CU Prez Out: Ward Churchill Flap Cited

The University of Colorado's president, Elizabeth Hoffman, resigned today, partially due to the Ward Churchill controversy. From MSNBC

An independent commission reported last year that Colorado players used sex, alcohol and marijuana as recruiting tools.

And in February, administrators took the first steps toward a possible dismissal of professor Ward Churchill, who likened World Trade Center victims to Nazi Adolf Eichmann.

A review of Churchill's speeches and writings is being conducted to determine if the professor overstepped his boundaries of academic freedom and whether that should be grounds for dismissal.

Hoffman said last week that Churchill would not be fired if the review turns up only inflammatory comments, not misconduct.

Civilized people consider Churchill's "inflammatory comments" to constitute misconduct in and of themselves. and one would think that even Ivory Tower types would consider the comments hate speech. Of course there's also the prevarication about his ethnic background, and the art forgery to consider. Maybe those are misconduct. Or maybe "misconduct" is just another quaint lumpen proletariat value judgement that has no real meaning for more evolved beings like college professors.