# Why all the fuss over Ward Churchill? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 20, 2005, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-fuss-over-ward-churchill/290980 "2005-02-20T02:45:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crankyasanoldman/32/11670_2.png) [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrankyAsAnOldMan)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-fuss-over-ward-churchill/290980/21 "2005-02-20T06:05:59Z")
> [@19ForMe](#): > > 1. CU considered hiring him for an associate professor job in 1991. Somehow they managed to give him a tenured position instead. This happened because of a special program to give minority candidates tenured positions without requiring a PhD nor the six year tenure track of scholarship and vetting. I don’t understand why that is so unusual. Associate professor is generally a tenured rank, isn’t it? Assistant is untenured. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-fuss-over-ward-churchill/290980/22 "2005-02-20T06:26:47Z")
> [@Brutus](#): > > You really don’t have a sense of morality, do you? …says the guy who voted for the 2004 Presidential candidate who started a war on false pretenses. ---
**Author:** ![19ForMe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/439d5e/32.png) [@19ForMe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/19ForMe)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-fuss-over-ward-churchill/290980/23 "2005-02-20T06:27:19Z")
> [@](#): > > From **CrankyAsAnOldMan** > I don’t understand why that is so unusual. Associate professor is generally a tenured rank, isn’t it? Assistant is untenured. Here are the relevant bits from today’s [article](http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/buffzone_news/article/0,1713,BDC_2448_3560899,00.html) : > [@](#): > > _Snip_] > Documents released Friday from his personnel files also suggest that the tenured position Churchill took in 1991 — without a Ph.D. or having been on the customary “tenure track” — was designated for someone who would add diversity to the faculty. > > _Snip_ > > In 1990, Churchill earned a one-semester associate professorship and was a candidate for a permanent faculty position. > > Officials on Jan. 10, 1991, discussed a full professorship that Churchill had been offered by California State University at Northridge and said they needed to make a decision on his status quickly — well before the end of that month. > > _Snip_ > > Less than a month later, on Feb. 1, 1991, CU officials granted Churchill a tenured associate professorship in communications with a salary of $45,000. It looks like there is a tenured and non-tenured associate professor postion. He did become a full professor in 1997. There are some eye opening quotes about how the process happened. Apparently American Indian professors are in high demand for diversity goals. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-fuss-over-ward-churchill/290980/24 "2005-02-20T06:38:58Z")
> [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](#): > > Concern over professors’ access to (and influence over) America’s brightest young impressionable minds. We all know the concern over liberal bias on campus, intensified since Horowitz’s oft-quoted study. Even people who are fine with liberalism on campus may be concerned over, well, crackpot bias. It never ceases to amaze me how some people seem to think that liberals are posessed of incredible witchy powers. They seem to think that sweet, innocent college students will be instantly hypnotized and simultaneously brainwashed by the mere exposure to liberal views. Behold the awesome power of liberalism! Can it be that the “other side” secretly fears that their position is so weak that if their children are exposed to opposing ideas, they’ll immediately defect? Can it be that we assume students are so incredibly stupid that they latch on to the politics and viewpoints of their teachers without question simply because they heard it for a couple of hours a week? ---
**Author:** ![2sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/e47774/32.png) [@2sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2sense)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-fuss-over-ward-churchill/290980/25 "2005-02-20T07:05:03Z")
> [@mike1dog](#): > > In [this article](http://www.satyamag.com/apr04/churchill.html) , he basically says there should be more 9/11s. No, he doesn’t. \ ***Question:** What are some of the solutions? Extreme events, like 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq, have mobilized people out of such complacency, albeit temporarily. **Ward’s Reply:** I don’t have a ready answer for that. One of the things I’ve suggested is that it may be that more 9/11s are necessary.