Genociding Ward Churchill for over a 20th of a century

CNews 27August05

OT: Academic Propaganda (via The American Thinker)

Complaints by the family of Ward Churchill's deceased third wife are among the potential incidents of research misconduct on Churchill's part that have been forwarded to a University of Colorado committee for further study.

Rhonda Kelly, the 41-year-old sister of the late Leah Kelly, has received a letter dated Aug. 10 from CU attorney Louise Romero, informing her of that decision.

"Chancellor DiStefano has asked me to advise you that he has forwarded your complaint and the various materials that you sent to him to the Standing Committee on Research Misconduct," Romero wrote.

"Since the committee is very far along in their review, he does not know how this matter will be handled. However, since the chancellor does not do his own research on these matters, and because I do not know how the committee will choose to handle this matter, I would suggest that if you have any further information on your complaint, that you send it to the chair of the committee, Professor Joe Rosse, in care of me."

CNews 26August05

OT: A cautionary tale for those who long for a speedy resolution to the "Churchill Problem"

Excerpt:

The summer of 2005 has been an embarrassing one at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

First, the university came under fire when it was revealed that Paul W. Barrows, the vice chancellor for student affairs who quit last year, did so because he had had an affair with a graduate student. That Barrows stayed on the university’s payroll infuriated legislators, and focused attention on how the university treats employees who get into trouble.

Now some lawmakers have shifted their attention to professors — three of whom remain employees even though they are either in jail or headed there.

On Friday, Roberto Coronado, a professor of physiology at Madison, was sentenced to eight years in prison after he entered a plea of no contest on three felony counts of repeated sexual contact with a child. While the university is seeking to dismiss Coronado, he is appealing that decision and remains an employee, even though his incarceration prevents him from being on campus.

Because he has unused vacation time, he is currently receiving his salary — $137,641 — and will continue to do so until he uses up his vacation time, at which point he will be on an unpaid leave, pending the outcome of his appeals of his dismissal.

Skepticism No Longer a Reporter's Mandate

by Jim Paine

The facts are simple: Nine charges against Ward Churchill ranging from plagiarism and historical fabrication to ethnic fraud were considered by an inquiry subcommittee of CU's Standing Committee on Research Misconduct (SCRM). Of these, seven have been referred to an investigating committee for further investigation, which should eventually lead to recommendations to SCRM on Churchill's fate at CU. Only two of the allegations before the inquiry committee were not passed on for further investigation, one of which was a charge of ethnic fraud, which was more than likely the right thing to do. After all the effort we and others put into proving Churchill's lack of Indian blood, the charge seems destined for defeat, since while proving Churchill had no Indian ancestors was merely labor-intensive, proving Churchill knew he was not an Indian is virtually impossible (I'll leave a discussion of whether CU should be granting employment or tenure—or even a free collector's plate with every fill-up—based on racial membership for another day).

Our outrage centers not on Churchill's spin of the story—which ignores the remaining seven allegations (mostly of plagiarism and historical fabrication), and instead highlights the dropping of the ethnic fraud charge—but rather the media's willing acceptance of that spin. No corporate flack, no sticky-fingered politician, no university president could ever expect from the media that kind of unquestioning acceptance of their version of the story. Yet this same media hands Churchill the first PR victory he has had since this story broke back in January.

Readers of PirateBallerina are already aware of the Denver Post's series of mash notes to Churchill (rather than post links to our rants, just go to the Denver Post's website and search for available articles containing "Ward Churchill"), and it should come as no surprise that the Post's coverage of the inquiry results followed the Churchill spin so faithfully that Churchill's attorney David Lane should have gotten a byline (with the actual content, of course, ghost-written by Churchill).

But that's no surprise; we've come to expect slavering adulation of Churchill from the Post. It's the Associated Press' equally-gullible coverage of the inquiry results that is far more troubling, if for no other reason than the AP story was picked up by at least a hundred newspapers and TV/radio stations. It was the AP version that most people have read or heard. Talk about a lie getting 'round the world before the truth gets its boots pulled on.

Why am I not disparaging Churchill for the spin? Because of the two involved parties—Churchill and the media—Churchill is guilty only of presenting this new development in the best (for him) possible light. He did what anyone under public scrutiny would do. It was the media that not only failed to do its job, but failed miserably. If skepticism is what journalists are supposed to have running through their veins in place of blood, then the media is in dire need of a transfusion. Maybe some AP-negative.

