Posted on 02/23/2005 8:48:38 AM PST by freespirited
University of Illinois officials said Tuesday they can't locate Ward Churchill's master's thesis and aren't sure if he was required to write one.
The embattled University of Colorado ethnic-studies professor claims undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Illinois' Springfield campus, which was known as Sangamon State University until 1995. Springfield is in Sangamon County.
University of Illinois at Springfield spokeswoman Cheryl Peck confirmed that Churchill received a bachelor's degree in 1974 and a master's degree in 1975. But no thesis is on file, she said.
"We can't say for sure he didn't write one," Peck said. It is not clear if a thesis was a requirement at the time Churchill received the degree in communications, she said.
CU spokeswoman Pauline Hale said she did not know if faculty members inquired about Churchill's thesis in 1991 before giving him tenure.
Documents released last week by CU indicate some faculty members had reservations about granting tenure to a professor who lacked a doctorate.
The documents are silent on a master's thesis.
On Tuesday, Illinois faculty members described Sangamon State - in the 1970s, when Churchill attended - as focused on innovative teaching methods, including an emphasis on social issues of the day.
The campus did not have academic departments. Instead, faculty members were rostered under interdisciplinary groupings, including Churchill's major, communications in a technological society.
Students could major in traditional subjects, such as history or English, but they could also design their own majors in consultation with the faculty.
Larry Golden, a political scientist and one of the original professors when Sangamon opened in 1970, said the school was not as freewheeling as it sounds.
Proposals for self-designed majors were given extensive faculty review, he said.
The campus served only juniors, seniors and master's-degree students. They would have taken the standard courses at a two-year college before coming to Sangamon.
The program included an "applied-studies term," in which students earned credit by working off campus. Projects ranged from working with a state legislator to community organizing.
The students were required to take part in a seminar and write journals or term papers as part of the program, Golden said.
"You couldn't just go to an anti-war rally in Washington and say, 'That's my experience,' " Golden said.
Perhaps it's in a lockbox like Hillarys.
Until 10 minutes ago, I didn't have any kind of engineering degree. I just got off the phone with Judith Albino (President of CU). I told her that depsite what my transcript says, I was really studying engineering and that I had just downloaded my thesis that should have been included with my other degree. Instead of civil engineering, she bargained me down to a social engineering degree instead, but was also able to change my U of I (Champaign) MBA degree to a Master's degree in S.E. from Sagamom State.
I think that with my 11 years as a little Eichman and my new degrees in social engineering, I will have the freedom to finally open that chinchilla ranch I have always wanted to. Hopefully Ward can help me with the chinchilla drives, I hear they are pesky critters.
Great education...he participated in community activism (as a fake Indian) and kept a private journal. Har har!
So much for freedom of speech. It is so obvious to me that libs do not have the freedom to dissent on the major lib issues. You either spout the entire party line or suffer the consequences. Must be like living in a strait jacket. No real intellectual freedom at all.
I checked that site, pirateballerina.com, very interesting, thanks. The good professor has the nerve of a burglar: surprised he hasn't claimed the neck decoration.
C.E.T.A. bums
hey, man...whatsamatter, you some kind of RACIST?
Oh, c'mon. Give the guy a break. I'm sure it takes a lot of highly technical training to become proficient in weapons repair.
REMF does stand for Rear Echelon Mortar Fixer, right? :=)
HAHA! Yeah, with his intellect, he'd fit right in with the Gun Grapes.
As we Engineer types would say to the Arty types, "Uhhh, pull string, gun go boom!"
And M.S. must stand for Madeup Sh*t
Seems like this "Sangamon State" was a diploma mill for hippies.
What fraction Mayan are you on his back?
You know what BS stands for, right?
Well, Ms means More of the Same, and PhD stands for Piled Higher and Deeper... or at least so I was told.
Me, I just have a Post Hole Digger.
what was the coursework and additional coursework and do you believe that it could be usefully accomplished in one year ?
.Churchill's major, communications in a technological society....
A plastic degree by a plastic college issuing graduate degrees so the faculty could draw an increased salary.
More likely, it's a euphemism for "It was required, but we can't find it now and we look like idiots."
Damn, if I had just gone to SSU instead of the University of Tennessee I could have had degrees in Microbiology, Zoology, Biology, Biochemistry, Animal Science, and Food Science. I lacked two Spanish courses of obtaining those degrees before I received my D.V.M. I guess SSU proves that the Northern colleges are far superior to the Southern colleges...
Your #23 is a comprehensive, excellent post.
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