Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Ex-school official denies offer made to Chruchill
And yet more fallout...
Ex-official: No tenure for Churchill
California university didn't consider him 'serious candidate'
By Stuart Steers, Rocky Mountain NewsFebruary 22, 2005
University of Colorado officials rushed to award tenure to Ward Churchill in 1991, thinking he had been offered a full professorship in American Indian studies at a California university.
But a former official in the California system says no such offer was ever made.
"He wasn't really a serious candidate because of his lack of credentials," said George Wayne, a former vice president for student academic services at California State University, Sacramento.
"The lack of a doctorate was one factor," Wayne said Monday. "Also, he wasn't writing learned articles - they were advocacy articles that could appear anywhere."
The open position was at the California university's Northridge campus. Wayne says officials there contacted him after Churchill applied because they knew Wayne had previously worked at the University of Colorado at Denver, and they wondered what he might know about Churchill.
Wayne says he remembers hearing about Churchill in the 1980s when Wayne worked at UCD, where he also held a position in academic services. Wayne said he frequently dealt with minority students and knew that Churchill was involved in a tutoring program for American Indians on the Boulder campus.
"I knew of him in as much as I was dealing with Indian students," said Wayne, who is retired and lives in Denver.
Northridge officials never spent much time considering Churchill for the position, according to Wayne.
"He never showed up as a serious applicant," Wayne said. "He received a letter saying, 'We've reviewed your application and are considering someone else.' "
On the Boulder campus, it was a different story. CU officials were convinced they had to move fast and give Churchill tenure or risk losing him to another school.
In January 1991, the incoming chairman of the CU communication department, Michael Pacanowsky, told his faculty that the department was being pressured by CU officials to grant tenure to Churchill as soon as possible.
The university feared that Churchill had been offered a full professorship at Cal State at Northridge, Pacanowsky wrote in a memo to the faculty.
Churchill did not have a doctorate, which is usually required for tenure.
Tenure review typically includes an evaluation of the candidate's published works by scholars from other campuses. That apparently didn't happen in Churchill's case.
In the memo, Pacanowsky tells his colleagues that he is troubled by the hasty process that eventually gave Churchill tenure.
He said CU was eager to add an American Indian scholar to its faculty.
"I apologize for the manner in which we are having to deal with this, and I am uncomfortable with it," he wrote.
Churchill has been under fire ever since an essay he wrote in 2001 comparing the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to Nazis came to light.
Since then, many aspects of his career have been challenged - from his claim of American Indian ancestry to the veracity of his scholarship.
The CU regents have ordered a complete review of his writings, and Gov. Bill Owens and others have demanded he be fired.
Wayne says that if Northridge had seriously considered Churchill for a job, they would have sent someone to Boulder to interview his colleagues and the university would have known he was being courted.
Wayne thinks CU officials were simply determined to hire an American Indian to teach ethnic studies.
"They thought Churchill was a hot prospect," Wayne said. "He wasn't that hot. The only place he was hot was at CU."
Ex-official: No tenure for Churchill
California university didn't consider him 'serious candidate'
By Stuart Steers, Rocky Mountain NewsFebruary 22, 2005
University of Colorado officials rushed to award tenure to Ward Churchill in 1991, thinking he had been offered a full professorship in American Indian studies at a California university.
But a former official in the California system says no such offer was ever made.
"He wasn't really a serious candidate because of his lack of credentials," said George Wayne, a former vice president for student academic services at California State University, Sacramento.
"The lack of a doctorate was one factor," Wayne said Monday. "Also, he wasn't writing learned articles - they were advocacy articles that could appear anywhere."
The open position was at the California university's Northridge campus. Wayne says officials there contacted him after Churchill applied because they knew Wayne had previously worked at the University of Colorado at Denver, and they wondered what he might know about Churchill.
Wayne says he remembers hearing about Churchill in the 1980s when Wayne worked at UCD, where he also held a position in academic services. Wayne said he frequently dealt with minority students and knew that Churchill was involved in a tutoring program for American Indians on the Boulder campus.
"I knew of him in as much as I was dealing with Indian students," said Wayne, who is retired and lives in Denver.
Northridge officials never spent much time considering Churchill for the position, according to Wayne.
"He never showed up as a serious applicant," Wayne said. "He received a letter saying, 'We've reviewed your application and are considering someone else.' "
On the Boulder campus, it was a different story. CU officials were convinced they had to move fast and give Churchill tenure or risk losing him to another school.
In January 1991, the incoming chairman of the CU communication department, Michael Pacanowsky, told his faculty that the department was being pressured by CU officials to grant tenure to Churchill as soon as possible.
The university feared that Churchill had been offered a full professorship at Cal State at Northridge, Pacanowsky wrote in a memo to the faculty.
Churchill did not have a doctorate, which is usually required for tenure.
Tenure review typically includes an evaluation of the candidate's published works by scholars from other campuses. That apparently didn't happen in Churchill's case.
In the memo, Pacanowsky tells his colleagues that he is troubled by the hasty process that eventually gave Churchill tenure.
He said CU was eager to add an American Indian scholar to its faculty.
"I apologize for the manner in which we are having to deal with this, and I am uncomfortable with it," he wrote.
Churchill has been under fire ever since an essay he wrote in 2001 comparing the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to Nazis came to light.
Since then, many aspects of his career have been challenged - from his claim of American Indian ancestry to the veracity of his scholarship.
The CU regents have ordered a complete review of his writings, and Gov. Bill Owens and others have demanded he be fired.
Wayne says that if Northridge had seriously considered Churchill for a job, they would have sent someone to Boulder to interview his colleagues and the university would have known he was being courted.
Wayne thinks CU officials were simply determined to hire an American Indian to teach ethnic studies.
"They thought Churchill was a hot prospect," Wayne said. "He wasn't that hot. The only place he was hot was at CU."
