douche bag ward churchill gets nothing

J

John_Wensink

ah z10 you dick.

DENVER — Three months after a jury ruled that Ward L. Churchill, a former University of Colorado professor, was wrongfully terminated for his political views, a judge on Tuesday refused to give him his job back.


David Zalubowski/Associated Press
Ward L. Churchill at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colo., in April.

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Times Topics: Ward L. ChurchillThe judge, Larry J. Naves of Denver District Court, ruled that the university’s regents were immune to liability in this case because they were acting as judicial officers when they voted to dismiss Mr. Churchill after a faculty committee concluded that he had committed academic fraud.

Mr. Churchill, an ethnic studies professor, caused a national uproar when he referred in an essay to some victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as “little Eichmanns,” and he was terminated in 2007. He filed a wrongful-termination suit earlier this year, and after a monthlong trial, a jury found that his political views played a substantial role in his dismissal. But the jury awarded Mr. Churchill only $1 in damages.

In a 42-page ruling, Judge Naves said reinstatement was not appropriate, given the jury’s decision to award Mr. Churchill only $1.

“If I am required to enter a remedy that is ‘consistent with the jury’s findings,’ I cannot order remedy that ‘disregards the jury’s implicit finding’ that Professor Churchill has suffered no actual damages that an award of reinstatement would prospectively remedy,” Judge Naves wrote.

The ruling is a clear victory for the university.

“At the moment, we feel very satisfied,” said Bronson Hilliard, a university spokesman. “There was an important principle at stake here, and that is academic integrity, which is at the heart of everything we do in research and teaching. We feel very gratified at the outcome.”

“We have academic processes in place at the University of Colorado that are time honored and very thorough and very precise,” Mr. Hilliard added. “And we followed those procedures to the letter. Professor Churchill was given full due process.”

David Lane, Mr. Churchill’s lawyer, was not immediately available for comment, but it is likely he will appeal the ruling.

The decision on Tuesday is at least a temporary conclusion to a tumultuous legal case that has lasted nearly five years.

When Mr. Churchill’s controversial essay first appeared in 2001, it attracted little notice. He wrote that some workers in the World Trade Center “formed a technocratic corps at the very heart of America’s global financial empire,” and described them as “little Eichmanns,” referring to Adolf Eichmann, who has been called the architect of the Holocaust.

By 2005, however, it had spread over multiple Web sites, provoking outrage. Shortly after, scholars came forward, accusing Mr. Churchill of plagiarism in his research on American Indians.

In May 2006, a faculty committee at the university said it had found serious problems with Mr. Churchill’s scholarship. A year later, the regents dismissed him and Mr. Churchill filed his lawsuit.

After the jury’s verdict, Mr. Churchill’s lawyers asked Judge Naves to order reinstatement, and at a hearing last week, they argued that returning him to his job would be logical, based on the jury’s findings. Patrick O’Rourke, a lawyer for the university, countered that Mr. Churchill’s return would harm the institution.

Faculty members and administrators testified for both sides.

Emma Perez, chairwoman of the ethnic studies department, testified at the hearing that she would welcome Mr. Churchill with open arms.

“Students are lining up to take classes with Ward,” Ms. Perez said. “They are constantly asking us: ‘Will Ward be back? Will we get to work with him?’ ”

Todd Gleeson, dean of the college of arts and sciences at the university, testified against reinstatement, saying that having Mr. Churchill back on campus would tarnish the university’s reputation, given the faculty committee’s conclusions of research misconduct.

“It makes it very difficult for the university to uphold the standards of integrity and research standards,” Mr. Gleeson said.

Mr. Churchill himself testified that he was not interested in money, and that preserving academic freedom was the true impetus for his lawsuit.

“It is your obligation to state the truth as you know it,” he said, “and you must be able to do it without fear of such intervention and reta
 
The real question is why they have an "Ethnic Studies Department" in the first place. Another question is what possible research could this idiot have been working on? The idea that his research was fraudulent is pretty humorous considering the entire mission of the department is fraudulent. Logically, they should have made him chairman.

The only two institutions in the country that are more inefficient than universities are the court system and the federal government. I don't know why universities even pretend to offer courses anymore. Basically, they are relatively safe places for students to experiment with sex, drugs and radical politics, and after four or five years, in exchange for the cost of a house, they award you a phony degree that signifies nothing. No wonder companies prefer hiring grads from India. I wonder If IIT has an ethnic studies department?
 