\* Ward doesn’t say he wants to see more major terrorist attacks. He suggests that more major terrorist attacks may be necessary to shake Americans out of complacency. > [@](#): > > _And calls for the U.S.A. to be replaced by “500 indigenous groups.” Now there’s a recipe for violence if I’ve ever heard one. I really don’t care what he says, he’s obviously a froot-loop._ ## I must admit I feel absolutely no need to defend this part of the interview. I think that the balkanization of the USA is a very bad idea. But just because we disagree with him doesn’t mean there is something wrong with his brain or that he should be ignored. > [@manhattan](#): > > I was going to type a full response, but actually your post is perfect on its own. Anyone care to back this guy up? Anyone want to defend that? Why does **BG** , or his words actually since this is GD and not the Ultimate Fighting Championship, need to be defended? They haven’t been attacked. Can you counter his ( IMO ) perfectly reasonable point? ## And as for the politics, it’s hardly unusual to find a discrepency between the politic thing to say and the truthful thing to say. These words aren’t something that would help the Democratic Party so they won’t rush out to embrace Mr Ward. That doesn’t make the words untrue. ## As for the point in attacking Ward ( rather than his words ), it’s simple. He dared to speak out and is being made an example. So others will be afraid to do the same. The purpose is to stifle “unAmerican” discourse. ---
**Author:** ![Brutus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Brutus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brutus)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-fuss-over-ward-churchill/290980/26 "2005-02-20T08:13:42Z")
> [@2sense](#): > > And as for the politics, it’s hardly unusual to find a discrepency between the politic thing to say and the truthful thing to say. These words aren’t something that would help the Democratic Party so they won’t rush out to embrace Mr Ward. That doesn’t make the words untrue. Tsk, tsk. You lefties are constantly complaining that the Republicans will say anything to get elected, and here you are, advising the Democrats to hold back with their true feelings. No, I think the Democrats should, through their new party chair, should make their position known: “My fellow Americans, you had it coming! YEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAARHHHH!!!” Come on. It’s the intellectually honest thing to do. > [@](#): > > ## As for the point in attacking Ward ( rather than his words ), it’s simple. He dared to speak out and is being made an example. So others will be afraid to do the same. The purpose is to stifle “unAmerican” discourse. I don’t see people shutting up about it here. ---
**Author:** ![Well](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/df788c/32.png) [@Well](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Well)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-fuss-over-ward-churchill/290980/27 "2005-02-20T08:33:00Z")
Well it seems it’s the left’s agenda to blame the US for 9/11. No wonder you guys are losing your asses in elections. ---
**Author:** ![TonyF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de053/32.png) [@TonyF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonyF)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-fuss-over-ward-churchill/290980/28 "2005-02-20T09:15:04Z")
I’m pretty left, but this guy is a jerk. Let me answer your questions: “but since when is it pushing the boundaries of academic freedom simply to say that sometimes the United States is in the wrong?” It isn’t, exactly, but he said quite more than that. “Why should these writings keep Churchill out of a panel discussion on ‘The Limits of Dissent’, of all things?” He shouldn’t be excluded. But if it’s a private event and he pissed off whoever coordinated it… “Really, what is objectionable about any of Churchill’s writings quoted here by Cockburn? …The WTC was a ‘legitimate target’ by standards proclaimed by the U.S. government itself, and was made so by actions of the U.S. government itself.” This is easily interpreted as an implicit tu quoque. That’s debatable. What is not debatable is this: it is not right to harm an innocent. What you and Churchill are saying are irrelevant to that subject. This is really important point, because most people are still stuck on this subject, and unless it is acknowledged, it is assumed you have dismissed it. This is the feeling I get from **Brutus**. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-fuss-over-ward-churchill/290980/29 "2005-02-20T11:48:24Z")
I find it interesting that people of Churchill’s ilk keep missing the main point: 9/11 wasNOT about the opressed of the Middle East rising up to attack the evil USA. Look at the highjackers-were they Palestinians, outraged at their mistreatment by Israel? Were they Algerians, protesting their mistreatment by France?No…they were all upper class members of elites, from countries (SA, Egypt) who had no reason to attack the US, except for their own insane ideology (Wahabite Islam). Churchill was right about one thing though-in our arrogance, we forgot that the world is full of evil people, and we did not take Osama and Co. seriously. Hopefully, we know enough (now) about these fundamentalist muslim crazies, so that we can thwart any new attacks. Although our practice of granting student visas to young men from SA , strikes me as incredibly foolish. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-fuss-over-ward-churchill/290980/30 "2005-02-20T15:14:05Z")
