WARD CHURCHILL DIMISSED...

[butterfly77]

ARE THE REPUGS HAPPY NOW?

[Purveyor]

1. CU plans to fire Churchill

By Jennifer Brown
Denver Post Staff Writer





University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill takes part in a panel presentation in Oct. 2005. (Post / Helen Richardson)

The interim chancellor of the University of Colorado at Boulder announced today that CU wants to fire ethnic studies professor Ward Churchill.

"Today I issued to Professor Churchill a notice of intent to dismiss him from his faculty position here at the University of Colorado," said Phil DiStefano at a press conference.

Churchill has 10 days to appeal.

"A university is a marketplace of ideas, a place where controversy is no stranger...indeed one of our most cherished principals is academic freedom, the right to pursue and disseminate knowledge without threat of sanction," said DiStefano. "But with freedom comes responsibility."

A university committee that investigates academic misconduct recommended two weeks ago that Churchill be fired for a "pattern of repeated, intentional misrepresentation."

--SNIP--

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_3982474

[Xenotime]

2. This man was dismissed for speaking the truth...

so much for freedom of speech.

[northzax]

4. the man was dismissed for plagiarism

yes, speaking out brought that level of scrutiny to his work, but I guarantee you that the University has all their ducks in a row on this one, they can document and prove the allegations of academic dishonesty, else they would never take this step.

[butterfly77]

17. Mainly, because the Republicons wanted him out...

[northzax]

18. I wanted him out

if the allegations against him are true. and so should you, and everyone else who cares a whit about academic freedom. That's the thing about freedom, when it's abused, you should be punished. Churchhill didn't belong at Colorado, or any other academic university. so he will be gone now. good riddance to plagiarists and dishonest academics (you do know that one of the things he is accused of is citing his own work, under a different name? that's insanely dishonest)

the REpublicans just gave him the rope, he played it out over the rafters himself.

[butterfly77]

42. Like I said ...

mainly because the republicans wanted him out.

[northzax]

43. oooh, that was a good one!

you've called me out right good! that hurts, you've finally unmasked me! 20 years of liberal activism, all waiting in the wings to call out a plagiarist! You are good! Excellent detective work, it's the best scholarship I've seen since Ward Churchill's CV!

[itzamirakul]

39. If you are not "up" on what this man said that caused the current

controversy, there is a discussion between Bill O'reilly and Gov. Owen re dismissing Churchill.

This is followed by Amy Goodman's inteview with Ward Churchill whose remarks are in transcript form

Very, very enlightening.

Also, I can see that they put more academics in charge of investigating this man for his remarks than the government put in charge of investigating 911.

Find the transcript at:


www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/18/157211&mode=thread&tid=25

[northzax]

44. did you read th e report?

that the academics you so deride wrote about it? where it says, quite plainly, that his comments were well within the bounds of free speech, and protected? or did you skip the first paragraph?

[northzax]

3. for cause, no less

plagiarism is an academic sin. If you commit it, you become radioactive and unemployable. And when you choose to make deliberatly imflammatory statements, you should expect your shoddy academic work to be called into question. Churchill was apparently not a credit to the Colovirsity of Unirado.

[Zynx]

14. Plagiarism = academic career over. End of story. Next.

You just don't do it. No sympathy.

[Swamp Rat]

5. Not accurate:

But we will find out very soon:

Chancellor Announces Ward Churchill Research Misconduct Recommendation
June 26, 2006

MEDIA ADVISORY

News Conference on Ward Churchill Research Misconduct Recommendation

University of Colorado at Boulder Interim Chancellor Phil DiStefano will announce his recommendation on findings of research misconduct by Professor Ward Churchill at a 2 p.m. news conference today.

The news conference will be held on the south club level of Folsom Stadium on the CU-Boulder campus. The club level is located on the east side of the stadium.

Following the news conference, DiStefano's statement and an audiotape of the news conference will be posted on the Web at www.colorado.edu/news/reports/churchill/. An online archive of the research misconduct query is posted at www.colorado.edu/news/reports/churchill/.

Parking will be available near the stadium in lots 358 and 359 or at meters along Colorado Avenue.

Folsom Stadium is located northwest of the intersection of Colorado Avenue and Folsom Street in Boulder. To reach Folsom Stadium from Denver, take U.S. 36 northbound until U.S. 36 turns into 28th Street in Boulder. Turn west at the first stoplight on 28th Street, and proceed west on Colorado Avenue to the stadium.

For more information contact the CU-Boulder Office of News Services at [phone].

http://www.colorado.edu/news/releases/2006/219.html

[n2doc]

6. No, they won't be happy

until all the "leftist" university professors are replaced by 1 semester contract-at-a-time lecturers so cowed and frightened by RW pressure that they only spew RW propaganda. There is to be no "safe haven" for independent thought or contrary ideas. This is only one step in the assault. I guarantee that this will put a chill on controversial speech. Note I don't condone what Churchill said but I defend his right to say it.

