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July 23, 2007
Final decision on Ward Churchill
In February we reported on the academic campaign mobilized to defend faux-Indian "Ethnic Studies" professor Ward "little Eichmanns" Churchill, as the regents of Colorado University deliberated on whether to fire him for "research misconduct," including lack of academic qualification, plagiarism and misrepresentation about his Indian ancestry, his military service, his Weathermen activities.
The wheels of academic justice grind slowly, and the regents will announce their decision tomorrow, July 24th. Churchill's fans will turn out in force (they hope) to protest what they expect to be a thumbs-down on Churchill's continued employment at Colorado U.
The ACLU of Colorado has issued a statement supporting Churchill, casting this controversy as a free speech issue, by minimizing - as do Churchill's other supporters - the charges of academic malfeisance:
The investigative committee found six charges of research misconduct to be sustained. The Appeals Panel of the Privilege and Tenure Committee concluded that only three of those were valid. Only one member of the five-member investigative committee believed that dismissal was an appropriate sanction, and a majority of the appeals panel concluded that termination was not warranted. Despite these conclusions, the University President has recommended termination, thus urging the same result as the elected officials who publicly called for Professor Churchill’s termination in 2005. The current Governor of Colorado has now added his voice to those clamoring for Professor Churchill to be fired.
The first sentence reflects the wealth of evidence described in the links above. As with previous controversies over Juan Cole, making the issue about free speech in the academy obscures the questions of competence which ought to determine these hiring and firing decisions.
But the case of Phil Mitchell makes clear that free speech is for me but not for thee. As of this May, the conservative professor - whose academic credentials and teaching career are in stark contrast to those of Churchill - was finally forced out of the same university which is deliberating over Churchill.
Judith | 07/23/07 at 08:51 AM | Categories: - Wackademia
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Comments
Ward would have been dismissed immediately for his actions if a student. How this lowbrow ever was hired is a joke, much less that he became the head of the department. It really speaks to the fact that a total lack of scholarship is not a hindrance in such a worthless area of study.
Good Riddance.
Phil Boster | July 24, 2007 03:21 PM
