The mills of
The president of the University of Colorado has recommended that a professor who likened some Sept. 11 victims to a Nazi should be fired, according to the professor and the school.
Ward Churchill, a tenured professor of ethnic studies, has denied the allegations and threatened a lawsuit if he is dismissed.
CU President Hank Brown made the recommendation in a 10-page letter sent to the chair of the committee that handles tenure issues. University spokeswoman Michele McKinney confirmed published reports about the recommendation Monday but said the school would not make the letter public.
The university’s governing Board of Regents would have the final say on whether Churchill is fired or disciplined. It could be several weeks before the case ends up in its hands; the tenure panel must review it first.
Churchill touched off a firestorm with an essay likening some victims in the World Trade Center to Adolf Eichmann, who helped carry out the Holocaust.
Well, naturally he’s going to sue. What else would he do? He doesn’t loathe America enough not to take advantage of its lawyers.
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Remember: Prof. Churchill isn’t being fired for his obnoxious and disgraceful words — the university asserts his fundamental First Amendment rights to utter such egregious things and still retain his employment at state expense. No, Ward Churchill is being fired because he engaged in a little bit of plagiarism and fraud over the course of his distinguished career.
Strangely enough, DePaul University was not so lenient towards Thomas E. Klocek. As you may remember, he was fired for a single utterance. But Prof. Klocek had the temerity to disrespect the Palestinians. That was enough to cast him into the outer darkness. There are limits to the protections extended by the First Amendment to tenured professors, you know.
Ward Churchill had one thing to say which invited my complete agreement:
“I’ve got more faith in almost anything (than in the university process),” he said. “A random group of homeless people under a bridge would be far more intellectually sound and principled than anything I’ve encountered at the university so far.”
Amen, brother!
It’s your petard, sir, and I believe that you are hoist.
8 comments:
I'll wait and see what actually happens. I learned a long time ago, courtesy of my alma mater, that the president of a university doesn't have all that much influence.
I suspect the committee in question is comprised largely of academics. If so, they're more likely to be sympathetic to this idiot.
And when it comes down to it, I'd like to believe that a lawsuit would go nowhere, but I've seen too much evidence to the contrary.
So while I *hope* he gets booted, and I can't rationally see any way out of it, I'm not gonna count my chickens here.
And then I'll wait to see which university, less principled even than the University of Colorado, throws themselves at his feet, to grant him a new pulpit.
While the "little Eichmanns" comment sounded outrageous and inexplicable to the wider audience, it was merely cultural marxist orthodoxy in line with doctrine derived from the "Authoritarian Personality" (wherein almost any businessman or traditional authority figure is "proved" to be an embryonic potential nazi in waiting).
Churchill made the mistake of uttering the comment in the hearing of the unenlightened. Most of the cultural marxist in-crowd almost certainly agree with Churchill's comment, but are still aware enough to keep it in house.
It should not be assumed that quiet in-crowd is a tiny band of renegade academics, but rather large. Subjectively*, I would guesstimate a large subsection of the Kos Kidz and like minded fellow travellers.
* = by this I mean from experience casually lurking and trolling leftist websites. I recommend doing this, for it is an eye opener and make no mistake, it rapidly becomes apparent that Ward Churchill is not an isolated loon.
We are foolish to think the presence of extremely odd characters and ideologies at universities are unfortunate mistakes. They are no such thing. The vetting process, through which classical liberals are denied entrance to university orthodoxy, have examined each applicant extemely carefully. We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are. They are showing us what they are.
An individual is not fired for being what he was hired to be, but only if that happens to embarrass the university. Even that takes an eternity.
I'd like to believe that a lawsuit would go nowhere, but I've seen too much evidence to the contrary.
Oh, he'd sue them in the People's Republic of Boulder, and as they say, that would be that. Not only would he get reinstated, he'd probably get paid for back wages and get a promotion!
Ward Churchill is a symptom and not the problem. Nothing will be done to change the culture of the university that hired him and promoted him all those years (as I wrote on an academic blog). WC's only sin was to say outright what others merely insinuate. He committed a faux pas -- he was honest.
I don't believe Prof. Klocek had tenure.
Clark --
You're right; he was on contract. My mistake.
But, given the current ideological climate in our universities, I'm not sure that tenure would have protected him overmuch.
"He doesn’t loathe America enough not to take advantage of its lawyers."
The parasite often devours its host while enjoying the amenities provided by said host.
Parasites like churchhill are cultivated in very expensive petri dishes, consume vast quantities of resources and emit enormous amounts of putrid waste.
Locate the petri dish, disinfect the environment and control the infestation, but that can be quite difficult in an ivory tower - which are locked up by money.
The key is in our pocket. Dare we use it?
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