Posted on 03/26/2005 9:26:40 PM PST by freespirited
SAN FRANCISCO - Ward Churchill told a sold-out crowd of ardent supporters here Friday night that he will not cooperate with the University of Colorado investigation into his academic record.
He made that declaration at the tail end of a bitter indictment of interim Chancellor Phil DiStefano's allegation Thursday that Churchill might have misrepresented his ethnic status to buttress the credibility of his work.
Churchill said it is befitting of a "lunatic asylum" that a committee is being charged with the task of determining, among other things, if he is an American Indian, as he has long claimed.
"I am who my grandmother said I was," Churchill said. "I am who my mother said I was. I will be, irrespective of any determination of a committee, with which I will not cooperate. It has nothing to do with nothing."
To a crowd of about 400 who paid $10 apiece but was kept waiting about 45 minutes past the advertised start time, Churchill opened with his traditional remark that he was bringing greetings from "the elders of the Keetoowah Band of Cherokees," the Tahlequah, Okla.-based tribe that granted Churchill an associate membership in 1994.
With special emphasis, Churchill described the Keetoowah as "my people."
As recently as Wednesday, former Keetoowah chief John Ross said Churchill's associate membership was merely honorary in nature and that although Churchill has claimed both 1/16 and 3/16 Cherokee heritage, the Keetoowahs' decision to grant his associate membership was not based on a determination of his Cherokee heritage.
Churchill's talk came little more than 24 hours after DiStefano announced that a seven-week investigation found that allegations of plagiarism and fraud in Churchill's writings were serious enough to be referred to a standing university committee that investigates research misconduct.
That committee also will determine if Churchill's disputed claim to be an American Indian is a violation of academic standards and a misrepresentation used to gain credibility and authority for his work.
The CU investigation was triggered by national outrage over an essay Churchill authored on the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, in which he labeled some victims in the World Trade Center "little Eichmanns," a reference to Nazi bureaucrat Adolf Eichmann.
DiStefano's investigation concluded that such language from Churchill, though "repugnant," was protected speech and did not represent grounds for termination.
The review by the Standing Committee on Research Misconduct could take as long as seven months to complete, and if the findings are upheld, they then would be referred to the university's Committee on Privilege and Tenure.
The entire process could take two years or longer, with the CU Board of Regents having the final say on whether Churchill is fired.
In his Friday night speech, Churchill said the disciplinary action contemplated against him, despite DiStefano's assertion to the contrary, was very much about the incendiary content of his political speech.
"They don't charge you with what it is that they're ultimately after you for," he told the mostly leftist audience members, who filled their time waiting for Churchill by reading literature such as the newspaper of the Maoist International Movement.
This guy is just plain mean
he is so lucky this is a nation of laws and law biding people....
The sheeple are STILL sleeping. UN-F'CKN BELIEVABLE!
Give me a break! It should take two minutes.
Our universities, ever diligent in search of the truth. LOL!
Wrongo, uni. Those aren't sheep, those are the wolves.
I stand corrected.
Crap-weasel buffoon Bump.
In other words, "my mother and grandmother are liars, not me".
I wonder how many times his mom and grandmother called him a little .....
bttt
This is a straight line if ever there was one.
well said - wolves indeed
I have to come clean. I also have publicly pretended to be an Indian. Of course, it was Halloween.
Good one
"I am who my grandmother said I was," Churchill said. "I am who my mother said I was. I will be, irrespective of any determination of a committee, with which I will not cooperate. It has nothing to do with nothing."
What in the name of hell does that mean ? (BTW it should be nothing to do with anything ..2 negatives there..but i guess a college prof wouldn't know that )
Groan!
I propose that the Esteemed Doctor Professor Churchill be made Chief-for-life - Sitting Bullsh*t -of a new Indian nation: The Wooden Cigar-Store Indian Nation. Al Gore is hereby nominated as vice-chief. All currency is to be based upon the three-dollar bill.
If he hurries up and petitions the great white fathers in congress, he can take several slot machines with him for his travelling road show!
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