CHURCHILL FIRED

BOULDER - The University of Colorado on Tuesday fired professor Ward Churchill, whose statements comparing victims of the Sept. 11 attacks to Nazis triggered a debate over free speech and scholarship.

CU regents insisted their decision was unrelated to Churchill’s 2001 essay that called workers in the World Trade Center “little Eichmanns,” a reference to Nazi Adolf Eichmann, who was in charge of sending Jews to death camps.

The regents said they were acting because a faculty committee found Churchill, 59, a tenured professor of ethnic studies at CU-Boulder, committed plagiarism and fraudulent research in other writings.

“I’m not sure we had much of a choice,” said CU President Hank Brown, whose recommendation to dismiss Churchill was upheld by the regents. “The integrity of our research is an integral part of our university.”

Churchill and his backers said that the move was motivated by a dislike for the leftist professor’s views, and that it would keep other professors from discussing unpopular subjects.

“This is a political firing with academic camouflage,” said Tom Mayer, a sociology professor at the university.

Churchill’s attorney, David Lane, said he planned to file a lawsuit in Denver court today challenging the dismissal as a violation of the First Amendment.

The message of the university’s action, he said, “is there will be a payback for free speech.”

The controversy began in 2005, when Churchill was slated to speak at Hamilton College in New York. Critics seized on a little-read essay he wrote after the Sept. 11 attacks, titled “Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens.”

In it, he argued workers in the World Trade Center were “a technocratic corps at the very heart of America’s global financial empire” and compared them to the Nazi leader who carried out superiors’ orders for genocide.

Churchill was roundly attacked on the Internet and television, and his speaking engagement canceled.

The CU regents apologized for the essay, and the then-governor of Colorado, Bill Owens, called for Churchill to be fired.

He was not, but he did step down as chairman of the university’s ethnic studies department.

The school launched an investigation into allegations that Churchill’s writings on genocide of American Indians involved research fraud.

Last year, a panel found several problems in Churchill’s writings, and its findings were accepted by two other faculty panels. Last month, Brown recommended Churchill’s dismissal.

After all-day, closed-door deliberations Tuesday, the regents voted 8-1 to accept Brown’s recommendation that Churchill be dismissed. In their motion, they stressed they supported academic freedom.

At a news conference afterward, Churchill blasted the findings against him as fraudulent and said he is going to stay in Boulder and fight to regain his position.

“I am going nowhere,” he said. “I’ll be here.”

CHURCHILL-CU TIMELINE

2001

Sept. 11: University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill writes an essay relating the terrorist attacks to U.S. abuses abroad. It refers to some World Trade Center victims as “little Eichmanns,” a reference to Adolf Eichmann, who carried out Adolf Hitler’s plan to exterminate Jews during World War II.

2005

Jan. 27: In response to complaints that Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., has invited Churchill to appear on a panel, CU officials disagree with the 2001 essay but say he has a right to express his views.

Jan. 31: Churchill resigns as chairman of the ethnic studies department, remains a tenured professor.

Feb. 1: Hamilton College cancels Churchill appearance.

Feb. 3: CU administrators say they will review Churchill’s speeches and writings to determine if he overstepped and if that is grounds for dismissal.

March 24: Acting CU Chancellor Phil DiStefano says a study concluded that the essay is protected by the Constitution, but allegations that he committed plagiarism and misrepresented himself as an American Indian will be investigated.

Aug. 19: CU drops its investigation into his heritage.

Sept. 9: The CU faculty committee recommends a full investigation into allegations of research misconduct involving Churchill.

2006

May 16: A five-member CU investigative committee finds serious cases of misconduct in Churchill’s academic research.

June 13: The full research misconduct committee recommends firing Churchill.

June 26: DiStefano notifies Churchill he plans to fire him. Churchill has 10 days to seek a faculty panel review.

2007

May: Investigative findings are upheld by CU’s Privilege and Tenure Committee.

May 25: CU President Hank Brown recommends Churchill be fired.

July 24: The Board of Regents votes to fire Churchill.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS