Fired OSU instructor challenges job loss

We have seen from long experience in other contexts that “political correctness” in many universities and departments, is pervasive, dishonest, and corrupt. “Academic freedom” is only robust for people who are tenured and/or politically correct according to the current local regime (and those of course are not the people who truly need protections for “academic freedom”).
I cannot know what all of the facts are in this case, of course, but the circumstances should make anyone highly suspicious.
There are countless examples of professors and academic administrators behaving with ruthless political correctness and then lying about it.

Apparently, the public cannot know who, how many people, academic or political, had which opinions, and how the vote went, to fire Drapela from the chemistry faculty. Drapela and his lawyer haven’t found a reason in his employee file. But apparently, many nameless people, perhaps even Mikey Mann and (UVA president) Teresa Sullivan know all about it, having been on the conference calls debating Drapela’s fate.
Hyperbole aside, actions like this illustrate how standard business processes are set up to protect the back stabbers from scrutiny, while exposing the innocents to ridicule. After all, “the seriousness of the accusation warrants the special investigation” of the professor, while nobody knows what the accusation(s) were, and who made them.
Kangaroo Court, anyone?

There’s almost always a more direct and simple reason when an instructor seems to be fired for his beliefs. It was true 50 years ago when they were fired for being Communists, and it’s true now when they’re fired for being non-Communists. Budget cuts are a much more likely proximate cause, especially in a mismanaged state like Oregon.
The real question is: Why don’t we have alternative institutions that can hire heterodox teachers? Why don’t some of those super-rich alleged conservatives put their money on the line?

“Steve Clark, OSU’s vice president of university relations and marketing, said he couldn’t discuss specific details about the case, citing confidentiality laws that he said prohibit him from sharing protected employee information.”
How many times does a statement such as the above get rattled off as a non-response response. That employee confidentiality laws make for a nice and neat way of stating a non-response response. Why respond when such an easy out is available.
OSU is extremely greenie. My son was accepted at OSU and every e-mail, letter, brochure etc. was green, green, green. You could not help but notice. He elected another institution.

Anthony–on an earlier post I mentioned having found the NSF workshop documents pertaining to implementing the Belmont Challenge.
It has a Prof Thomas Dietterich from OSU as a member of the NRC Committee on Computing Research for Environmental and Societal Sustainability. He is leading the “Understanding, Tracking, and Managing Uncertainty Throughout the Science-to-Policy Pipeline.”
Again it is not about the hard sciences. These are people trying to push the idea that psychosocial prosperity is a more than adequate substitute for economic growth in a green economy.
OSU is so immersed. As is that behavioral ed lab out there.

If the univ’s spokes person was correct and Nick Darpela is one among many, that suggests on the surface perhaps questionable connection; however, if you are downsizing anyway, this is a great excuse to banish the politically incorrect. That sort of thing has happened to me. In hindsight best thing that ever happened.

O/T but such good news out of New Zealand:
4 July: TVNZ: Carbon market ‘buried in a six-foot hole’ – energy trader
Government decisions to leave the emissions trading scheme at current settings indefinitely means the New Zealand carbon market has been “buried in a six-foot hole,” says Nigel Brunel, head of carbon and energy trading at OM Financial.
While Carbon Match principal Lizzie Chambers says “suspended animation” is more accurate, the impact of the government’s ETS reform decisions, announced Monday, will likely keep international carbon emissions reduction units (CERs) cheaper than New Zealand-produced Units (NZUs) for the foreseeable future.
Even with a likely drop in the price of NZUs, which are trading between $6.85 and $7.05 per tonne of emitted carbon, offsetting carbon emissions by buying offshore credits will make more sense for a major emitter than investing in NZUs.
A price drop is expected because Monday’s announcements left some major emitters in the electricity, heavy industrial and transport sectors holding more NZUs than they need because their ETS will be unchanged, instead of rising as expected.
Brunel said “the premium of NZUs over European carbon has been a bit fake because there’s no supply of NZU’s to push it to a discount” and major emitters were now sellers.
***”The carbon market is now in the lap of Europe and the control of the banks,” as the latest changes would discourage active involvement in the New Zealand carbon market by carbon-intensive industrial players and plantation foresters, at least until depressed global prices revived, Brunel said…
http://tvnz.co.nz/business-news/carbon-market-buried-in-six-foot-hole-energy-trader-4955455
and once this is dead, buried and extinct, OSU and the rest of the CAGW zealots will look pretty silly.
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Drapela will eventually be vindicated:
4 July: UK Daily Mail: Get set for a month’s rain in next two days (as four water firms insist on keeping hosepipe ban!)
More than 2.4ins of rain expected to fall in 36 hours in much of eastern, central and northern Britain
It is rapidly turning into the summer that never was.
After the wettest June on record, another deluge is on the way, with at least a month’s worth of rain set to fall today and tomorrow across much of Britain.
The Met Office last night issued a severe weather warning, predicting ‘heavy thundery downpours’ and up to four inches of rain by the weekend – more than the average for the whole of July…
The drought declared at the start of the year now seems a distant memory…
It has been the wettest April-to-June period on record…
If the weeks of torrential rain were not bad enough, homeowners have a new problem to contend with – rats.
Experts say scores of rat communities have been displaced by the recent flash floods and they are looking for shelter – in your home…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2168573/UK-weather-Almost-months-worth-rain-fall-just-day.html
with my queensland australia winter temps higher than those for england’s summer, it does put a smile on my CAGW sceptic face!

