A second scholar appointed to a five-member committee investigating University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill has resigned.
Robert A. Williams, professor of law and American Indian studies at the University of Arizona, is the latest committee member to quit, CU spokeswoman Pauline Hale said Friday.
Williams and University of Nebraska Native American studies professor Bruce Johansen, who also resigned last week, defended Churchill’s right to free speech in March.
Williams said Churchill, “through sheer force of intellect, energy and a radical reformer’s zeal, has established himself as a major scholar and public intellectual.”
Johansen said he read some of Churchill’s books and found them “well-argued and intensively documented in a scholarly manner.”
The professors’ comments originally were posted March 19 on www.censoringthought.org. The anti-Churchill website www.pirateballerina.com posted the comments after CU released the names of the committee members because of open-records requests from The Denver Post and other news media.
Johansen said he wanted to “get the focus off of me and let the committee do its business” and that he had more important things to do than deal with “Front Range follies.”
Williams did not return calls seeking comment.
CU officials said this could delay the investigation, slated to take up to 120 days from the time the committee is seated.