Take the current gas "crisis" in Hawaii, where state officials are getting ready to institute the same failed policies Nixon implemented back in the gas-rationing/price-capped '70s. Malia Zimmerman of the Hawaii Reporter remains the sole member of the media in Hawaii who isn't blaming Chevron and other usual suspects, but instead points out that perhaps, just perhaps, Hawaii's 60-cent-per-gallon tax might have something to do with the state's higher than mainland gas prices (by comparison, Zimmerman points out, Alaska's per-gallon gas tax is 29 cents). Rather than reiterate her eloquent Wall Street Journal essay, I'll just provide a link to it. Read it and weep that she doesn't run the Associated Press. Or the Denver Post. My point being Zimmerman didn't accept what she and all the other Hawaiian journalists are being handed by the "newsmakers." She looked beyond that; she researched it—and she discovered the truth. That's journalism.

Even the most humble small-town newspaper reporter knows that he can't uncritically accept a newsmaker's version of a story. It's necessary to find opposing views and perspectives, and when facts contrary to the politician's assertions are discovered, they must be dutifully reported. The same applies whenever someone says anything "newsworthy."

It's safe to say that the Denver Post is no small-town newspaper. Nor is the Associated Press.

Pity.

Newsworthiness can be defined broadly as the utterances of "anyone with a vested interest in a particular outcome." It's obvious that Churchill has a vested interest in the outcome of the SCRM's interminable slouching toward its decision. Since neither the Post nor the AP manages to fulfill the mission any small-town journalist would (simply report the story... the whole story), perhaps they each fall under the definition of "anyone with a vested interest in a particular outcome." I wonder in what outcome to the Churchill fiasco the Associated Press has a vested interest. What vested interest has the Post in the outcome of the Churchill case?

No matter. Suffice it to say that had the Post and the AP for just a moment pretended to be small-town reporters with a mandate to report the whole story, those of us not following the Churchill debacle with something akin to obsession (which would seem to include everyone but me and maybe two or three other irascible cranks) might just have learned that the inquiry committee's referral of most of the charges for further investigation means that Churchill is now in more trouble than he was, and that his separation from CU, while no certainty, definitely looms larger and more clearly on the horizon.

CNews 25August05

Charges dropped against pro-Churchill protester

Charges were dropped Wednesday against a CU-Boulder undergraduate who police officers ejected from a University of Colorado Board of Regents meeting last winter.

CU-Boulder senior Dustin Craun was initially charged in Adams County with misdemeanor disorderly conduct for speaking out of turn during a February emergency meeting of the CU Board of Regents at the Health Sciences Center in Aurora.

[...]

Craun said he won't rule out more acts of "civil disobedience" if necessary.

"I need to focus on doing this scholarly stuff right now," Craun said.

Churchill is an adviser on the honors thesis Craun is writing.

"We'll see what happens," added Craun. "I don't think the University can take (Churchill) to full dismissal, and the process is going to take forever anyway."

CNews 24August05

Churchill has two weeks to respond to investigation recommendation

University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill has two weeks to respond to a committee's recommendation that he undergo a full investigation for seven counts of alleged plagiarism and fabrication.

The professor Tuesday called the status of the investigation against him "very encouraging," partly because two other claims — including an allegation that he falsified an American Indian identity — have been recommended for dismissal.

But an expert on academic fraud said the case against Churchill sounds serious.

"Any claims moving forward are serious because my sense of these proceedings is that you really make every effort to see the claim through the eyes of the party who's being accused," said Peter Hoffer, a history professor at the University of Georgia who wrote a book last year titled "Past Imperfect: Facts, Fictions and Fraud in the Writing of American History."

A city youth worker who came under fire for defending University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill announced Monday that he is running for mayor of Longmont.

Glenn Spagnuolo, 35, faces incumbent Mayor Julia Pirnack and Mayor Pro Tem Tom McCoy, who is term-limited in his current position. Spagnuolo heads a city program that works with at-risk youth.

City officials earlier this year investigated whether Spagnuolo improperly used a city cell phone during work hours to defend Churchill on a Denver talk radio show. Spagnuolo denied the charges, and the matter was dropped in May.

