[lbo-talk] Ward Churchill is Neocon Test Case for Academic Purges

Leigh Meyers leighcmeyers at gmail.com
Sun Feb 27 14:33:32 PST 2005


Imaginary Headline: Churchill Probe: Colleagues Not Amused - Use the 'M' Word

McCarthy.

[Hint to The Denver Post.... Get some backbone.] [Hint to Gov. Bill Owens : You should have tried purging him this summer, when school is out.]

Lookit *all* the disclaimers from The Denver Post:

"Click here to read Ward Churchill's essay, "Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens," as posted by a third-party political website. (The Denver Post does not endorse the website or views it expresses; the link is provided only as a reader service.)"

<...> CU's Arts & Sciences Council passed a resolution Feb. 10 protesting the investigation, and said administrators should know that faculty members are serious about their opposition to what some consider a witch hunt.

Margaret LeCompte, an education professor, said, "It is going to be extremely difficult, if academic freedom is on the block, for us to hire and keep good faculty members." LeCompte and the other teachers who signed the ad paid $1,600 to have it published.

"We're all thinking twice about what we're saying," LeCompte said, recalling the climate in the McCarthy era when professors were fired for alleged communist ties.

The Denver Post Faculty fight Churchill probe By The Associated Press http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~2734930,00.html Sunday, February 27, 2005 -

Boulder - A full-page ad taken out by 200 University of Colorado faculty members calls for the school to drop an inquiry into the writings of professor Ward Churchill.]

Gov. Bill Owens and others have called for the firing of Churchill, a tenured professor, because of his comparison of Sept. 11 victims to Nazis.

The faculty members paid for the ad to run Monday in the Boulder Daily Camera.

It says the review of the ethnic studies professor, expected to be completed by the middle of March, should be stopped immediately.

The ad says the inquiry is the result of political pressure and not based on "any prior formal complaint of specific professional or academic misconduct on his part." The 200 faculty members' statement defends Churchill's "right to speak what he believes to be the truth" based on academic freedom rules designed to prevent faculty members from being fired for unpopular views. <...>

Essay & statements (available on site) http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~2734930,00.html

Click here to read Ward Churchill's essay, "Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens," as posted by a third-party political website. (The Denver Post does not endorse the website or views it expresses; the link is provided only as a reader service.) Click here to read Churchill's Feb. 1 statement on the controversy. Click here to read the University of Colorado Board of Regents' Feb. 3 resolution on the controversy. Click here to read the Colorado House of Representatives' Feb. 2 resolution condemning Churchill. Click here to read Gov. Bill Owens' letter on Churchill. Click here for Churchill's academic webpage on the CU Department of Ethnic Studies website. [---]

L http://www.geocities.com/leighcmeyers http://www.furl.net/members/leigh_m http://www.furl.net/members/leigh_m/rss.xml



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