Boulder – A gathering of students and University of Colorado-area residents on Thursday overwhelmingly opposed the involvement of the state legislature in the controversy over statements by ethnic-studies professor Ward Churchill.
State Sen. Ron Tupa, D-Boulder, and Rep. Tom Plant, D-Nederland, hosted the meeting Thursday night on the CU-Boulder campus to discuss a legislative resolution urging that the university fire Churchill.
Churchill compared World Trade Center victims to Nazi Adolf Eichmann and has made other controversial statements, and CU administrators are examining Churchill’s writings and speeches to see whether he has violated his employment agreement with the university.
Gov. Bill Owens and others have called for him to be fired.
While many people at the meeting disagreed with Churchill’s statements, most supported his right to make them.
“The state has no place in any of this,” said Trevor Pincock, a sophomore in linguistics. “This is a complete waste of time.”
But Tupa said something valuable might come out of the controversy.
“It’s not a waste of time if it starts a dialogue on free speech,” he said.
Three people supported the resolution while more than 30 opposed the legislature’s involvement in the issue.
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CHURCHILL CONTROVERSY
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The people who wanted Churchill fired said it should not be for his statements but for bad research such as an academic paper that alleges that the U.S. government purposely infected Native Americans with smallpox.
“Ward Churchill made up stuff that never happened,” said Michael Drost, a freshman in international affairs. “Students would be expelled for academic dishonesty; why not a tenured professor?”
Most people said that a school needs to have different ideas to expand students’ minds. And many were insulted that politicians are getting involved.
More online: Read Ward Churchill’s controversial essay, plus previous coverage and statements by Churchill, Gov. Bill Owens, the CU regents and state lawmakers. denverpost.com