OK, so it appears that **hroomba** and **2sense** agree with **BrainGlutton** that “the American global financial empire is arguably the main impetus behind the American global military hegemony – which is still not equivalent to Hitler’s rule, **but it comes a hell of a lot closer.** It is, in many respects, a fundamentally predatory system, and nobody deeply involved in making it work can really be classed as entirely innocent.” **apos** was a little less unclear. He seems to think that we are indeed better than the Nazi’s but because we bombed cities to defeat them we haven’t done a good enough job of distinguishing ourselves from them. Anyone else wanna take a crack? Alternatively, anyone who lives in the United States and benefits from the “fundamentally predatory system” which enables the “American global military hegemony” which in turn is close to Naziism, want to explain what specific steps they’re taking to reduce their guilt? **BrainGlutton** , care to address that one? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-fuss-over-ward-churchill/290980/31 "2005-02-20T16:35:37Z")
> [@manhattan](#): > > Alternatively, anyone who lives in the United States and benefits from the “fundamentally predatory system” which enables the “American global military hegemony” which in turn is close to Naziism, want to explain what specific steps they’re taking to reduce their guilt? **BrainGlutton** , care to address that one? “Specific steps”? Not much . . . I participate in left-wing political organizations (very occasionally as they have little organized presence where I live; I once tried to organize a local chapter of the New Party, but the party is now defunct), vote (always for the Democrat – what’s the point of wasting your vote on a third party under our present election laws?), and contribute what I can to support left-wing viewpoints on this board. Go thou and do likewise. At this point, I think it’s appropriate to add a few more paragraphs from Alexander Cockburn’s article (excerpted in the OP): > [@](#): > > Why should Churchill apologize for anything? Is it a crime to say that chickens can come home to roost and that the way tp protect American lives from terrorism is to respect international law? I don’t think he should have resigned as department chair. Let them drag him out by main force. > > So much for the voice of sanity. Now for the dementia of the right. _The New Republic’s_ Tom Frank (not the Frank, please note, who just wrote a book about Kansas) describes in _TNR_ how he recently sat in on an antiwar panel in Washington. > > Frank listened to Stan Goff, a former Delta Froce soldier and current organizer for Military Families Speak Out, who duly moved Frank to write that “what I needed was a Republican like Arnold [Schwarzenegger] who would walk up to [Goff] and punch him in the face.” Then upon Frank’s outraged ears fell the views of _International Socialist Review_ editorial board member Sherry Wolf, who asserted that Iraqis had a “right” to rebel against occupation, prompting _TNR’s_ man to confide to his readers that “these weren’t harmless lefties. I didn’t want Nancy Pelosi talking some sense to them; I wanted John Ashcroft to come busting through the wall with a submachine gun to round everyone up for an immediate trip to Gitmo, with Charles Graner on hand for the interrogation.” After Wolf quoted Booker Prize-winning author Arundhati Roy’s defense of the right to resist, Frank mused, “Maybe sometimes you just want to be on the side of whoever is more likely to take a bunker buster to Arundhati Roy.” > > Now suppose Churchill had talked about Schwarzenegger’s war on the poor in California and called on someone to punch the guv in the face, or have a jovial Graner force Pataki to masturbate what remain of Schwarzenegger’s steroid-shriveled genitals, or have Ann Coulter rub her knickers in his face or get blown up by a bomb? He’d be out of his job in a minute. > > Right-wing mad dogs are licensed to write anything, and in our Coulter-culture they do, just so they can burnish their profiles and get invited on Fox or CNN talk shows. Why else would Tony Blankley call on the _Washington Times_ editorial page for Hersh to be imprisoned and shot for treason? But it’s a PR game only right-wingers are allowed to play. ---
