In Denver, the verdict in the Ward Churchill trial was just read.

The jury found that University of Colorado terminated him based on his speech, but awarded him $0 for past economic harm and $1 for current damages.

Caplis and Silverman, lawyers who have followed the case closely and host a top talk show on 630KHOW, say it should be seen as victory for CU. Interpretation: Jury found him to be an academic fraud undeserving of restitution.

Denver blog Slapstick Politics has liveblogging. More coverage at Complete Colorado.

And from fraud-busting blog Pirate Ballerina, a definitive analysis blasting CU’s botched defense:

Since we’ve made no effort to hide our contempt for CU attorney Patrick O’Rourke’s mishandling of his defense of CU, it should come as no surprise to our readers that we now lay CU’s defeat directly at O’Rourke’s clown shoes. Churchill did not win this case; O’Rourke lost it. And since all problems can be traced back to management, CU is the

CU’s Achilles’ heel has always been its own sloth and incompetence, in the hiring process, the investigatory process, and finally, in the legal defense process. CU administrators were aware that Churchill’s scholarship qualifications consisted of a few mostly co-authored screeds on the usual leftist memes, and a masters degree in a bonehead major from an experimental college, yet they hired him as an Ethnic Studies professor with tenure. And CU administrators were made aware of serious problems with Churchill’s version(s) of history long before the “Little Eichmanns” essay re-emerged from obscurity back in January 2005, yet they did nothing.

It took the public outrage surrounding that essay to finally goad CU into action, putting into motion a process that lasted four years. Churchill had every opportunity to present his case, and in every instance he failed. His termination back in 2007 was the result, as was his inevitable suit against CU, the conclusion of which we have before us today.

Once the initial public outrage faded, unfortunately, CU returned, to its happy place: sloth and incompetence. During the trial, David Lane used CU’s own witnesses to illustrate those qualities, and CU’s attorney, Patrick O’Rourke was unable to counter Lane’s sallies simply because O’Rourke exemplifies CU’s commitment to sloth and incompetence. Perhaps he is a shark feared by medical litigants worldwide, but in a civil rights case with a very obvious villain (and admittedly a less-than-sympathetic good guy), O’Rourke was hopelessly outmatched.

And so, of course, Churchill won. It is a sad commentary that CU was unable to defeat a documented plagiarist and historical fraud, but we consider it the inevitable result of decades of sloth and incompetence. As others have noted with elegant simplicity, CU deserves Churchill. The question Colorado voters (and CU alumni) must now ask themselves is equally simple: Does CU deserve their support?

Last night, they teamed up in the People’s Republic of Boulder, Colorado, to whine about their victimization at the hands of their academic oppressors, stroke each others’ massive egos, and pat themselves on the back for their heroism:

William Ayers, the former Weather Underground radical whose past made him a lightning rod in the 2008 presidential campaign, said Thursday that fired Colorado professor Ward Churchill became the victim of a “witch hunt” after comparing Sept. 11 victims to a Nazi.

“There’s no doubt in my mind he was persecuted because of his politics,” Ayers said before appearing with Churchill at a student rally on academic freedom at the University of Colorado at Boulder…

…Ayers is now an education professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago and an outspoken critic of intimidation of professors. “Again and again, we have political leaders who weigh in on what’s appropriate to teach and who’s appropriate to teach,” Ayers said Thursday. He cited the University of Nebraska’s decision to cancel his scheduled appearance at the Lincoln campus last fall after criticism from Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman. “Is that where we’re heading, is the university a fiefdom of the governor? That’s a little frightening,” he said.

…Ayers said he worries less about himself and Churchill than “about the teacher in Denver who can’t bring herself to ask the critical question because she saw what happened to Ward Churchill.” He also acknowledged that what the Weather Underground did failed to stop the Vietnam war but he refused to apologize for it.

“I don’t claim much for myself, but I’m not going to align myself at this late date with those who want to make war heroes out of criminals and criminals out of heroes,” he said.

More from Slapstick Politics.

See the Denver Post article for the laughable spectacle of these two violence-promoters moaning about their security needs. In moonbat Boulder. Seriously.

PDS? Check.

Profanity-laced classroom? Check.

All he’s missing is the Che beret and AK-47.

And Darfur and China, too! What, no Burma? Everyone forgets so fast.

