It looks like Ward Churchill is being fired, very slowly, by Colorado U. From the Denver Post:
Churchill's half-baked opinions gave him national notoriety and sent local politicians into fits. But it was academic misconduct, not unpopular speech, that did him in at CU. It's important to note, as DiStefano did Monday, that Churchill is not being dismissed for his contempt for the Sept. 11 victims, whom he compared to little Eichmanns.
CU officials understood from the beginning that Churchill should not be punished for challenging public opinion, no matter how tempting it may have been.
"Faculty members from this institution and others across the country enjoy the freedom of expression that is the foundation of what they do in their scholarly pursuits," DiStefano said. "A university is a marketplace of ideas - a place where controversy is no stranger and opinionated discourse is applauded." Significantly he noted that the right to academic freedom was not in question in Churchill's case.
Earlier this month, a majority of CU's research misconduct committee called for Churchill's dismissal, agreeing with an investigatory group that concluded the ethnic studies professor intentionally falsified research, plagiarized and ghost-wrote articles that he used as references to prop up his own shoddy research. The review panels wisely separated unpopular speech, a protected right, from academic malfeasance, which isn't protected.
And that is exactly what ought to happen. One wonders when the Daschlistas over at CCK will catch up with the Denver Post.
Recent Comments