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Thank you to Hank Brown and the regents for finally putting an end to the disgraceful tenure of Ward Churchill at the University of Colorado (“Churchill fired; next shot in court,” July 25).
While recognizing that academic freedom is essential to quality higher education, it’s important to remember that this freedom is predicated upon a fundamental integrity and respect for humanity.
This man betrayed the trust CU placed in him, and his Pall Mall-infused tirades only undermined the reputation of a quality institution of higher education.

Jim Truitt, University of Colorado, Class of 2006

READER COMMENTS

Jim:
I agree with you 100%. Enough said.
Class of 1981

In the 1990's the compaints about Churchill for these offenses were dismissed by University authorities. Today the University authorities claim these same offenses are deadly, irredeemable flaws. CU fired Churchill for his essay. EVERYONE knows that, even a fifth grader. Writer Jim says that it was his "Pall-Mall infused tirades" that was the forgiveable sin. The University's conduct shows NO integrity whatsoever.

once a liar always a liar. he got the job on a lie and now was fired for being a liar.
but there will be a big line of true liberals out there saying he has the right to lie as it is all he knows. sorry dave you are one of them, wanting to protect his when he isnt worth the breath to protect.
and yes he has freedom of speech in his private life but at his job there are limits,i guess one does become exempt to these limits if you are a tenured liberal teacher who jumps on a bandwagon and leads the bashing and name calling.

Just think of all the students he cheated out of an education by lieing, how he has left the University tarnished. If I were to hire some of his former students I would have to question whether or not thier educatin was qualifed or not now.

The astonishing thing is how long it took to fire him. In the real world, he would have been fired for making a false claim on his application, and that would have been that. How much time does it take for a university to come to the same conclusion? The current process is pure farce, and desperately needs to be overhauled. There is also concern about CU's hiring practices. Did no one check him out? At all? He was a charlatan from the word go. There is clearly a need for independent oversight on CU's hiring. And finally, there is a desperate need for overisght on faculty indoctrination of students. That must stop.
Class of 1961

but... but... if we fire Churchill for being a total tool, who will indoctrinate our children in revised history? Who will write the lies and made up facts so well known from Churchill?

Who will pick up the torch of misleading indoctrination at CU? Oh, yeah, all the other leftists.

Now comes the real work. Can CU truely become diversified? True diversity is in thought and opinion not of ethic backgrounds. College used to be rich in diverse thought and debate. Free speech (and thought) is being suppressed in college, by people like Ward Churchill.

Ward Churchill's new indian name:

SITTING BULLS**T

how can I get a teaching job at CU? I can tell lies just like churchill, I can copy pictures and sell them as my originals, just like churchill, and then when I get fired I can sit back and spend my unearned one year salary, just like churchill.....

Nice work...if you can get it.

Churchill now earns more than $96,000 per year, whle employed. Does any professor earn that much of taxpayer money or is he just paid that much and in retirement continues to receive it? Ward will now become a ward of the state at $ 78,000 because he is a few years short of full benefits.

Deicide Corner: “If we must play the theological game, let us never forget that it is a game. Religion, it seems to me, can survive only as a consciously accepted system of make-believe.
You never see animals going through the absurd and often horrible fooleries of magic and religion. . . . Asses do not bray a liturgy to cloudless skies. Nor do cats attempt, by abstinence from cat's meat, to wheedle the feline spirits into benevolence. Only man behaves with such gratuitous folly. It is the price he has to pay for being intelligent but not, as yet, quite intelligent enough.” -- Aldous Huxley

Tom is right on the money about TRUE diversity in thought the people who talk so much about diverity are lividley intolerant of anybody who dares to disagree

Wow, Richard, what in the world is your point? and what in the world does it have to do with WC? So what that cats dont have a deity that you know of, and Coyotes howl at a full moon, or when they are happy or for any number of reasons... so what?

Asses cannot make and drive cars. Cats are not capable of hgiher thought.. and here is the biggie.... animals do not know they are going to die.

Man does and has developed religion to work out his emotions that he is going to die. So what? if you are anti religion, go for it. If someone wants to worship something, they have the right as well. But thank you for an incoherent jab at religion when the topic at hand had nothing to do with religion.

As to WC getting his pension. If his contract was written in a business model, he would receive squat. Unfortunatly, universities are not run as businesses, but as large money sinks with no accountability.

The only question to ask "is Ward Churchill part of the coward wing of the Democrat party or the US hating wing? I think the US hating wing is where he belongs.

It may be that Churchill was focused on because of the 'little Eichmen's' essay. But the facts indicate that; a. he lied on his application, b. he falsified sources, and c. he plagerized. Any and all of these would bring about the immediate expulsion of a student from his class. Why should his students be held to a higher standard than their teacher. No one should be allowed to conduct themselves in the manner that Churchill did without facing the piper to pay for his actions. In the end no matter what started this case, he was fired for reasons above and beyond his 'first amendment' right of free speech.

Gotta love the way RMN played their conservative audience on this, if just to divert attention from Repubs political downfall and their mounting legal troubles. With all the froth & venom on this page, you'd think WC had started an unwinnable war and abandoned the vets who fought it.

It was justice at last. If it had been a student who had been caught plagarizing and misusing data they would have been expelled immediately. Yes, his comments may have spurred the investigation, yet it was his acedimic misconduct that did him in. LESSON TO LEARN: You have freedom of speach, but it dosn't protect you from being investigated, and when misconduct occurs you will be fired.

Ward Churchill would not be the first person in academia to commit plagiarism. Assuming the allegations of plagiarism are true, there is still a political element--if he hadn't written what he did, he probably would have just gotten a slap on the wrist, as opposed to getting fired.

Good one HikingArtist
"Gotta love the way RMN played their conservative audience on this, if just to divert attention from Repubs political downfall and their mounting legal troubles. With all the froth & venom on this page, you'd think WC had started an unwinnable war and abandoned the vets who fought it.

Posted by hikingartist on July 26, 2007 03:33 PM

The only one better that I have heard better is where Janet Jackson showed some nipplage to divert from Bush troubles.

An old "definition": If you steal from one, it's plagiarism. If you steal from several - or many - it's scholarship.

It would appear that "scholarship" is the heinous offense with which Churchill is charged; and it is "scholarship" for which Cowlorado U has now firer him.

Could it be that it is because he didn't use the "right" (wingnut) sources for his "scholarship"?

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