“If this kind of situation had existed for instance in the manner in which China was dealing with Tibet or the Sudanese government was dealing with Darfur, I think there would be no reluctance to make that comparison,” he said.

That’s funny. I wasn’t aware that the Dalai Lama’s suicide terror squads were launching daily volleys of Katyusha rockets into downtown Beijing.

That reluctance was, he argued, based on the particular historical sensitivity of the Jewish people, and Israel’s ability to avoid having their policies held up to international law and morality.

Riiiiiiiiight. No one ever complains about Israel. Especially at the UN.

This fellow is Professor Richard Falk. More about his appointment here. But really, I think this letter says it all. Excerpt:

I regard Professor Churchill’s scholarly work as having made major contributions in ethnic studies and with respect to Native Americans. This assessment is reinforced by Churchill’s worldwide reputation, as well as by the high regard with which he is held by students.

Yes, that is Ward Churchill he’s talking about.

Via Slapstick Politics, we have word that the looniest professor is back on campus for an unsanctioned class at the University of Colorado:

Former University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill on Tuesday began what he told students would become a series of classes held at the school despite being fired from his position in July.

Churchill elicited applause and handshakes from the majority of the 30 or so CU students and area residents who came to hear his lecture, which he titled “ReVisioning American History: Colonization, Genocide and Formation of the U.S. Settler State.”

Churchill, who did not allow the Camera to attend the class, said the group would come up with various topics to discuss.

“I’ve been invited by people who are concerned with content of the mind,” Churchill said.

Thuggish as ever, Churchill’s goons engaged in some trademark roughhousing:

Two men who identified themselves as event organizers turned away three male CU students at the door, calling them “agitators.”

One of the men watching the door, who did not give his name, became physical with a Camera reporter who tried to enter the room — grabbing his arm and pushing him — prompting a report to police.

Update 11:15pm Eastern. Photographer El Marco captured the followers of Ward Churchill in their natural habitat…

Update 9:03pm Eastern. Slapstick Politics posts photos from the circus and has video coming up.

Also, it seems that Flipping the Bird 101 is a mandatory course at CU:

Update 8:52pm Eastern. Who cast the sole vote against firing Ward Churchill? The Denver Post reports it was CU Regent Cindy Carlisle:

Regents at the University of Colorado voted 8-1 today to terminate professor Ward Churchill. The vote was made en masse; regent Cindy Carlisle was the lone vote in favor of keeping Churchill. Immediately after the announcement, protestors began a loud demonstration Glen Miller Ballroom of CU’s Memorial Hall, with chants and drums. Churchill’s lawyer, David Lane, has said he has a lawsuit ready to be filed. CU President Hank Brown and Regents Chair Patricia “Pat” Hayes called a news conference after the vote. Hayes said that Carlisle had agreed that Churchill was guilty of the findings, but she disagreed with the sanctions imposed.

Pirate Ballerina commemorates the vote:

Update 8:15pm Eastern. Next steps–via RMN, Churchill’s gonna sue…

The University of Colorado’s Board of Regents today fired professor Ward Churchill, 2 1/2 years after his comments about the victims of the 9/11 attacks sparked a firestorm.

The regents, in an 8-1 vote, said Churchill committed academic misconduct. The board convened this morning and spent several hours behind closed doors hearing the charges against Churchill.

University president Hank Brown, in a news conference, said “the decision was really pretty basic” based on the board’s findings. Churchill was accused of plagiarism, falsification and other infractions.

Said Brown: “The individual did not express regret, did not apologize, did not indicate a willingness to refrain from this type of
falsification in the future.”

Immediately after the vote was announced, Churchil said “New game, new game.” He has vowed to sue if the regents acted against him.

A handful of protesters were gathered around a drum, beating it and chanting as someone else held an American Indian Movement flag.

Update 7:00pm Eastern. Still no action…7:40pm Eastern…here we go…8-1. Churchill fired…meeting hastily adjourned…a bit of screeching and booing…video feed gone…

Bumped and updating 5:40pm Eastern. The decision should be coming down anytime now. Stand by…Video link from CU of the afternoon public session is supposed to be here. Scheduled start time: 4pm Mountain Time.

