07-26-2007, 02:53 AM
Just like George Gollin, who uses his position at a major university for his own personal agenda, Ward Churchill was fired.
CU regents fire Churchill after Sept. 11 remarks
By DAN ELLIOTT
Associated Press Writer
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July 24, 2007, 9:01 PM EDT
BOULDER, Colo. -- The University of Colorado Board of Regents on Tuesday fired Ward Churchill, the professor whose remarks likening some Sept. 11 victims to Nazi Adolf Eichmann provoked national outrage and led to an investigation of research misconduct.
Churchill vowed to sue after the 8-1 vote was announced, saying: "New game, new game."
CU President Hank Brown said "the decision was really pretty basic" based on the school's findings of plagiarism, falsification and other infractions involving work unrelated to Churchill's remarks on the Sept. 11 victims. Brown said the school had little choice but to fire Churchill to protect the integrity of the university's research.
"The individual did not express regret, did not apologize, did not indicate a willingness to refrain from this type of falsification in the future," Brown said.
"Do you, at an institution that has a fundamental role in basic research for our society, accept the continued presence of someone who shows a pattern of wanting to continue to falsify research?" Brown said.
"I am going nowhere," Churchill told reporters, calling the academic investigation "a farce" and "a fraud."
Churchill's attorney, David Lane, said the decision was retribution for Churchill's 9/11 remarks and said he would file suit on Wednesday.
"For the public at large, the message is there will be a payback for free speech," Lane said. "It sends a message out to the academic community generally that if you stick your neck out and make politically inflammatory comments, you will be dragged through the mud for two years and you will ultimately have your tenure terminated."
The university's allegations against Churchill included misrepresenting the effects of federal laws on American Indians, fabricating evidence that the Army deliberately spread smallpox to Mandan Indians in 1837, and claiming the work of a Canadian environmental group as his own.
But the essay that thrust Churchill into the national spotlight, titled "Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens," was not part of the investigation.
That essay and a follow-up book argued that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were a response to a long history of U.S. abuses. Churchill said those killed in the World Trade Center collapse were "a technocratic corps at the very heart of America's global financial empire" and called them "little Eichmanns."
Churchill wrote the piece shortly after the attacks, but it drew little notice until 2005, when a professor at Hamilton College in upstate New York called attention to it when Churchill was invited to speak there.
In the uproar that followed, the Regents apologized to "all Americans" for the essay and the Colorado Legislature labeled Churchill's remarks "evil and inflammatory."
Bill Owens, then governor of Colorado, said Churchill should be fired, and George Pataki, then governor of New York, called Churchill a "bigoted terrorist supporter."
School officials concluded Churchill couldn't be dismissed because he was exercising his First Amendment rights. But they launched the investigation into his research in other work.
Tuesday's lone "no" vote came from Cindy Carlisle, who Regents Chairwoman Pat Hayes said agreed with the findings but disagreed with the penalty. Carlisle was not immediately available for comment.
While acknowledging Churchill's First Amendment rights, Democratic Rep. Mark Udall declared that Churchill's actions "have gone far beyond giving voice to reprehensible points of views.
"As much as Ward Churchill would like us to believe otherwise, today's dismissal is about his academic conduct. He has been found to have falsified facts and sources and to have outright plagiarized others' work," Udall said in a statement.
A faculty committee and an interim chancellor had recommended Churchill be fired. When a second committee reviewed the case, three of its five members recommended a suspension. The other two said he should be fired.
Churchill remained on the university payroll but has been out of the classroom since the spring of 2006, first because he was on leave and later because the school relieved him of teaching duties after the interim chancellor recommended he be fired.
CU regents fire Churchill after Sept. 11 remarks
By DAN ELLIOTT
Associated Press Writer
Email this story
Printer friendly format
July 24, 2007, 9:01 PM EDT
BOULDER, Colo. -- The University of Colorado Board of Regents on Tuesday fired Ward Churchill, the professor whose remarks likening some Sept. 11 victims to Nazi Adolf Eichmann provoked national outrage and led to an investigation of research misconduct.
Churchill vowed to sue after the 8-1 vote was announced, saying: "New game, new game."
CU President Hank Brown said "the decision was really pretty basic" based on the school's findings of plagiarism, falsification and other infractions involving work unrelated to Churchill's remarks on the Sept. 11 victims. Brown said the school had little choice but to fire Churchill to protect the integrity of the university's research.
"The individual did not express regret, did not apologize, did not indicate a willingness to refrain from this type of falsification in the future," Brown said.
"Do you, at an institution that has a fundamental role in basic research for our society, accept the continued presence of someone who shows a pattern of wanting to continue to falsify research?" Brown said.
"I am going nowhere," Churchill told reporters, calling the academic investigation "a farce" and "a fraud."
Churchill's attorney, David Lane, said the decision was retribution for Churchill's 9/11 remarks and said he would file suit on Wednesday.
"For the public at large, the message is there will be a payback for free speech," Lane said. "It sends a message out to the academic community generally that if you stick your neck out and make politically inflammatory comments, you will be dragged through the mud for two years and you will ultimately have your tenure terminated."
The university's allegations against Churchill included misrepresenting the effects of federal laws on American Indians, fabricating evidence that the Army deliberately spread smallpox to Mandan Indians in 1837, and claiming the work of a Canadian environmental group as his own.
But the essay that thrust Churchill into the national spotlight, titled "Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens," was not part of the investigation.
That essay and a follow-up book argued that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were a response to a long history of U.S. abuses. Churchill said those killed in the World Trade Center collapse were "a technocratic corps at the very heart of America's global financial empire" and called them "little Eichmanns."
Churchill wrote the piece shortly after the attacks, but it drew little notice until 2005, when a professor at Hamilton College in upstate New York called attention to it when Churchill was invited to speak there.
In the uproar that followed, the Regents apologized to "all Americans" for the essay and the Colorado Legislature labeled Churchill's remarks "evil and inflammatory."
Bill Owens, then governor of Colorado, said Churchill should be fired, and George Pataki, then governor of New York, called Churchill a "bigoted terrorist supporter."
School officials concluded Churchill couldn't be dismissed because he was exercising his First Amendment rights. But they launched the investigation into his research in other work.
Tuesday's lone "no" vote came from Cindy Carlisle, who Regents Chairwoman Pat Hayes said agreed with the findings but disagreed with the penalty. Carlisle was not immediately available for comment.
While acknowledging Churchill's First Amendment rights, Democratic Rep. Mark Udall declared that Churchill's actions "have gone far beyond giving voice to reprehensible points of views.
"As much as Ward Churchill would like us to believe otherwise, today's dismissal is about his academic conduct. He has been found to have falsified facts and sources and to have outright plagiarized others' work," Udall said in a statement.
A faculty committee and an interim chancellor had recommended Churchill be fired. When a second committee reviewed the case, three of its five members recommended a suspension. The other two said he should be fired.
Churchill remained on the university payroll but has been out of the classroom since the spring of 2006, first because he was on leave and later because the school relieved him of teaching duties after the interim chancellor recommended he be fired.