(from http://www.desmogblog.com/node/1067) Robinson is the founder of a group called the “Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine” (OISM), which markets, among other things, a home-schooling kit for "parents concerned about socialism in the public schools" and books on how to survive nuclear war. Although Robinson admits he is not a climate scientist, Robinson's OISM organized and authored the infamous Oregon Petition which collected a supposed 31,000 signatories that denied the existence of man-made global warming. Attached to the petition was an apparent "research paper" titled "Environmental Effects of Increased Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide." Petition Intentionally Misleading The petition and the documents included were all made to look like official papers from the prestigious National Academy of Science. They weren’t, and this attempt to mislead has been well-documented. The authors of the paper were Robinson, Sallie Baliunas, Willie Soon (both oil-backed scientists) and Robinson’s son Zachary. According to a May 1998 Associated Press article, the Oregon petition included the names of "Drs. 'Frank Burns' 'Honeycutt' and 'Pierce' from the hit-show M*A*S*H and Spice Girls, a.k.a. Geraldine Halliwell, who was on the petition as 'Dr. Geri Halliwel' and again as simply 'Dr. Halliwell.' " When asked about the fake names, Robinson is quoted as saying: "When we're getting thousands of signatures there's no way of filtering out a fake." Robinson is listed as a "global warming expert" by the Heartland Institute, a Chicago-based free market think tank that has received significant funds from the oil and tobacco industries. Robinson appears on Senator James Inhofe's list of "prominent scientists" who dispute the existence of man-made global warming. In a debunking of the list, Robinson was found to be one of 70 so-called "scientists" who have no background in climate science.
Ed. The lack of due process in the UW’s Aprikyan affair undermines the public trust a university need. That trust is not in the administration, it is a trust in the rigor of academic ethics. The following story, whatever the truth, is warning shot about what can happen when University admins charge faculty with being “arbitrary and capricious.”
(excerpted from the New American) Art Robinson is a former, unsuccessful Republican candidate for Congress against Peter DeFazio (D) Oregon. Robinson’s children are all candidates for advanced degrees in the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Health Physics at OSU. . According to Robinson, the university is working adamantly to block his children, Joshua, Bethany, and Matthew Robinson, from achieving their PhD degrees. Robinson went so far as to launch a website on the subject, and wrote of his ordeal in an article. Robinson has already announced his intent to run again for a House position in 2012.
Robinson contends that his vigor in the 2010 election and his announcement to seek candidacy in the 2012 elections have prompted Oregon State University to employ “political payback.” His claim:
“(The faculty at OSU) initiated an attack on my three children — Joshua, Bethany and Matthew — for the purpose of throwing them all out of the OSU graduate school, despite their outstanding academic and research accomplishments. OSU is a liberal socialist Democrat stronghold in Oregon that received a reported $27 million in earmark funding from my opponent, Peter DeFazio, and his Democrat colleagues during the last legislative session.”
Robinson claims that Kathryn Higley, chairman of the nuclear engineering department is “is a militant feminist.” She is expelling four-year Ph.D. student Joshua Robinson from OSU at the end of the current academic quarter and turning over the prompt neutron activation analysis facility Joshua built for his thesis work and all of his work in progress to Higley’s husband, Steven Reese. Reese, an instructor in the department, has stated that he will use these things for his own professional gain.
Meanwhile, faculty member Todd Palmer notified four-year Ph.D. student Bethany Robinson (OSU grade point average 3.89) that he was terminating her thesis work and taking all of her work in progress for himself. Some of Bethany’s graduate work has already been used, without credit to Bethany, in the thesis of another favored student now recently hired on the department faculty.
OSU Professor of Nuclear Engineering Jack Higginbotham warned the Robinson family that the school was in fact targeting the Robinson children. Robinson explains:
Professor Higginbotham warned us that faculty administrators at OSU were working to make certain that Joshua, his sister Bethany and, if possible, his brother Matthew never receive Ph.D. degrees in nuclear engineering from OSU, regardless of their examination, academic and research performance. Professor Higginbotham then reviewed with us the details of the plan to destroy the education of these students and advised me to do anything I could to protect my children.
The Robinson family unsuccessfully attempted to address the issues with OSU within the confines of the school guidelines and avoid making the issues public. Neither OSU deans, nor OSU president Edward Ray — all of whom are ardent DeFazio supporters — would agree to even meet with the Robinson family to address the issues.
As Joshua and Bethany are already slated for dismissal from the department of nuclear engineering, it became evident that the family would have to take drastic measures and publicly expose OSU’s political ploys.
OSU issued a statement indicating that the “attacks by Art Robinson are baseless, false, and without merit.” The statement reads:
Since Mr. Robinson began making these claims last fall, university leadership has had ample opportunity to look into them through the Office of the Provost, the Graduate School and the Office of the Dean of the College of Engineering, and can say, categorically, that the allegations and attacks are unfounded and without merit.
If these people succeed, a delighted Peter DeFazio will be able to brag to the voters that the Robinson children were thrown out of Oregon State University. Why else but to favor DeFazio would the OSU administration condone seemingly irrational actions that are potentially so damaging to the reputation of the university? OSU dances to the tune of the Democrat machine, and DeFazio controls that machine.
Since the controversy at OSU has been made public, Robinson told The New American, “The public response is extraordinary.” Thus far, the university has been inundated with thousands of complaints and many more are expected.
Likewise, Professor Higginbotham has been approached a number of times and encouraged to continue the fight against the injustice at OSU.