I am willing to bet that if one looked really, really closely at the writings of University Professors that one would find "plagiarism" in at least 90% of them. All it takes is a sentence or two that are similar in structure to others, or forgetting a footnote.

Maybe they will get Juan Cole next. They managed to keep him from getting a Yale position. Maybe they can get him kicked off of UM's faculty.

[northzax]

7. I too defend his right to say what he did

but I don't defend his right to keep a university job with this many instances of academic dishonesty on his record. it works both ways.

I provide a quote for your review: Tailoring the facts to fit one’s theory constitutes neither good science nor good journalism. Rather, it is intellectually dishonest and, when published for consumption by a mass audience, adds up to propaganda. Churchill was found to have violated this standard at least three times in publications (you can read the whole report by the faculty committee here: http://www.colorado.edu/news/reports/churchill/download/WardChurchillReport.pdf)

anyone want to cite the above quote?

“About that Bering Strait Land Bridge…. Let’s Turn Those Footprints Around,” in Since Predator Came: Notes from the Struggle for American Indian Liberation (Littleton, CO: Aigis Publications, 1995), pp. 265-96, esp. p. 265.

who do you think wrote that?

[roguevalley]

8. If Coulter is despised for plaigerism, then so must his efforts. I don't

like that rw's made this happen but if he plaigerised, he has no sympathy from me.

RV, who sweated a masters through her pores

[northzax]

10. at least Coulter doesn't pretend to be an academic

frankly, I don't know why Colorado hired him in the first place, what sort of system gives tenure to someone with a Masters in a completely unrelated field?

[PeaceProgProsp]

20. Why's he the one professor who loses his job for doing what

countless academics have done at least three times in their publications?

[northzax]

23. well, I suggest

that you investigate some academics, and if you find academic dishonesty on their record, report them to their institution for appropriate action. If you find an equivalent record of academic dishonesty on another professor, and the University of Colorado does not pursue termination against them, then you are free to complain. believe me, academic careers end every year for this type of thing, and you never hear about them, except when it's a high profile person like Churchill (who made himself high profile, by the way) Universities are remarkably consistent in terminating professors who lie and cheat.

[PeaceProgProsp]

26. Sure is chilly here.

People are going to get scared about saying anything at all interesting or challenging.

Aren't there enough mechanisms in academia for weeding out the bad ideas so that we don't have to go around scaring tenured professors from saying or doing anything slightly controversial in order to keep their jobs?

I'm not sure how often this happens, by the way. Can't think of any other examples.

Anyway, I'll be surprised if Churchill loses his jobs over three errors in all his publications.

[moc]

35. Ummm...as a tenured professor, I take offense.

No, I've never plagiarized and I don't know anyone who has. Who are these "countless" of whom you speak?

[northzax]

45. you mean you don't ghostwrite articles

in ultra-grey literature and then cite them as evidence of your viewpoint? really? Why ever not?

[Yollam]

28. I have to agree. Churchill was a pathetic con man.

Even the Indian tribes distanced themselves from him.

[n2doc]

36. ok...then why is Douglas Feith a Georgetown professor?

Why was Phil Graham offered the President's job at Texas A and M? Why was Condi Rice a Provost at Stanford? I could go on...there are many right wing bastards who have committed the exact same sin, yet I don't see a one of them getting kicked out of their jobs. Selective enforcement makes a mockery of the rules.

[northzax]

38. Condi Rice committed plagiarism?

before and during her academic career? really? prove it.

[cali]

13. Alarmist nonsense.

And your claim that 90% of academics plagiarize is absurd. Churchill brought this on himself. He had every right to make his idiotic statements. He doesn't have the right to plagiarize and produce shoddy scholarship.

[northzax]

15. not quite true

he doesn't have the right to plagiarize, he certainly does have the right to produce shoddy scholarship, but the University has an obligation to the taxpayers, other staff and academia in general to not support shoddy scholarship in their name.

[PeaceProgProsp]

22. Why aren't conservative professors having their work gone

over with a fine-toothed comb and then getting fired for only three instances of doing anything considered not good scholarship?

[northzax]

24. why aren't you doing just that?

it was actually 5 cases, including two cases of deliberate mistatements concerning documents, two cases of plagiarism and one case of citing his own ghost written work without attribution. And he frankly, doesn't have much of an academic record to support himself, he publishes in fringe journals that aren't peer reviewed, fringe presses that may, or may not be, peer reviewed. I can't figure out how he got tenure in the first place.

so find a professor that you don't like and review their publications, find the cases in which they violated professional ethics, school rules or other issues. Or were you expecting someone else to do that work for you?

