Jury finds Ward Churchill Wrongly Fired

[Pawn Power]

Jury Says Professor Was Wrongly Fired (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/03/us/03churchill.html?_r=1&hp)


Surprise, surprise, it wasn't Churchill's academic work which was significant in his firing but his political views.


DENVER — A jury found on Thursday that the University of Colorado (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/university_of_colorado/index.html?inline=nyt-org) had wrongfully dismissed a professor who drew national attention for an essay in which he called some victims of the Sept. 11 attacks “little Eichmanns.”


But the jury, which deliberated for a day and a half, awarded only $1 in damages to the former professor, Ward L. Churchill (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/ward_l_churchill/index.html?inline=nyt-per), a tenured faculty member at the university’s campus in Boulder since 1991 who was chairman of the ethnic studies department.



The jurors found that Mr. Churchill’s political views had been a “substantial or motivating” factor in his dismissal, and that the university had not shown that he would have been dismissed anyway.

[#FF0000]

WTF?:cursing:
It's the minimum they can give someone while ruling in their favor. I assume he just didn't counter-sue for any set amount of money.

[RedHal]

Great! now he needs to get his old job back!

[AvanteRedGarde]

The jury with their paltry one dollar settlement essential gave CU, and schools around the country, a free license to do the same.

[Pawn Power]

Great! now he needs to get his old job back!

I think that is next on the agenda.

[Invader Zim]

Now that this issue has catapulted the man into the spotlight, I doubt he needs his old job back, I suspect he gets more than enough of a living from royalty cheques from his books.

[mikelepore]

Besides, it was John Zerzan who used the term "Little Eichmanns", in 1995. Ward Churchill in 2001 was only using someone else's term that had already become a part of the vocabulary of political literature.

Zerzan's article: http://www.insurgentdesire.org.uk/whoseunabomber.htm

[Dooga Aetrus Blackrazor]

Education is important. He may want his job back to educate the youth. The rich perpetuate class inequalities by requiring education for success, in many cases. Once you enter the education system, you learn what the education system wants you to learn. You are bombarded with so much information you have little time to learn about alternative ideas. Because of the efforts of professors like Churchill, post secondary education has become much more diverse and now serves as a slightly anti-capitalist institution in many respects.

[Mike Morin]

Harsh statement by Churchill, but certainly within the bounds of free speech.

Glad, the decision has been in his favor, but at what cost?

A friend of mine said that the 911 "Terrorists" were cowards. My response was that there may be many things that you can call them, including "freedom fighters", but they certainly were not cowards.


Mike Morin
Peoples Equity Union