Churchill vows to contest misconduct charges

[NVMojo]

June 28, 2006
University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill issued a stinging rebuttal Wednesday to an official recommendation that he be fired, comparing the campus disciplinary process to the Scopes Monkey Trial and charging that his accusers are guilty of the same misconduct for which he stands charged.

Churchill vowed that the fight over his job has just begun and predicted that interim CU-Boulder Chancellor Phil DiStefano's call for his ouster "sets the stage for the taxpayers to waste another quarter-million dollars" while his case goes to the next level of appeal.

On Monday, DiStefano recommended that Churchill be fired for a pattern of research misconduct that includes plagiarism.

However, DiStefano insisted that his decision had nothing to do with the controversy that Churchill stirred in an essay on the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack.

more...

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/education/article/0,1299,DRMN_957_4807177,00.html

[SteppingRazor]

1. Meh.

I have a hard time caring whether or not he gets fired. The allegedly plagiarized stuff does bear a remarkable similarity to other scolarly works, IIRC.

Besides, just cause he calls people who died in 9/11 "Little Eichmans," how does that make him a hero to the left? The man's a douchebag.

[ronnie624]

3. The "little Eichmanns" comment

in Ward Churchill's essay was not necessarily in reference to the victims of the 9/11 attacks, but more generally to those who work daily to support the engine of exploitation which is used to plunder the resources and economies of other nations. The same engine that we as U.S. Americans all depend on to perpetuate our culture of consumption.

I can understand the rabid hatred on display here against Churchill. His words of truth are, after all, a stinging rebuke to those who go about their daily lives in their never ending pursuit of cheap gas, beer, lottery tickets, and cheap plastic crap, completely oblivious to the results manifested in other countries.

While it is true he could have selected a more appropriate analogy, this in no way invalidates the truth of his excellent essay.

Well, really. Let's get a grip here, shall we? True enough, they were civilians of a sort. But innocent? Gimme a break. They formed a technocratic corps at the very heart of America's global financial empire – the "mighty engine of profit" to which the military dimension of U.S. policy has always been enslaved – and they did so both willingly and knowingly. Recourse to "ignorance" – a derivative, after all, of the word "ignore" – counts as less than an excuse among this relatively well-educated elite. To the extent that any of them were unaware of the costs and consequences to others of what they were involved in – and in many cases excelling at – it was because of their absolute refusal to see. More likely, it was because they were too busy braying, incessantly and self-importantly, into their cell phones, arranging power lunches and stock transactions, each of which translated, conveniently out of sight, mind and smelling distance, into the starved and rotting flesh of infants. If there was a better, more effective, or in fact any other way of visiting some penalty befitting their participation upon the little Eichmanns inhabiting the sterile sanctuary of the twin towers, I'd really be interested in hearing about it.

<http://www.kersplebedeb.com/mystuff/s11/churchill.html>

[SteppingRazor]

4. So ... stockbrokers are Nazis who deserved what they got on 9/11?

You agree with that?

I reiterate -- the guy's a douchebag.

[otokogi]

2. freedom of speech isn't free

burn'm!

[bluestateguy]

5. This is what he would do if he was smart

Accept a suspension, admit guilt, apologize and promise to correct the plagiarism/copyright infringement/misconduct during the time off. The investigating committee that looked at his publications and research recommended a suspension. Two members called for a 2 year suspension, three called for a 5 year suspension and one called for his dismissal. Maybe during that time he could learn how to be a real scholar too.