A quick reminder of the charges against him, via the RMN:

*Historical facts: Churchill manufactured events in which European Americans intentionally spread smallpox to kill Indians. In one such event, the Army is said to have distributed tainted blankets to Mandan Indians. But no evidence backs the claim.

*Elsewhere, Churchill claimed the United States adopted a formal racial code to identify Indians, similar to the code used by the Nazis to identify Jews. U.S. law includes no such code, legal scholars say.

*Plagiarism: Churchill published an essay on water issues in Canada that closely resembles a pamphlet by a Canadian environmental group. He also borrowed a work on fishing rights originally published by Canadian scholar Fay Cohen.

*Falsifying sources: Churchill wrote essays under the names of other people, which he then cited as independent sources in his footnotes.

***

Originally posted July 24, 2007 @ 10:04am.

The showdown over Ward Churchill climaxes today. RMN reports:

University of Colorado ethnic- studies professor Ward Churchill faces dismissal today at the hands of the school’s Board of Regents after 2 1/2 years of national controversy and investigations.

Protesters backing Churchill have vowed to hold demonstrations at the Boulder campus. CU officials say police will be present.

Churchill has told Boulder’s Daily Camera he expects to be fired today.

He is charged with academic misconduct, ranging from plagiarism to inventing facts and even entire historical episodes. Among the more unusual charges is that Churchill published essays under the names of other people then cited them in his footnotes as independent sources supporting his views.

A faculty investigative committee upheld the charges one year ago. The matter then crawled through an extensive appeals process, with CU President Hank Brown recommending dismissal in May.

The regents will meet today in closed session to hear the charges and Churchill’s response. They will then deliberate in private but vote in public on whether to fire him.

The vigilant bloggers at Pirate Ballerina will be liveblogging the proceedings and protests all day. They’ve dubbed it “Dismissapalooza.” Also check out Colorado blog Slapsticks Politics, which frames the day this way: “Chickens roosting or chicken regents?”

Whatever happens, you can bet we haven’t seen the last of the king of the moonbats. Tenured radicals never die, they just bloviate away.

The New School gave the nation’s preeminent moonbat academic a rousing reception. He returned the favor by trashing the college’s president, former Senator and Vietnam War veteran Bob Kerrey as a “mass murder and serial killer.” Via the NYSun:

An ethnic studies professor from the University of Colorado, Ward Churchill, received a standing ovation last night from a crowd of more than 200 New School students after blaming the 2001 World Trade Center attacks on America’s support of Israel and its sanctions against Iraq in 1996.

In a two-hour speech at the New School titled “Sterilizing History: The Fabrication of Innocent Americans,” delivered without notes, Mr. Churchill traced what he called a pattern of mass murder as American foreign policy from the time of the country’s inception to the events of September 11, 2001, which he said the country was essentially asking for.

Fabrication? Churchill knows plenty about that.

More:

Mr. Churchill also called the president of the New School, Robert Kerrey, a former senator of Nebraska, a “mass murder and serial killer to boot” for having served in Thanh Phong, Vietnam. Mr. Churchill also served in Vietnam, an act for which he said he has spent the rest of his life apologizing.

Mr. Churchill received cheers from the audience for comparing Mr. Kerrey to the serial killer Charles Manson. “That’s who you’ve got moral equivalency in the president’s chair at this institution,” Mr. Churchill said. “How about a cage rather than a president’s suite?”

No one rushed the stage. No one threw pies. No one pulled fire alarms.

Conservative students don’t do those things. That’s the domain of Ward Churchill’s ilk. Which makes the picture above of Churchill and his “security contingent” all the more laughable.

By the way: There have still been no consequences for Churchill’s academic and research misconduct.

Pirate Ballerina continues to keep watch.

Reader Randy:

So let me get this straight, Churchill thinks Iraq had to do with 9/11, something we never say yet the left constantly screams that we did, and he is calling the liberal Democrat Robert Kerrey a murderer? Despite the love shown for Ward Churchill by the usual Kos Kid type suspects, somehow I doubt they’ll highlight this story.

Reader JN had the same reaction:

So Churchill says that the sanctions imposed on Iraq in 1996 were a partial cause for 9/11. But I thought Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. Can these moonbats keep their talking points straight?

