Posted on 02/17/2005 9:17:59 AM PST by Pikamax
Clashes with Churchill found
CU records show several complaints about prof's behavior
By Arthur Kane Denver Post Staff Writer
University of Colorado officials received repeated complaints about Ward Churchill's demeanor and temper, beginning two years before he was granted a tenured faculty position despite never going through the normal review.
Churchill was promoted at the university, and there is no record in documents released Wednesday indicating that he has ever been disciplined for inappropriate conduct.
Additionally, a university spokeswoman said Wednesday that while Churchill was required to sign an oath pledging to "support the constitutions of the United States and Colorado" as a condition of employment, the university has not been able to find a signed copy.
University officials who supervised Churchill said they had no recollection of the complaints in Churchill's personnel file, but those on the receiving end of what they described as Churchill's temper said they had not forgotten.
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Retired university administrator and journalism professor Joanne Easley Arnold said she received a call from Churchill in 1989 during a controversy over the naming of a dormitory on campus. She was trying to get the dorm named for a former director of student housing. Churchill, not yet a professor, was pushing to have it named for the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes.
"He suggested I should back off my proposal and if I didn't, I would get hurt," Arnold said after she was contacted by The Denver Post. "I was shocked, and that's why my dean heard about it."
David Lane, a Denver lawyer representing Churchill, dismissed any claims of wrongdoing by his client.
"Obviously, the police didn't get involved ... and I doubt anything happened," Lane said.
CU officials are reviewing Churchill's writings and speeches after it was reported that he had likened some of the Sept. 11 World Trade Center victims to a top Nazi and made other controversial statements. Gov. Bill Owens and others have urged CU to fire Churchill.
The Arnold incident, which came five years after an allegation by Churchill's first ex-wife that he had threatened violence, is not documented in Churchill's file. She reported it to the dean of the journalism school, Arnold said.
Kaye Howe, a former administrator who had recommended Churchill for a one-semester teaching position at CU, also was not aware of the alleged threat but was not surprised.
"It was a very stressful period of time in renaming the building," she said.
In 1990, Howe was a vice chancellor and Churchill's supervisor at his job as director of the University Learning Center. She served as a reference for Churchill for a one-semester teaching job but expected him to return to the center. She was surprised when he received a tenured teaching job.
"The tenure process is a laborious and long one, and it's very rarely given early," she said.
Three years after receiving tenure, Churchill was again accused of inappropriate behavior.
In April 1994, two women wrote Charles Middleton, then dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, about a March 28 incident outside the San Francisco Press Club involving Churchill and his wife at the time, Marie Jaimes.
"Carol Standing Elk was leaving the Press Club when Marie Annette Jaimes brutally attacked and injured her," Deborah J. Cruze wrote in a letter to Middleton in Churchill's file. "Then, as Ms. Standing Elk was trying to recover from the attack, she was spit on by Ward Churchill."
Cruze could not be reached for comment, but Lane dismissed the incident, saying it comes from a person who did not like Churchill.
"Maybe she needed to be physically attacked," he said. "Maybe his wife acted in self-defense. Maybe she needed to be spit on."
Middleton, who at the time told Cruze the university would investigate, said Wednesday he did not remember the incident.
A non-denial denial - Clinton level quality.
Say what?!?
Sounds like they're getting the ammunition they need to get rid of him.
This guy should never be allowed to hide behind the first amendment. Just a thug.
Drug-addled gibberish. Lawyers.
Some Post reporters need to dig a little here.
Hey Churhill....where's your Master thesis....care to post it...........?
And colleges and universities all over America are just loaded with these Commie lowlifes...
While our children are being indoctrinated by them...at our expense!
Dirty Lawyer.
This is a lawyer saying this. Bet he would sue me into the ground if I spit on his client (who I feel deserves to be spit on).
Great minds think alike!
And while you're at it, there's a little oversight here. Just sign this little oath that we missed -- don't know how we forgot this little detail -- and things will be just fine.
someone needs to send that quote to the colorado Bar
He'll never sign it. He told a group of students about two weeks ago he doesn't work for the University or the state but for them. I only hope the University realizes he is not on payroll and stops issuing his paychecks!
Of course not. Then they can fire him for subordination, but all the lefties would scream, "McCarthyism" and it would be a great show.
I just did. I forwarded the whole article to their disciplinary committee.
Well, he's no doubt a drug-addled radical lawyer who needs to be spit on himself. We should be grateful that this Churchill clown is being represented by people like this. The lawyer falls into the same category of ethical dilemna which "Mental Ward" represents:
What do you do with someone who ain't worth livin' and ain't worth killin' either?
Give 'em their own show on MSNBC
No one watches that channel, lol!
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