Ward Churchill Solidarity Network

CU President Hank Brown Recommends Firing Prof. Churchill…Ward Churchill Responds

President Hank Brown has quite predictably recommended that the Regents of the University of Colorado (CU) fire me – not, he claims, because of my constitutionally protected statements about 9/11 but because of my scholarship. However, as hundreds of academics around the country have pointed out, CU’s “investigation” has all along been merely a pretext, transparently catering to the political and financial interests which dictate “educational” policy at CU . . . read the rest.

The Kids Get the Point…

CU President Hank Brown will soon, no doubt, be announcing his recommendation to fire Ward Churchill, despite the fact that the majority of both the “investigative committee” and the P&T appeal panel voted for lesser sanctions … and despite the many fallacies and misrepresentations in the Investigative Report which continue to surface.

This all goes back, of course, to Ward Churchill’s “controversial” remarks about the 9/11 attacks, and CU’s efforts to find a pretext to fire him without appearing to violate the First Amendment. Those remarks continue to be mischaracterized in the mainstream press.

We’ve recently received a March 2005 interview published in a middle school newspaper. Passing up interviews with folks like Geraldo, Ward Churchill talked with then-12-year-old Stephanie Mathewes, who published what appears to be the most accurate explanation of his remarks to date:

What was it exactly that you said to make people so upset, and when did you write this paper?

“I wrote this paper the evening of 9/11 and what it basically said was when you kill other people’s babies and act like it doesn’t matter people are going to get angry and they are going to get back at you. A way to prevent that is just don’t kill people’s babies or anyone for that matter. Obey the law. It is illegal to kill children and people for no reason, so obey the law.”

Do you feel that people have misunderstood/mistreated you and the issue?

“I think that they have deliberately misrepresented the issue. I think that people have twisted what was said because they refuse to hear what was said. They think it is ok for Americans to kill but not ok for us to be killed.”

. . . He also wanted people to know “it’s not that I don’t care about children on 9/11. I do not care any less than what happened to the Iraqi children.” He does not want this for any children. He wants it to end.

Out of the mouths of babes…

May 10, 2007: 11 Professors File Research Misconduct Charges Against the CU Investigating Committee

To: Hank Brown, President of the University of Colorado
The Regents of the University of Colorado
Bud Peterson, Chancellor of University of Colorado, Boulder
Phillip DiStefano, Provost of the University of Colorado, Boulder
Susan Avery, Vice-Provost of the University of Colorado, Boulder
The Standing Committee on Research Misconduct
Members of the Investigative Committee in the Churchill Case Case

On April 23, 2007 the undersigned professors called on the University of Colorado at Boulder to rescind the “Report of the Investigative Committee concerning Allegations of Academic Misconduct against Professor Ward Churchill” [henceforth Report] because it contained so many egregious errors. On May 7, 2007, the University officially declined our call to retract the report. Since the university has declined to act in good faith, we are now compelled to file these charges.

For the dual purposes of defending academic freedom and securing justice for Professor Churchill, we now bring charges of research misconduct against the authors of the Report: Marianne Wesson, Professor of Law at the University of Colorado [chair of Investigative Committee]; Marjorie McIntosh, Professor of History at the University of Colorado; Michael Radelet, Professor of Sociology at the University of Colorado; Robert Clinton, Professor of Law at Arizona State University; and José Limón, Professor of American and English Literature at the University of Texas.

We further ask that any person with a known bias against Professor Churchill recuse themselves from consideration of his case. We note that the decision not to retract the Report came from the new Vice President for Academic Affairs, Michael Poliakoff, whose office has a conflict of interest in this case because of his involvement with the American Council of College Trustees and Alumni (ACTA). Since ACTA has a long and well-documented history of animosity toward Ward Churchill, no-one with ACTA affiliations, including a co-founder like President Hank Brown and a named proponent like Poliakoff, is in any position to make an unbiased decision in this case.

. . . . click here to read the full letter & supporting documentation.

Why Is CU Making Up Excuses to Fire Ward Churchill? Profs say: The ACTA Connection

Pres. Hank Brown, new CU VP Michael Poliakoff, Regent Tom Lucero, and former Gov. Bill Owens all part of Lynne Cheney’s neoconservative American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) …. click here to read more

University of Denver AAUP

2 May 2007
The Honorable Hank Brown
President, University of Colorado
Boulder, Colorado

Dear President Brown:

The University of Denver chapter of the American Association of University Professors has reviewed various documents pertaining to the case of Professor Ward Churchill, including the “Report of the Investigative Committee on Research Misconduct at CU-Boulder Concerning Allegations of Academic Misconduct against Professor Ward Churchill” (May 9, 2006), and the CU-Boulder AAUP chapter’s “Statement Regarding The Investigation and Recommended Termination Of Professor Ward Churchill” (October 24, 2006).

Our DU chapter has voted, by a wide margin, to endorse the statement made by our AAUP colleagues at CU-Boulder about this case, and to stand in solidarity with them in the interest of protecting university autonomy, due process, and academic freedom.

