Posted on 05/24/2015 12:13:14 PM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
A Washington state senator has survived a campaign by Western Washington University students who demanded their school revoke his master’s degree because he’s not radical enough on global warming.
Doug Ericksen, a Republican and chair of Washington’s Senate Energy, Environment and Telecommunications Committee, has blocked efforts to force businesses and residents to go green, but he supports voluntary compliance. He opposes mandated cap-and-trade programs and low-carbon fuel standards.
But the effort to yank Ericksen’s degree — he earned his MA in political science and environmental policy at WWU — met with a stiff rebuke last week from the university’s president.
“We appreciate the good work of Senator Doug Ericksen on behalf of Western Washington University,” said WWU President Bruce Shepard. “Senator Ericksen, a Western alumnus, has proven to be a friend to Western and a strong advocate … The strength of our democracy is that all citizens, including students and leaders like Senator Ericksen, have the freedom of expression to take positions with diverse viewpoints.”
Shepard dismissed “any notion that we might seek to penalize a graduate for the positions they express” as “a disturbing misunderstanding of the intellectual freedoms any university worthy of the name must stand for. And, protect.”
Ericksen’s critics could not be reached for comment and did not appear to have any formal name or structure. Their crusade was profiled in a local newspaper, the Bellingham Herald.
“Sen. Doug Ericksen is welcome to have whatever political views he wants, but by misinforming the public on the science of climate change, he is undermining the credibility of our own degrees and reflecting poorly on the caliber of education students receive here,” the students said in a statement to the Herald.
The students acknowledged they weren’t trying to change Ericksen’s mind on the issue.
“We’re framing it in a more radical way,” students said of the effort to revoke Ericksen’s degree. “We’re not just trying to have a conversation with him or hold him accountable. We’re trying to revoke his degree and get people to pay attention.”
The group called Ericksen a “climate denier” on a Facebook page that is now deleted,
In a podcast, Ericksen said he felt sorry for the students.
“They’re being fed such a line of propaganda, and it’s such a heavily partisan atmosphere,” he said. “They are Western students, so I guess they can do whatever they want. I’ve tended to ignore it. It’s not a serious issue. I think there’s three of them up there who have been advocating for this. It is what it is. You can respect their right to have their opinion.”
Ericksen has been targeted by environmentalists since 1998, when he first won a seat in the Washington House of Representatives. He was elected to the senate in 2011 and reelected last year. Steyer invested $1 million in the state races, with his primary goal of unseating Ericksen.
Your link leads to a blank wiki page. Some one may have edited it????
We criticize Republicans all the time around here, and rightly so. They’re passive, afraid to stand up for conservative principles that work, and far too often seek to cut deals with the other side. That said, they don’t engage in the politics of personal vilification and destruction the way the left does. Well, unless it’s one of us or any other conservative. Nonetheless, most Republicans don’t engage that other side in that manner, but liberals see it differently. They aren’t just hellbent on defeating us politically, but they will stoop to any level to destroy our professional reputations and our personal lives. These idiots up in Washington trying to revoke this state senator’s masters degree from Western Washington University shouldn’t come as a shock.
Their own actions show that attempts to educate these students and teach them how do make informed judgements has been an utter failure and a waste of time and money.
talk about self absorbed.
These young skills full of something far more toxic than MUSH really think they tule the world..evidently.?
I guess all those facebook friends...puff up ones ego??
What a bunch of evil little fascists! Worse than the Nazis since the Nazis have mostly died of old age.
So we know they are actually students...how?
The students acknowledged they weren’t trying to change Ericksen’s mind on the issue.
“We’re framing it in a more radical way,” students said of the effort to revoke Ericksen’s degree. “We’re not just trying to have a conversation with him or hold him accountable. We’re trying to revoke his degree and get people to pay attention.”
So, no debate, no discussion, no exchange of thought or demonstration of academic process, just crude, naked force. These "students", if that's what they are, would be right at home in brown shirts.
These students are morons.
I did not know how to do what you did, so thanks.
Ya know, if his degree can be revoked, the same can be done to special widdle snowflakes’ degree, too. Yes, kiddies, wrap your little pea brains around the concept of slippery slopes.
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