**Author:** ![rfgdxm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c0e974/32.png) [@rfgdxm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rfgdxm)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-fuss-over-ward-churchill/290980/32 "2005-02-20T19:03:24Z")
> [@Well](#): > > Well it seems it’s the left’s agenda to blame the US for 9/11. No wonder you guys are losing your asses in elections. I think you are confusing the US Democrat party with someone like me who likely you would consider well to the left. While I may blame the US policies for 9/11, offhand at the moment I can’t think of any prominent Democrats at the national level in the US who openly blamed the US for 9/11. John Kerry certainly wasn’t blaming the US for 9/11 in the last presidential election. Since the US doesn’t have a parliamentary system, those who truly are well to the left are pretty muched iced out of the political process. (BTW, it can also be said those truly who are well to the right are also iced out of the political process. The Libertarian party position is that the US shouldn’t be dorking around in the politics of the Middle East. Libertarians would never support something like US aid to Israel.) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-fuss-over-ward-churchill/290980/33 "2005-02-20T19:38:12Z")
> [@rfgdxm](#): > > Since the US doesn’t have a parliamentary system, those who truly are well to the left are pretty muched iced out of the political process. Nitpick: It’s not the presidential, separation-of-powers system that freezes out third parties, it’s the single-member-district, winner-take-all system for electing legislatures. The UK has a parliamentary system, but third parties are frozen out just the same. See this thread – [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=302002](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=302002) – posts 9, 10, and 12. ---
**Author:** ![2sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/e47774/32.png) [@2sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2sense)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-fuss-over-ward-churchill/290980/34 "2005-02-20T20:26:06Z")
> [@Brutus](#): > > Tsk, tsk. You lefties are constantly complaining that the Republicans will say anything to get elected, and here you are, advising the Democrats to hold back with their true feelings. If you would read more closely you would note that I offered no advice. I didn’t say what the Dems _should_ do. I merely offered my view of what they _would_ do. > [@](#): > > _I don’t see people shutting up about it here._ ## Speech on annonymous and obscure internet forums is much less dangerous to a person’s career and personal life than a public figure speaking out. Applying one of Ward’s points in the interview, this is because it is much less dangerous to the _status quo_. > [@Well](#): > > Well it seems it’s the left’s agenda to blame the US for 9/11. No wonder you guys are losing your asses in elections. ## The Left isn’t monolithic. Just because a few leftists say something doesn’t mean all of us believe it. Many of us have little use for the Democratic Party, for instance. > [@ralph124c](#): > > I find it interesting that people of Churchill’s ilk keep missing the main point: 9/11 wasNOT about the opressed of the Middle East rising up to attack the evil USA. Look at the highjackers-were they Palestinians, outraged at their mistreatment by Israel? Were they Algerians, protesting their mistreatment by France?No…they were all upper class members of elites, from countries (SA, Egypt) who had no reason to attack the US, except for their own insane ideology (Wahabite Islam). ## Bin Laden has said why he is attacking America. Basically he wants us out of the Middle East. Presumably so he, and his ilk, can take over. But the actions of the US in the Muslim world do garner him support as an outspoken enemy of America. > [@manhattan](#): > > OK, so it appears that **hroomba** and **2sense** agree with **BrainGlutton** that “the American global financial empire is arguably the main impetus behind the American global military hegemony – which is still not equivalent to Hitler’s rule, **but it comes a hell of a lot closer.** It is, in many respects, a fundamentally predatory system, and nobody deeply involved in making it work can really be classed as entirely innocent.” It appears that you have no intention of debating the point and will content yourself with attempts to change the subject. Why is that? Afraid to explore your own complicity? > [@](#): > > _Alternatively, anyone who lives in the United States and benefits from the “fundamentally predatory system” which enables the “American global military hegemony” which in turn is close to Naziism, want to explain what specific steps they’re taking to reduce their guilt? **BrainGlutton** , care to address that one?_ I don’t need you to feel guilty. I’ve been feeling that way since I read the interview with Ward. He’s right, simply protesting in an innocuous manner isn’t doing anything except making us feel better about ourselves. His words will make leftists uncomfortable. No doubt this makes him unpalatable to many of us. ## But enough of your red herring. Care to actually debate the main issue? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-fuss-over-ward-churchill/290980/35 "2005-02-20T20:36:48Z")
