Posted on 02/28/2005 5:31:26 AM PST by Glacier Honey
BOULDER, Colo. (AP) -A full-page ad taken out by 200 University of Colorado faculty members calls for the school to drop inquiry into the writings of professor Ward Churchill.
Gov. Bill Owens and others have called for the firing of Churchill, a tenured professor, because of his comparison of Sept. 11 victims to Nazis.
The faculty members paid for the ad to run Monday in The Boulder Daily Camera.
It says the review of the professor, expected to complete by the middle of March, should be stopped immediately. The ad says the inquiry is the result of political pressure and not based on "any prior formal complaint of specific professional or academic misconduct on his part."
The 200 faculty members' statement defends Churchill's "right to speak what he believes to be the truth" based on academic freedom rules designed to prevent faculty members from being fired for unpopular views.
In the essay, written immediately after the Sept. attacks, Churchill appeared to sympathize with the hijackers. He wrote that some victims were not innocent because of their role in driving U.S. foreign policy.
Under pressure from Owens, the Legislature, and the Board of Regents, the university began an investigation of Churchill.
CU's Arts & Sciences Council passed a resolution Feb. 10 protesting the investigation, and said administrators should know that faculty members are serious about their opposition to what some consider a witch hunt.
Margaret LeCompte, an education professor, said, "It is going to be extremely difficult, if academic freedom is on the block, for us to hire and keep good faculty members.'
LeCompte and the other teachers who signed the ad paid $1,600 to have it published.
"We're all thinking twice about what we're saying," LeCompte said, recalling the climate in the McCarthy era when professors were fired for alleged communist ties.
yeah,...you bet,...these faculty members are SO wrong,now they are suspected of the same BS,they can't be so dumb,can they
Time to clean house.
This man absolutly has the right to his unpopular views. He needs to be fired for obtaining his job on false pretenses, and for incompetence.
My guess is that the incompetent part is what scares them. There seems to be a lot of it going on in academia.
Listen here Marine...!! That's different, don't you know.
The pointy headed run the asylum...and they TELL YOU where to jump, and when to jump. And you MUST jump.
After all...the pointy headed have TENURE IMMUNITY..!!
Yep. Not in Atlanta, not in programming, but just heart-broken because this is a wonderful campus. The PC police went after the football program (no charges on anything after all was said and done), and now they're desperately trying to defend the indefensible.
Some have called Boulder "Berserkely East". For the mega-libs on campus, this is absolutely true.
I have no doubt if he were a white supremacist, an anti-semite, or anti-gay you wouldn't hear one peep out of these faculty members. Screw them, he deserves to be fired.
The students at Colorado University rallied in support of Churchill.
ATTENDING Colorado University may be the same as joining a terrorist organization. I believe this to be true.
yeah,...that would be superb,...perhaps he could be lobotomized so then,a student could earn some spending money walking him around campus in his bathrobe,...ala VINNY THE CHIN
My favorite quote of the minute in this saga:
"Frankly, Ward Churchill has not enjoyed living under a microscope for the last month, and I think he would like this to all go away, as well," said David Lane, Churchill's attorney.
Frankly, who gives a damn about Churchill's enjoyment.
Truth should never "go away" - it should prevail. Establishing TRUTH and exposing LIES is the bottom-line reason for Freedom of Speech. Duh...
I'm shocked, SHOCKED!
Education that does not center on truth is propaganda.
Makes one wonder if they have something to hide also.
YEAH,...this is very strong,...the MSM is staying away, always a good sign
Would that it would happen! As CU's enrollment drops, they'll wake up.
OK. However if institutions and tenured profs were held financially liable if student's grades or performace were affacted by political positions then it would stop tenuse or no, period and point blank.
Worse, they smoke cigarrettes at these parties...cigarettes made of tobacco grown in third world countries with dictators supported by US death squads, where the children have to work the fields by day and be prostitutes by night.
"We're all thinking twice about what we're saying," LeCompte said,
"Appears you should have thought a third time, LeCompte!"
It appears WE are thinking twice about what LeCompte says!
Poor spoiled little arrogant Profs so stirred-up by REALITY.
>>Margaret LeCompte, an education professor, said, "It is going to be extremely difficult, if academic freedom is on the block, for us to hire and keep good faculty members.'..."We're all thinking twice about what we're saying," LeCompte said, recalling the climate in the McCarthy era when professors were fired for alleged communist ties.<<
Well, Professor LeCompte, if Ward Churchill is what you define as a good faculty member, maybe you better reevaluate your standards.
And gee, I always thought that academics were supposed to think long and hard about they wrote as a matter of course. Maybe the problem is you have not been thinking enough about your responsibilities as public employees and way too much about your academic freedom.
Should not an academic think twice before they speak up, and three times and 10 times........What they are saying is they have been unaccountable to the payors of their salary for all these years and they don't want to be carefully examined now. The entire organization has just declared they want to work in the shadows of darkness moulding the minds of impressionable students. They now declare in the signing they do not want the disinfecting effect of sunshine to be allowed in. Think of it. The demand the people not look into who is corrupting the minds of their kids. Incredible.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.