[PeaceProgProsp]

27. The quality of the journals is probably a reflection of his field.

Unfortunately, there probably aren't many peer-reviewed journals in his field.

And the last thing I'm going to do is engage in an academic witch-hunt like this.

You don't have to threaten people with losing their jobs because you don't like their ideas.

[n2doc]

37. Somehow, with all of these failings he got Tenure

(edit) Didn't see the posts below. Sounds like CU cut a few corners in this case. I still say if he had written what mann coulter had written about 9/11 he would still have a job for as long as he wanted it.

[seriousstan]

9. Good, the man is a liar and a cheat and deserves no less.

[Skink]

11. Sign him up for Air America

[Xenotime]

12. agreed.

[Yollam]

29. Personally, I'd rather have someone entertaining who will get ratings...

...without plagiarizing others and lying about his own heritage.

If you want loons like Churchill, Andrea Dworkin, Mumia, etc. there is a radio network for you. it's called Pacifica. www.pacifica.org


AAR is trying to be somewhat mainstream.

[Swamp Rat]

16. Ward Churchill was NOT dismissed.

He was given 10 days to respond to the committee findings. I just listened to the press conference (read transcript at the link below).

(snip)

"Now, let me briefly explain the process as we go forward. Professor Churchill may request within 10 days to have President Brown or me forward this recommendation to the Faculty Senate Committee on Privilege and Tenure. If Professor Churchill does so, a special panel will then conduct hearings about this matter and make a recommendation to the president about whether the grounds for dismissal are supported. The handout you received outlines more detail about this process."

http://www.colorado.edu/news/reports/churchill/distefano062606.html

[northzax]

19. well no,

but his boss basically fired him, and he can appeal it.

Today, I issued to Professor Churchill a notice of intent to dismiss him from his faculty position at the University of Colorado, Boulder. My issuance of this notice now triggers a process that is governed by Regents Law, Article 5.C.1 and 2 and Regents Policy 5-I.

[Swamp Rat]

21. "a notice of intent to dismiss him" is not 'fired', as in past tense,

like many posts in this thread implies.

Perhaps he WILL be fired, and it looks likely, but I am just looking for accuracy in reporting... specifically the OP.

:hi:

[northzax]

25. yes, good point nt

[blitzen]

30. If his research is "suspect," how did he get tenure in the first place?

This makes the U. of Colorado appear really lame--they're supposed to check and double-check that stuff before granting tenure. Unfortunately a lot of tenure committees never actually read the research--they just look at the number of publications on the CV.

[northzax]

31. agreed

this whole thing reflects really poorly on Colorado, I'd be interested to know how you can get tenure at Colorado with a Masters in another field, and only publishing in the greyest of grey literature. I wager the answer is an overblown sense of political corectness in the first place.

[ProfessorGAC]

33. And They Don't Always Crosscheck the CV

They hand that stuff off to some student researcher. If those people make a mistake, there is no direct crosscheck by members of the committee. They rely completely on the student who's being paid $5.65 an hour.
The Professor

[moc]

34. Check out the report linked in reply #7 above...(m)

It's the report of the faculty committee who investigated Professor Churchill.

Apparently, Churchill doesn't have a doctorate and no faculty experience but was pushed to be hired as full professor with tenure because of his notoriety. Reading between the lines (I'm faculty at another university), it sounds like the committee is saying the big wigs at the university who pushed for his hire in the first place got what they deserved.

The tenure process at a university exists for a very specific reason. It is extremely unusual for a university to hire a professor with tenure without at least a several year probationary period, even if that professor is coming from another university where s/he was already granted tenure. For them to grant tenure to an incoming faculty with NO doctorate and NO prior faculty experience is ludicrous. They got what they deserved, and I bet there is more than one faculty member at that university saying "I told you so."

[bluestateguy]

32. He never should have been made a full professor

CU should investigate itself. How did the university allow someone like this to rise through the academic ranks to become a department head and full professor with tenure.? No Ph.D., few peer reviewed publications, and books mostly published by vanity presses, rather than university presses or reputable commercial publishers.

His offensive remarks after 9/11 are not relevant and should not enter into any consideration of his employment, and it seems that they did not.

All academics make mistakes, and that's fine. Churchill has demonstrated a long pattern of complete disregard for the profession: copyright infringement, dishonesty about his background, sloppy citation and attribution in his publications, plagiarism and disrespect of his interview subjects. So I agree with CU's decision, though Churchill MUST have the rights of due process afforded to him. Then CU should investigate how on earth someone like this could become a full professor. He never should have made it past Adjunct Professor.

[Crabby Appleton]

41. I agree

completely

[ComerPerro]

40. Don't care either way