> [@2sense](#): > > But enough of your red herring. Care to actually debate the main issue? Hear, hear! And lest we forget, the main issue is not whether Churchill is right or wrong, but whether his published statements justify the right-wing campaign to marginalize him and get him fired. (I’ll admit that Churchill might be a dishonest person in some respects – e.g., falsely claiming Indian blood for career advancement, assuming that’s the true story – but that’s not what this attack campaign is about.) ---
**Author:** ![CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crankyasanoldman/32/11670_2.png) [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrankyAsAnOldMan)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-fuss-over-ward-churchill/290980/36 "2005-02-20T21:57:25Z")
> [@19ForMe](#): > > Here are the relevant bits from today’s [article](http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/buffzone_news/article/0,1713,BDC_2448_3560899,00.html) : > > It looks like there is a tenured and non-tenured associate professor postion. He did become a full professor in 1997. There are some eye opening quotes about how the process happened. Apparently American Indian professors are in high demand for diversity goals. Yeah, I’d imagine they are. However, I know of several examples where professor’s tenure status was advanced or accelarated because of competing offers, or even other hiring goals within the dept. or college. It can look odd on paper, but doesn’t necessarily mean that one’s qualifications wouldn’t have gotten them through the usual tenure process. Of course, this is an academic (ha!) point–I don’t know what Churchill’s quality was, but a few things I’ve read make me a little skeptical myself. ---
**Author:** ![sleeping](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/839c29/32.png) [@sleeping](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleeping)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-fuss-over-ward-churchill/290980/37 "2005-02-20T22:09:39Z")
As much as I disagree with Churchill’s views, I find it disturbing that some are calling for him to be prosecuted for treason. One would hope that the [civil libertarian tradition](http://www.chomsky.info/articles/19801011.htm) of the US is not being replaced with one of intolerance. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-fuss-over-ward-churchill/290980/38 "2005-02-20T22:23:57Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Hear, hear! And lest we forget, the main issue is not whether Churchill is right or wrong, but whether his published statements justify the right-wing campaign to marginalize him and get him fired. (I’ll admit that Churchill might be a dishonest person in some respects – e.g., falsely claiming Indian blood for career advancement, assuming that’s the true story – but that’s not what this attack campaign is about.) Churchill has every right to voice his opinion and those opposed to his views have every right to state their opinion that no sane person would hire such a loon. So long as no law is violated, no outcome resulting from either influence is wrong, per se. Churchill has the right to his opinion, he does not have the right to demand that a University give him a forum. When tax dollars are in play, this is even more the case, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![justwannano](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7ab992/32.png) [@justwannano](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justwannano)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-fuss-over-ward-churchill/290980/39 "2005-02-20T23:53:47Z")
After reading all this I’m not sure anyone except Churchill has analysed the real question. “Why did the 9/11 terrorists attack the world trade center?.” IMHO ,yeah I know its the wrong forum, they struck against what they hated most about this country. Its financial base, where they think our real power is, and doing so they knocked off many who have to do with running the base. Churchill didn’t even put much blame on those who operate the financial system. He only called them “little Eichmans”. If you were them,those who feel opressed by America, where would you strike? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-fuss-over-ward-churchill/290980/40 "2005-02-21T00:36:31Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#): > > Churchill has the right to his opinion, he does not have the right to demand that a University give him a forum. When tax dollars are in play, this is even more the case, IMO. But he does have tenure, which in theory exists for the sake of protecting “academic freedom” – i.e., professors are supposed to be free to say and write whatever they want, however controversial or shocking, without fear of getting fired for it. That applies in public as well as private universities. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-fuss-over-ward-churchill/290980.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-fuss-over-ward-churchill/290980.md?page=3)