Goofy Is As Goofy Does
From the State that gave us the spotted owl, elimination of
using dogs to
hunt cougars (the best way to get cougars that are now an increasing problem
as happened just to the South in their sister State that begins with
"C".),
the use of everything short of steer and elk carcasses to lure wolves into
the State to run out the ranchers and polish off the big game the mountain
lions don't get first, and bureaucrat/veterinarians that once assured me
that wolves "don't" spread brucellosis or foot and mouth or any of a
number
of other diseases EVEN THOUGH THERE IS NO RESEARCH ON THE MATTER, and State
fishery bureaucrats that find it easier to vilify farmers and dams and abandon
fishermen than to stand up to the environmentalists about hatchery fish and
the animal righters about marine mammals we get the latest lunacy (see article
below about evil "white middle-aged males who get advice dominated by
timber industry views").
What is the water out west? A Colorado professor can lie about his
ethnicity to get an ethnic set-aside job, plagiarize work, and vilify the
innocent victims of 9-11 and keep his highly overpaid state job while: a
"panel" finds "The leadership of Oregon State University's
College of
Forestry needs an overhaul, and its dean, Hal Salwasser, showed poor
judgment in his handling of a furor over research into the impacts of
logging." Scotty beam me up!
The situation is terrifying, to wit "While the college itself is diverse,
its leaders are not" and "They are primarily white middle-aged males
who get
advice dominated by timber industry views". Imagine, a Forestry
College in
tune with logging interests, the next thing you are going to tell me is that
the college athletes look to professional sports and the dance majors are
thinking about going into the theatre. What is this world coming to?
This calls for drastic action from each of us. I can only offer (over my
wife's objections) to do my bit for diversity and quotas and political
correctness!
I hereby apply for any vacant positions that come open as a result of this
Witch Trial (hey there really is a Salem, Oregon isn't there?). Anyway I
have a Masters degree in Public Administration but we hired many women and
minorities as "biologists" and "technicians" in the US
Fish and Wildlife
Service in all those jobs that "formerly" required degrees in the
field of
wildlife biology or forestry, heck one even came to us from a department
store and started at the top and rose like a rocket from there. So I
want
to be an OSU (Oregon State University for those readers that don't watch
college football) professor and I promise to make my views dominant no
matter what science or who tries to get in my way.
How can a guy like me qualify or why should I replace "white middle-aged
males who get advice dominated by timber industry views"? Easy, I
am an OLD white male who is dominated by NOT ONLY the timber industry BUT ALSO
hunters and fishermen and ranchers and farmers and rural bar owners and dog
owners and circus animal trainers and rodeoers, and exotic wildlife owners and
a bunch of other such folk who like the forgettable politician once observed
"those kind of folks deserve to be represented too".
Read the article below and tell me this sort of insanity isn't seeping
everywhere and needs to be done away with. The Universities today are
worse pockets of propaganda and political intimidation than Nazi Youth Camps
or those old cartoons that were so good at caricaturing Russian Commissars,
and "citizen doctors", and party hacks in the funny papers back in
the 50's and 60's.
Jim Beers
19 May 2006
Report faults OSU forestry dean, urges overhaul
Research - A panel cites poor judgment, and calls for diverse
leadership and distance from timber interests Friday, May 19, 2006 MICHAEL
MILSTEIN
The leadership of Oregon State University's College of Forestry
needs an overhaul, and its dean, Hal Salwasser, showed poor judgment in his
handling of a furor over research into the impacts of logging.
Those are the preliminary findings of 13 professors and others
appointed by Salwasser to review the episode. Their report will be the focus
of a collegewide discussion next week.
While the college itself is diverse, its leaders are not, the
reviewing panel said in its draft report. They are primarily white middle-aged
males who get advice dominated by timber industry views and took the
industry's side in a recent furor over the logging of burned forests.
That should change, the panel said.
Salwasser created the group in response to turmoil surrounding
research at the college that concluded logging sets back recovery of burned
forests.
The research, led by Daniel Donato, a graduate student, and
co-authored by his professor, was published on one page of the journal
Science. It received wide attention because it undermined Bush administration
arguments for salvaging burned trees by logging.
But some prominent professors at the College of Forestry who
argue for logging and replanting after wildfires tried to derail publication
of Donato's research. The journal printed it anyway, but their move raised
alarm at OSU about erosion of academic freedom.
It also raised the issue of the college's longtime ties to the
timber industry, which supplies a slice of its funding through logging taxes.
The research and the furor surrounding it have since been the
subject of congressional and state hearings. Salwasser's e-mails also have
emerged, showing close interaction with timber interests. In one, he refers to
certain environmentalists as "goons."
Salwasser himself coached the appeal to Science and worked with
the timber industry to refute Donato's work, said the report, and the narrow
perspectives of college's leaders blinded them to their own missteps.
"The inability of the leadership to recognize the academic
freedom issues involved in their participation in the letter to Science
calling for delay of the Donato et al. paper, and their coaching of groups
interested in attacking the Donato et al. paper, stand out as significant
failures of leadership and narrowness of purpose," said the panel, headed
by professor K. Norman Johnson.
"The quaqmire"
"If the (College of Forestry) leadership were more
representative of the diverse perspectives and expertise resident in the
College, we believe it would have been less likely to march into the quagmire
that transpired after publication of the Donato, et al. paper."
The final version of the report will be discussed Wednesday at
an all-college meeting in Corvallis. That will be followed by a vote on
whether Salwasser can "lead the College through the changes needed to
thrive in the future," Johnson wrote in a collegewide e-mail this week.
The report then will go to Salwasser for a response and to the
university administration, said Todd Simmons, an OSU spokesman.
The findings are especially critical of Salwasser. The report
says he violated OSU policies by lending college support to legislation
advanced by Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., that would speed logging of burned
forests.
The House passed that legislation Wednesday. Walden's Web site
lists Salwasser as a supporter.
Policy of neutrality
But college policies caution that the university and college
should not take sides in policy debates, Johnson's group says.
"The Dean's initial statements and his email
correspondence reflect a high level of interaction with individuals from, and
support of, the industry side of the argument," the report says.
"The dean's email correspondence and memos show poor judgment in his
interactions both within and outside of the College."
While the college -- as part of a land-grant college -- should
work with timber interests, it also should seek advice from other perspectives
such as conservation groups and research societies, the report says.
Salwasser declined to comment Thursday. He previously
apologized for mishandling the episode. Earlier this month at a forum, he took
responsibility for what he called "stupid and inappropriate
(actions) that caused harm to the college and to some individuals."
He said he will "focus on informing rather than
advocating, and I will make it clear that I represent myself and do not speak
for the entire college, except when I am advocating for our budget or
students.
"A better college"
"We will be a better college for having endured this and
learned from our actions, a bit scarred and battered but probably looking and
acting differently, but better," he said.
He said he will work with the OSU provost and president to
address all the recommendations of Johnson's group.
Cristina Eisenberg, a graduate student who is a member of the
group, praised Salwasser's commitment to resolve long-standing divisions at
the college.
"That makes me very hopeful that good things will come out
of this," she said. "It's been a very unfortunate thing for us in
many ways, but it's also created a lot of positive openings."
Recommendations in the report include diversifying
decision-making bodies at the college, such as an executive committee that now
includes department heads. It also should include faculty and students, and
should be open and accountable, the report said.
It also recommended that faculty be subject to a code of
conduct that currently applies only to students. The college also should
foster discussion of controversial issues, and do a better job telling alumni
and Oregonians how its research investigates the issues from all sides.