Churchill Fallout: It?s About Academic Freedom

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http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2006/05/26/baron
Churchill Fallout: It?s About Academic Freedom

By Dennis Baron

Last week the University of Colorado panel investigating Ward Churchill 
found that the controversial professor of Native American studies committed 
serious acts of research misconduct and plagiarism. It?s now up to the 
university to decide on an appropriate punishment for the tenured 
professor, who could be fired or suspended without pay. I don?t know enough 
about the situation to support or challenge the panel?s unanimous findings, 
or to suggest what the university should do about them, but one aspect of 
the committee?s 125-page report signals a chilling warning to academics: If 
you want to stay below the radar, keep your politics and your scholarship 
to yourself.
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The Colorado investigation was prompted by the strong public reaction 
against an inflammatory essay in which Churchill called the people who died 
in the World Trade Center attack on 9/11 ?little Eichmanns.? Prior to that, 
the university had ignored complaints about Churchill?s scholarship, and it 
had already concluded that his 9/11 essay was protected political speech. 
But the committee, which includes two law professors, justified proceeding 
with the politically-motivated investigation into allegations of research 
misconduct with this legal analogy: ?A motorist who is stopped and ticketed 
for speeding because the police officer was offended by the contents of her 
bumper sticker ... is still guilty of speeding, even if the officer?s 
motive for punishing the speeder was the offense taken to the speeder?s 
exercise of her right to free speech.?

Maybe. But the courts have questioned selective enforcement of the law in 
First Amendment cases, and the motivation behind prosecution is hardly 
irrelevant in the case of racial profiling, an all too common cause of 
traffic stops. But even if the speeding-ticket analogy holds, how is this 
any different from Richard Nixon ordering the IRS to audit the tax returns 
or people on his enemies list, or J. Edgar Hoover shoring up his own power 
by compiling files on persons of interest?

The committee went on to suggest that Churchill might have been fine if he 
had just kept his head down: ?Public figures who choose to speak out on 
controversial matters of public concern naturally attract more controversy 
and attention to their background and work than scholars quietly writing 
about more esoteric matters that are not the subject of political debate.?

Ward Churchill certainly never kept his head down. He?s the kind of person 
that everyone has an opinion about, and that can be a good thing for 
drawing attention to issues, or a bad thing when the attention backfires. 
The University of Colorado hired Churchill as a strong political voice who 
would shake things up, and the investigative panel is right when it 
concludes that the university shouldn?t be surprised to get what they paid for.

Perhaps Churchill shouldn?t be surprised at the scrutiny he?s received 
either. Every academic field has research standards, and we are always 
reviewing and evaluating one another?s résumés. That?s how we find the 
flaws in our arguments, and how we uncover the occasional fraud. I?m sure 
that the University of Colorado, like my own institution, wants faculty 
members to explain their work to the public. Sometimes that public doesn?t 
like what it hears. When I write about language and literacy in the press, 
topics that would seem to be pretty tame, I occasionally get angry letters, 
even threats. But now a select university investigative committee reminds 
professors: If you stray from the library, you?re fair game not just for 
the anonymous crazoids, but for the governor and yes, for your colleagues 
as well.

The University of Colorado investigation is not just about professional 
malpractice. It?s also about academic freedom. We?re experiencing a new 
wave of McCarthyism in this country, and academics who take unpopular 
political positions can expect to have their scholarship as well as their 
politics scrutinized. Two members of the Colorado select committee came out 
against firing Churchill because it would discourage other academics from 
conducting their research ?with due freedom.? Whatever one thinks of the 
Churchill case, these concerns are well placed. Ideologues everywhere are 
trying to shape curriculum to match their particular orthodoxies. State 
legislatures are being encouraged to rein in liberal faculty (Pennsylvania 
has already established a Select Committee for that purpose). Now the 
distinguished members of the Colorado panel warn us not to step out of line 
or they?ll take yet another look at our résumés.

Dennis Baron is professor of English at the University of Illinois at 
Urbana-Champaign.