Ward Churchill Academic Misconduct Investigation - Background

Background

On September 12, 2001 Ward Churchill published a controversial essay about the September 11, 2001 attacks, entitled "Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens". In that essay, Churchill argued that American foreign policies provoked the attacks and questioned the innocence of some of the 9/11 victims, characterizing them as part of the infrastructure of an imperialist government, and as "little Eichmanns". National attention was drawn to the essay in January 2005, when Churchill was invited to speak at Hamilton College in New York as a panelist in a debate titled "Limits of Dissent".

Hundreds of relatives of 9/11 victims protested against Churchill's scheduled appearance at Hamilton. Joan Hinde Stewart, Hamilton College president, said that the college was committed to his right of free speech and would not be rescinding the invitation. As publicity about this controversy grew, the Colorado Legislature unanimously passed a resolution labeling Churchill's remarks "evil and inflammatory." Colorado Governor Bill Owens, a Republican, stated Churchill should be fired and asked the university to dismiss him. New York governor George Pataki, also a Republican, called Churchill a "bigoted terrorist supporter." Local media in Colorado and in the Hamilton College area broke the story and conservative bloggers such as Little Green Footballs and Free Republic began posting hundreds of comments critical of Churchill. Two days later the national media took note.

The media controversy led to a greater examination of other works by Churchill as well as the man himself. On February 3, 2005, the University of Colorado at Boulder Board of Regents ordered a 30-day review and investigation into Churchill's published writings and spoken remarks to determine if there were grounds for dismissal. During this probe, allegations, both old and new, were raised against Churchill accusing him of academic fraud and plagiarism, and questioning his claims of American Indian heritage. In response, Churchill agreed that plagiarism would qualify as academic misconduct, but publicly challenged anyone to find plagiarism in his work. The media took up the challenge, and a number of allegations of research misconduct were made. Conservative commentators publicized the allegations of bad scholarship by Churchill, including Bill O'Reilly and Ann Coulter; others, such as David Horowitz, continued to criticize Churchill's inflammatory remarks. Emma Perez, chair of the Ethnic Studies Department at the University of Colorado, wrote that the effort to fire Churchill was part of "the neocon battle for dominance in academe" through "forcing and then manipulating this 'investigation' of Ward's scholarship."

On March 24, 2005, University Interim Chancellor Philip DiStephano held a press conference to announce the results of the seven-week preliminary review of professor Churchill. "While there are limits to the protections afforded by the Constitution, our review has determined that those limits have not been exceeded in professor Churchill's case," Mr. DiStefano said, noting that the review panel found that Mr. Churchill committed no violation in describing some victims of the terrorist attacks as "little Eichmanns." The same panel, however, referred for further investigation the allegations of plagiarism and Indian heritage misrepresentation. DiStefano submitted a list of research misconduct allegations to the Research Misconduct Committee, and a six person inquiry subcommittee was appointed to conduct a preliminary evaluation. The committee declined to address the issue of Churchill's ethnic heritage. On August 19, 2005, the inquiry committee reported that it found seven of the allegations merited further investigation.