Matthew scored higher on the Graduate Record Exams (SATs for graduate school) than has any entering student ever in the history of the OSU nuclear engineering department.  He was offered $57,000 per year by the MIT chemistry department to be a graduate student there, but went to OSU instead - partly to remain near his family home in Oregon, partly to help his sister (also targeted at OSU), and primarily because he wants to earn a PhD in nuclear engineering.

The Robinson students would already have lost their PhD work at Oregon State University had nuclear engineering professor Jack Higginbotham not stepped forward, at the risk of his career, in their defense.

In retribution, OSU administrators turned their ire on Professor Higginbotham, too, whose career now hangs by a thread solely because he helped the Robinson students. He is fighting for his professional life.

As a result, Professor Higginbotham’s legal bills have depleted his savings and are a threat to his home and family.

The Oregon Government Ethics Commission has authorized the formation of The Jack Higginbotham Legal Expense Trust Fund in order to raise funds for his legal defense.

This fund is described at Internet site: http://www.jackhigginbothamsfriends.com/

Confused visitors will be forgiven for thinking Oregon State University is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Congressman Pete DeFazio and the “progressive-socialist” wing of the Democratic Party. Or for likening what’s going on there to political retribution as practiced in Third World thugocracies.

The idea that three outstanding students – PhD candidates at OSU – could face dismissal, and worse, shortly before receiving their degrees, is simply shocking. That this could be happening because their father had the temerity to challenge an entrenched 12-term Democratic congressman (and OSU earmark purveyor) could make people think the university is in Zimbabwe, not America. Dr. Art Robinson is president of the nonprofit Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, located on the family farm in southwestern Oregon, 180 miles from Corvallis. OISM focuses on biochemistry, diagnostic medicine, nutrition, preventive medicine and aging – and improving emergency preparedness and basic education.

CLICK HERE TO READ ENTIRE ARTICLE AT TOWNHALL.COM

You are accurately (as video of your statements confirms) quoted in the press today (see quotes below) as having made the following statements at the rally organized by the Republicans of Linn County yesterday on the OSU campus.

You, of course, know that your statements are misleading and false. There is already unequivocal proof of this, and the legal demand that was made last week for all OSU email and other records relevant to this issue will, when OSU complies with this demand, provide a wealth of additional information that proves your statements are false.

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."

CLICK HERE TO READ ENTIRE STORY AT WORLDNETDAILY

Kathryn Higley sent out an email today to the students and staff giving false information about the sponsorship of the event and strongly implying that the Linn County Republicans and other supporters of ours may try to block access to or occupy the radiation center where the students and staff work (far from the Quad) as a part of the demonstration. This is, of course, entirely false.

Efforts have been underway within Higley's department to induce students to protest this event. At one of these, David Hamby, Higley's co-instigator of the actions against the students and professor, occupied himself by walking back and forth outside the meeting.

The students and faculty are in a difficult position. They have already seen a distinguished professor and some excellent students targeted by Hamby, Higley, and retainers in an attempt to throw them out of OSU. Also, defamatory false statements have been made to them.

We welcome our first opportunity to talk with these students tomorrow afternoon.

Art

There will be a rally in support of Professor Higginbotham and the three Robinson OSU PhD students on the OSU Memorial Union Quad beginning at 2:30 pm on April 20 - this coming Wednesday. This rally is being organized by the Linn County Republicans. If you are able to attend, please come out and help us.

The rally begins at 2:30 pm on the the Memorial Union Quad (14th & Monroe, Corvallis, OR). Parking is $1.00 per hour in the student lots - free parking behind the Hilton Hotel - parking lot P (www.oregonstate.edu/campusmap). Free 2 hour parking is also available in surrounding areas.

This Institute today carries out research in physical chemistry, biochemistry, and medicine in continuation of the work that Art (a graduate of Caltech) and Laurelee (a graduate of Seattle Pacific University) did together over a 17-year period during which Art served on the faculty of the University of California at San Diego; as President and Research director of the Linus Pauling Institute, which Robinson and Pauling cofounded in 1973; and as President of their new  Oregon Institute.

In 1988, however, Laurelee Robinson died at the age of 43. when their six children Zachary, Noah, Arynne, Joshua, Bethany, and Matthew were ages 12, 10, 8, 6, 6 years and 18 months old, respectively.

A group of prominent Oregon State University alumni are working to save the Robinson students and Professor Higginbotham. These include former OSU class officers, former OSU alumni association officers, OSU alumni with engineering degrees, and substantial OSU alumni donors. The core working group includes Kenneth W. Noteboom, William H. Rieckmann, Michal Rieckmann, Jim Schaeffer, Jane S. Schaeffer, and Dave Socolofsky.

Already this alumni group has offered OSU a scholarship and equipment fund to pay for the Robinson students’ PhD work. They have also offered to pay significant legal fees incurred "should the OSU administration pursue a logical, timely, efficient, and least costly method of resolving the issues with minimum harm to the students’ education, Professor Higginbotham, and the reputation of the university."

These alumni lack one thing - cooperation from OSU. So far, their offers have been ignored by the President of OSU and the faculty administrators involved.

Surely, as this alumni group grows, the OSU Administration will respond.

Art

David Kupelian has written a new editorial at World Net Daily about the Robinson students and Professor Higginbotham at Oregon State University.

The link is: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=278481

Thank you for all of your support and encouragement.

Art