Letter questions motives for investigation

Head of Churchill's department wary of effect on free speech

Sara Burnett, Rocky Mountain News

Published May 27, 2006 at midnight

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The chairman of the University of Colorado department where Ward Churchill works urged CU officials Friday to take a long, hard look at their motives for investigating Churchill and warned any action against him could have a negative effect on faculty.

Ethnic studies chairman Albert Ramirez also called on administrators to publicly affirm his department, which has received numerous phone calls and e-mails - many of them "racist and extremely acrimonious" - since the Churchill controversy began more than a year ago.

"The university can no longer continue to remain silent in this regard, unless it wants to send a message to other academic departments on campus that, when they are at risk and under attack by a vocal segment of the bureaucratic and political establishment, they, too, are on their own," Ramirez wrote in a 3 1/2 page letter to CU leaders.

Ramirez did not say in his letter whether he thinks any action should be taken against Churchill. In an interview, he said he preferred to let the process - which will likely include a lawsuit - run its course.

"That process is continuing, and I don't think it would be helpful at this point (to express an opinion)," Ramirez said.

Last week, a five-member investigative committee concluded Churchill committed research misconduct, including fabricating material and plagiarism, in his writings.

Research misconduct is considered one of the most serious offenses a faculty member can commit. And the investigative committee concluded that Churchill had consistently committed it.

The committee made up of academics, including three from CU, also questioned whether Churchill understood the gravity of the problems in his work and said he did not acknowledge any serious wrongdoing.

Committee members recommended Churchill be fired or suspended without pay for two to five years, though they also said they were troubled by the timing of the inquiry.

Although some of the allegations concerning Churchill's scholarship have been around for decades, CU began looking into his work last year amid public outrage over an essay he wrote comparing some victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to Nazi Adolf Eichmann.

In his letter, Ramirez referred to an analogy in the committee's report that compared the Churchill investigation to police pulling over a driver because the officer didn't like a bumper sticker on the driver's car.

While the reason for stopping the driver may be improper, if that driver were speeding, no court would think it were improper to issue a ticket, the panel concluded.

Similarly, the committee concluded that Churchill's misconduct was so egregious he should be punished, even if the reasons for the investigation were questionable.

But Ramirez argued CU officials must consider those circumstances more deeply, and the possibility that firing or suspending Churchill might have a chilling effect on other professors' free speech.

"The university's decision will have a significant effect on the entire university community," he wrote. "The faculty, in particular, must remain reassured by the results of this investigative process that they will not someday be targeted because of their own 'bumper stickers.' "

Ramirez also said it's unfair that administrators will decide Churchill's fate when interim Chancellor Phil DiStefano is the main complainant in the case.

"There is something inherently wrong, in terms of due process, with an investigative system in which the same person or office is the complainant as well as the judge and prosecutor," he wrote.

CU officials have said they launched the inquiry into Churchill's work not because of his Sept. 11 essay but because of complaints they received about his other writings after that essay was widely publicized.

The university was obligated to look into those complaints, CU Spokesman Barrie Hartman has said.

The investigation followed a formal, multistep process that is outlined in CU's administrative policies and applies to any faculty member, student, administrator or staff person who does research.

Provost Susan Avery and arts and sciences Dean Todd Gleeson could make a decision on whether Churchill should be fired by mid-June.

Churchill, 58, started at the University of Colorado in 1978 in a program that provided counseling and tutoring to minority students. After being rejected by two other departments, he received tenure in the communications department in 1991.

He transferred to the ethnic studies department six years later and served as chairman from 2002 until early 2005, when he stepped down.

He has denied wrongdoing and has said he expects to sue the university.

burnetts@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5343

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