Posted on 06/20/2012 6:39:47 AM PDT by DFG
Oregon State University chemistry professor Nicholas Drapela was fired without warning three weeks ago and has still been given no reason for the university’s decision to “not renew his contract.”
Drapela, an outspoken critic of man-made climate change, worked at the university for 10 years.
In the early years of his career, he published a number of textbooks, received a promotion to senior instructor and, in 2004, received a Loyd F. Carter award for outstanding and inspirational teacher.
In 2007, Drapela began giving talks on his own climate change skepticism. He often and openly questioned the science behind man-made global warming.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
You are not allowed to think for yourself in today’s “academia”. The script has been written. You are sent to “colleges” and “universities” only to memorize it and pass it on to others.
Drapela needs to find a basis such as race, ethnicity, age or whatever to file a complaint that will compel discovery to try and uncover the real reason for his termination.
The bright side is that the university climate change zealots don’t burn heretics who disagree with them at the stake. They are so tolerant that they simply toss them out of their temples.
Stand up and publicy walk out when you strongly disagree with a speaker.
Lots of grants in the Global Warming business. Can’t have someone dissing the scam that feeds them.
Speculation is the key term here. My guess is that there is more going on than this article implies. Drapela can present his grievance to the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and have them take up the fight. Also, if you are not a tenured professor, the university can terminate you at their choice. However, it is unusual to do it in the manner done here. If I were him, I'd get the AAUP involved and let them do their job.
“Solution note to all.
Stand up and publicy walk out when you strongly disagree with a speaker.”
Take it a step further, never send your children to a liberal college/university. Why on earth should conservative parents continue to subsidize communist professors? If non-liberals comprise ~~ 50% of the population these communist enclaves hiding behind a cloak of higher education will shrivel on their ivy vines if we cut off their source of formative minds to destroy. Let the liberals fund their own schools.
If you really want to help, make sure if at all possible, to never send your kids or grand-kids to public schools. Kids K-12 will have a real hard time resisting the brainwashing which is sure to come from commie union teachers. It is child abuse to force them to be subjected to years of communist indoctrination from union teachers.
Doesn’t the word ‘university’ imply the definition of ‘universal’—that is sharing of all knowledge? So in academia now requires its professors to be dogmatic in opinions and observations? As long as professor Drapela is applying data to support his observations and opinions there should be no issue on his stance regarding the topic.
Thats right. He needs to find a lawyer and go after this.
Ah ha. You seem to have forgotten that diversity is a one way street and most of us are going the wrong way on it. Truth no longer matters as long as the masses “accept” the word preached to them regardless of ANY contradictory evidence. The “agenda” is the prime order of the day and you dare not speak against it. Otherwise, box cars for you and the promise of a vacation to “end” all vacations. LOL! There is no more knowledge sharing, only indoctrination in to the world as “they” wish it to be seen. Hopefully there are still free thinkers out there. Freedom is not the norm and typically an exception to the “rule”. Koom by ya is all well and good (for some peace/love/sharing/commune living birkenstock wearin’ fools) but sooner or later some SOB wants to be in charge and “convinces” the lowly pukes that what he says goes. Protect freedom like it may cease to exist at any time because like it or not it might end and we’ll all be scratching our heads wondering what the heck just happened. (Agenda 21/sustainable communities etc.)
Helping keep mankind warm for 65 years. Love burnin’ me some dinosaur fat!!! Think I’ll burn some today just cause I feel like it.
The OSU Chemistry Department home page hasn’t removed him yet. He is listed as a Senior Instructor. He got his Ph.D. from Oregon State. It looks like he was never in a tenure-track position so may have been hired repeatedly on annual contracts—which means he is totally at the mercy of the chairman or the administration.
My impression is the AAUP is pretty liberal in its outlook so they may not be interested in someone like this. At best they will put OSU on their list of censured institutions which will have exactly zero effect—there are colleges which have been on the list for decades.
As an OSU alum, I’m furious at OSU for the manner of their firing of this professor, and the possible reason. I have sent an email outlining my concerns & disgust to their “donations” department.
According to the Fox report, Prof. Drapela had been teaching at Oregon State for ten years, which suggests, along with his title, that he was a tenured professor. This assumes, of course, that Oregon Law and/or a collective bargaining agreement provides for tenure. If so, then I don’t understand how he can be terminated except for financial reasons or the elimination of his position, and even then, most tenure laws and collective bargaining agreements would allow him to apply for another positon within the state university system at the expense of someone with lower senority.
I agree. However, depending upon the nature of the argument, AAUP will jump in if they believe the university rules for termination have not been followed. We had a situation where a questionable firing happened where I was teaching and the first thing that AAUP did was request a copy of the university's Constitution. Because the rules stated therein were violated, AAUP did defend the prof. While the AAUP is liberal in belief, I do feel they act on the merits of the case rather than its liberal bias.
Those facts alone are a strong indication of the school's political orientation. The western part of Oregon is about as far left as San Francisco-Berkeley. It's also lesbian Heaven.
It's mystified me for years that conservative parents spend huge amounts of money to have their kids indoctrinated with anti-American drivel, the complete opposite of their own beliefs. Yet no matter how often the leftist takeover of universities is pointed out, they never seem to lack for students and very generous endowments from alumni.
No, a lot of adjunct teach year after year. I have a colleague who’s about 67, has taught as a full-time, non-tenured instructor at various schools for 40 years, including more than 20 at our institution. He gets a full salary and benefits. The salary is lower than what tenured-professors get but it’s far better than what the sessional lecturers (hired a course a time, semester at a time, no benefits) get. Some of the sessional lecturers may teach a number of years in one place but rarely for 10 years.
If he had been tenured they can’t simply fire him. You can be fired for cause, even with tenure, but they have have a very series case against you.
He certainly was not tenured. His title is not a title given to tenured professors.
Liberals are hateful to the core. Free speech and critical thinking only applies to them. (although there is seldom any critical thinking applied in the mass of lemmings that adhere to strict dogma and follow without question.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.