Posted on 07/25/2007 3:02:02 PM PDT by april15Bendovr
Fired Professor Ward Churchill to Sue University
Last Edited: Wednesday, 25 Jul 2007, 1:26 PM MDT Created: Wednesday, 25 Jul 2007, 12:50 PM MDT
(Credit: MyFox) SideBar
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LAKE CHARLES -- DENVER -- Ward Churchill will file a lawsuit against the University of Colorado on Wednesday. He is challenging his dismissal as a professor from the institution.
University of Colorado regents voted 8-1 Tuesday to accept school president Hank Brown's recommendation to fire him. CU Regent Cindy Carlisle had the lone dissenting vote.
Ward Churchill and his attorney, David Lane, plan to file suit in Denver District Court. Churchill is the first tenured professor that the school has ever fired for scholarly fraud.
Lane plans to amend Churchills existing lawsuit against the school. It will now seek Churchills reinstatement, a financial settlement, and demand that the university pay the attorneys fees.
Churchill is filing in Denver instead of Boulder because he says they'll get a more diverse jury in Denver, and a speedier trial than if they filed in Boulder. Churchill was dismissed because an investigation found that he misrepresented the effects of federal laws on American Indians, that he wrongly claimed evidence indicated Capt. John Smith exposed Indians to smallpox in the 1600s, and claimed the work of a Canadian environmental group as his own.
After the board of regents' vote, Brown addressed the media saying the university had no choice but to terminate Churchills employment after allegations of plagiarism and academic misconduct were deemed valid.
COMMENT ON THE FIRING OF CHURCHILL
"This case is a very clear example of an effort to falsify history and fabricate history," Brown said
The individual involved did not express regret or apologize or refrain from this kind of falsification in the future."
The announcement of the board of regents' 8-1 vote to fire Churchill came at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. It was greeted with loud boos and shouting from a gathering of Churchill's supporters.
The fired professor called the decision a fraud. His attorney said the lawsuit they are filing is based on the First Amendment. It alleges the university is punishing the former professor for controversial speech.
The investigation of Churchill began after a 2001 essay surfaced in which Churchill compared workers in New York City's World Trade Center terrorist attacks to Nazi architect Adolf Eichmann.
CU said the action against Churchill was not related to that paper, because it was covered under the rights of free speech.
But it did touch off a 15-month long investigation into some of Churchill's other work. The investigation started in 2005, and ended with the findings of plagiarism and academic misconduct..
A five-member faculty panel voted 3-2 to punish, but not fire, Churchill.
In May, however, CU president Hank Brown recommended that Churchill be fired. Governor Bill Ritter and former Governor Bill Owens both supported Churchill's termination.
http://www.costumeuniverse.com/prodspics/indian_econ.jpg
The picture did not copy but why do Ward “The Imposter” Chirchill and John “the want to be” Kerry look so much alike?
Maybe Harvard can insult Indians by starting up the school again, with Ward Churchill as the dean. (Dennis Miller had a pithy Indian name for Churchill last night on BOR, but I can't recall it.)
My husband is a tenured college professor and as a former chair, he has had to deal with problems of tenured professors. He thinks Churchill has nothing to lean on here and will fail in his suit. Let’s hope.
Here's a link somebody pointed me to yesterday: Churchill05
thanks, i read that this morning in the print edition.
hank brown is correct.
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