Three former and current University of Colorado regents testified Monday that they authorized a review of then-Boulder professor Ward Churchill’s speeches and writings only to find out whether those writings were protected under the First Amendment.
Former Regent Patricia Hayes and Regent Peter Steinhauer, both Republicans, said they found Churchill’s comments in an essay about the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, “anti-American.”
They testified that they had wanted to know whether the speeches and essays were considered protected speech under the First Amendment if Churchill had made them as a public employee representing the university.
Churchill, 61, has sued CU claiming that he was fired two years ago in retaliation for the controversial essay comparing some World Trade Center victims to a Nazi war criminal. He has said he was trying to make a point about U.S. economic policy and its impact on poorer nations.
Churchill was fired in 2007 after a two-year investigation by university committees found he had engaged in academic fraud in his scholarly writings.
Churchill’s attorney, David Lane, asked why it was necessary for the regents to allow review of all Churchill’s writings.
“Where do you guys get off looking at every word he has ever written when the only thing he wrote that upset you was the 9/11 essay?” Lane asked.
Both regents answered that the inquiry was solely to determine whether that essay was protected speech and what Churchill’s boundaries were as a public employee representing CU.
Former Regent Cindy Carlisle, who also signed the resolution initiating the investigation of Churchill’s 9/11 essay but who was the only regent to vote against his firing, testified that although she disagreed with terminating Churchill, she accepted the findings of academic and research misconduct.
Carlisle, a Democrat, said the reason she voted against termination was because it went against the recommendation of a majority of the CU Privilege and Tenure Committee, which had advised that Churchill be suspended without pay.
Testimony will continue today.