CNews 23August05

Rocky Mountain News says all but two of the charges remain
Churchill inquiry sent to higher level

Seven complaints of alleged plagiarism, historical fabrication and other research misconduct by Churchill have been recommended for a deeper investigation, while two other complaints that were part of the original inquiry were dropped, his lawyer said. The report from the faculty subcommittee that had spent about four months looking into the allegations was delivered Monday, said David Lane, who represents Churchill.

The subcommittee made its recommendation to the faculty's Standing Committee on Research Misconduct. The next step is for that committee to decide whether to conduct a full investigation. CU rules call for the faculty group to study the recommendations and receive more input from Churchill before deciding.

...but the Denver Post prefers to see the glass as half-full
Tentative 'victory' for prof

A committee investigating University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill recommended pursuing seven plagiarism claims against him but tossed aside allegations he misrepresented himself as an American Indian, his attorney said Monday.

The group of professors also rejected a copyright-infringement claim against Churchill in the preliminary findings, which require approval from CU's Standing Committee on Research Misconduct.

If the report is approved, the next step is an inquiry of up to five months by an ad hoc committee that will pore over Churchill's writings and call witnesses who have accused him of plagiarism.

"I'm viewing this as a huge victory for Ward Churchill," said his attorney, David Lane. "He's confident the standing committee will vindicate him."

CNews 22August05

Churchill says sabbatical was approved at college level back in October '04

According to a recent email we received from Ward Churchill, his request for sabbatical during the Spring '06 semester was approved in writing at the college level in October of last year:

I was notified in writing that I'd been approved at the college level back in October 2004 [...], and [I] have never heard another word—not one—since. This, despite the fact that course scheduling, etc., for spring 2006, proceeded in a normal fashion at the departmental level, and I reminded the dean of that fact in June.

"[...M]y first inclination was to view what was going on as just the usual bureaucratic SNAFU.

It's become plain over the past few days that there's more to it than that, however. Sooooo...

At the very least, Susan Avery, Phil DiStefano and a few others now owe everybody—not just me, but "the taxpayers" (who, after all, are ultimately liable)—how it is that they somehow "forgot" to notify me or anybody else (apparently) that they were "delaying" anything.

The best you can say, is that it is an example of utterly irresponsible internal management.

CNews 20August05

They have the 'grinds slow' part right; let's hope they get the 'exceedingly fine' part right, too
Panel gets findings on Prof

A committee investigating University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill presented its findings Friday to a group of professors who will decide Churchill's fate by the end of the month.

Joseph Rosse, chairman of the Standing Committee on Research Misconduct, said the committee made changes in the report of the subcommittee, which is recommending whether to go forward into a full investigation of academic misconduct.

Rosse declined to discuss the recommendation but said the report has to be cleaned up before it goes to Churchill in the next few days. Churchill has an opportunity to respond before the committee makes its final report to interim provost Susan Avery.

Ward Churchill may be close to taking the University of Colorado to federal court after a decision to put his request for a sabbatical on hold until allegations he committed research misconduct are resolved.

"If they're stopping him from taking his sabbatical, that is an adverse employment action," said David Lane, a Denver lawyer representing the ethnic studies professor.

Lane said requests for sabbaticals are "rubber stamped" for tenured professors and accused CU of "retribution" against Churchill, who wanted a break from teaching during the spring semester to write a book.

"I fully expect that as a result of this, we will end up in federal court fairly quickly," Lane added.

CNews 19August05

Churchill's sabbatical 'on hold'

"It should be tomorrow," David Lane, a Denver attorney representing Churchill, said Thursday. "That's their timeline. That's what they said at our last meeting."

But exactly how, when or even if an announcement will be made publicly remains unclear.

"I am not aware of any announcement planned for tomorrow," CU spokeswoman Pauline Hale said late Thursday.

CNews 18August05

The Denver Post discovers that Churchill's sabbatical was never approved

Churchill said his leave to finish a book was approved by his dean last fall. His application was forwarded to the provost's desk, where the process stopped, CU officials said Wednesday.

Churchill said he does not believe administrators are punishing him because a faculty misconduct committee is investigating his writings after an uproar over an essay comparing some Sept. 11, 2001, victims to Nazi Adolf Eichmann.

"I have no reason to suspect anything other than administrative incompetence," Churchill said.

OT: Disgruntled Hamilton College alumni lose first challenge to Trustee elections

At Hamilton College, alumni select 12 of the 36 trustees, and most elections are so routine that a formal vote doesn’t even take place.

