Professor fired at Colorado...

[LPIDelta]

I think they had to do due diligence...and I think they are now properly prepared for the lawsuit he will likely bring.

[DeltAlum]

Originally Posted by Heather17

I think they had to do due diligence...and I think they are now properly prepared for the lawsuit he will likely bring.

The suit was filed today in Denver.

I'm not real sure how tenure works, but even if he misrepresented himself and his credentials, tenure was "granted." I wonder if the former voids the latter?

Hank Brown is a JD, so I'm sure he wanted the university in the best position for the suit.

[UGAalum94]

Well I think he received tenure, and there's no easy way to void that. But I think in other cases with academics when it comes to light that they've misrepresented themselves or plagiarized, they get dumped pretty quickly.

But the Churchill situation is different because of his other statements unrelated to his actual "scholarship" such as it was. The fact that he's a household name with all of us changes the circumstances too. He's also shameless about his errors in the past in a way that seems exceptional. (I don't think it's typical that most people would even fight; they'd hope to go quietly and be employable elsewhere. None of that applies with Churchill.)

I think the university and the board of regents did the right thing to do things very carefully, but it's still surprising that it took this long to resolve.

[DeltAlum]

Originally Posted by AlphaGamUGAAlum

I think the university and the board of regents did the right thing to do things very carefully, but it's still surprising that it took this long to resolve.

That's why the call Boulder, "twenty-five square miles surrounded by reality."

Or perhaps even better, "The People's Republic of Boulder."

Actually, look outside the university and it's a pretty conservative community.

[LPIDelta]

From what I understand after taking higher education law, tenure is not a guarantee of employment forever; it is basically a guarantee that a professor will be afforded due diligence and that any firing would be for cause.

And if I remember correctly, if you misrepresent your scholarly activities and that is what the decision to grant tenure is predicated on, that is a reason to void the tenure. As long as the university has documented EVERYTHING, they should be ok.

Someone else may know more or may be able to explain it better....

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by Heather17

From what I understand after taking higher education law, tenure is not a guarantee of employment forever; it is basically a guarantee that a professor will be afforded due diligence and that any firing would be for cause.

And if I remember correctly, if you misrepresent your scholarly activities and that is what the decision to grant tenure is predicated on, that is a reason to void the tenure. As long as the university has documented EVERYTHING, they should be ok.

Someone else may know more or may be able to explain it better....

Oh yeah. I didn't mean to suggest that they were stuck with him forever. I was just trying to clarify something I expressed badly earlier when I said he hadn't really "earned" tenure. Well, he didn't really earn it, but since it was granted, the burden was still on the school to prove that it needed to be taken away.

[Thetagirl218]

It took them long enough to fire this wacko! Seriously, though I respect people's opinions even when they vary greatly from my own, but this guy was out there!!! I saw him on an interview once with Glenn Beck (Yes, I watch his show, and I am an evil conservative! lol!) and he was totally rude and was so disrespectful the victims of 9/11 I had to turn the tv off completely. There is a fine line between free speech and the crap he was teaching.

[Rudey]

Originally Posted by DeltAlum

That's why the call Boulder, "twenty-five square miles surrounded by reality."

Or perhaps even better, "The People's Republic of Boulder."

Actually, look outside the university and it's a pretty conservative community.

It's not a conservative community. You had said on here before that there were a lot of yuppies. That part is true. But it's a bizarre left wing yuppy and similar to Northern Cali/Marin County. These people are well-to-do upper-middle-classers that drive Audis and Landrovers and then smoke the pot and side with the extreme left on everything. CU is actually pretty conservative compared to Naropa...now that's a fricking nutjob school if there ever was one. I think it's Boulder, but they have this great Shelby Cobra museum.

And I wouldn't say Boulder is surrounded by reality. Outside of the satellite suburbs like gunbarrel, it's surrounded by some heavily conservative Christian towns on the other side of the spectrum. Colorado is actually a really fricking strange place the more I think about it. You guys don't like anything in moderation.

-Rudey

[shinerbock]

Countdown until he's offered position at UC-Berk?

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by shinerbock

Countdown until he's offered position at UC-Berk?

Politically yes, but I honestly think his "scholarship" is too weak and corrupt. You really can't hire the guy who is widely know to plagiarize and misrepresent his sources even if you love his politics.

One of the things that I think is so interesting about this is it points out how some college professors trade on their academic standing to present opinions completely unrelated to their field of study and some people eat it up. Why would I care what Churchill thinks about 911 or what Chomsky thinks about economic or social policy?

(I'm sure it happens on the right too, but I can't think of anyone right away. I don't think people on the right care that much about college professors as experts, and if the recent hype is true a about ideological imbalance in higher ed, there'd be few right wing college profs to quote. The few right wing college household name that I can think of all seem to be history or sociology folks who write about race, ethnicity and class.)

[Rudey]

Originally Posted by shinerbock

Countdown until he's offered position at UC-Berk?

Umm Berkeley's administration isn't the most liberal, unless you consider John Yoo (a big shot in the Federalist society and one of the big authors of the PATRIOT act and a high level supporter of torture) to be a real left winger.

-Rudey