• Front page
• Receive this content on your RSS reader

Faculty integrity is the cornerstone of every great university. The University of Colorado is no exception.

The quality of our faculty’s work is the foundation for what the university is and what it strives to become.

Faculty teach the students who will become integral parts of the human infrastructure of Colorado and the world. They conduct research that improves our lives and advances knowledge. They inspire the confidence of alumni who hold degrees from CU.

Our faculty members understand their obligation as the keepers of an academic tradition and reputation built over the university’s 131-year history.

Unfortunately, the integrity of our faculty was called into question over the past two-plus years as the case of professor Ward Churchill played out in the press and the university process.

While the academic misconduct of one person should not tarnish the reputation for integrity CU faculty have worked so hard to build and maintain, his case is troubling. Charges of research misconduct led more than 20 faculty members (from CU and other universities) on three separate panels to review his work.

The faculty found a pattern of serious, repeated and deliberate research misconduct that included fabrication, falsification, improper citation and plagiarism.

Faculty reviewers unanimously agreed that the evidence showed professor Churchill engaged in research misconduct and that it required serious sanction.

That sanction was carried out Tuesday when the CU Board of Regents approved my recommendation to dismiss professor Churchill from the Boulder campus faculty.

Ultimately, we had little choice since professor Churchill gave no indication he would correct his misrepresentations or refrain from similar activities in the future.

CU’s success depends upon maintaining our reputation for academic integrity. A public research university such as ours requires public faith that our faculty’s professional activities and search for truth are conducted according to high standards.

Coloradans give us almost $200 million a year, federal taxpayers fund some $640 million in research annually, all to support quality education and research.

Our alumni expect us to maintain the value of their degrees, and students and their families trust that faculty who teach them adhere to the standards of the university and the profession. Failure to maintain academic integrity would cause irreparable harm.

There are some who claim professor Churchill was singled out for his unpopular political views. The university determined early in the investigation that his speech, however controversial, was protected by the First Amendment.

At issue was the quality of his work and the basis on which it rests. Academic freedom — the ability to challenge conventional views or put forth unpopular ideas — is fundamental to any university. But it does not excuse academic fraud and intentional fabrication.

Professor Churchill’s failure to meet his responsibilities and the standards of the profession is an affront to all those faculty members who honor academic integrity and traditions of research and knowledge.

By any measure, we have an outstanding faculty. Among them are Nobel Prize winners, recipients of the MacArthur Foundation “genius” awards, researchers at the forefront of scientific discovery and teachers whose work is guided by those who came before. The common thread is that they take pride in their work and understand their obligation to live up to the high standards of their profession and of CU.

In the end, CU will not be judged by the shoddy work of one faculty member but by the excellence the rest of the faculty demonstrate every day in classrooms and research laboratories.

The reputation for academic integrity and excellence built by generations of CU faculty, students and alumni will remain intact because the university’s Board of Regents acted to protect it.

Hank Brown is president of the University of Colorado.

READER COMMENTS

CU has integrity? Since when? Ward lied from the start, application to the end. Party school, football coach that bashes women, etc. The entire state seems to be going to the dogs.

Integrity was compromised the day CU let that phony, lieing, hypocrite into the door. The ONLY thing that matters on any campus is VERITAS...but CU chose PC, affirmative action and "diversity." A phony Indian was more important than the truth itself.

Tenure needs to be stuffed where the sun doesn't shine. Us taxpayers don't enjoy the protections of tenure, we deserve a refund. And without the taxpayer's small 10% contribution to CU--CU simply doesn't happen, so save the commercial

Like last year and the year before, my check ain't in the mail. CU first needs to take an academic enema in public and
Ward was only the first step. He was allowed to embarrass all of Colorado and CU owes all of Colorado. There are other Churchills in Boulder, and they all need to go.

The check ain't in the mail.

CU is a joke. They have no integrity. their football program has had scandal after scandal. The former president said it was okay for male athetes to call woman,cunts.

The school allows potheads to hold rallies on school grounds. They are always having some alcohol scandal after another.The fraternaties are out of control. There has been some hate messages sent to blacks calling them niggers.

Rape is allowed and covered up by the university.The partying gets out of control and the seem to like to light fires.
The list can go on and on.

This school has " 0" integrity.It is the cesspool of Colorado Universities.

Correct decision made.

Just why does Ward Churchill hide behind sunglasses in a room.

Hmmmm......to cover up lying eyes???

Ward Churchill is welcome to free speech in the public square and in public forum. To teach, though, one must not make unsupported personal point of view statements, let alone plagerize numerous sources.

Opinion is another matter. An opinion is a statement that is supportable by numerous pieces of quality research. To make lots of noise is not academic or teaching. When the man is the message it is shallow.

He is not Native American by heredity. He has no degree in Ethnic Studies. He shows no ethics or morals in his writing. He is part of the white male majority. If he teaches it should be in a Communications Department at a small liberal Liberal Arts college where he can be true to himself and his degree.

Ward Churchill is a "sounding gong or a clanging cymbal." Thank you Pres. Brown and Regents for seeing past the sideshow and not being intimidated. Go away Ward. Without honesty and integrity we don't want you in Colorado.

Jason -- I can't understand your position. Churchill is quite clearly guilty of many, many counts of academic misconduct; do you refuse to believe that? Academics all over the country have been weighing in on these proceedings, and there are terribly few (if any) who defend Churchill's corrupt scholarship. As a University of California professor put it yesterday, "It's important to learn about Native American history, and it's important to learn the facts about Native American history, not just a bunch of b.s. someone made up."

You call the decision "pretextually corrupt," but the fact that Churchill showed himself a moral moron shouldn't operate as a free pass and a shield. That would be a terrible precedent: "If you're a shoddy scholar and a plagarist -- take callous and controversial political stances! Then nobody will be able to touch you!"

Plagarism should always be censored. The saddest part of this whole ordeal, Jason, is that Ward Churchill still has people like you to defend him.

This is the one of the most pretextually corrupt decisions I've ever seen.

Censorship has risen to a new level.

The saddest part of this is that many people will turn a blind eye to the rationale underlying this decision simply because they disagree with Churchill's beliefs.

Hank, you have to admit that Mr. Chuchill was rather unqualied to teach at such a distinguished institution. (maybe not openly) The thoughtful progression of this decision will be derided, but it was necessary. Academic integrity is paramount in education. Thank you for upholding the foundation of Academia. I honestly thought that politics or fear would play in the decision and Mr. Churchill would be retained. He lied about his ethnic heritage and there was fraud in his academic presentation. This is not a man of character in the noble sense. But he is a character. I hope Mr. Churchill sees the error of his ways. However, his integrity will now always be in question. A gifted man who wasted his gift. Pity.

POST A COMMENT

• Will Columbus Day protesters become the very monster they deplore?
• Ready to fight right-to-work
• GUEST COLUMN: Rockies tickets, anyone?
• Energy development imperils habitat
• A Civic Center for Denver
• Preventing a nuclear terrorist attack on the U.S.
• Closures identified: critical next steps for DPS
• Hillary health plan could result in crackdown on illegal immigration