An Amazing Tale from Academia
I generally hesitate to publish links to such stories without having heard the other side or seen any objective reporting, but none-the-less, if true, this is a pretty amazing story. In it, Oregon State University is being accused of seeking retribution against a Republican Congressional candidate by harassing and expelling his kids. (via Green Hell Blog)
Dave:
This guy needs an editor. How is this a useful way to start this story: "In an effort to do my part in rescuing our country from the out-of-control Obama administration..."? Ok, glad you got your opinion that Obama is out-of-control out on the table, but you just lost half your audience.
March 7, 2011, 10:34 amDoug:
The Coke and Pepsi parties ... no difference. Right?
March 7, 2011, 12:15 pmCaroline:
Dr. Robinson is a good and brilliant man. I use some of his self-teaching methods and curriculum in homeschooling my children. I hope the children's academic careers can be salvaged after this.
March 7, 2011, 1:23 pmruralcounsel:
If true (and I agree that there should be a big grain of salt ingested with this until all facts are verified), I'd like to point out that personal vidictiveness and discrimination (particularly against someone's children) through use/abuse of official positions are the kind of garbage that creates generational blood feuds ala Bosnia/The Balkans.
Maybe it's time to find an aggressive attorney. What kind of laws have hypothetically been broken here? Conspiracy? RICO anyone? Misuse of state funds? People take this sort of thing very personally, and if the institutions don't address it very quickly, individuals often will "self-help". Depending on the individual, that could be a war these entrenched faculty members didn't anticipate OSU better get it's ducks in a row and look in to it.
March 7, 2011, 1:50 pmben:
The language in the article is awful. It is political language, and so I instinctively assume he is leaving out important parts of the story and using sleight of hand to deceive but not lie, etc. I may be wrong. There are few people less honest than US politicians.
March 7, 2011, 1:55 pmSteven:
It is kind of strange that all three kids are getting tossed at the same time. Almost too strange for it to be a coincidence. This is shocking if true.
March 7, 2011, 2:24 pmCaroline:
@Ben
March 7, 2011, 2:25 pmRobinson is a scientist not a politician.
John Moore:
"There are few people less honest than US politicians."
Yeah, but many modern academics are among those few. The story is wholly believable, and not even that surprising.
March 7, 2011, 9:28 pmDaveK:
I'm an alum of OSU, and contacted them about this story. Their response was something along the lines of "Nothing to see here, folks... Just move along". Given the level of rhetoric, if the university really has a case for libel against Robinson, they should have filed the case a long time ago. Any result from this point, other than a full backdown by Robinson, or a judgment of libel with significant attached damages, will mean that the OSU Nuclear Engineering Department has behaved very, very badly.
March 8, 2011, 11:26 pm