Ward Churchill Finally Gets Fired

The University of Colorado fired a fraudulent professor whose essay likening some Sept. 11, 2001, victims to a Nazi leader provoked national outrage and led to an investigation of research misconduct. Ward Churchill, who had vowed to sue if the Board of Regents took action against him, said immediately after the 8-1 vote was announced: “New game, new game.” Three faculty committees had accused Churchill of plagiarism, falsification and other misconduct. “The decision was really pretty basic,” said university President Hank Brown, adding that the school had little choice but to fire Churchill to protect the integrity of its research. “The individual did not express regret, did not apologize, did not indicate a willingness to refrain from this type of falsification in the future,” Brown said.American Hater, Ward ChurchillChurchill’s essay mentioning Sept. 11, 2001, victims and Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann prompted demands for his firing, but university officials concluded that it was protected speech under the First Amendment. The essay and a follow-up book argued that the terrorist attacks were a response to a long history of U.S. abuses. Churchill said that those killed in the World Trade Center were “a technocratic corps at the very heart of America’s global financial empire” and called them “little Eichmanns.” Brown had recommended in May that the regents fire Churchill after faculty committees accused him of misconduct in some of his academic writing. The allegations included misrepresenting the effects of federal laws on American Indians, fabricating evidence that the Army deliberately spread smallpox to Mandan Indians in 1837, and claiming the work of a Canadian environmental group as his own.