***
Previous:
The Ward Churchill report
The seditious Ward Churchill
Ward Churchill and MEChA: perfect together
Ward Churchill: bullying claim
Ward Churchill update
Press conference on Ward Churchill
Ward Churchill: Caught on tape
One of Ward Churchill’s ex-wives speaks
Double standards at the University of Colorado
Liveblogging Ward Churchill and Bill Maher
The never-ending Ward Churchill sitcom
University of Colorado faculty members come to the defense of Ward Churchill
Another bizarre twist in the Ward Churchill saga (fake art)
Ward Churchill: Caught on tape advocating terrorism
Eason Jordan, meet Ward Churchill

Pirate Ballerina, the blog that was central to pushing the story forward, has analysis and points to the bottom line of the report:

While we are unanimous in finding that Professor Churchill’s research misconduct is serious and that we should express the degree of that seriousness through a recommendation about sanctions, our discussions have not led to unanimity about what particular sanctions are warranted. What follows, then, is the only portion of our report that presents multiple views.

* Two members of the Committee conclude and recommend that Professor Churchill should not be dismissed. They reach this conclusion because they do not think his conduct so serious as to satisfy the criteria for revocation of tenure and dismissal set forth in section 5.C.1 of the Law of the Regents, because they are troubled by the circumstances under which these allegations have been made, and because they believe that his dismissal would have an adverse effect on other scholars’ ability to conduct their research with due freedom. These two members agree and recommend that the most appropriate sanction, following any required additional procedures as specified by the University’s rules, is a suspension from University employment without pay for a term of two years.

* Three members of the Committee believe that Professor Churchill’s research misconduct is so serious that it satisfies the criteria for revocation of tenure and dismissal specified in section 5.C.1 of the Laws of the Regents, and hence that revocation of tenure and dismissal, after completion of all appropriate procedures, is not an improper sanction. One of these members believes and recommends that dismissal is the most appropriate sanction; the other two believe and recommend that the most appropriate sanction is suspension from University employment without pay for a term of five years.

Finally, the Committee had the following comments about its report: The Committee notes that the Laws of the Regents of the University of Colorado define “academic freedom” as “the freedom to inquire, discover, publish and teach truth as the faculty member sees it, subject to no control or authority save the control and authority of the rational methods by which truth is established.”

We understand and were careful to distinguish “misconduct in research,” which is addressed by the University of Colorado’s Administrative Policy Statement on Misconduct in Research and Authorship, from the issue of “truth” addressed by the Regents’ Laws’ definition of academic freedom. The Committee observes also that the allegations we were asked to investigate were initiated in the wake of the public outcry concerning some highly controversial essays by Professor Churchill dealing with, among other things, the 9/11 tragedy. While not endorsing either the tone or the contents of those essays, the Committee reaffirms, as the University has already acknowledged, that Professor Churchill’s right to publish his views was protected by both the First and Fourteenth Amendment guarantees of free speech. Although those essays played no part in our deliberations, the Committee expresses its concern regarding the timing and perhaps the motives for the University’s decision to forward charges made in that context. We point out finally that when Professor Churchill was hired as an Associate Professor with tenure in 1991 and promoted to (full) Professor in 1997, the University knew that he did not have a Ph.D. or law degree, as commonly expected for faculty at this institution, and was aware that he was a controversial public intellectual.

Press conference scheduled for 230pm.
AP summary:

An investigation of a professor who likened some Sept. 11 victims to a Nazi found serious cases of misconduct in his academic research, a University of Colorado spokesman said Tuesday.

One member of the five-person investigative committee recommended that ethnic studies professor Ward Churchill be fired, and four recommended he be suspended, university spokesman Barrie Hartman said.

Churchill has denied doing anything wrong. He said earlier Tuesday that he had yet to see the report.

University officials had earlier determined Churchill could not be fired for his comments about the terrorist attacks, but they launched an inquiry into allegations about his research, which included accusations of plagiarism and fabrication.

More from Jim Paine at Pirate Ballerina on a possible new fake art controversy involving Churchill.

***

Related: Churchill’s wife resigns post.

