Ward Churchill: By Firing Him, CU Regents ‘Gutted Academic Freedom’
By Peter Eichstaedt
BOULDER, Colo.
Former University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill may have lost his job, but he hasn’t lost his nerve.
“I said something that people in power and with money didn’t like,” he said, explaining his firing by university regents in July by an 8-1 vote.
Churchill, whose claims of American Indian ancestry have been challenged, said in an exclusive interview with Diverse that he plans to take the university to court over his dismissal.
The university “has not met its burden of proof” that he committed “research misconduct,” Churchill said, referring to the reason cited for his firing.
“I didn’t engage in plagiarism,” he said, noting that the scholars whose work he is accused of stealing have refused to lodge complaints against him. Rather, it has been found that he ghostwrote some of the material he’s been accused of using.
