[News] Ward Churchill Vows to Fight Dismissal
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Wed Jul 25 15:43:17 EDT 2007
Colo. Professor Vows to Fight Dismissal
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6803898,00.html
Wednesday July 25, 2007 11:31 AM
By DAN ELLIOTT
Associated Press Writer
BOULDER, Colo. (AP) - A professor scorned for remarks about Sept. 11
victims vowed that his firing over allegations of plagiarism,
falsification and other misconduct wouldn't end his 2-year dispute
with the University of Colorado.
``New game, new game,'' said a defiant Ward Churchill, referring to
his intent to sue the university after the state Board of Regents
voted 8-1 Tuesday to remove him as ethnic studies chairman.
Three faculty committees had accused Churchill of plagiarism,
falsification and other misconduct in portions of his research. The
allegations were unrelated to an essay he wrote that likened some
victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks to a Nazi leader.
David Lane, Churchill's attorney, said his client's dismissal simply
marks a change in venue for the dispute.
``We're out of kangaroo court and going into real court,'' he said.
Lane plans to file a lawsuit in Denver Wednesday alleging Churchill's
First Amendment rights were violated. He says Churchill was targeted
because of his views.
University President Hank Brown said the school had little choice but
to fire Churchill to protect the integrity of the university's research.
``I think from all the discussion I've heard, the focus on this
question solely related to his research and the efforts to falsify
research, and specifically, both the charges and the discussion did
not relate to 9/11,'' Hank said.
Churchill had vowed to file a lawsuit if he was fired, a threat Brown
said had no bearing on the decision.
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.
The essay that gained Churchill widespread scorn, ``Some People Push
Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens,'' was not part of the
investigation.
The essay and a follow-up book argued that the 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.'' He
called them ``little Eichmanns,'' referring to Nazi war criminal
Adolf Eichmann.
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.
The Regents subsequently 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.
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 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. The school relieved him of
teaching duties after the interim chancellor recommended he be fired.
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