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Sunday, February 06, 2005
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WARD CHURCHILL: VALEDICTORIES
UD now thinks that the University of Colorado will find a way to fire Ward Churchill. They are “reviewing” his work now. As he fades out, here are a couple of valedictories: 'Kimberly Hickel is a former student of Churchill's who says she was in his class on April 19, 1995, when the Oklahoma City bombing took place. "He actually stood in front of our class and said how the FBI got what they deserved. It was awful," said Hickel, who graduated from CU in 1997. Some of the students tried to argue with Churchill, saying the innocent children killed in the day-care center didn't deserve to die. But he refused to allow them to speak their minds. After that, Hickel boycotted his class and wrote a letter to Churchill, attacking his point of view. He, in turn, gave her a D- for the class. She complained to his superiors, but said they did nothing. "The whole school is afraid of him," she said. "He is hiding behind free speech. But he doesn't allow students to stand up for free speech," Hickel said.' Paul Campos, a professor of law at CU, sums it up: 'That through whatever combination of negligence, cowardice and complicity we have allowed Ward Churchill to besmirch [scholarly] ideals by invoking them in the defense of his contemptible rantings is now our burden and our shame.' UD doesn't want to kick CU while it's down, but all you need to do is type University of Colorado in that Search thing up there to find in her blog endless accounts of sports and alcohol and academic fuckupery on campus. Have you noticed that virtually all of the administrators quoted in this latest fiasco are "interim"? The University of Colorado makes the University of South Florida look like a well-oiled machine. What ought to be done? After firing Churchill and getting through the violent incidents and the free speech condemnations that will follow, the University of Colorado needs to find an unimpeachable spokesperson to deliver a State of the University speech which would be covered by the national media. This speech should begin by conceding that the university is in deep crisis, and that the Churchill scandal is only part of a larger institutional picture of, as Campos says, "negligence, cowardice, and complicity." The spokesperson would then announce a series of real changes that will now take place. Those changes could involve firing the entire board of regents, shutting down fraternities, shutting down the sports programs, and pressuring some of the hundreds of bars adjacent to the campus to leave. They could, more immediately, involve shutting down the ethnic studies program, which, this spokesperson will admit, is a disgracefully shoddy academic unit. "We have been asleep at the wheel," this person will conclude; "and Ward Churchill was the crash that ensued. I assure you that we at this university are now fully awake. This proud institution, which we love, will shake itself off and find its way home again." |