The Advocate

Defend Ward Churchill and Academic Freedom

On February 3, the University of Colorado placed tenured Ethnic Studies professor Ward Churchill, a radical scholar affiliated with the American Indian Movement, under 30-day review – the first legal step towards firing him. This move is the result of organizing by a group of conservative students at Hamilton College in upstate New York who objected to some of his views in his essay on 9/11 called “Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens.” In that piece Churchill compares the “technocrats” of the finance and banking industry who were killed in the World Trade Center to Adolf Eichmann, a Nazi bureaucrat who helped organize the concentration camp system.

The essay, which can be found at the link below, has been widely quoted out of context by the media. In particular, it is claimed that Churchill included janitors, firefighters, medics and other in his metaphor about Eichmann, which is not true. As the story spread, he was forced to cancel a lecture – ironically at a forum called “The Limits of Dissent – after receiving death threats. Although he has stepped down as co-chair of his department, he has refused to resign.

Churchill’s comments on 9/11 were meant to be inflammatory and to encourage discussion about why the massacre occurred and to suggest possible interpretations beyond the Bush Administration’s “attack on freedom” model. To focus on the specifics of what he said or wrote misses the point. The possibility of his removal should concern all those involved in academic work for multiple reasons:

1. Freedom of Speech: This is a basic First Amendment freedom of speech issue. To lose one’s job over the use of metaphors and hyperbole, especially in relation to discussion of an important political issue, is state censorship.

2. Tenure and Academic Freedom: Churchill is a tenured professor, and for him to be fired over such comments would be just the sort of intellectual censorship the tenure system was designed to stop. Many departments have written eloquent statements in support of Churchill, such as this one from the Philosophy Department at his own University of Colorado at Boulder:
“The recent controversy over Ward Churchill’s essay should not obscure the fact that the precise purpose of the tenure system is to secure the ability of university professors to argue the most unpopular of cases, in the face of the most heated public sentiment. We urge the Regents to honor that system in its consideration of this case, and not to take any action that would threaten Professor Churchill’s jobs or chill the free expression of thought that is so vital within a university community.”

3. The Suppression of Dissent: This is a clear attempt to repress voices critical of the current US mindset and policy. The Bush Administration has cast 9/11 in black-and-white moral terms as a justification for global war. If Churchill is removed because he offered an opposing viewpoint – in the face of ironclad Constitutional and tenure protections – it will set a terrible precedent, possibly harboring the dawn of a new McCarthy era and the criminalization of dissent.

The governors of both Colorado and New York have publicly slandered Churchill as being a supporter of terrorism. The Colorado governor has called on him to resign, and the State House and Senate passed a joint resolution condemning him. These actions are obviously intended to put pressure on CU to remove Churchill, and the Board of Regents has forced CU Interim Chancellor Phil DiStefano to initiate the 30-day review period. He will be assisted by two CU Deans, Todd Gleeson and David Getches. When the 30 days are up, DifStefano will determine whether to issue a notice of intent to dismiss for cause, other action as appropriate, or no action, to the Regents. If a notice to dismiss for cause or some other action is issued then the subsequent process will be governed by
the Regents.

The Advocate calls on the Graduate Center community to support Ward Churchill in the name of academic freedom. We urge our readers to pressure Chancellor DiStefano and Deans Gleeson and Getches to do the right thing.

Phil DiStefano chanchat@spot.colorado.edu
David Getches lawdean@colorado.edu
Todd Gleeson todd.gleeson@colorado.edu