|Back to December Ed Reporter|
|NUMBER 263||THE NEWSPAPER OF EDUCATION RIGHTS||DECEMBER 2007|
|Fired Radical Professor Teaches |
Unofficially at University of Colorado
In May of 2006, a panel of scholars investigating Churchill discovered a history of deliberate plagiarism and fabrication. University of Colorado (CU) regents voted 8-to-1 to suspend him from teaching duties in 2006, and fired him for academic misconduct in July of 2007.
Now Churchill is back on campus, by invitation of a group of students who say he is "one of the most valuable professors we've had" at CU. The students rented out space and invited Churchill to teach an unofficial class on colonialism, genocide, and racism. About 30 students and community members attended the first lecture, titled "ReVisioning American History: Colonization, Genocide and Formation of the U.S. Settler State." A CU spokesman emphasized that the "class" is actually a private event not sanctioned by the university.
Churchill refused local reporters entry to the first lecture, and one of two men posted at the classroom door manhandled a Boulder Daily Camera reporter who tried to enter the room anyway. The two guards also turned away three male students whom they identified as "agitators."
A professor teaching next door, Kelly Tryba, criticized the event for its secrecy. "I think any student group should be able to rent out a room and have someone speak; but anyone should be able to go. The freedom of speech goes both ways," she said. (Daily Camera, 10-3-07)