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Previous:

The seditious Ward Churchill
Ward Churchill and MEChA: perfect together
Ward Churchill: bullying claim
Ward Churchill update
Press conference on Ward Churchill
Ward Churchill: Caught on tape
One of Ward Churchill’s ex-wives speaks
Double standards at the University of Colorado
Liveblogging Ward Churchill and Bill Maher
The never-ending Ward Churchill sitcom
University of Colorado faculty members come to the defense of Ward Churchill
Another bizarre twist in the Ward Churchill saga (fake art)
Ward Churchill: Caught on tape advocating terrorism
Eason Jordan, meet Ward Churchill

***
Previous:

Bustamante, MEChA, and the media
Ward Churchill: bullying claim
Ward Churchill update
Press conference on Ward Churchill
Ward Churchill: Caught on tape
One of Ward Churchill’s ex-wives speaks
Double standards at the University of Colorado
Liveblogging Ward Churchill and Bill Maher
The never-ending Ward Churchill sitcom
University of Colorado faculty members come to the defense of Ward Churchill
Another bizarre twist in the Ward Churchill saga (fake art)
Ward Churchill: Caught on tape advocating terrorism
Eason Jordan, meet Ward Churchill

A previously unreported allegation of intimidation by University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill surfaced during a committee’s initial review of his work, but, like other threat complaints, it was not addressed by administrators.

The complaint was included in more than 150 pages of documents released Thursday that stemmed from the preliminary investigation into whether Churchill should be disciplined…

The newest complaint to surface involves former staff member Mary Curran, who wrote a note to Regent Tom Lucero detailing her 1993 experience. She said that she asked Churchill to shut his office door while smoking and that she shut the door when Churchill wouldn’t. She wrote that Churchill “proceeded to chase me all the way up to the second floor screaming obscenities at me.”

Guess this will disqualify him for a U.N. ambassadorship, huh?

***
Previous:

Ward Churchill update
Press conference on Ward Churchill
Ward Churchill: Caught on tape
One of Ward Churchill’s ex-wives speaks
Double standards at the University of Colorado
Liveblogging Ward Churchill and Bill Maher
The never-ending Ward Churchill sitcom
University of Colorado faculty members come to the defense of Ward Churchill
Another bizarre twist in the Ward Churchill saga (fake art)
Ward Churchill: Caught on tape advocating terrorism
Eason Jordan, meet Ward Churchill

Cameras and recording devices were banned “in the spirit of creating an open forum for debate and discussion,” according to a written statement released by the college.

More:

Photos of his Bay Area appearances last month.

And Churchill rants made easy.

I’ll liveblog anything newsworthy…ROUGH TRANSCRIPTION

DiStefano: [This is] an important moment in the university history…CU has been the focal point of intense public debate…I personally found the [Churchill 9/11] essay to be profoundly repugant and hurtful [to the 9/11 victims]…

Important values:

-freedom of expression
-personal integrity
-academic freedom
-intellectual honesty

It often has been said that a university is a marketplace of ideas…Indeed, one of our most cherished freedoms is academic freedom…But…with freedom comes with responsibility…

Summary of report:

…we initially focused on churchill’s conduct, speeches, and writings. Also [investigated] potential research misconduct.

Two primary questions:

1) Did certain statements by Churchill exceed [acceptable boundaries?]
2) Is there evidence Churchill engaged in other conduct (research misconduct teaching misconduct, and fraudulent representations in his teachings) that warrants further action?

Key findings:

- Many Americans were outraged and angry by Prof. Churchill’s most egregious statements relating to the [9/11 victims]…[but] we must consider any actions against Churchill in the context of the First Amendment…we have found that the contect and rhetoric, no matter how repugnant, are protected by the First Amendment. Limits have not been exceeded.

- In the course of this review, we have determined that the allegations of research misconduct warrant further action.

- Question of ethnicity. Regarding misrepresentation of ethnicity to gain credibility…we believe such misrepresentation may constitute research misconduct and failure to reach standards of research integrity.

- We have concluded that allegations of research conduct related to plagiarism HAVE SUFFICIENT MERIT TO WARRANT FURTHER INQUIRY. Will refer to Boulder Campus Standing Committee on research misconduct.

Q&A:

Review could take up to seven months.

