Text 29296, 158 rader
Skriven 2007-07-24 22:17:00 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: Leftwing whacko
=======================




Good riddance....  They should investigate the 1 in the 8-1 vote.  Who
was it ?


============================

http://www.9news.com/rss/article.aspx?storyid=74224

Regents vote to fire Churchill

BOULDER – The University of Colorado Board of Regents voted to terminate
controversial professor Ward Churchill on Tuesday evening.


The Board of Regents passed a motion to accept the recommendation from 
CU President Hank Brown to fire Churchill from his position in the 
Ethnic Studies department.

The measure passed with an 8 to 1 vote. The vote was made just after 
5:30 p.m. and Cindy Carlisle was the dissenting vote. The move came 
after academic committees found in 2006 that Churchill was guilty of 
academic misconduct, including plagiarism.

Immediately after the decision was announced people in the crowd booed 
and some swore at the board members.

Churchill and his supporters then participated in a Native American 
ceremony outside of the building.

"I am going nowhere," said Churchill. "This is not about break, this is 
not about bend, this is not about compromise."

Also after the board made its decision, Brown and Board Chair Patricia 
Hayes spoke with the media. 

"It's been a long hard day," said Hayes. "Not an easy decision for the 
board." 

"One of the most difficult decisions a university has to face happened 
today and I don't think we had a choice," said Brown.

Hayes disputed the claim that Churchill had made earlier in the day on 
Tuesday that the decision to fire him was pre-determined. 

"The university has, over the last two and a half years, orchestrated an 
amazing performance, in some ways, of creating the illusion of scholarly 
review," said Churchill during a news conference with his attorney, 
David Lane. "We will be going into court to expose the nature of that 
fraud."

"The only surprise today was that it took as long as it took and we got 
one vote. I'm always surprised when somebody stands up and does the 
right thing," said Lane.

"(The other day) somebody asked me, 'What do you think the board is 
going to do?' And I didn't know," said Hayes. "I really didn't know 
where my fellow board members were coming from until we had the 
discussion today." 

"This case was an example not of mistakes, but an effort to falsify 
history and fabricate history and in the final analysis, this individual 
did not express regret or apologize," said Brown. "This is a faculty 
that has an outstanding reputation and this move today protects that 
reputation."

"At the end of the day we had to look at what these three committees had 
presented to us and what 25 tenured faculty had said and that was really 
important to all the board members," said Hayes.

When Churchill arrived for the vote, he was carrying two very long 
poles, which are a Native American symbol. People with Churchill also 
brought drums. 

About 20 Churchill supporters gathered outside of the building where the 
meeting took place. Among them was Russell Means, a Native American 
activist and actor. 

Churchill initially arrived around 8 a.m. on Tuesday when the meeting 
began. He was wearing his signature dark glasses with jeans and a black 
blazer, and arrived shortly before the meeting. He was surrounded by 
members of the media as he walked into the University Memorial Center 
and hoisted himself onto a side counter. As he began cracking jokes his 
supporters could be seen wearing T-shirts which read "It's not about 
scholarship it's about politics." 

Not everyone around him was a supporter however as one man, a self-
described blogger, began a heated exchange with Churchill which 
eventually forced campus security to monitor the situation. 

Churchill and Lane went before the regents in the closed door session 
just after 10:30 a.m. 

Lane says he will file a lawsuit in Denver District Court on Wednesday 
claiming the regents violated Churchill's First Amendment rights. He 
wants the case heard by a state jury. 

"We are now on offense. That's one good aspect of today. We are finally 
going on offense," said Lane.

Churchill touched off a firestorm in 2005 after an essay surfaced which 
he wrote shortly after 9/11 likening some victims in the World Trade 
Center to Adolf Eichmann, who helped carry out the Holocaust. 

University officials concluded he could not be fired for his comments 
because they were protected by the First Amendment, but they launched an 
investigation into allegations that he fabricated or falsified his 
research and plagiarized the work of others. 

In 2006, a university committee found Churchill guilty of academic 
misconduct, including plagiarism and a faculty panel recommended he be 
demoted and suspended for a year without pay. In May, CU President Hank 
Brown recommended Churchill be fired. 

Both Brown and Hayes said on Tuesday the board's discussion on Tuesday 
did not touch on Churchill's comments on 9/11. 

"What he said about 9/11 in his essay was not part of our discussion," 
said Hayes.

Both also said they were not swayed by the threat of legal action. 

"I don't think a great university can be intimidated by legal action," 
said Brown. 

"We (the regents) did not discuss any possibility of a lawsuit," said 
Hayes.

"This was an issue of what's best for the university and we had to step 
up to the plate and do what's best for the university," said Hayes. 

Hayes also said they do not believe the decision will have a chilling 
effect on other professors. 

"True academics will say this is a place they want to be," said Hayes. 

"The message this sends is that the university faces up to problems and 
deals with them and that we are a reliable institution," said Brown.

"It sends absolutely an atrocious message to the academic community all 
over the country, which is: if you stick your neck out and make 
politically inflammatory comments, your reputation will be destroyed by 
the university bent on destroying you and ultimately your tenured 
position will be forfeited," said Lane. "To the public at large the 
message is: there will be a payback for free speech."

When asked what would happen if Churchill won his lawsuit he said, "Will 
I come back here? Yeah. Will I stay very long? I am not of retirement 
age now. You figure it out from there." 

When asked what his emotions were, Churchill raised his fist in the air 
and shouted "Victory!" Many of his supporters then applauded.

--- PCBoard (R) v15.3/M 10
 * Origin:  (1:226/600)