
“Speculation isn’t evidence.”… “Reserve final judgement until all the facts are known.”
So you want us to wait for OSU to say “Yup, we fired him because of his views on CAGW.”?
Don’t hold your breath….
@- Jud says:
“Whatever way this plays out I have learned one thing.
You are a truly nasty piece of work.”
[SNIP: If you want to use language like this, comment under your real name. -REP]. One would hope that his students have the personal initiative to not take his claims as authoritative, and with the ~2 mins of study needed found out the inaccuracy of his scientific claims.
http://www.woodfortrees.org/plot/pmod/normalise/mean:22/plot/hadcrut4gl/normalise/mean:12/from:1979
Izen:
There is an interesting 2006 paper by David Archibald here
http://www.davidarchibald.info/papers/Solar%20Cycles%2024%20and%2025%20and%20Predicted%20Climate%20Response.pdf
It suggests that the issue of solar cycle length and temperature is not quite as cut and dried as you make it out to be. Maybe you should not be quite so quick to impugn the integrity of others.
It is easy to believe that at least part of the reason for his dismissal is related to his non-warmist views. The religion has permeated almost all departments, including my alma mater, the College of Forestry. It seems that every piece of research has the obligatory link to CAGW possibilities and, of course, the need for more research. They are not so crude as to say, “Send more money”, but it isn’t hard to translate.
I am somewhat puzzled by his position as a Senior Instructor. Are we to assume that this is a non-tenured position? Since he was teaching, it doesn’t seem that he was being funded by “soft” money that normally is research oriented. If he was not tenured, did he have longevity protection or was he only assured a year to year reappointment, dependent on funds? Just asking in the interest of full disclosure.
[REPLY: Check the comments above for the link to the OSU Faculty Handbook. Senior Instructor is a non-tenured, 12 month or 9 month appointment with primarily instructional responsibility rather than research. Rather than being “fired”, he was “not reappointed”. After ten years of service, it amounts to the same thing. -REP]
[SNIP: Simple, John. Impugning someone’s integrity, as you did, requires that you post with your real name. Complaining about moderation policy, as you’ve just done, also gets snipped. If you have a complaint there is a contact option here. Maybe Anthony will take you seriously. -REP]