Quote from AAAintheBeltway:

The real question is why they have an "Ethnic Studies Department" in the first place.
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It's going to get worse before it gets better. There's a program now that forgives student loans based on how much of a loser the student is. If he can't get a job that makes a decent wage, then all is forgiven.

So, go to school for 10 years, get your PhD in Astrological Influences on Racism while you party your brains out every night, then switch your major every time you get close to graduating. Play your cards right and you can retire straight from college. If you are not interested in a job beyond burger flipping or pouring coffee, why not spend several years getting a degree in it? It's not like you'll have to pay for it, unless you accidently get promoted to district manager or something. Meanwhile, free parties!

If I were a money strapped university, I'd be planning out graduate programs in everything. Then you'll see helped wanted ads like:

Entry level position as a Window Washer for Acme Window Cleaners. Must have a masters degree in Window Cleaning with a minor of Chemical Cleaners. Graduate studies in Window Films a plus.

All courtesy of that sucker to beat all suckers, the US Taxpayer.

And don't think that people will be too embarrased to take advantage of this. They'll line up in droves. I am reminded of one loser who obtained a masters in Music. Racked up 160 grand in student loans. For a Music degree. He thought he'd only have to pay $200 a month to cover the loans!

College educations will be the health care crisis of the 2020s, if we aren't flat broke by then.
 
Quote from TGregg:

It's going to get worse before it gets better. There's a program now that forgives student loans based on how much of a loser the student is. If he can't get a job that makes a decent wage, then all is forgiven.

So, go to school for 10 years, get your PhD in Astrological Influences on Racism while you party your brains out every night, then switch your major every time you get close to graduating. Play your cards right and you can retire straight from college. If you are not interested in a job beyond burger flipping or pouring coffee, why not spend several years getting a degree in it? It's not like you'll have to pay for it, unless you accidently get promoted to district manager or something. Meanwhile, free parties!

If I were a money strapped university, I'd be planning out graduate programs in everything. Then you'll see helped wanted ads like:

Entry level position as a Window Washer for Acme Window Cleaners. Must have a masters degree in Window Cleaning with a minor of Chemical Cleaners. Graduate studies in Window Films a plus.

All courtesy of that sucker to beat all suckers, the US Taxpayer.
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I've taught at the university level for twenty years, and have NEVER seen or heard anything like that.

You really don't know what you're talking about. And you're a MODERATOR?:confused:
 
I've taught at the university level for twenty years, and have NEVER seen or heard anything like that.



that doesn't make it false.

I was a undergrad/grad student for over 10 years. I think liberal arts degrees, outside math, are worthless. Lib arts professors live in an insulated gov't fed environment, so they can make up whatever kind of shit makes them happy. The more outrageous the better sometimes. Of course they think that's how the rest of the world works.
 
Quote from Mav88:

I've taught at the university level for twenty years, and have NEVER seen or heard anything like that.



that doesn't make it false.

I was a undergrad/grad student for over 10 years. I think liberal arts degrees, outside math, are worthless. Lib arts professors live in an insulated gov't fed environment, so they can make up whatever kind of shit makes them happy. The more outrageous the better sometimes. Of course they think that's how the rest of the world works.
More...

Perhaps that was what YOU did, but I've never known a Ph.D. student who partied all of the time, earned less than 10K a year for years while a student, all to live off the federal dole.
 
I would like to add that all indications are that Ward Churchill was INDEED a douchebag. And a thief, for plagiarizing someone else's work.

The professors I work with are underpaid workaholics who care about their students, who serve the community, and who produce quality scholarship.
 
Quote from smilingsynic:

I would like to add that all indications are that Ward Churchill was INDEED a douchebag. And a thief, for plagiarizing someone else's work.

The professors I work with are underpaid workaholics who care about their students, who serve the community, and who produce quality scholarship.
More...

I think many of us fail to see the point of graduate programs in make-believe studies like ethnic studies, racism, queer theory, feminist theory or a hundred other entries in the liberal arts catalogue. The idea of "research" in that context seems to be a misuse of the term. Yet the government funds hundreds of millions of dollars in useless research in phony disciplines every year. Put all that money into medical research and maybe it does some good. At least it is funding serious people doing serious work, not the Ward Churchills and his ilk.
 
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