*** ALERT*** Ward Churchill To Speak at UW-Whitewater

The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater has decided to allow controversial University of Colorado-Boulder professor of ethnic studies Ward Churchill to speak March 1 about “Racism Against the American Indian.”

UW-Whitewater Chancellor Jack Miller decided Thursday Churchill would be allowed to speak despite an earlier cancellation at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y. That cancellation has resulted in national turmoil over various issues, including First Amendment rights and human sympathy.

Churchill was not allowed to speak at Hamilton after university officials discovered an essay written in 2001 called “Some People Push Back,” in which Churchill describes the victims of Sept. 11 as “Little Eichmanns.” The analogy refers to World War II Nazi Adolf Eichmann, the man responsible for implementing Hitler’s “Final Solution.”

Hamilton was forced to end Churchill’s appearance after more than 100 death threats were sent to the school. In one incident, an anonymous caller said he would bring a gun, according to Hamilton Communications Director Vige Barrie.

In a statement, Miller said he accepts the decision to allow Churchill to speak at Whitewater, although he acknowledged it will be met with dissent.

“I side with the First Amendment principles, and with my faith in our faculty, staff, students and community members as to whether to listen to Mr. Churchill and how to judge his comments,” Miller said.

“Personally, I find the decision to be repugnant because of the offensive nature of his remarks,” Miller said.

However, Miller’s decision to give Churchill a podium comes with strings attached.

According to Thursday’s statement, Miller will not allow Churchill to speak should he not meet six stipulations.

The most important of those stipulations is the guaranteed safety of Miller’s campus, considering the earlier incidents at Hamilton.

Miller’s second requirement stipulates the state will not fund Churchill’s travel expenses or speaker’s honorarium.

“All funding for this event will come from either private gifts or student fees allocated by the Student University Fee Allocation Committee (SUFAC),” according to the statement.

Churchill’s attendance at the university would also depend on the outcome of a review by UC-Boulder, where the school’s Board of Regents is currently debating whether to dismiss Churchill from the university.

The statement said the university would also provide views contrary to Churchill’s. Finally, Miller demanded a clarification of Churchill’s “Little Eichmanns” remark.

Despite UW-Whitewater’s requirements, some state officials have already begun firing condemnation in the school’s direction.

State Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, said the university wants to hide behind free speech.

“It is still hateful speech, and that is a problem,” Nass said. “With that kind of criteria,

that means that anybody would be able to come to Whitewater and speak, [even if] it was Saddam Hussein.”

Nass drafted a joint resolution calling for the Legislature to submit its opinion of Churchill Thursday.

“This is not a question of free speech; this is stopping a person who uses hateful, disgusting speech,” Nass said.

While the dissension from the state has been evident, there has been some support from others.

UW law professor Gerald Thain said despite Churchill’s absurd statements, Miller has made the right decision.

“I’m sure had advice from First Amendment lawyers and other academic people,” Thain said. “I’d be surprised if he would have made a different decision.”

UW political science and law professor Donald Downs said he was surprised Whitewater made the decision to allow Churchill to speak. Downs added he was afraid what Nass’ remarks about the Churchill case could mean for citizens who listen to the lawmaker’s criticism.

Churchill calls CU's review 'a hunting expedition'
February 10, 2005

By Jefferson Dodge

Ward Churchill is unyielding.

In an interview with S&GR on Tuesday, the embattled CU-Boulder ethnic studies professor called the review of his scholarly work announced last week "a hunting expedition" and "horsepoop." He added that his record "has already been vetted. I've won the awards. I've been promoted and tenured. I don't need an internal committee to tell me that, and neither do the faculty. I've heard of no one who has been subjected to this because they were inflammatory and abrasive."

And hours later, in a fiery speech to a largely supportive crowd of more than a thousand at the University Memorial Center, Churchill took on everyone from Gov. Bill Owens to the Board of Regents to the media. Owens, he said, "excellent scholar that he is, says I should resign or be fired. Well, I'll return the compliment." To the regents, he said, "The Board of Regents should do its job and let me do mine. If [Regent] Tom Lucero and his friends want to debate it openly with me, I welcome it."

In the interview, Churchill made it clear that if the CU administration and regents attempt to fire him, they will have a fight on their hands. Churchill said he will send the matter to the Privilege and Tenure Committee, and if he is dismissed, "they can explain it to a federal judge. I could go into court and represent myself and win this case."

He added that he has no plans to resign. "This institution is going to live or fall on the basis of its own integrity," Churchill said, adding that he appreciates the faculty support he has received. "For the faculty in general, this is not an issue on which we can give an inch. ... This is the fundamental bedrock on which the academic edifice stands." Regarding the dozens of death threats he said he has received, he said, "It comes with my turf, and it's my chosen turf."

As for state officials' claims that taxpayer dollars are supporting his salary, Churchill pointed out that only about $6,000 of his annual compensation is provided by the state, since only 7 percent of UCB's budget comes from the general fund. About 80 percent of his salary comes from tuition, he said, and since he teaches about 85 students per semester -- 60 more than the average for UCB faculty -- he is actually generating more revenue than he's taking. "The taxpayers have been getting money from me," he said. "They've never given a nickel toward my upkeep."

