CU To Rethink One Year Salary For Dismissed Professors Like Ward Churchill

From the "about damn time" category (via PirateBallerina), yet another CU committee (Jesus H. Christ in a chicken basket**, how many do they have!?!?!?) is asking itself exactly why a dismissed professor named Ward Churchill should receive a $96,000 bonus for getting fired:

A CU committee is reexamining a rule that gives one year's pay to professors who are dismissed for cause.

On Friday the Educational Policy and University Standards [EPUS] committee re-opened discussion on this controversial issue, which came to the public's attention this summer when tenured CU Professor Ward Churchill was fired for plagiarism and academic misconduct. He will be paid $96,000 over the course of the next year.

“There is concern about why we pay this money,” [gee, ya think?--ed.] said R L Widmann, Chair of the CU Faculty Council and an ex officio member of the EPUS committee.

The policy stems from a 1940 document released by the American Association of University Professors, called the Statement of Principals on Academic Freedom and Tenure. The 11-page document says “teachers who are dismissed for reasons not involving moral turpitude should receive their salaries for at least a year from the date of notification of dismissal.

In August 1966, the CU Board of Regents approved the AAUP Statement of Principles.

About three to five years ago, Widmann said, EPUS re-endorsed the 1940 AAUP statement and the 1966 Regent vote.

But “as you can guess, the high-profile case that came up this summer raised the question again,” she said.

Why can't you just say the name, huh?

And is anyone else surprised that a document created by an association of university professors would essentially vote themselves a hefty severance package should any of them face dismissal, and call that plan a "statement of principles on academic freedom and tenure"?

The policy has its backers and, shall we say, some "institutional support":

One potential roadblock to changing the policy: CU is one of 25 colleges and universities with membership in the Association of American Universities, which approves the AAUP Statement on Principals of Academic Freedom and Tenure.

“If we were to remove support or stop this policy,” Widmann said, “we would be at odds with 24 other universities.”

The Director of AAUP Program in Academic Freedom and Tenure, Jonathan Knight, says a year's severance pay is recognition of the faculty member's contributions.

Lord knows, you don't want to be at odds with other academic institutions. Yes, recognizing Churchill's extensive contributions to CU--plagiarism, academic dishonesty, negative publicity--the list goes on and on . . .

For a mere $100k, CU gets gems like these from Ward's triumphant pathetic return to an unsanctioned class on campus:

Churchill plans to teach the class his own way, which, he says, doesn't always include the truth.

"Truth is something you aspire to," said Churchill. "It's not something that can be simply taught."

Keep aspiring there, Wardo. For Churchill, the truth isn't something to be found, but something to be built. He should know, he's been manufacturing his own brand of bs truth for years.

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**Forever in your debt, Drunka!