BOULDER — Controversy has roiled for four years around Ward Churchill and an essay he wrote that likens some victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to Nazi bureaucrats.
And yet, after a Denver District Court jury found that he was wrongfully dismissed by the University of Colorado, for every student wandering the University Memorial Center on Thursday afternoon who had an opinion about the fired ethnic-studies professor, there were more who had no idea who he was.
Some of those who did comment said they were confused by the finding that Churchill was wrongly fired when damages were set at just $1.
Giving him a dollar is like laughing in his face, said biochemistry student Jillian Giffen, 23.
Literature and film student Darrell Brett, 20, reckoned that the public overreacted to offensive passages in an essay written by a professor well-known for bombast.
“This was just an outburst. People overreacted and focused on these quotes,” Brett said. “Maybe he didn’t have to be fired. If he was wrongfully fired and they gave him a dollar, then it was a waste of time. It’s just giving him more publicity.”
Churchill, 61, sued CU for the return of his job, claiming he had been persecuted because of his controversial essay, “Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens,” which appeared after the 9/11 attacks.
Chris Braider, a professor of French and comparative literature, noted that some of the issues of academic misconduct that were cited when Churchill was dismissed in 2007 had been raised long before the essay, but he said the university “didn’t take the time to look into it.
“This is a very judicious verdict,” Braider said. “The university did, without question, fire him on wrongful grounds. But on the other hand, it is clear that he is not one of our most savory colleagues.”
Kristin Bruner, 19, an ecology and evolutionary-biology student, said she thinks Churchill may deserve a little more money and court costs but that he should not be reinstated. “I think he should move on,” she said.
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