Sincerely,
Dean J. Saitta
President, University of Denver Chapter
American Association of University Professors
Professor of Anthropology
Department of Anthropology
Sturm Hall 146
2000 East Asbury Street
University of Denver
Denver, CO 80208
303.871.2680 (phone)

Radio Host Dan Caplis Drops Suit Against Churchill Supporter Glenn Spagnuolo

DENVER, May 2, 2007—After more than a year and a half of stalling, 630 am KHOW afternoon talk radio show host Dan Caplis, of the “Caplis and Silverman” show, has dropped his civil lawsuit he had filed against Re-create 68 organizer and community activist, Glenn Spagnuolo. The lawsuit stemmed from remarks Spagnuolo made at a speech he gave on the University of Colorado’s Boulder Campus in support of Ward Churchill. During the speech, Spagnuolo stated that, “It is no surprise that Dan Caplis and the three stooges of Clear Channel, Boyles, Silverman, and Caplis, would attack the Ethnic Studies Department.”

. . . . click here to read full press release.

Immanuel Wallerstein, Yale University Professor Emeritus and Senior Research Scholar* Says

For me the issue is very simple. I do not know Ward Churchill and I have not read much of what he has written. But the whole move for his dismissal was precipitated by his criticism of the U.S. government’s reaction to September 11, which caused some Colorado legislators to call for his dismissal. This is direct and dangerous interference with academic freedom. Furthermore, it undermines the legitimacy of political dissent, without which no country can pretend to be democratic. We must all defend such dissent, whether or not we agree with it.

As far as I can see, the university administration, knowing that they could not openly accede to such illegitimate political pressures, did an end run and sought to find an excuse, a thin one in fact, to dismiss Ward Churchill on other grounds. They knew what they were really doing, which was responding to political pressure. And we know that it is shameful. They should rescind all action along these lines.

Click here to read April 28, 2007 solidarity statements in support of Professor Ward Churchill from:

1. Gil Anidjar – Columbia University
2. Bill Ayers – University of Illinois – Chicago
3. Dana Cloud – University of Texas
4. Drucilla Cornell – Rutgers University
5. Hamid Dabashi – Columbia University
6. Michael D’Andrea – University of Hawai’i
7. Richard Delgado – University of Pittsburgh
8. Richard Falk – UC Santa Barbara; Professor Emeritus, Princeton University
9. Juan Gomez-Quinones – UCLA
10. Robert Ivie – University of Illinois, Bloomington
11. Robert Jensen – University of Texas
12. Peter Kirstein – St. Xavier University
13. Carlos Munoz, Jr. – UC Berkeley
14. Henry Silverman – Michigan State University
15. Paul Von Blum - UCLA
16. Immanuel Wallerstein – Yale University
17. Howard Zinn – Professor Emeritus – Boston University

* institutional affiliations are included for identification purposes only

Defend Ward Churchill - Bill Ayers

Defend Ward Churchill

Dear Colleagues,

In Brecht’s play Galileo the great astronomer sets forth into a world dominated by a mighty church and an authoritarian power: “The cities are narrow and so are the brains,” he declares recklessly. “Superstition and plague. But now the word is: since it is so, it does not remain so. For everything moves my friend.” Intoxicated with his own radical discoveries, Galileo feels the earth shifting and finds himself propelled surprisingly toward revolution. ” It was always said that the stars were fastened to a crystal vault so they could not fall,” he says. “Now we have taken heart and let them float in the air, without support… they are embarked on a great voyage—like us who are also without support and embarked on a great voyage.” Here Galileo raises the stakes and risks taking on the establishment in the realm of its own authority, and it strikes back fiercely. Forced to renounce his life’s work under the exquisite pressure of the Inquisition he denounces what he knows to be true, and is welcomed back into the church and the ranks of the faithful, but exiled from humanity—by his own word. A former student confronts him in the street: “Many on all sides followed you with their ears and their eyes believing that you stood, not only for a particular view of the movement of the stars, but even more for the liberty of teaching— in all fields. Not then for any particular thoughts, but for the right to think at all. Which is in dispute.”

The right to think at all, which is in dispute—-this is what the Ward Churchill affair finally comes to: The right to a mind of one’s own, the right to pursue an argument into uncharted spaces, the right to challenge the church and its orthodoxy in the public square. The right to think at all.

It’s no surprise that this outrage against Professor Churchill occurs at this particular moment— a time of empire resurrected and unapologetic, militarism proudly expanding and triumphant, war without justice and without end, white supremacy retrenched, basic rights and protections shredded, growing disparities between the haves and the have-nots, fear and superstition and the mobilization of scapegoating social formations based on bigotry and violence or the threats of violence, and on and on. There’s more of course, and this isn’t the only story, but this is a recognizable part of where we’re living, and a familiar place to anyone with even a casual understanding of history. Here the competing impulses and ideals that have always animated our country’s story are on full display: rights and liberty and the pursuit of human freedom on one side, domination and war and repression on the other. The trauma of contradictions that is America.

Ward Churchill is under a sustained, orchestrated, and determined attack because of his political beliefs and statements and activities, and nothing more. No one doubts his productivity or his accomplishments. But the attack on Churchill is neither isolated nor innocent— the high school history teacher on the west side of Chicago gets the message, and so does the English literature teacher in Detroit and the math teacher in an Oakland middle school: be careful what you say; stay close to the official story; stick to the authorized text. If someone of Ward Churchill’s stature and standing for so many years at the University of Colorado can suffer this kind of campaign, what chance do I have?

Every committee, every investigation, every report plays out under a shadow of the star chamber; everyone must choose who to be and how to act in response. For this reason I support Ward Churchill unequivocally, unapologetically, whole-heartedly. I urge my colleagues and my students and everyone who values education as a grand enterprise geared toward enlightenment and liberation to speak out forcefully and fearlessly now on behalf of the liberty of teaching and learning, on behalf of the right to think at all.

Sincerely,
William Ayers
Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar
University of Illinois at Chicago
billayers.org