Update: Report is available here. Here’s a helpful excerpt outlining the charges of research misconduct that the reviewers considered:

In the course of this review, the University received information from scholars, expert in the fields in which Professor Churchill writes, who tendered allegations of research misconduct which, if true, could violate standards of professional integrity. The following information was considered:

* Professor John LaVelle of the University of New Mexico forwarded allegations to the reviewers that Professor Churchill’s work is “sorely lacking in historical/factual veracity and scholarly integrity.”29 One of Professor LaVelle’s most serious allegations is that Professor Churchill has misrepresented an important statute in the field of federal Indian law, the General Allotment Act of 1887,30 and that this misrepresentation is a central premise of one of Professor Churchill’s scholarly theories. According to Professor Churchill, the General Allotment Act “imposed a formal eugenics code” that tribes themselves adopted by making blood quantum a requirement of membership.31 Professor LaVelle has asserted that Professor Churchill’s criticisms of Indian tribes for using blood quantum standards as part of their tribal enrollment criteria rests on false information about the Act.32 Professor LaVelle asserts that “[t]he main flaw of this federal/tribal conspiracy theory is that it rests on — and propagates — demonstrably false information concerning the contents and impact of the General Allotment Act.” Professor Churchill continued to maintain the theory subsequent to publication of Professor LaVelle’s articles.34 Other scholars have relied in their work on Professor Churchill’s assertion that the General Allotment Act contained a blood quantum requirement.35

* Professor LaVelle makes a similar allegation about an assertion Professor Churchill has advanced concerning the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990.36 The Indian Arts and Crafts Act is aimed at preventing non-Indians from marketing their art as Indian-produced.37 Professor Churchill says the following about the Arts and Crafts Act:

The government “standard” involved — usually called “blood quantum” within the lexicon of “scientific” racism — is that a person can be an “American Indian artist” only if he or she is “certifiably” of “one-quarter or more degree of Indian blood by birth.” Alternatively, the artist may be enrolled as a member of one or another of the federally-sanctioned “tribes” currently existing within the U.S. . . .38

Professor LaVelle refers to Professor Churchill’s description of the Act as a “false characterization” and states further that Professor Churchill’s description is “erroneous — and egregiously so.”39

* Professor Thomas Brown of Lamar University forwarded information alleging that a theory Professor Churchill has published as fact-that the U.S. Army perpetuated genocide—is clearly contrary to the source Professor Churchill cites.40 Professor Churchill has asserted that the U.S. Army deliberately distributed smallpox-infested blankets to Mandan Indians in 1837, causing an epidemic in which over 100,000 people died.41 However, the source he cites is contrary to both the number of dead and his version of the story.42 Indeed, his source, Professor Russell Thornton of UCLA and other experts agree that the story is without historical basis.43 Professor Brown states:

Situating Churchill’s rendition of the epidemic in a broader historiographical analysis, one must reluctantly conclude that Churchill fabricated the most crucial details of his genocide story. Churchill radically misrepresented the sources he cites in support of his genocide charges, sources which say essentially the opposite of what Churchill attributes to them.44

* Professor Fay G. Cohen of Dalhousie University in Canada told the University of Colorado during this review that Professor Churchill plagiarized her work by publishing a chapter entitled “In Usual and Accustomed Places” in a book entitled The State of Native America.45 The chapter was nearly the same as an article entitled “Implementing Indian Treaty Fishing Rights: Conflict and Cooperation” that she had published in a volume edited by Professor Churchill.46 The book chapter showed the author to be “Institute for Natural Progress,” and the “About the Contributors” section of the book, in turn, attributed the work of the Institute of Natural Progress to Ward Churchill. In 1997 the Dalhousie University legal counsel rendered an opinion concluding that the chapter was plagiarized.”47

Professor Cohen alleged that she did not communicate the allegations of plagiarism discussed above to the University of Colorado until March 2005 because she was intimidated by Professor Churchill based on past dealings. She recounted that when she withdrew her work from The State of Native America, a book edited by Professor Churchill, due to substantive editorial disagreements, he telephoned her late at night and said in a menacing voice: “I’ll get you for this.” While the threat and resulting intimidation described by Professor Cohen did not directly relate to the research misconduct allegation, they would be relevant to a question which may be raised during the course of the research misconduct inquiry, that is, why Professor Cohen did not pursue the plagiarism claim sooner.

