Not too much about Ward Churchill recently, but here's an interesting
newspaper article.   See below.

>>> <[log in to unmask]> 03/25/05 12:26PM >>>

Univ. of Colo. Balks at Firing Professor

By ERIN GARTNER
.c The Associated Press

DENVER (AP) - University of Colorado officials said Thursday the First

Amendment bars them from firing a professor for comparing some Sept. 11
victims to
Nazi bureaucrats, but they launched a probe into allegations that Ward

Churchill committed plagiarism and falsely claimed to be an American
Indian.

Churchill's comments were ``profoundly offensive, abusive and
misguided'' but
are protected free speech under the Constitution, acting Chancellor
Phil
DiStefano said in a report.

However, DiStefano said a faculty committee would examine the other
allegations and could recommend that Churchill, a tenured professor of
ethnic studies
at the Boulder school, be fired or disciplined. That review could take
up to
nine months, he said.

Churchill touched off a national furor with his essay calling some of
the
World Trade Center victims ``Little Eichmanns,'' a reference to Adolf
Eichmann,
who orchestrated the Holocaust.

Churchill said the finding on free speech was a vindication but called
the
other allegations a pretext for an attempt to fire him. He denied
plagiarizing
anyone and insisted he is part American Indian.

The university report said ``there is serious doubt about his Indian
identity.''

The school on Thursday also said it would review its process for
granting
tenure, which generally protects university faculty from discipline for
their
views.

Churchill wrote the essay hours after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He
has
said the essay argues that some of those killed in the World Trade
Center were
not innocent victims because they were participating in what he said is
an
unfair American economic system that provoked the terrorist attacks.

New York Gov. George Pataki and Colorado Gov. Bill Owens have called
for
Churchill's firing.

Owens said Thursday he still believes Churchill should be fired, but
understands the school must review the separate allegations.



03/24/05 22:57 EST