Ward Churchill Fired from University of Colorado After 9/11 Essay Backlash
University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill was fired in July 2007 following political pressure stemming from his 2001 essay describing some 9/11 victims as 'little Eichmanns.' Though the university cited research misconduct, courts and academic observers found the investigation was triggered by his protected speech and would not have occurred otherwise.
Ward Churchill, a tenured ethnic studies professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, wrote an essay shortly after September 11, 2001, arguing that U.S. foreign policy had provoked the attacks and controversially characterizing some World Trade Center victims as 'little Eichmanns.' The essay attracted little attention until January 2005, when Churchill was invited to speak at Hamilton College, sparking a national controversy. Colorado Governor Bill Owens and state legislators publicly called for his firing. The University of Colorado then commissioned a research misconduct investigation — the first in Churchill's 18-year tenure. In June 2006 a faculty committee found misconduct; on July 24, 2007, the Board of Regents voted 8-1 to terminate him. Churchill sued for wrongful termination; a 2009 Denver jury found retaliation but awarded only $1 in damages. The trial judge then granted judgment for the university, and appellate courts upheld the dismissal, though the AAUP concluded the investigation was pretextual and would not have occurred absent the protected speech.