American Council of Trustees and Alumni: How Many Ward Churchills?

Ward Churchill was not always a household name. But ever since his inflammatory remarks calling victims of 9-11 “little Eichmanns,” he has become the veritable poster boy for extremists in American academe.

The controversy surrounding ethnic studies professor Ward Churchill now focuses on whether the University of Colorado will find him guilty of professional misconduct. But the case of Ward Churchill raises questions with far greater ramifications.

Is there really only one Ward Churchill? Or are there many? Do professors in their classrooms ensure a robust exchange of ideas designed to help students to think for themselves? Or do they use their classrooms as platforms for propaganda, sites of sensitivity training, and launching pads for political activism? Do our college and university professors foster intellectual diversity or must students toe the party line? To answer these questions, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni went to publicly available resources—college and university websites, electronic syllabi, and faculty web pages.

And what we found is profoundly troubling. Ward Churchill is not only not alone—he is quite common.

By this, we do not mean to suggest that issues of alleged plagiarism, dubious claims of ethnicity, or inadequate credentials—problems specific to Ward Churchill—apply broadly to all academics. What we do mean to suggest is that the extremist rhetoric and tendentious opinion for which Churchill is infamous can be found on campuses across America. In published course descriptions and online course materials, professors are openly and unapologetically declaring that they use their positions to push political agendas in the name of teaching students to think critically. Given this state of affairs, some will argue—indeed many have already—that Ward Churchill and others like him should be fired. But as we contend in the following pages, the solution is not to fire professors who express extreme views, but to expose them, to compel them to defend their positions, invite them to debate ideas, and, above all, to insist that they do their job of teaching students well and empowering them to make up their own minds.

Academic freedom is bestowed on professors so that they can pursue truth wherever it may lead. But academic freedom is as much a responsibility as a right. It does not exempt the academy from outside scrutiny and criticism. The faculty’s academic freedom should end at the point where professors abuse the special trust they are given to respect students’ academic freedom to learn.

In the following pages, we outline just a few examples of what passes for education on campuses across America....