Churchill goes to trial

Churchill, Ayers call for skepticism in BoulderJust four days before his civil lawsuit against the University of Colorado goes to trial, fired professor Ward Churchill returned to campus Thursday night with radical turned professor Bill Ayers to lecture students about the importance of academic freedom.

CU student groups sponsored the event at the University Memorial Center's Glenn Miller Ballroom, titled "Forbidden Education and the Rise of NeoMcCarthyism."

"We should always be developing a curriculum of questioning," Ayers told the crowd. "As a teacher, your responsibility is to challenge dogma and orthodoxy, not to just accept it."And:Andrew Crown, president of the College Republicans, asked Churchill why professors should be able to hide behind the shield of tenure when the same misconduct in a corporation would lead to termination.

"I don't know, maybe for the same reason that the Republican Party has been spectacularly unable to regulate the conduct of its members," Churchill said, then adding: "A more serious answer: The same reason you cannot pull a judge out because you do not like his rulings. That is what tenure is about.

"You don't get to slap someone down because you don't agree with what he is saying."Comment:  Challenging dogma and orthodoxy is good. That may be why people have challenged Churchill's claim that he's an Indian and Ayers's claim that he's not a terrorist.

Tenure may be about protecting teachers who say unpopular things. It's not about protecting teachers who plagiarize and fabricate their research.

As we've seen throughout the investigation and firing of Churchill, the man refuses to engage in reasoned debate. For his arrogance attitude alone, he deserves to lose his lawsuit.

For more on Churchill, see Cowardly Comments About Churchill and Churchill:  Manifest Destiny = Holocaust.