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| Fifth Column |
| Ward Churchill gets pay raise |
| 2005-07-03 |
| University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill was awarded a 2.28 percent merit pay increase this week for work performed in 2004, a little less than his department's average recommended salary increase for professors. A statement released by CU said pay increases for Boulder campus faculty are approved by interim Chancellor Phil DiStefano and based on reviews and recommendations by committees at the department, school or college, and administrative levels. Churchill's increase was finalized Thursday. The average recommended increase for ethnic studies department faculty was 3.21 percent, according to the CU statement. "In 2004, Professor Churchill taught a higher number of courses than required, received A's and A-pluses on his student evaluations, completed numerous publications and served as administrative chair of the department," the statement said. Churchill, a tenured professor of ethnic studies, was earning $94,212, prior to the increase; he resigned as department chair Jan. 31, when controversy surrounding him erupted. Churchill's work is under review by a CU faculty committee on research misconduct for alleged plagiarism and fabrication. On Friday, Churchill joined the ranks of those filing complaints and filed one against himself. Is it a joke? "A joke is in the brain of the beholder," said Churchill's attorney, David Lane, who confirmed his client's latest maneuver. Lane said Churchill filed the complaint in response to a published report that he had given inadequate credit in his work for help he had received from graduate students and research assistants. "As they know, he has no research assistants or graduate students working for him, but they should investigate nevertheless, because it is a complaint raised by the media," Lane quipped. Churchill stirred national controversy earlier this year when it was discovered that he had authored an essay likening some victims at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, to Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann. In the wake of that uproar, CU's administration directed a standing faculty committee on research misconduct to perform an inquiry into a series of plagiarism and fabrication allegations, and a charge that he might have misrepresented himself as an American Indian to gain credibility for his research. The parameters of that inquiry were expanded recently by DiStefano, in response to a six-part series last month in the Rocky Mountain News, which uncovered new allegations concerning Churchill's scholarship, of which the faculty committee had previously been unaware. The committee's probe could lead to anything ranging from Churchill's exoneration to the loss of his job. The latter, preferably. In a letter to DiStefano dated Monday, Churchill wrote, "I feel it imperative to register a complaint against myself, to wit: In a review of my award-winning book, On the Justice of Roosting Chickens, appearing in the Spring-Summer 2005 issue of Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed (Vol. 23, No. 1), the reviewer, Aragorn!, observes at page 30, that I should 'have given (my) grad students the credit they so richly deserve for putting (the book) together' (copy attached and marked). "As you are no doubt aware, appropriation by faculty members of research undertaken by graduate students is a ubiquitous practice, often blending into outright plagiarism by the faculty members involved, and thus constitutes a major ethical issue in the academy. It is high time the University of Colorado finally began to treat the problem with the degree of seriousness it warrants, beginning with my own case." Churchill went on to tell DiStefano, "The mere fact that I do not and have never had 'grad students' - or research assistants of any sort - should by no means deter you from referring the matter at hand, without further examination, to the (faculty committee). The allegation concerning my misconduct has, after all, appeared in print." And, Churchill added, "The very future of the institution as well as the market value of all degrees it has heretofore granted are undoubtedly at stake." He signed it, "Sincerely, Professor Ward Churchill, Winner of the 2005 Herd Award for Outstanding Teaching." Herd award? How fitting. The magazine referenced by Churchill has no listed phone number, and editors did not respond to e-mail messages from The Associated Press. Lane said Churchill filed the complaint with the thought that "If CU is going to be investigating media allegations such as those raised by the Rocky Mountain News," then the university should pursue the Anarchy report as well. |
| Posted by:Korora |
| #7 Overfunded?! How do folks like this get raises! Man o man. We're paying a 28% rate hike in tuition! ARUGHHHHHHHHHHH One more year sigh.... |
| Posted by: Jan 2005-07-03 23:33 |
| #6 Churchill ought to think about utilizing some research assistants and graduate students. Maybe with their help his arguments would gain the logic and coherence that they now lack. Also his plagarism might be less easy to detect. I would recommend that he stay away from graduate students that minored in ethnic studies, based on the fact that they uniformly evaluated his performance as exceptional, ethnic studies students must be the intellectual bottom-feeders of acedemia. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2005-07-03 22:20 |
| #5 Hello GOP CO legislature members? Any thoughts? Sounds like Univ of Co is overfunded |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-07-03 21:29 |
| #4 Makes me glad I'm not a citizen of Colorado. |
| Posted by: Angorong Snineger2454 2005-07-03 20:49 |
| #3 LOL! All sorta possibilitues,,,,, |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-07-03 19:09 |
| #2 As "Gagdad Bob" commented at LGF: "To paraphrase another Churchill, never have so many paid so much to a faux sioux." |
| Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2005-07-03 16:51 |
| #1 Kaliiiiiiiiiijuuuuuuuha! Yeooooooo! |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-07-03 16:38 |