Embattled University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill lashed out at CU officials Monday for not maintaining the confidentiality of the investigation into his research and misrepresenting what misconduct charges he still faces.
“Either the process is confidential or it isn’t, not whichever happens to be most convenient to the university at any given moment,” Churchill said in a written statement. “Were my own scholarship as shoddy as (CU’s Friday) press release, there would truly be a basis for charges of ‘academic misconduct’ against me.”
CU officials stood by a news release issued Friday that said seven charges, including plagiarism, misuse of others’ work, falsification and fabrication of authority, would be investigated by scholars.
Allegations about copyright infringement and falsification of his American Indian heritage were dropped, as were allegations by a former wife’s family about mistakes Churchill made in writing about her.
Five allegations in a preliminary report by CU-Boulder chancellor Phil DiStefano and two allegations raised in a series by the Rocky Mountain News would be fully investigated, according to a CU official.
The DiStefano report questioned whether Churchill misrepresented two laws regarding American Indians, plagiarized work by Dalhousie University professor Fay Cohen, misused work by Rebecca Robbins and incorrectly stated that the U.S. Army purposely distributed smallpox- infected blankets. The Rocky Mountain News unearthed allegations that Churchill claimed a 1972 pamphlet by a Canadian environmental group as his own.
Churchill’s statement said five allegations were dismissed and others were changed.
“The university’s statement moves beyond ‘spin’ and enters the realm of sheer falsehood when it asserts that the seven remaining allegations ‘remain unchanged from the time of referral by the interim chancellor,”‘ Churchill said in the news release. “To the contrary, all of them have been substantially modified.”
Churchill refused to discuss specific changes when reached at home Monday or provide a copy of allegations against him.
“Read the statement,” he said before hanging up the phone.
CU spokeswoman Pauline Hale declined to comment on Churchill’s statement.
The research into misconduct is expected to take four months.
Staff writer Arthur Kane can be reached at 303-820-1626 or akane@denverpost.com.