I think it is now time that all sacked climate sientists form a group to out smart the belivers world wide ? I don,t think they will get any grants good luck to you all

In any PC-fascist regime, dissent against protected conformity is dangerous. FIRE.org (The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education) ought to be contacted, even though this could be a difficult case for them with too many rocks for the enemies of free-thought to hide under. American Traditions Institute, which already has the stomach to combat AGW-fraud, is also a candidate for victims like Drapela.

Warmists lie about climate and are evasive about open discussion thus when they’re confronted about the the reasons for the firing they again lie and evade telling the truth. They really need to be sued.

Clark says there is a bunch of reasons why contracts are not renewed, surely common decency dictates that Mr. Drapela be told which of that bunch applied to him. I have had to let a lot of people go over the years and its mostly very unpleasant especially in the case of good people, but i have never just said gutlessly to someone, “your finished but i’m not telling you why”.
Clark is vice-president university relations and marketing. Strikes me he’s very good at either.

My sons partner who did a degree at a University on the South Coast here in the UK was very much on the side of the AGW alarmists when she first attended Uni due to her schools somewhat “rabid” acceptance of Gores film. Then when the UK Courts pointed out the 9 inconvenient lies she started to ask questions and so dfindid others on her degree course. But in one subject – unless you slavishly followed the dogma – “they failed you!” – her words. The result was quite the opposite of what was intended. They produced a batch of sceptics due to their overt manipulations. She is now a true sceptic. So this decision is harsh on the individual who loses their job, but to those they teach and who see what is going on – I suspect the lesson of life is one they will not forget.

I was let go as a lecturer on translation merely because I bucked the party line in reading materials and asked students to question the sources and information they receive as news. So with so much more at stake, to the extent that one articulate professor’s views could lead to a successful challenge of university orthodoxy, it’s not hard to believe that this professor was given the boot for his stance on global climate warming disruption, or whatever the term is at the moment.

Drapela said. “This is not something I relish doing, they’re not giving me any options… It has affected my career and reputation irreversibly. People don’t want to hire someone who has been fired and won’t say why. I don’t really have any other recourse.”
He deserves support. And not just for his sake.
It would be poetic justice if OSU, suppressor of Art Robinson’s important list of dissenting scientists, were to become the new rallying-point.

Polistra says
“It was true 50 years ago When They Were fired for being wellness communists, and now it’s true When they’re fired for being wellness non-communists.”
The conclusion is: Better not be anything. At least not lose your job!
Perhaps the amoebae remain forever in their work.

I like polistra’s idea (July 4, 2012 at 5:17 pm). We need new institutions with integrity from conservation (used to be “environmental” issues, like Sierra Club, National Resources Defense Council, or Nature Conservancy who went marxist/AGW on us) to news media (Fox news just barely, barely makes it; where is investigative journalism rather than “the leftist mantra” with everyone writing the same party line at the exact same moment) to higher education (with the higher education bubble there will be, must be, more and more contract non-renewals or non-renewal of tenured professors. The university usually does not “fire” except for unusual reasons. Unfortunately, these institutions should start reducing their financial obesity with all the additional “administrators” and “special programs” outside of faculty perview, but many of these are related to “grants” and to “lobbying”). In my opinion, universities also should be prohibited from contributing to politics; they are some of the largest contributors to the Democratic Party.
Someone in a non-tenured position is especially vulnerable to “curriculum changes” or “departmental reorganization” — for good reasons. The university must be able to change. The change must be planned and documented. If they did not with respect to Drapela, then a lawsuit might be just the thing. Discovery would be juicy. I hope “conservatives” (in historical terms, these are “liberals” of the classical variety interested in freedom, integrity of institutions, and the free market) would fund the suit.

“Allan MacRae says: July 4, 2012 at 11:04 pm” Dude!
Thank you Allan for the best smile of the day!

lan MacRae says:
July 4, 2012 at 11:04 pm
Regarding the aforementioned War of 1812 between Canada and the USA:
The USA is by far the best neighbour Canada could ever ask for…..
Confidentially, people from all over Canada agree that Toronto ought to be burned from time to time, so we think we got the better of that deal….
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And you think we don’t want DC burned from time to time too? A dose of reality is always good for politicians and ivory tower academia.

ferdberple says:
July 4, 2012 at 11:43 pm
people from all over Canada agree that Toronto ought to be burned
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Burning Toronto would be like putting lipstick on a pig. Couldn’t hurt, but probably wouldn’t improve its looks much.
Keep your head down, like I do. City? What city?
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/ravines-a-defining-aspect-of-toronto/article579001/
A case of good government implementations, post Hazel.
http://glendon.irisyorku.ca/a-campus-in-a-garden-with-a-forest/the-glendon-forest-and-the-don-river-ravine-system/the-origin-of-the-glendon-forest/

As mentioned, a rigourous discovery process would likely turn up many more scurrying bugs under the rocks. OSU may have bitten off more than it can chew.