Way to Go, CU
My alma mater is at it again.
And as many work woes as I've got at the moment, Ward Churchill has more. And today I'm ashamed to be University of Colorado grad .
My view isn't popular. I get that. But hear me out. Ward Churchill was (until yesterday) a tenured faculty member in CU-Boulder's Ethnic Studies department (my degree is from the venerable Denver campus--thankfully, we're the ones without a football team.) I can't track down the exact date/year Ward was given tenure, which is unfortunate because it's relevant to my position. I believe it was in the 1980s. I know that when I was in school in the mid-80s, Ward was a guest lecturer in my PoliSci classes more than once, and that would have been as early as 1985.
Anyway.
The firing of Ward Churchill is shameful. I do not, for one minute, doubt the validity of some of the charges of academic misconduct--Ward never struck me as a scholar. But that, right now, is not the point. The point is this: a colorful and controversial professor that CU willingly granted tenure to said things that made the Regents (and all those donors to the football team) uneasy. And they didn't like that.
This all started with an essay Ward wrote in 2001. He made some unpleasant statements. It's his right to do so. And if we don't allow our own professors (that were granted tenure...) the right to express themselves, who does have that right? If you can't have clear and open freedom of communication on a college campus, is there anywhere left you can have it? As one CU professor put it yesterday, "If you are controversial, even if you have a distinguished career that is respected, if you have somehow annoyed the powers that be, or if the kind of work you're doing is not supportive of major donors to the university, then you're notsafe," said Margaret LeCompte, a professor in the School of Education. (Quote taken from The Denver Post.)
In about 2003, the 2001 essay surfaced and the witch hunt was on. At first, it was definitely about the content of his essay and very clearly a free speech issue. The barking heads on the right had red meat and they went crazy. Then something shifted and allegations of academic misconduct surfaced. Remember the witch scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail? Yeah, that's what it looked like from the outside.
So, after a long and drawn out process, Professor Churchill was fired yesterday in a vote of 8-1 by the esteemed Regents. He wasn't surprised; I wasn't surprised. I don't think anyone was. It took the Regents two minutes to reach this decision. And it's a chilling decision.
The University of Colorado at Boulder granted Ward Churchill tenure. Tenured professors shouldn't be fired at the drop of a hat, and especially not over unsavory comments. If CU's tenure procedure isn't stringent enough, careful enough, that is a failing of the system--not a single professor. They need to fix their broken system. How many other tenured professors are out there with questionable academic credentials? I'll bet you five dollars he's not the only one, and CU isn't the only university facing the issue--alas, no one is talking about that.
Surely, someone on the tenure committee read his writings and investigated his CV? Right? Was he a star academic before this? Somehow I doubt that. Ward has always been a star rabble-rouser (his longtime friend Russell Means was with him at CU yesterday)--somehow I doubt his early years were spent in the library pouring over legal and scholarly texts.
So, shame on you CU. Fix your problems from the inside. Don't put bandaids on your many problems and then try to show the taxpayers what a great job you're doing. You are chilling free speech and setting a dangerous precedent about what it means to be tenured at your (or any, really) university. Today, Ward is filing suit in Denver District Court seeking legal fees and re-instatement. Go get 'em, Ward.
(And funny, in looking for something else about this story, I noticed that the majority of headlines that come up on Google News are of the "Colorado prof fired after 9-11 remarks" ilk. So, which is it? Academic misconduct or 9/11 comments? The taxpayers want to know.)
And as many work woes as I've got at the moment, Ward Churchill has more. And today I'm ashamed to be University of Colorado grad .
My view isn't popular. I get that. But hear me out. Ward Churchill was (until yesterday) a tenured faculty member in CU-Boulder's Ethnic Studies department (my degree is from the venerable Denver campus--thankfully, we're the ones without a football team.) I can't track down the exact date/year Ward was given tenure, which is unfortunate because it's relevant to my position. I believe it was in the 1980s. I know that when I was in school in the mid-80s, Ward was a guest lecturer in my PoliSci classes more than once, and that would have been as early as 1985.
Anyway.
The firing of Ward Churchill is shameful. I do not, for one minute, doubt the validity of some of the charges of academic misconduct--Ward never struck me as a scholar. But that, right now, is not the point. The point is this: a colorful and controversial professor that CU willingly granted tenure to said things that made the Regents (and all those donors to the football team) uneasy. And they didn't like that.
This all started with an essay Ward wrote in 2001. He made some unpleasant statements. It's his right to do so. And if we don't allow our own professors (that were granted tenure...) the right to express themselves, who does have that right? If you can't have clear and open freedom of communication on a college campus, is there anywhere left you can have it? As one CU professor put it yesterday, "If you are controversial, even if you have a distinguished career that is respected, if you have somehow annoyed the powers that be, or if the kind of work you're doing is not supportive of major donors to the university, then you're notsafe," said Margaret LeCompte, a professor in the School of Education. (Quote taken from The Denver Post.)
In about 2003, the 2001 essay surfaced and the witch hunt was on. At first, it was definitely about the content of his essay and very clearly a free speech issue. The barking heads on the right had red meat and they went crazy. Then something shifted and allegations of academic misconduct surfaced. Remember the witch scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail? Yeah, that's what it looked like from the outside.
So, after a long and drawn out process, Professor Churchill was fired yesterday in a vote of 8-1 by the esteemed Regents. He wasn't surprised; I wasn't surprised. I don't think anyone was. It took the Regents two minutes to reach this decision. And it's a chilling decision.
The University of Colorado at Boulder granted Ward Churchill tenure. Tenured professors shouldn't be fired at the drop of a hat, and especially not over unsavory comments. If CU's tenure procedure isn't stringent enough, careful enough, that is a failing of the system--not a single professor. They need to fix their broken system. How many other tenured professors are out there with questionable academic credentials? I'll bet you five dollars he's not the only one, and CU isn't the only university facing the issue--alas, no one is talking about that.
Surely, someone on the tenure committee read his writings and investigated his CV? Right? Was he a star academic before this? Somehow I doubt that. Ward has always been a star rabble-rouser (his longtime friend Russell Means was with him at CU yesterday)--somehow I doubt his early years were spent in the library pouring over legal and scholarly texts.
So, shame on you CU. Fix your problems from the inside. Don't put bandaids on your many problems and then try to show the taxpayers what a great job you're doing. You are chilling free speech and setting a dangerous precedent about what it means to be tenured at your (or any, really) university. Today, Ward is filing suit in Denver District Court seeking legal fees and re-instatement. Go get 'em, Ward.
(And funny, in looking for something else about this story, I noticed that the majority of headlines that come up on Google News are of the "Colorado prof fired after 9-11 remarks" ilk. So, which is it? Academic misconduct or 9/11 comments? The taxpayers want to know.)
posted by Kay at
3:35 AM
4 Comments:
I agree with you in principle but I just can't root for this man. And I use the term "man" loosely.
Here's a Q.
I seem to remember that CU has been trying to boot the guy since the early 90's. Could it be if they had spent more money on the faculty and search for quality members instead of football, good Ol' CU wouldn't be in this mess?
Becca, I hear you. My position is less about him and more about the principle.
CU has been a mess for years. How or why he ever got tenure is beyond me. And don't get me started about their football program....
Oh, and I don't recall early efforts to get rid of him. He's long been a thorn in the side, but it's only just in the last few years that he's really been in the spotlight.
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