Jul 06 2007
CU Regents Consider Dismissing Ward Churchill
GUEST: Natsu Taylor Saito, Professor of Law at Georgia State University College of Law
In the coming weeks, the University of Colorado’s Board of Regents will vote on whether or not to dismiss Professor Ward Churchill. Ever since the tenured ethnic studies professor published an essay entitled “Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens,” he became the center of a firestorm. In his essay, Churchill likened technocrats working at the World Trade Center on 9/11 to “little Eichmanns.” Unable to fire Professor Churchill for his statements, an investigative committee was appointed by the University of Colorado to determine the validity of his scholarship. After an internal faculty appeal, four charges of research misconduct have been presented against Professor Churchill. Academics and activists have decried the investigation as a politically motivated attack on academic freedom. If the CU Board of Regents votes for dismissal, critics fear that a dangerous precedent will be set.
For more information, visit www.cu.edu, or www.wardchurchill.net.
NOTE: We discovered after the interview that Prof. Natsu Saito is married to Ward Churchill. We apologize for not disclosing this fact on the air.
3 Responses to “CU Regents Consider Dismissing Ward Churchill”
This is an extraordinarily dishonest bit of journalism. First, the piece conceals the fact that Saito, the interviewee, is married to Churchill. Thus she has a financial interest in preserving his job, and is about the least objective observer you could dig up.
Second, none of Saito’s outrageous lies are countered. Saito falsely claims that Churchill is being fired for not producing enough evidence and not properly citing his sources. The truth is that he is being fired for far more serious offenses — fabricating evidence in a number of his publications, and plagiarizing nearly two entire articles.
Nor does she disclose that 25 different CU professors serving on four different committees have all unanimously agreed that Churchill is guilty of serious research misconduct.
How hyoocritical can you get? Yesterday I posted here a comment critical of Churchill. It was perfectly polite, cogent, and well-reasoned based on evidence.
Now my comment has been censored and removed. And this on a thread complaining about attacks on academic freedom. Can you expect to be taken seriously when you engage in such hypocritical behavior?
Dear Doobie/Dwight,
Listener comments are only moderated on weekdays as we only work Monday-Friday. Your earlier comment was not yet approved before your second comment was made. Today, we moderated all comments made over the weekend, and, as is our usual practice, only deleted the spam and approved all the rest.
Thank you for bringing to our attention Prof. Saito’s relationship with Prof. Churchill. We have made an inquiry with her. If it is true, at best we should have unearthed it during our research and chosen a more objective guest. At worst, Prof. Saito ought to have disclosed it to us herself.
We will post an update to this page as soon as we have more information.
Regards,
The Uprising Crew.