Trends in Higher Education

* The University of Colorado Board of Regents fired Ethnic Studies Professor Ward Churchill, approving the recommendation of then-President Hank Brown. Churchill drew considerable attention to himself in an essay that compared 9/11 victims to notorious Nazi Adolf Eichmann.

Ward, a tenured professor, was fired for academic misconduct, not his political views. Many complaints surfaced at the time about his scholarship from faculty around the country. The complaints led to the formation of three separate investigative panels – which included more than 20 of his faculty peers and which worked for over two years – to unanimously find a pattern of serious, deliberate and repeated research misconduct that fell below minimum standards of professional integrity. He rewrote history to fit his own theories, plagiarized the work of others, and refused to take responsibility for what was published under his name.

Universities are accountable to those who have a stake in their success and efficient operation. (Excerpts from The Wall Street Journal, “Why I Fired Professor Churchill” by Hank Brown, July 26, 2007)