Oregon’s K-12 schools are 43rd in the nation and there appears to be no urgency for improving that abysmal ranking in the near future. This makes one wonder just how many candidates for PhD’s in nuclear engineering will come from Oregon. With this dubious distinction in mind, is expulsion of Joshua, Bethany, and Matthew Robinson, from their graduate studies in nuclear engineering as well as the removal of Professor Higginbotham, the type of publicity promoting precedent that Oregon State University wants to endorse?
As a taxpayer, it is appalling to think that a place of higher learning cares more about political payback than the prospect of what these individuals could accomplish with their obviously proven work ethic and intellect.
Professor Higginbotham is an honorable man. He is the kind of educator and mentor that I hope my children will have the privilege and opportunity to work with in the future.
Initiative, innovation and entrepreneurship are sadly declining in our country and it is encouraging to discover young people like Joshua, Bethany and Matthew who are defying the typical stereotype of their generation. They are just the type of students OSU should be actively recruiting NO MATTER their father’s political leanings.
I am a parent with small children and some day I look forward to spending obscene amounts of money sending them to college and as a native Oregonian it would be preferable to keep that money in our state. If this travesty is allowed to happen, then you can be assured that OSU will be permanently crossed off our list of potential universities.
There is no shame in admitting a mistake, there is great dishonor in standing silently by while careers and futures are destroyed. As Abraham Lincoln once said, “To stand in silence when they should be protesting makes cowards out of men.”
I am petitioning you to reconsider your actions and prove to the world, who is watching, that OSU is not inhabited by small minded and petty individuals who would rather club an adversary’s young than fight them on the battlefield of ideas.
Sincerely,
Michal Klein
This is a copy of an email that I sent to the dept. heads at OSU, I also sent it to several news agencies. Please feel free to forward it on to everyone you know.
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"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent."
~Thomas Jefferson
