The process of deciding whether to dismiss professor Ward Churchill came a step closer to the end Tuesday when a committee submitted recommendations to University of Colorado president Hank Brown.
Brown has 15 business days to determine how to proceed with the case, according to CU system spokeswoman Michele McKinney. He could recommend firing Churchill, dismiss the case, or come up with another punishment short of termination.
The chair of the university system’s privilege and tenure committee, which held a hearing on the case in January, declined to discuss the contents of its confidential report.
“It has indeed gone forward,” said Weldon Lodwick, a professor of mathematics at CU-Denver. “We have deliberated on this very carefully.”
Churchill and his attorney did not return calls for comment.
If Brown decides there are grounds to dismiss Churchill, the case then goes to the Board of Regents, which will make the final decision. Churchill would have at least 20 business days to respond and can request a public hearing before the regents, McKinney said.
If Brown decides there are no grounds for dismissal, the case will be closed and Churchill will return to the classroom, McKinney said.
McKinney characterized as “false” a posting Tuesday on an anti-Churchill blog, Pirate Ballerina, that the university would offer to buy out Churchill for at least $3 million.
Churchill, a CU-Boulder ethnic-studies professor, was accused of plagiarizing, fabricating and falsifying material in his research and writing, after a lengthy investigation. He is on paid administrative leave.
CU’s chancellor at the time, Phil DiStefano, started the process to fire Churchill in June 2006.
Seven CU professors and two professors from other institutions said last month that the report on Churchill is filled with errors, relies on biased information and distorts other information.