* Rhonda Kelly, the sister of Professor Churchill’s late wife, Leah Renae Kelly, has made allegations to the reviewers concerning a fifty-page “biographical preface” written by Professor Churchill for a book of essays by Leah Kelly entitled In My Own Voice. The essays were posthumously published in 2001 in a book edited by Professor Churchill. Rhonda Kelly denounces the preface as “inaccurate and defaming” because, in her view, the preface incorrectly describes Leah’s upbringing on and near a Canadian Ojibway reserve. Further, she says Churchill misrepresents Ojibway society as matrilineal when in fact it is patrilineal. The Assembly of First Nations, representing Native peoples across Canada, has also passed a resolution in support of Rhonda Kelly and denouncing the book.48

* Professor LaVelle also alleges that Professor Churchill has misused the materials of another scholar, Rebecca L. Robbins, Ph.D. Professor LaVelle points out that a passage from an essay in a 1993 book by Professor Churchill closely resembles a similar passage from a 1992 publication by Dr. Robbins.49 Years after Professor LaVelle raised the issue, Professor Churchill republished the essay with some changes but still containing Robbins’ work without attribution.50

The inquiry into allegations of research misconduct is a function assigned to the faculty. The University of Colorado at Boulder Standing Committee on Research Misconduct (the “Committee”) has the duty to review, inter alia, allegations of “[f]abrication, falsification, plagiarism and other forms of misappropriation of ideas, or additional practices that seriously deviate from those that are commonly accepted in the research community for proposing, conducting, or reporting research.”51 Allegations of research misconduct that are not frivolous are reviewed by the Committee. With the exception of Rhonda Kelly’s allegations, with respect to which the reviewers were unable to obtain independent verification, the referenced allegations meet that minimum standard and will be referred to the Committee for further inquiry. If the Committee determines that Professor Churchill engaged in research misconduct, the Committee is to make recommendations regarding possible disciplinary action ranging from warning to dismissal. Consistent with University policy, the Committee’s process will afford Professor Churchill all due opportunity to respond to the allegations.

This. Loon. Still. Has. A. Job.

Update: And he’s headed for a speaking gig in a comfortable habitat…UC Berkeley!

Update II: In case you missed it, Victor Davis Hanson writes about Churchill today at NRO: Academia’s everyman. And more from AP on CU’s decision to review tenure.

Update III: David Harsanyi, terrific conservative columnist at the Denver Post, was on O’Reilly tonight. Both agree the report was essentially a whitewash. Harsanyi pointed particularly to Churchill’s advocacy of violence. He’s been “emboldened” by the university, Harsanyi said, which is “passing the buck.”

Yup.

Reader Doug asks: “Will this go on so long that he ends up lionized by the myopic historical lens that warped Che Guevara? Will ‘Ward Lives!’ become the t-shirt slogan of the future?”

Argh!

Update IV: KUSA 9News has video of the news conference.

DENVER – A 12-year-old audio tape of an angry answering machine message left by Ward Churchill has surfaced.

Much of the audio is unintelligible, but a person identifies himself as Ward Churchill on the tape.

The message was left on Vernon Bellecourt’s answering machine in 1993. Bellecourt is a leader of the American Indian Movement…

9News provides the audio and a partial transcript:

“You siphoned a half million ripped off from Gadhafi.

How many other thousand dollars have you taken from the native people’s struggles?

You keep it up and I won’t just stand and look at you next time.

You understand what I’m saying fat boy turned skinny?

You decrepit old (expletive)”

Lovely.

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Previous:

Ward Churchill: Caught on tape advocating terrorism

Meanwhile, the highly-publicized buyout talks between CU and Churchill have been halted:

DENVER — Settlement talks between the University of Colorado and the professor who compared some Sept. 11 victims to a notorious Nazi broke down Friday after a newspaper reported the teacher had once been accused of plagiarism.

David Lane, attorney for ethnic studies Professor Ward Churchill, said the school broke off the talks, which were prompted by Churchill’s 2001 essay calling some World Trade Center victims ”little Eichmanns,” a reference to Adolf Eichmann, who orchestrated the Holocaust.

University regent Michael Carrigan declined to comment on the negotiations but said he had ”substantial concern” about a report in Friday’s Rocky Mountain News that Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia had accused Churchill of plagiarizing the work of one of its professors eight years ago.

”I personally was not comfortable proceeding until I knew more,” Carrigan said. He declined to comment further.

Harsanyi says Hoffman is right to be worried about lack of academic freedom, just not in the same sense as she sees it.

Related: Hoffman resigns.