Churchill Landed Tenure Without Usual Review Process (& he doesn't have a doctorate)

DEnver's ABC News ^ | Feb. 16, 2005 | AP

[FairOpinion]

Prof. Considered An American Indian Expert Even Though He Does Not Have Doctorate

A University of Colorado official urged a faculty appointment for controversial professor Ward Churchill despite questions about his academic credentials, according to college e-mails from more than a decade ago.

Churchill landed a tenured faculty position less than a year later, bypassing the usual six-year academic review, according to correspondence between then-Vice Chancellor for Academic Services Kaye Howe and Dean of Arts and Sciences Charles Middleton.

The documents released by CU do not explain why Churchill was able to avoid the normal process for getting tenure, which gives a high measure of job security to faculty. Scholars have questioned Churchill's conclusions for years, and some have suggested he lied about being an Indian to land his job at CU.

[FairOpinion]

I found more info about his bio:

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~2709008,00.html

Seems like he managed to get college degrees based on his "experience".

====

"He graduated in 1965 and went to work in a local Caterpillar tractor factory.

He says he walked a dangerous point position in Vietnam, but his military records say he was a light-truck driver.

"When he came back from Vietnam, he turned into a radical," said Scott Davis, a high school classmate. "He was a war protester. He burned the American flag in front of the Peoria County Courthouse."

He also said he met representatives of the radical Weather Underground, and he said in 1987 that he had taught them how to make bombs. He has declined to comment since then on his 1987 claims.


He enrolled at Illinois Central, a community college, and then Sangamon State University in Springfield, Ill., where he graduated four years after the experimental alternative- education college was founded in 1970. At Sangamon, students received written evaluations but were given the choice of receiving grades along with them.

He said he received all A's and a B in his two years at the school, earning a bachelor's in technological communications in 1974 and a master's in communications theory in 1975, according to the University of Illinois at Springfield, which took over Sangamon in 1995."

[Ready4Freddy]

Per the CU website - B.A., M.A., Sangamon State University, now the Univ of Illinois-Springfield.

I wonder if he even has a degree of any kind

[FairOpinion]

The 1965 graduation was from high school.

[Howlin]

He applied under Affirmative Action, as a Native American. He lied.

Did he really?

[patton]

Probably wants me to pay for his toy choo-choo, too.

Dand, that pisses me off.

In other news, one can obtain a PhD in mathematics by passing four comps, and an oral exam. Not one day in class required.

[thoughtomator]

Sounds like a professional racial grievance agitator.

[Mo1]

Thanks for the info

[thoughtomator]

Which logically leads to "... at a phony university".

[Mo1]

He applied under Affirmative Action, as a Native American. He lied

Ummm .. isn't that illegal?

[FairOpinion]

Thanks for the info!

"SSU was designatied "the public affairs university of Illinois" at a time, when public affairs, for many of the faculty at least, meant opposing the war in Vietnam"

I guess he majored in war protesting.

[Ready4Freddy]

Dunno if he applied under AA, but his American Indian bona fides are unsubstantiated, and subject to question.

[Mo1]

where is the transcript of the thesis.......?

Good question

That would be interesting to read

Though I think we all know how it might read

[Calvin Locke]

He applied under Affirmative Action, as a Native American. He lied.

As far as I'm aware, he was born in the US. He's a native American.

Now, if he was claiming to have a relative of the indigeneous tribes, pre-European migration, then he should
some paper trail.

[Mo1]

He also said he met representatives of the radical Weather Underground, and he said in 1987 that he had taught them how to make bombs. He has declined to comment since then on his 1987 claims.

Well ain't that special

BTW .. I think I saw a picture of him and Angela Davis on the internet

[FairOpinion]

More tid-bits:

"To pay the bills, he briefly worked as a designer with Soldier of Fortune magazine, and he applied for a job with CU.

In paperwork accompanying his 1978 application for a job, Churchill checked the box for "American Indian or Alaskan Native."

He was hired in 1980 as acting director of the American Indian Equal Opportunities Program at CU. Three years later, he went with a delegation from the American Indian Movement to visit Libyan dictator Moammar Khadafy at a time the United States had broken diplomatic relations with the African nation.

At CU, he held several administrative positions until he was appointed associate professor in 1991 in the communications department and received tenure the same year.

His tenure was transferred to the ethnic studies department in 1997, and he was appointed full professor the same year. His classes are full.

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~2709008,00.html

[okie01]

Did he really [lie]?

There is a copy of his Affirmative Action application (and the paperwork associated with his hiring) on the KHOW radio website.

After the university is through firing him, it would seem Mr. Churchill has fraud issues.

Incidentally, eleven other American indians submitted CVs for the position and one of them was interviewed for the post (besides Churchill). Consequently, CU could be looking down the barrel of some legal action themselves.

The fraudulent application should allow the university to terminate him with cause. For PR purposes, they want him gone, of course. And, now, they won't have to confront any touchy "free speech" issues.

[Ruth A.]

"Ward is certainly being courted by other universities as a significant Indian scholar and teacher. It would be a shame to lose him because of a standard which may be irrelevant in this case," Howe wrote Middleton in an e-mail, referring to Churchill's lack of a doctorate.

For the record, standards are not irrelevant. If this joker lied about his experience or ethnicity, then the tenure shouldn't be binding. As far as I know, the Indians (oops, native Americans) are rejecting him.

[okie01]

"To pay the bills, he briefly worked as a designer with Soldier of Fortune magazine, and he applied for a job with CU.

Soldier of Fortune, however, has no record of his ever being employed by them.

This guy's whole biography appears to be a myth. I wonder if he's KGB...

[FairOpinion]

He also claimed he fought in Vietnam, turns out he was not in combat, he drove a light truck.

He may be a bigger liar, than John Kerry.

I think he is just an opportunist. (both of them)

[Outraged]

cspan.org has video (type in "Churchill" in the search engine) of some Injun and Churchill setting forth their defense of Churchill's remarks...If the Indians had nazis, these guys would be their Hitler and Goebells.