Oregon State alumni rally behind Robinson students
Thursday, April 21, 2011 at 10:04AM Republican candidate says his grown children suffering political payback
A group of prominent Oregon State University alumni are rallying behind a professor and three doctoral students whose father, a former Republican congressional candidate, believes they are suffering political payback, threatening their academic careers. Art Robinson, who unsuccessfully challenged incumbent Democratic Rep. Peter DeFazio for Oregon's 4th District seat last fall, has alleged that Oregon State administration and faculty members in the nuclear physics program began threatening to terminate his son Joshua Robinson just two days after the Nov. 2 election. Robinson said he was warned by OSU Nuclear Physics Professor Jack Higginbotham that faculty administrators at the university 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."