This year, however, alumni angry over a series of controversies ran a slate of candidates to challenge those nominated by the college’s alumni association. In results announced Wednesday, the slate of three nominated by the association won — by a margin of about two to one. But supporters of the challengers said that their support indicated significant alumni concern about the college’s direction — and that the showing was more impressive because of rules limiting communication from the candidates to alumni.

Melissa Joyce-Rosen, president of the Hamilton College Alumni Association, said that she was pleased that the candidates nominated by her group won the election, and that it was also a good sign that other alumni were willing to volunteer to serve as trustees.

The alumni challengers are members of Hamilton College Alumni for Governance Reform, a new group that maintains a Web site about its concerns over the college. They have generally cited three major complaints about the college:

• A generous severance agreement for Eugene Tobin, who announced his resignation as Hamilton’s president in 2002 after the discovery that large portions of his speech to freshmen that year had come from the writings of others.

• A college center’s invitation to Susan Rosenberg to come to the campus as a short-term teacher. Rosenberg, at one time a leading activist against the Vietnam War, was indicted but never tried for a 1981 armored car robbery that left a guard and two police officers dead. She was sentenced to 58 years on charges of weapons possession, but President Clinton granted her clemency in 2001. Amid criticism of her Hamilton appointment, Rosenberg withdrew from plans to teach a half-credit course on memoir writing.

• That same center’s invitation to Ward Churchill, the controversial University of Colorado professor, to speak on the campus. Churchill’s talk was called off amid death threats, but it was in the build-up to the talk that his comments comparing 9/11 victims to “little Eichmanns” became public. While many academics praised the college for defending freedom of speech, others questioned why Churchill was invited in the first place.

In the wake of the Rosenberg and Churchill controversies, the college has limited the power and budget of the Kirkland Project, the academic unit that invited both of them. But to the critical alumni, this was insufficient.

Churchill to Carry Very Light Teaching Load This Fall

According to our sources, Ward Churchill will be teaching only one class this Fall: American Holocaust (ETHNO 3100-800). The class will be limited to 20 upper division students who must obtain approval from Churchill himself after a personal interview with the professor, our sources say.

And of next Spring? Our sources say further that Churchill will be taking a sabbatical.

Update: According to Ward Churchill, his sabbatical was approved in writing last year, although the paperwork never seems to have made it to the Regents for sign-off.

Update: The Denver Post's report in this morning's paper (one day after our initial report) seems remarkably familiar...

CNews 10August05

If only The Big Lie were as easy to kill as those 'half a million dead Iraqi children'
Uruknet.info, which purports to carry 'news from occupied Iraq', continues to make good use of Ward Churchill

Excerpt (emphasis ours):

The Anglo-American war on Iraq since 1991 and the violent policy implemented against the Iraqi children were deliberately designed to destroy Iraq as a nation. On May 12, 1996, Madeline Albright, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, told Lesley Stahl of CBS news program 60 Minutes, when asked to comment on the death of half a million Iraqi children. Albright replied without hesitation: “We think the price is worth it”. In addition, the US and Britain have refused to lift the sanctions under any circumstances despite known the full scale of a deliberate atrocity. A generation of Iraqi children is lost. Today, Iraqi children are enduring immense hardship and suffering never before.

Report after report by the UN and aid agencies have revealed the scale of the human tragedy orchestrated by US-Britain policy toward Iraq, and particularly the Iraqi children. The tragedy was covered-up by the demonisation of Saddam Hussein in Western media in a deliberate move to silence the Iraqi children’s cries. “We find record of not a single significant demonstration protesting the wholesale destruction of Iraqi children”, wrote Professor Ward Churchill of the University of Colorado.

CNews 9August05

CNews 8August05

OT: Ex-CU prez Betsy 'C-Word' Hoffman denounces blogs

The ex-CU president, noting the pressures of instant criticism via the Web, says she made errors in her handling of the football sex scandal and the Ward Churchill flap.

[...]

One of the first mentions of Churchill's essay appeared on a blog called "little green footballs" after the professor was invited to speak at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y. Within 10 minutes, people were calling Gov. Bill Owens and asking him to tell Hoffman to fire Churchill, she said.

"Ten minutes - that's how fast things happen today," she said. "There was a period there when I was measuring my e-mail in boxes and pounds. You cannot manage and lead by the number of e-mails you get. You really have to think about what is best for the institution."