University of Colorado regents will discuss whether to terminate suspended ethnic studies professor Ward Churchill in a closed session July 24 that Churchill’s attorney wants opened to the public.
“This is a matter of public concern, and CU’s done enough politicking behind closed doors,” attorney David Lane said.
Lane and Churchill have asserted that the investigation that led to a finding of academic misconduct was retaliation for an essay he wrote comparing some World Trade Center victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks to Nazi bureaucrat Adolf Eichmann. University officials have said they were obligated to investigate allegations that later surfaced of Churchill’s falsifying and plagiarizing research.
After months of reviews, CU president Hank Brown formally requested on June 7 that the Board of Regents fire Churchill.
CU spokeswoman Michelle McKinney said it is university policy to discuss personnel matters in private session. However, she said, regents afterward could make statements and would vote in open session on whether to fire Churchill for academic misconduct.
Lane said that unless the regents choose to reinstate Churchill and forgo discipline, Churchill will sue the university for violating his free-speech rights.
Staff writer Electa Draper can be reached at 970-385-0917 or edraper@denverpost.com.
