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How Many Ward Churchills?
As the University of Colorado prepares to announce the results of its investigation of ethnic studies professor Ward Churchill, ACTA is releasing a study on the broader implications of Churchill's case. Here's the press release announcing the publication of ACTA's latest report:
Study Asks: How Many Ward Churchills?
Answer: Ward Churchills Abound
Universities Exhorted to Stop Promoting Extremism
and Insist on Academic Integrity
CU Report on Churchill Due May 16
Washington, DC (May 12, 2006) -- As the University of Colorado prepares to issue a report on tenured ethnic studies professor Ward Churchill, a new study by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) concludes that professors like Churchill are systematically promoted by colleges and universities across the country at the expense of academic standards and integrity.
In the report, entitled How Many Ward Churchills?, ACTA places Churchill in context and finds that "Ward Churchill is not only not alone--he is quite common." Focusing on U.S. News & World Report's top 25 private colleges and universities, and the Big 10 and Big 12 conference schools, the report examines departmental websites, on-line course descriptions, electronic course syllabi, and faculty home pages in a wide range of liberal arts disciplines.
From this broad survey of publicly available materials, ACTA finds that "the kinds of politically extreme opinions for which Ward Churchill has become justly infamous are not only quite common in academe, but enthusiastically embraced and rewarded by it." The study concludes that "throughout American higher education, professors are using their classrooms to push political agendas in the name of teaching students to think critically."The study comes in the wake of an extended public controversy involving the outspoken Colorado professor whose article describing the victims of 9-11 as "little Eichmanns" came to light early in 2005. A number of legislators and political leaders called for Churchill's firing, while the Colorado Board of Regents demanded that university administrators undertake a study to determine whether Churchill should be fired for "professional incompetence." Their report will be released on May 16.
"All Americans--whether on the left, right, or in the center--should be outraged by the one-sided, doctrinaire perspective that, too often, today defines the college experience," the ACTA report finds. "Today's college students are not being prepared for leadership--or even for full, engaged citizenship. College and universities must ensure that they provide education, not indoctrination."
"The solution to the problem Ward Churchill poses is not to fire him--or others like him--for expressing extreme beliefs," the report says. Rather, institutions should "assess much more closely and systematically than they have yet done whether--and how--extremist professors adversely affect the intellectual climate on campuses across the country."
"In the past, administrators and trustees have shied away from assessing the state of the classroom. Worried that doing so might--as many faculty claim--create a chilling effect, or verge on wrongful censorship, they have failed to act," said ACTA president Anne D. Neal. "But academic freedom is not insulation from oversight or accountability. It does not license professors to ignore their duties to teach and research responsibly and it most certainly does not mean institutions or individuals are exempt from criticism."
Calling on institutions to "take steps to guarantee a proper balance between students' academic freedom to learn and professors' academic freedom to teach, research, and publish," the study offers concrete steps colleges and universities can take to ensure a vibrant learning environment. These include:
--Performing post-tenure review of faculty;
--Undergoing a self-study to assess the atmosphere in the classroom;
--Reviewing hiring and promotion practices to ensure that scholarship and teaching--not ideological litmus tests--are the foundation for lifelong job security; and
--Hiring administrators who are committed to intellectual diversity.Most broadly, the report calls on students, parents, alumni, trustees, elected officials, and concerned citizens to make the intellectual climate of higher education their business--to demand better information about what is happening in colleges across America and to exact more accountability from the colleges and universities they support.
Chapters include "The Politicized Liberal Arts Curriculum," "Coursework as Sensitivity Training," "Educating in Activism," and "Social Justice and the New Intolerance."
More to come.
Posted by acta online on May 12, 2006 at May 12, 2006 02:20 PM
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