Ward L Churchill

A University of Colorado committee has recommended that a controversial professor accused of faulty research be suspended for one year rather than fired. Ward L. Churchill, a tenured professor of ethnic studies who touched off a national firestorm with an essay about the 2001 World Trade Center victims, was accused in this case of misrepresenting the effects of federal laws on American Indians and claiming the work of a Canadian environmental group as his own.

The University of Colorado on Tuesday fired professor Ward L. Churchill, whose controversial statements comparing victims of the Sept. 11 attacks to Nazis triggered a debate over free speech and scholarship. The university system's regents insisted that their decision was unrelated to Churchill's 2001 essay that called workers in the World Trade Center "little Eichmanns," a reference to Nazi Adolf Eichmann, who was in charge of sending Jews to death camps.

Ward L. Churchill, a University of Colorado professor who gained notoriety for comparing some victims of the Sept. 11 attacks to "little Eichmanns," committed research misconduct and plagiarism in his writings on Native American history, a faculty panel concluded in a report released Tuesday. Churchill's lawyer, David Lane, dismissed the findings as part of an effort to fire the ethnic studies professor for political reasons.

The University of Colorado on Monday moved to fire a professor whose essay likening some victims of the Sept. 11 attacks to a Nazi caused a national outcry. Phil DiStefano, interim chancellor of the Boulder campus, delivered a notice of recommended termination to ethnic studies professor Ward L. Churchill on Monday morning.

Ward L. Churchill has been angry for years, shaking a clenched fist at American power from the streets of Denver and the lecterns of academia. He has compared his country to Nazi Germany and urged the hanging of "war criminals" like Henry Kissinger, President Clinton and Madeleine Albright, the former secretary of State whom he called "that malignant toad." Most of all, he has been a firm believer in karma: What America sows, it shall surely reap. "Payback," he said. "Can be a real mother."

Angry and unrepentant, the University of Colorado professor who compared victims of the 9/11 terror attacks to Nazis gave a fiery speech Tuesday night, chastising college officials, calling journalists "punks" and refusing to apologize for anything he had said. "I'm not backing up an inch; I owe no one an apology!" declared Ward L. Churchill in an address to more than 1,000 mostly cheering students gathered at the university's Boulder campus.

University of Colorado professor Ward L. Churchill has come under fire recently for comparing the Sept. 11 victims to Nazis and for questionable claims of Indian ancestry. Now, fellow academics are accusing him of fraud. Several professors have alleged that in his writings, Churchill distorted events surrounding a smallpox outbreak among Indians in North Dakota, as well as the facts concerning requirements for tribal identity.

From the moment his comments surfaced comparing the victims of Sept. 11 to Nazis, everything about professor Ward L. Churchill has been called into question. His claim to be an American Indian, his scholarship, whether he promotes violence and how he got tenure so quickly are issues now under scrutiny. Most recently, he's been accused of art fraud, replicating paintings by the late Thomas Mails and selling them as his own. He said Mails gave him permission.

Re "University of Colorado Chief Resigns," March 8: University of Colorado professor Ward L. Churchill compared the Sept. 11 victims to Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi war criminal who masterminded the Holocaust, history's most horrible crime. Undoubtedly his vicious and insensitive remarks caused pain to the relatives of the victims of 9/11. In announcing her resignation, Elizabeth Hoffman, the university president, claimed that Churchill was the victim of a new McCarthyism in which people with unpopular views are targeted.

The University of Colorado ordered a review of its tenure system Thursday after one of its professors created a furor by likening World Trade Center victims to Nazi bureaucrats. The university's governing Board of Regents voted to form a panel to examine the way the school awards tenure and the way professors are evaluated after they get it. University President Elizabeth Hoffman said some changes were likely at the conclusion of the review.