Exactly one day after Levees.org held a press conference denouncing the muzzling of experts who speak critically of the Army Corps of Engineers, Ivor van Heerden, frequent critic of the US government, was axed.
Van Heerden, the brave coastal scientist who led the state’s independent Team Louisiana investigation into the levee failures during Katrina, has been given notice by Louisiana State University that he will be terminated as a research professor in one year.
Van Heerden, a true hero, believes he was let go because LSU is concerned that his frank talk with the media has and continues to hurt LSU’s chances of getting federal dollars.
Stay tuned to find out what action you can take in response to the inexplicable firing of Ivor van Heerden.
In the meantime, I highly recommend checking out this blog post by Len Bahr, formerly an LSU coastal science professor, who served between March 1991 and October 2008 as a coastal science and policy advisor in the offices of Louisiana governors Roemer, Edwards, Foster, Blanco and Jindal.
Len Bahr said all that needs to be said.
For what little it’s worth, I added my protest yesterday here:
http://revolution-21.blogspot.com/2009/04/killing-cassandra.html
This whole episode is shameful but, alas, I have come to expect no better from my home state or college alma mater. I have informed LSU that it has gotten its last dollar from me.