Churchill Appeals

Prolonging the inevitable, Churchill appeals his case to yet another panel of his peers:

University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill appealed his pending dismissal to a faculty committee Wednesday, ensuring that it will be three months or more before his future at the university is decided.

In a letter to CU President Hank Brown, Churchill attorney David Lane said that an investigative committee report and interim Chancellor Phil DiStefano's recommendation that Churchill be fired "were against the weight of the credible evidence presented and was in retaliation for his First Amendment protected free speech."

Brown now has three days to forward the case to the Faculty Senate Committee on Privilege and Tenure, which must convene a panel to hear arguments from Churchill and CU attorneys "as expeditiously as possible," according to university policy.

CU officials have estimated that it will take 90 days for the panel to hear the case and make a recommendation to Brown, who will then decide whether to forward the case to the Board of Regents.

If the regents decide to fire Churchill, they would take a final vote in public.

Though the process seems inordinately prolonged, Churchill is receiving the "due process" he claims to not be receiving, instead arguing that he is being ridden out of town on a rail. How many committees of tenured academics finding serious fault with his academic "standards"--plagiarism, etc.--before one can dismiss his claims that this is nothing more than retribution for his "little Eichmanns" comment?