He said he has little confidence that the three administrators who have been assigned to assess his scholarly work are competent to do so fairly, since they are not from his discipline. (Interim Chancellor Phil DiStefano of education, College of Arts and Sciences Dean Todd Gleeson of ecology and evolutionary biology and School of Law Dean David Getches form the review committee.) The tenured full professor said he has heard the criticisms of his record -- that his doctorate is only honorary, for instance. But he noted that a full professor without a doctorate is not unique, and that when he was hired to his current post at UCB, his publications were deemed to be the equivalent of a Ph.D.

Churchill said plagiarism would be an example of conduct falling below minimum standards of professional integrity -- and thus grounds for dismissal -- but he challenged anyone to find such transgressions in his work. "I actually get criticized for over-annotation," he said.

If the purpose of the review is to uncover comments similar to the infamous "little Eichmanns" statement in his essay on the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, there are similar "rhetorical devices" elsewhere in his work, like calling for the dissolution of the United States. "But I can also give them six months' worth of comments from right-wing hacks talking about shooting people and bombing people," he said.

As for questions about his military record and his Native American heritage, Churchill said neither is relevant to the free-speech issue at hand. "I'm not responding any more to questions about my pedigree," he said. "Would it change the content of my speech if I was Irish?"

George "Tink" Tinker, an Osage Indian and professor of American Indian cultures and religious traditions at the Iliff School of Theology, agreed in an interview last week that Churchill's much-publicized bloodline is "a bogus issue. That decision about who's Indian and who's not is up to the Indian community, and no one else. What does it have to do with his academic freedom to say what's on his mind in class and in research publications?"

Tinker and other members of the American Indian Movement, including Glenn Morris of UCDHSC political science, reaffirmed Churchill's status among Native Americans Tuesday night, by escorting him into the Glenn Miller Ballroom for his speech in a procession of security officers, drumbeats and song. "I want all the media to know that we have ascertained that Ward Churchill is a full-blooded Indian," AIM activist Russell Means said in introducing the professor. Regarding Churchill's dozen books, Means was greeted with wild applause when he added, "I know the regents aren't going to get through [reading] them all -- those cowards, who can't stand up for women or their own professors."

Churchill spent about 50 minutes explaining the larger theories that he said have gotten lost in the publicity about a couple of his sentences. He outlined the injustices and death tolls that the United States has inflicted during its history, saying that the Sept. 11 attacks were a reaction to U.S. actions in the Middle East, including the deaths of more than 500,000 Iraqi children due to U.N. sanctions in the 1990s. "When you treat people this way, killing their babies ... naturally, what you are putting out will blow back on you, and that's what happened," he said.

He said the term "little Eichmanns" refers to members of the technical corps in a society, who go along with business as usual, fueling the system that drives the government even though they may not agree with its actions. Churchill added that he feels sorrow for the victims of Sept. 11, "but not one whit more significantly than the mourning I felt for every single one of those Iraqi children. When I start hearing equal sorrow for the `brown-skinned others' who are dying, then maybe we're getting somewhere."

Churchill also took questions after his lecture. "I am not the Board of Regents," he said. "We will have interchange; you will not be arrested for trying to engage me." Most audience members offered words of support, but a few challenged him, asking how he can oppose the First Amendment rights of Columbus Day parade participants and how he can accept a $94,242 annual salary "from the government you purport to hate." Churchill replied that he has never claimed to be innocent, but he has fought against the status quo for years.

UCB officials had canceled the event on Monday, citing security concerns, then changed their minds on Tuesday. Churchill's attorneys had initiated legal action to compel the event to go forward, but UCB spokeswoman Pauline Hale said that was not the reason for the reversal. It was prompted by student organizers who admitted to UCB officials on Tuesday that they had exaggerated the death threats they had received, she said.

As for questions about his military record and his Native American heritage, Churchill said neither is relevant to the free-speech issue at hand. "I'm not responding any more to questions about my pedigree," he said. "Would it change the content of my speech if I was Irish?"

The witless wonder was too cowardly to answer these questions

***

"Professor Churchill, despite his public claim (in a 1987 Denver Post interview) of having been a paratrooper (Airborne qualified) who conducted long-range reconnaissance patrols (LRRPs; extremely dangerous missions conducted by some of the most elite soldiers in the US Army) hunting North Vietnamese in Vietnam during and after the Tet Offensive of 1968, and despite his claim that he was a point man in an infantry combat unit, was in fact trained only as a jeep driver and projectionist (he was trained to operate film-strip machines and movie projectors), according to official documentation from the National Personnel Records Center, the US repository for military records."

"Denver attorneys Dan Caplis and Craig Silverman, both colleagues of Mr. Newman at Clear Channel Colorado, then acquired Professor Churchill’s original resume that resulted in his being hired by the University of Colorado. That resume matched exactly the resume Gunny Bob had acquired from his confidential source. On that resume, Professor Churchill cited no combat experience whatsoever, no Airborne training, no infantry training or experience and no winning of the Combat Infantry Badge. Instead, it said his experience in Vietnam consisted of his duties as a “Public Information Specialist,” as which he “wrote and edited the battalion newsletter and wrote news releases.”"

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