"University of Colorado administrators Thursday took the first steps toward a possible dismissal of a professor who likened World Trade Center victims to a notorious Nazi.
Interim Chancellor Phil DiStefano ordered a 30-day review of Ward Churchill's speeches and writings to determine if the professor overstepped his boundaries of academic freedom and whether that should be grounds for dismissal.
...The furor erupted last month after Churchill was invited to speak at Hamilton College in upstate New York. Campus officials discovered an essay and follow-up book by Churchill in which he said the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were a response to a history of American abuses abroad, particularly against indigenous peoples.
Among other things, he said those killed in the trade center were "little Eichmanns," a reference to Adolf Eichmann, who organized Nazi plans to exterminate Jews. The college canceled Churchill's appearance, citing death threats and concerns about security"
Should Ward Churchill be fired?
Humanities and Political Science departments across America are peppered with professors who think along the same lines as Churchill. The detritus of failed 60's radicalism, they've crawled up through the ranks of academia and are now entrenched in the both the classroom and administrative ends of many universities. Now before you hair-trigger lefties get all fired up and scream, "Freedom of Speech trumps everything!!," keep in mind that freedom of speech applies to the public arena-there are no guarantees written into the Constitution allowing one to say what one pleases within the confines of a private institution. If you think I'm incorrect on either the theoretical or practical aspects of this point try this-if you work for a private company, walk into your bosses's office tomorrow, look him in the eye and say, "F*uck You!" When he fires you, try finding a lawyer that will help you sue to get your job back on the grounds of your boss having committed a First Amendment violation.
Ward Churchill works for a public instituion, the University of Colorado and therefore, he should be allowed to keep his post. In my opinion, the only fair way to address the problem of radical teachers like Churchill running amok on American campuses, is to address the root of the problem and it is this: liberal and leftist professors in American universities outnumber conservative ones around 8 to 1. It's up to students and their parents to demand that this imbalance be corrected.
Now there are many teachers who are ethical enough to keep their personal politics out of the classroom, but there are many who aren't, and this needs to be fixed. I'll relate two personal experiences I've had, that are illustrative of the leftist bias that permeates American universities.
A non-tenured friend of mine, "X," taught art classes at a community college. During the run-up to the Iraq war, the head of "X's" department called a meeting with all art department members, during which he instructed them to take some class time to tell there students to get active in opposing the Iraq war. This was received enthusiastically by everyone in the room, except for my friend who raised a good point by saying, "What does the Iraq war have to do with what I'm teaching?"
According to my friend, the room got icy- cold. From that moment on, the other teachers in the department began giving "X" the "cold shoulder." Two weeks later, "X" was laid off. One month later, "X" found out that someone had been hired to replace her. Keep in mind, that "X" was a competent teacher who'd never had any difficulty on the job and was viewed by both her students and the other teachers in her department favorably.
"X" explored legal recourse in dealing with the injustice that had been imposed upon her, but the school covered its actions well, so she "let it go," and moved on. She now knows that for the sake of one's teaching career, it's best to "go with the flow" and keep one's opinions to oneself, unless they're left-wing opinions. It shouldn't be like this, especially in academia, where the free exchange of ideas is supposedly paramount, but often, it is.
Another friend of mine, "Y" teaches at a well-respected Catholic university. Last year, I'd gotten into the habit of meeting him on campus for a weekly game of handball. His office is across from the Political Science department. Every office door besides his is festooned with signs and posters. A sample: a bumper sticker proclaiming "Bush is a Dumbass," a poster of Che Guervera, a poster of Bush as a chimp in the "hear, speak, see no evil " role, a "Fahrenheit 9/11 poster and an unhealthy smattering of leftist "peace and justice," America= corporate, imperialist bad guy screeds.
I asked my friend, who is conservative in his politics, why he put up with this blatant and intimidating ( at least to students of opposing views) nonsense. His reply, "I won't, once I'm tenured." In other words, he knows that if he currently takes issue with these displays, there's a good chance that he'll lose his job, which brings me to another reason why Ward Churchill shouldn't be fired.
Firing Churchill, would only contribute to the squelching of the free exchange of ideas in the university setting. His firing would accomplish exactly what the left has been doing for years with its campus "speech codes" and "hate-speech" rules, that is silence opposing points of view.
The proper approach to countering anti-American hate-mongers like Churchill, is to pressure universities into hiring some more conservative teachers, who'll be more than willing to challenge those who hold beliefs similar to Churchill's. Better yet, force public universities into adopting a "politically blind" method of hiring.
In addition, teachers of all political stripes, should be forbidden from airing their personal political beliefs to their students during class time, when they've been hired to teach math or art or history or science or even political science. This should be part of every teachers employment contract.
When it comes to Ward Churchill, I'm more comfortable with allowing him to expose himself for the self-hating leftist clown he is, than in seeing him forced into silence by good people who find his message despicable, which it is.
To help make inroads towards correcting the ideological imbalance that exists today in America's universities, click here. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Late Breaking: Apparently, Ward Churchill has been portraying himself as a Native American, when in reality, he's not. Michael King over at Ramblings' Journalhas the lowdown on this.
Blogs for Bush has an intense discussionhappening in their comments on the Churchill affair.
Powerline has more on whether or not Churchill should be fired.
