CU president’s call for embattled professor Ward Churchill to be fired
Re: “Brown: Fire Churchill; CU’s president sends forward his recommendation,” May 31 news story.
I applaud Hank Brown for his conclusion that Professor Ward Churchill should be fired. As a past trustee for Colorado Mountain College, I voted to fire a professor who had abused his position of trust by harassing female students. He, too, claimed we were attacking his right to freedom of speech. It was clear to the seven trustees in that case that the issue was not about freedom of speech, but rather our duty to protect young female students from a professor who used the freedom-of-speech argument to justify his unacceptable behavior.
Neither is the Ward Churchill case about freedom of speech or academic freedom, it is a case of claiming the work of others as his own, of misrepresenting facts to support an otherwise unsupportable academic theory, of abusing the trust placed in his ethics and integrity by the University of Colorado and his academic colleagues, and by using mistruths in his teaching.
As a father of two current CU students, I am more than willing to have a portion of my taxes, tuition and fees used to litigate this matter. Ward Churchill should be fired because he abused the right of his students and colleagues to accept what they were being told as true, honest, ethical and academically sound. His deceit, misuse of historical facts and indefensible theft of the work of others corrupts the academic integrity of the college and his fellow professors, and the CU regents must act decisively to protect our students from his academic abuse.
Gary Beach, Aspen
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It’s nice to see that Hank Brown has dropped the pretense of due process as regards Ward Churchill, recommending termination in the face of the one-year suspension recommended by the University of Colorado’s privilege and tenure committee. I have no doubt that the regents will hammer the last nail in this charade’s coffin.
The recommendation of the committee was the end result of due process. It was Ward Churchill’s final appeal, necessitated by the laughable ignorance of American Indian studies demonstrated by the Standing Committee on Research Misconduct, which recommended termination. It was an ignorance which presumably accounts for the marked disparity in penalties recommended by the two committees, and is verified by the charges of academic misconduct being filed against the Standing Committee by numerous scholars who are actually conversant in the field.
That Hank Brown can ignore this final result of due process should send chills down every CU faculty member’s spine. And given that it’s been their refusal to stand up for even their own rights that’s allowed it, I hope they understand the ramifications.
I hope they understand that any expression deviating from mainstream opinion will result in their being purged. I hope they understand that they’ve been complicit in the destruction of every protection afforded them in the name of academic freedom, not to mention their constitutional rights. I hope they understand that the only career path left for them at CU is to keep their mouths shut and their heads under their desks.
Not that doing so should be a problem. That’s what they do best.
Benjamin Whitmer, Lecturer, Ethnic Studies, University of Colorado at Boulder
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I don’t really know if Ward Churchill should be fired from the university of Colorado. It’s hard to think clearly beneath the drone of the lynch mob that has been after him for the last couple years.
The important issue is not whether Churchill is guilty of academic misconduct. It is about people being investigated because they make statements that offend others and what impact this will have on freedom of speech. We have a grand historic precedent for this called McCarthyism. During the 1950s, free speech was drastically curtailed because anyone who spoke out – academics, politicians, and just plain folks – ran the risk of being investigated and losing their jobs. It was a chilling period in our history and one we don’t want to repeat.
If we want to root out academics who have plagiarized (look no further than Stephen Ambrose, the revered historian), then we should conduct the campaign across the board. If we sit passively by while zealots go after anyone who offends our sensibilities, we become the “little Eichmanns” that Churchill referred to in his essay.
OK. I said it. Now you can investigate me and get me fired from my job.
David Rhodes, Westminster
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Re: “CU could salvage its reputation,” May 30 Al Knight column.
Al Knight implies that he is concerned about the damage Ward Churchill’s shoddy scholarship will do to the University of Colorado’s academic standing and that firing Churchill will allow CU to “reclaim its reputation.” This is pure artifice on Mr. Knight’s part. The only reason he dedicates so much ink to this case is because of his anger about Churchill’s distasteful political commentary, and because of his general desire to trash the university. Mr. Knight noted that “Churchill’s misrepresentations were plainly made to ‘support one of his central academic premises.”‘ Sadly, his phony display of concern for CU’s reputation mirrors Churchill’s academic malfeasance.
E. Hess, Denver
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Ward Churchill is a far more profound, original, knowledgeable, productive and important scholar than any of his critics. Comparing his scholarly credentials to those of the man who has recommended his dismissal is perfectly ludicrous. The case against Ward Churchill is without intellectual substance and without ethical merit.
The firing of Ward Churchill would be an immense blow to academic freedom and to the educational quality that academic freedom protects. It would also be an immense loss to the intellectual community at the University of Colorado. I will continue to do everything within my power to prevent this from happening.
Tom Mayer, Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Colorado at Boulder
Bush’s request for $30 billion more for aids
Re: “Bush urges Congress to boost AIDS funding,” May 31 news story.
Before President Bush is given $30 billion more to fight AIDS in developing countries (for a total of $45 billion over 10 years), I question his statement that it “will be spent wisely.” Until money is directed for family planning and birth control, his “generosity” with our tax dollars will continue to ignore the underlying cause of health, economic, political and immigration problems in developing countries: overpopulation.
Karen C. Culver, Lakewood
Musgrave constituent not guilty for stink
Re: “Legal stink poops out with jurors,” May 27 Diane Carman column.
Many thanks to Kathleen Ensz, who stuck it out to the bitter end when accused of “depositing a noxious substance with the intention of interfering with the use and enjoyment of a building.” She made a political statement, and the office of Marilyn Musgrave took exception to it. Instead of accepting that some folks just don’t like her views on things, Ms. Musgrave took it to the courts. Thank you, Ms. Ensz, for not taking the plea deal, for standing by your political statement, and for taking it to the jurors.
Susan Albertson, Longmont
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