The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today's winner is Ward Churchill. The University of Colorado decided yesterday to fire the controversial professor.

"Today, I issued to Professor Churchill a notice of intent to dismiss him from his faculty position at the University of Colorado Boulder," CU Interim Chancellor Phil DiStefano said Monday afternoon.

Churchill has 10 days to appeal, which entails making a request to have the university president or chancellor forward the recommendation to the faculty senate Committee on Privilege and Tenure. A special panel will then conduct hearings on the matter and make a recommendation to the president on whether grounds for dismissal are supported.

Another committee found Churchill guilty of research misconduct and another panel recommended that he be fired because of "repeated and deliberate" infractions of scholarship rules.


Churchill's attorney promptly called a news conference Monday afternoon to announce that his client does intend to appeal to the tenure committee. He also mentioned going to court.

Churchill, who ignited a firestorm by calling some of the World Trade Center victims "little Eichmanns" in an essay he wrote after Sept. 11, 2001, has vowed to sue the school if he was fired.

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The tenured professor of ethnic studies has repeatedly denied all accusations of misconduct.

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When his essay was brought to light in January 2005, Gov. Bill Owens, state lawmakers and relatives of Sept. 11, 2001 victims in New York immediately denounced it. University officials concluded Churchill could not be fired for the essay, but in March 2005 they launched an investigation into allegations of plagiarism and other research misconduct.

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Last month, an investigative subcommittee concluded that Churchill repeatedly fabricated his research, plagiarized others' work and strayed from the "bedrock principles of scholarship."

Churchill called the investigation "a kangaroo court" designed to reach the conclusion that he should be fired.

"A university is a marketplace of ideas, a place where controversy is no stranger," said Distefano. "An opinioned discourse is applauded. But as is true of all liberties enjoyed by all Americans with freedom, comes responsibility."

Churchill doesn't get the knucklehead for his views. I find them disgusting but he is welcome to them. TFM has always been an advocate of free spech, speaking up for unpopular people like Cindy Sheehan.

No this is about plagiarism. In academia there are few more serious charges and Mr. Churchill has broken the rules. The University has a reputation to uphold, they have to fire the Professor. James Joyner holds a similiar view to my own, he says Churchill has no place on a university campus.

For acts of plagiarism and other violations of scholarship, Ward Churchill is today's Knucklehead of the day.

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