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Ward Churchill to speak on campus tonight
Controversial essayist polarizes student groups

By: PATRICK McCARTNEY
Posted: 11/27/07

Free-speech activist and former University of Colorado ethnic studies
professor Ward Churchill will speak tonight at 8 p.m. in 123 Sciences
Lecture Hall. Churchill, who has been widely criticized for his
controversial Sept. 11 essay, will give a talk titled "Zionism, Manifest
Destiny, and Nazi Lebensraumpolitik: Three Variations on a Common Theme."

Churchill's visit is sponsored by the Students for Peace & Justice and
co-sponsored by Students for Justice in Palestine, the Muslim Student
Association and Movimiento Estudiantil Chicana/o de Aztlan.

"We decided to invite Professor Churchill due to the fact that he is a
prolific scholar and award-winning professor in demand around the country
and internationally. Also, his case is widely recognized as a test case for
Academic Freedom around the country - and given the current repressive
atmosphere at UC Davis in that arena, it seems especially appropriate,"
said Amir Ali, an event organizer and junior neurobiology, physiology and
behavior major.

After an investigation, the University of Colorado fired Churchill in 2006
for plagiarism and academic integrity violations. In addition, critics have
questioned whether or not he is American Indian, as he claims to be.

Churchill contends his firing was in retaliation for his essay on Sept. 11
titled "On the Justice of Roosting Chickens", in which he wrote that the
Americans working in the Twin Towers were "little Eichmanns," an allusion
to convicted Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann. The fallout from his essay
garnered wide publicity and cries of outrage across the nation.

Several student groups, including Aggies for Israel, have criticized SPJ's
decision to invite Churchill to campus.

"Aggies for Israel and the Davis community are appalled that Ward Churchill
will be speaking at UC Davis," said Yoni Sassoon, vice president of Aggies
for Israel in an e-mail interview.

Sassoon, a sophomore economics major, said Churchill's lecture title alone
is offensive and incendiary.

"Zionism does not share a 'common theme' with Nazism and saying that it
does is clearly false and openly inflammatory," he said. "Ward Churchill
and the extreme groups that are hosting him are dangerously using false
comparisons between Jews and Nazis to defame Israel."

"As students, we hope this speech does not [incite] hate on campus,"
Sassoon said.

When asked about the title of the lecture, Ali said he was unaware of the
specifics of what Churchill will discuss.

"I cannot speak for Ward Churchill, as I'm not his spokesman. But what I
can tell you from the title is that he will be paralleling these ideas and
providing the audience with the common, generally overlooked, similarities
- and more importantly, consequences," he said.

Khalida Fazel, president of the MSA, said the organization believes
Churchill has a right to share his views.

"The MSA does not necessarily condemn or condone everything Churchill says,
but we stand by his right to express his opinions on issues we feel are
extremely relevant to the current domestic and international state of
affairs," said Fazel, a senior civil engineering major, in an e-mail
interview.

"Granted, [Churchill] is indeed a controversial figure, but his perspective
is one that has been suppressed in public and private discourse, and what
better setting to engage with these issues than on a university campus,"
Fazel said.

Allison Daley, chair of the Davis College Republicans, dismissed
Churchill's credibility.

"Ward Churchill coming to speak… is a disgrace and an embarrassment to UC
Davis. Presumably groups on campus bring speakers who represent their
beliefs and values. Radical groups bring radical speakers," said Daley, a
junior political science major.

"Ward Churchill has fabricated his education and his ethnicity, and has
called for the eradication of the United States itself. Worst of all is his
pathetic claim to fame - writing that the victims of 9/11 deserved to die
and that the U.S. may need more 9/11s," she said.

Ali said he believed Churchill's opinions have been twisted by popular
media.

"Ward Churchill's views on the 9/11 attacks have been grossly
misrepresented by the mass media," Ali said.

Ali also cited Churchill's human rights award from the University of
Arkansas' Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights
for his essay on Sept. 11.

"The issue he raises is looking at why people might be motivated to engage
in such attacks, and that's something everyone should discuss. [Republican
presidential candidate] Ron Paul proposed a similar [argument] in the
discussion of etiology on a national platform, and no one other than Rudy
Giuliani questioned him and/or asked him to apologize," Ali said.

In 2006, the Investigative Committee of the Standing Committee on Research
Misconduct at the University of Colorado at Boulder concluded Churchill had
committed falsification, fabrication, plagiarism and "failure to comply
with established standards regarding author names on publications [and]
serious deviation from accepted practices in reporting results from
research", according to a CU news report released on May 16, 2006.

Churchill responded to the findings on his official site.

"This 'investigation' has all along been a pretext to punish me for
engaging constitutionally-protected speech and, more generally, to
discredit the sorts of alternative historical perspective I represent,"
Churchill said.

But CU has contended Churchill's firing is unrelated to his opinions.
According to a June 25, 2006 statement by University of Colorado Interim
Vice Chancellor Vince DiStefano, "The content and rhetoric of Professor
Churchill's essay on 9/11 and other works that we examined were protected
by the First Amendment."

However, DiStefano agreed that Churchill had engaged in academic dishonesty
and recommended his termination. The CU Regents fired Churchill in July
2007.

Hamilton College invited Churchill to speak in 2005, but rescinded his
invitation after hundreds of letters of protest and safety concerns. UC
Davis Assistant Vice Chancellor Griselda Castro said free speech laws allow
Churchill to speak at UC Davis and campus security will be present at
tonight's event.

"The Office of Student Programs and Activities has worked closely with the
sponsoring student organizations and the campus police department to ensure
a safe environment consistent with the law and campus policy for free
expression and dissent," she said.

Castro emphasized that the university is not sponsoring Churchill's visit
and he does not represent its opinions.

"Freedom of expression applies to all members of our campus and society in
general," she said. "While the university does not encourage or discourage
provocative speakers from coming to campus, we hope that when they do, it
will give members of our campus community another opportunity to put the
principles of community into practice by modeling civil and respectful
discourse that is at the core of a free society."

The California Aggie contacted Churchill through his wife, who said he was
traveling and would not be available for an interview before press time.

PATRICK MCCARTNEY can be reached at campus@....

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