Fake Indian, Ward Churchill, fired.

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Churchill fired; next shot in court

Prof loses battle with CU but says war far from over

By Berny Morson, Rocky Mountain News

July 25, 2007

BOULDER - The first, very long chapter of the Ward Churchill saga ended Tuesday afternoon as just about everybody - including Churchill - had predicted: He was fired from his job as ethnic studies professor at the University of Colorado.

The next chapter is set to begin today, when the controversial academic and his civil rights attorney, David Lane, sue the university in Denver District Court.

Churchill warned that his dismissal is the beginning of a wider attack on scholars with unpopular political views.

"If you think I'm the endgame, you're wrong," Churchill told supporters. "This is the kickoff."

He raised his fist and smiled defiantly when the school's Board of Regents voted 8-1 in public, following three hours of private discussions, to fire him.

The ruling was greeted with boos and the beating of drums by about 100 supporters - including American Indian Movement leader Russell Means - standing in the back of the meeting room.

But no violence erupted, a contingency for which police were clearly prepared. Some 40 officers from three agencies were standing by after a death threat was e-mailed to the regents three weeks ago.

Churchill, 59, said he would remain visible at CU while waging his court fight.

"I am going nowhere," he said. "It's not about breaking. It's not about bending. It's not about compromising. When you negotiate your rights, you haven't got any."

CU President Hank Brown had earlier recommended the dismissal. In the end, there really wasn't much choice, Brown said.

Churchill "falsified history and fabricated history."

Furthermore, Churchill "did not express regret, apologize or agree to refrain from this behavior in the future," Brown said.

'Very persuasive'

Some 25 faculty members on three committees had looked at the evidence against Churchill and found truth in the allegations that he violated academic conduct standards, said Pat Hayes, regents chairwoman.

"That's very persuasive," she said.

Churchill accused officials of orchestrating an "illusion of scholarly research" to justify his firing.

"That's a farce, but more than that, it's a fraud."

Regent Cindy Carlisle, who cast the dissenting vote, said she thought firing was too tough a penalty. She agreed with the Privilege and Tenure Committee's 3-2 vote in May to suspend Churchill for a year without pay.

The controversy was launched in January 2005 with word of a Churchill essay in which he called victims of the 9/11 terror attacks "little Eichmanns," comparing them to Nazi bureaucrat Adolf Eichmann. He had written the essay shortly after the 2001 attacks.

CU officials ruled that Churchill's essay was protected by the U.S. Constitution.

But the spotlight on Churchill revealed numerous complaints of academic misconduct that had been raised by other academics, but never addressed by CU. He was accused of plagiarism, inventing historical incidents and ghostwriting essays which he then cited in his footnotes in support of his own views.

Those allegations were the ones that brought dismissal Tuesday.

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