Maybe Ward Churchill Did Deserve His Former Tenure as University of Colorado Native American Studies Professor
Or, rather, they deserved Churchill (you may remember him – the fired plagiarist professor who believes 9/11 victims needed killin’):
Ward Churchill’s civil suit to be reinstated to his teaching post is apparently in court. Churchill is arguing that the nominal reasons for his termination (mostly shoddy academic work) were not alone enough to have normally justified his termination, and that he was in fact fired for his remarks about 9/11. This is an important distinction, because tenured professors can generally not be fired for exercise of first amendment rights, no matter how wacky their statements.
In a post that spawned a number of angry emails, I actually said I thought Churchill was fired improperly. There is plenty of evidence that the Native American studies department at Colorado, and gender/racial studies departments in general, have never enforced any sort of academic rigor, and it is hypocritical to suddenly discover such rigor for this case. Churchill has been rewarded and promoted historically for much of the same work he is nominally getting fired for now. Further, examples are legion of heads of various elite university racial and gender studies departments who exercise the same or less academic rigor as Churchill but whom no one is criticizing. As I mention in my earlier post, Cal State Long Beach hired a paranoid schizophrenic who had served prison time for beating and torturing two women as the head of their Black Studies department.
Frankly, Colorado is getting exactly what they hired. They weren’t looking for a research mastermind. They were looking for a politically correct hire to fill a void and create a department that made them look nice and progressive on paper. And that is exactly what they got.
Those racial and gender studies departments sure aren’t created because anything that can be called work with a straight face is expected from them.
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April 3rd, 2009 at 12:33 pm
How dare you imply that there is no academic rigor in the ethnic studies department at Boulder! Four of the classes I have taken thus far have dealt entirely with research methods to ensure that students are well-prepared to write at a graduate or professional level.
I cannot stand people that feel uncomfortable with a certain field such as ethnic or gender studies, and feel like the can use their own assumptions to discredit the work of the entire department.
Did you know that one of the physics professors at Boulder started his own Arian/KKK chapter right in Boulder?? I would say that that FACT deserves more attention than your misguided suppositions.
Why not look at the biographies and publications of the current professors and instructors in the ethnic and gender studies departments – if you could actually find a specific instance that the work does not meet the rigors expected from any research university – please provide me with your evidence and whine away!!!
April 3rd, 2009 at 1:45 pm
Here you go, Shannon: Ward Churchill. You do know that he was fired for plagiarism, don’t you? You’ll probably deny that, though.
And maybe you could keep yourself from starting your posts with “How dare you!”. It makes you sound militant – like an ethnic, gender and gay studies professor.
April 3rd, 2009 at 1:52 pm
It is insulting for someone that I assume is not even associated with any of the aforementioned departments at the University of Boulder to insinuate that there is no integrity within them! I am speaking beyond Ward Churchill – his work DOES NOT speak for an entire department.
And to imply that I sound like an ethnic, gender and gay studies professor is about the biggest compliment I could receive! Thanks!
April 3rd, 2009 at 2:36 pm
The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
Seriously, though, Shannon, what are you majoring in and what are you planning to do with this major when you grow up… I mean graduate? Teach? Just curious.
April 3rd, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Just to indulge you – I am ethnic studies major, and am planning to enter a J.D/M.A program at another awesome University were I will be studying Indian law and culture – my focus is land use designation – radical subject, right?
April 3rd, 2009 at 3:55 pm
So what will you do when you’re done studying? Teach? Work for the government?
April 3rd, 2009 at 4:05 pm
I will work with Nations and advocacy groups that are working to alleviate the land use designation caused as a result of the dawes act – with the intention of restoring the land rights to the tribes.
August 24th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
I remember being in graduate school and working as a teaching assistant. My girfriend at the time was also in graduate school and working as a research assistant. She worked for a professor who had done very well over the years. She did a lot of his research and initial writing. His name would go on the final publication. In turn, she got “A’s” in her courses with him, continued employment and a nod from her committee. Believe me when I say that Ward Churchill is not the only rascal worling in a university setting. If you dig deep enough, you will find plenty of dirt on all of us.