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.
One thing about ivory tower socialists: they're consistent. If one of their own shows its his colors, then spraying to rid ourselves of him inevitably becomes a "witch hunt".
But there's no hunting required at all!
The witch is in New York or Wash DC, when she isn't 'burning precious fossil fuels' jetting around the world loudly disclaiming any interest in re-infesting the WH with her consort, he-who-must-not-be-named: Lord Willie.
"YEAH,...this is very strong,...the MSM is staying away, always a good sign"
You're so RIGHT! If the MSM avoids an issue, then WE know its a validation of that issue. MSM is very guilty of what is called the "Sin of Omission."
Does anyone out there know if tenur professorship immunity is codified in the law or is part of a contractual agreement which is required to be honored, even if the sinor has failed at his job to teach?
Interpretation: The world only has a limited number of moon-bats and we need to be able to keep all of them that we have obtained.
During that dust-up didn't some highly positioned university official try to use some quote from Chaucer(?) to minimize the problem? That made quite a media moment too.
Seems some on the faculty weren't content with that 15 minutes of fame.
Makes you wonder how many of these 200 so-called teachers have problems with their own writings. What are they afraid of? Accountability?
Heh-heh. Indeed, they know if one can be investigated, they all can.
It's so amazingly clear that these edoodycators don't give a rip whether or not the ugly Ward is a questionable character with fraudulent qualifications as long as he fits in with the crowd.
I think the message may be getting through after all.
yeah,...you bet,...the ebb & flow of things tells me this is a GREAT time for TRUTH , good to keep my shoulder to the wheel
"Why?" Um, because "200 teachers sign ad asking that Churchill inquiry be dropped" (see start of thread, and article there).
Dan
I'm 63 and raised in Wisconsin and I don't personally "recall" the McCarthy era except for remembering my father occasionaly saying something like "McCarthy is right". How old is this LeCompte person? And if you have to go clear back to Joe McCarthy (who was mostly right anyway) for your fears, then you've lived a pretty snug life on campus I'd say.
"I believe that robots are stealing my luggage" - Steve Martin
hasnt' ward churchill and janet reno been separated at birth? or are they the same person?
The Churchill jig is up. I am so enjoying you self-destruct over this entire issue.
He may not like the microscope, but he loves the spotlight.
"During that dust-up didn't some highly positioned university official try to use some quote from Chaucer(?) to minimize the problem?"
CU President Elizabeth Hoffman was asked during a grand jury (I believe) hearing if there was ever a time in which she could imagine the word "c~^t" being used as a term of endearment (this was in reference to a term used by one of the football players towards a coed as a pejorative), and she answered "Yes."
It seems she's a medieval lit scholar of some sort, and in some of Chaucer's writings (as earthy as it got in those days) there were apparently references to women (or a woman) as a "c~^t", as a term of affection.
Betsie was a little too truthful for the PC police on campus. Truth has no value. Kowtowing to the libero-fascists does, though.
Tenured professors have abdicated their responsibility to "peer-review" their colleages' work in their interest to promote agendas and avoid external scrutiny. As nature abhors a vacuum, so does society. When these people fail to fufill their oversight responsibility, others will step into the gap. The faculty could have prevented this problem with Ward Churchill a long time ago; however, they failed to act while it was still in their domain and now the public has taken the mantle of scholastic peer-review and will not so graciously give it back.
This should be a warning to faculty across the nation to do the scholarly equivalent of "physician, heal thyself".
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